Wednesday, October 17, 2001

 

Ridge will get the job done

About a year ago I had the honor and privledge of interviewing then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. An imposing man, even during a telephone interview, I was thoroughly impressed by everything about him. I was proud to have voted for him and proud to have him as my governor.

When President Bush chose Ridge as the new Director of Homeland Security I felt there wasn't a better man for the job. After his interview with Tom Brokaw, I feel even more strongly that Ridge is the man to get the job done.

Excerpts from the interview:

"You know, we used to think of America the beautiful, fortress America, trusting America. And we find that perhaps we’ve trusted too much. And we’ve let our enemies come in and try to destroy what we believe in, destroy our families, destroy our cities.
But the president also, and I, we also agree they’ll never destroy our will. And at the end of the day, part of the responsibility as well as the opportunity I think for the Office of Homeland Security is to make sure that our resolve and our will and our commitment is as strong today as it was September 10 and it will be in years ahead. We can respond to these challenges, but they’re complex challenges. They’re difficult tasks. They will not be impossible ..."

"I consider myself a parent of young children. And it’s not the world I had envisioned for them. It’s not the kinds of scenes that I’d hoped they’d watch on television. But the reality is that is the world. The reality is, it’s entirely different perhaps even worse than we imagined. Also the reality is that we have the will and the way, as we have as a country in the past to adjust to the challenges of this new world.”

"And when the president urges Americans to go back to your soccer games and go back to work and and try to get back to the business of just being America, he’s recruiting. And right now I think we’ve got a country unified, recruits who want to help not only just being Americans, but again there’s this vast reservoir of talent out there that we’re gonna pull in to help secure American shores."

Coming from anyone else, I would consider this political propaganda. Coming from Ridge, I feel he believes in what he's saying and he'll do everything within his power to get the job done and make America the most safe and secure nation in the world.

posted by Anne 10/17/2001 08:40:00 AM