Birch Bayh was a distinguished American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from Indiana for over three decades. Throughout his career, Bayh fought for civil rights, education, and environmental protection, leaving a lasting legacy in public policy. His commitment to bipartisan cooperation and his ability to pass important legislation, including the Title IX amendment to the Education Amendments of 1972, inspired many to pursue public service and advocacy. Bayh's leadership exemplifies the impact of dedication to improving the lives of citizens and the power of collaboration in politics.
"I think we have a number of young people - like yourself - who want to make a difference. I'm not sure the numbers are as large because I think the burden of getting elected to public office at the national level has become astronomically expensive."
"And I thought my loss my loss was not, certainly, the end of the world, but to lessen the enthusiasm of those young people who were signed up, I thought that was tragic."
"But if you really want to get involved in making a difference, you can stay at home with your family and have a job and make a reasonable living without having to be on an airplane all of the time, then you ought to go back home and run for School Board."
"I had the good fortune to be able to right an injustice that I thought was being heaped on young people by lowering the voting age, where you had young people that were old enough to die in Vietnam but not old enough to vote for their members of Congress that sent them there."
"You know I don't think we need the Republicans to steal family values from us."
"How come life is so important in the nine months before birth, but then we sort of forget about the importance, we're not worried about whether that baby lives in poverty once he or she is born."
"One of the big challenges for our party is to demonstrate to people that we have an agenda for economic prosperity and that we can be trusted with their money."
"You shouldn't have to sue somebody to get justice. It ought to come through administrative process."
"But people that are worried about unborn babies are the same ones that vote against kindergarten programs in Indiana or school lunch funds out of the federal government."
"Certainly I think the election of John Kennedy and all he stood for was one that really was an inspiration."