Richard Burr Speaks At Williamston Rotary

Senator Richard Burr was the speaker today at the Williamston Rotary Club. The turnout was impressive, with almost every major local official coming to hear Senator Burr speak.

The Luncheon Was Well Attended

Tom Volk, President of the Rotary club delivered the opening remarks and then turned the meeting over to Leon Allen to introduce Senator Burr.

Tom Volk, Rotary President

Senator Burr gave an impressive speech. This is not surprising since Senator Burr is a man of passionate beliefs. His speech covered a range of topics, health care, medicaid financing, tobacco, lagging growth in rural areas, energy policy, the off shore drilling moratorium, etc.

Leon Allen Delivers The Introduction

When he spoke of medicaid financing he made one comment that got quite a laugh. First he commented on the fact that North Carolina was the sole state that still required counties to fund a portion of medicaid. He then cautioned that he had to be discreet with his comments on this since the press was present. After a pause he said, "This is insane". So much for discreet.

Senator Richard Burr

Senator Burr concluded his speech with some powerful stories. Richard and his wife try to dine together as often as possible, and on one recent occasion when she came up to Washington, their dinner was at Walter Reed Hospital with some of our troops. Before the meal, they visited with some of the recent arrivals back from Iraq. The first soldier they visited had lost his lower left leg and his left arm from the elbow down. He also had bad shrapnel wounds on his left torso. As they were about to leave the soldier asked him if Senator Burr could help him with a favor. When Senator Burr said he would try the soldier explained that they had some great prosthetics at the hospital and he would soon be nearly as good as new. He wanted to know if Senator Burr would help him get approval to "get back to his unit in Iraq"?

There was a long silence. This is our next generation. Our nation has no shortage of men and women of courage and commitment, who understand as well as any the importance of what our nation stands for and what we are accomplishing in Iraq. If there was a dry eye in the room, it sure wasn't mine.