You Must be Brave Enough to put Politics Aside

  When you take this matter of impeachment, when you consider whether the person occupying the highest office in the land is guilty of high crimes, you take a solemn responsibility.
   If you take pride in being an American, and of being elected of the people -- if you take your office seriously, and humbly, and with dedication . . . then, this is not a matter of being a Republican or Democrat.
   We should perhaps be ashamed -- not only of our leaders, but of ourselves. How have we fallen, as a people, that we let politics shade what should be a somber consideration. We are drunken by our politics, and left tottering and stumbling as a drunken person as we walk down the path ahead.
   At a moment like this, we are drunk.
   If our patriotism is greater than our politics, we will put the drink down. We will sober up. And, we determine to serve justice. If -- to us -- justice is what America is all about .we set aside our petty politics, we open our minds to the evidence, and we weigh the matters before us.
   Patriotism is not served by those who blindly follow a leader. It is served by a willingness to consider whether that leader has committed crimes. The downfall of a nation is in blind allegiance. At this time, it is in having party blinders on. If we wear blinders at this moment, our fall will be of our own making.
   If you are to be a patriot at a time like this, you must be brave enough to put politics aside.