Fighting on Behalf of this Great Country

Floor Speech

Mr. MEADOWS. Mr. Speaker, I come here today to speak from the heart of a true story that's happening really right now in my district. It's a story of an innkeeper, Bruce O'Connell, who's operated the Pisgah Inn since 1979. It's an inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and that inn has been operated really at no cost to the Federal Government for years and years and years. In fact, as he operates it, he sends money to the Federal Government. So this government shutdown shouldn't have anything to do with the Pisgah Inn. The Blue Ridge Parkway is open for business. It continues to allow cars to go both ways on the parkway. But yet what we see is under the direction of this administration, the edict has come out to close the inn down.

Yesterday, they had to close it down at 6 clock. So I got a call this morning from Bruce, and he says Congressman Meadows, I just want to let you know that I'm going to open my inn back up.

Now I expected to hear all kinds of just heartfelt hurt and concern from Bruce. But what he said is that you're fighting for the right thing. You're fighting for our future. You're fighting for our children. You're fighting for our grandchildren. And I'm going to open back up knowing that the cost of this particular thing may cost me a business that I've had for many, many years. But you know, Congressman Meadows, it is the right thing to do, that we must stand together and fight. We must make sure that what we do is, our voice is heard. So I want to say thank you to a patriot who is willing, at great cost to himself, stand and fight for what he knows is right.

And I'm going to close with this because this fight is not a new story. On the back of the Delaware quarter is a horse and rider. Many people think it's Paul Revere, but indeed it is not. It is an unknown or little-known patriot by the name of Caesar Rodney. His statue is in this very building. It's on the back of a quarter commemorating what he did because, actually, he got on a horse when the founding of our Nation was there, he got on a horse and rode through the night, through driving storms, to arrive in Philadelphia to cast the deciding vote that created this great country.

Now why do I share this story? Because across his face was a green scarf that covered a cancer that could be best operated on back in England. So he knew that by signing that document, he potentially was signing his death warrant.

It is that kind of patriotism, Mr. Speaker, that we are seeing day in and day out. It is exemplified by the men and women across this country--World War II veterans who have come in and crossed a barricade. They fought, and many patriots died, for the cause of freedom. And I just want to say thank you to the patriots across this great land that are standing up to fight on behalf of this great country.

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