Keith Ellison, 5th District Congressman, paid tribute this week on the floor of the House of Representatives to two fallen soldiers from his district. Whether we are opposed to this war or in favor of it, we must always remember that it is the young people of this war and of our military that should be consistently and repeatedly honored. For better or worse, they are the ones who make the supreme sacrifice while we sit in our armchairs and bicker about who is and is not patriotic. It is they who deserve whatever resources we can muster in the hopes that in some small way we have provided them with as much as they have provided us.
As I start, I want to invoke the memory of two young men, one Robert Dixon and another one, Quising Lee.
These are two young men who are from Minneapolis who were killed in Iraq. There have been 64 Minnesotans killed in Iraq, and Robert Dixon and Quising Lee are two gentlemen who lived in my district.
I'll never forget when I went to go see Quising Lee's family after he was killed. He went to North High School. He was 20 years old when he died, and he was killed in a roadside bomb in Iraq.
Robert Dixon was killed in a roadside bomb in Iraq as well. I wasn't able to go to see Robert Dixon's funeral. I was here. My wife went for me. Kim, thank you for doing that. And she sat there and listened to stories about Robert Dixon and his life and his service to our country and the things he hoped for and wanted.
But I did get a chance to visit the family and go to the funeral of Quising Lee. Quising Lee, 20 years old when he was killed, went to North High School, had his whole life in front of him. Only 20 years old.
It's in the memory of those two young men from Minneapolis that I offer remarks tonight, and on behalf of those 64 Minnesotans that have been killed, and on behalf of those 4,500-some individuals, Americans who've been killed in Iraq, and on behalf of those, probably as many as perhaps 600,000, perhaps even 1 million Iraqis who've lost their lives in Iraq.
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Keith Ellison, 5th District Congressman, paid tribute this week on the floor of the House of Representatives to two fallen soldiers from his district. Whether we are opposed to this war or in favor of it, we must always remember that it is the young people of this war and of our military that should be consistently and repeatedly honored. For better or worse, they are the ones who make the supreme sacrifice while we sit in our armchairs and bicker about who is and is not patriotic. It is they who deserve whatever resources we can muster in the hopes that in some small way we have provided them with as much as they have provided us.
