Columns

By Congressman Robert Hurt

Over the course of the past month, I traveled across the Fifth District, talking with my constituents about what matters most to them.  I am always grateful for the opportunity to spend time in Central and Southside Virginia, and I was able to have many in-depth conversations with Fifth District Virginians about how the policies coming out of Washington are affecting their families, jobs, and businesses.

    I’ve heard the saying, “Don’t let your mouth write a check that your tail can’t cash.” Perhaps President Barack Obama should have heeded that advice before he got his mouth in gear and drew his chemical weapons red line last year. He was warning Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad against using chemical weapons in Syria’s civil war.
    The problem is that Assad seems to have decided that this was just more of Barack Obaloney’s empty rhetoric and decided to call his bluff.

Twelve years ago, many of us anxiously crowded around televisions, witnessing the aftermath of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation’s history. This week, as we mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, Americans will remember the thousands of innocent lives lost that day at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in a field in western Pennsylvania.

On Aug. 28, Americans of all races, ages and gender came together in Washington, D.C. to remember the historic “March on Washington” in 1963, the event that featured the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
    President Obama rose to the occasion with a fabulous speech, reminding the nation that those who marched and protested back then were the very agents of change that have improved race relations ever since.