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You may not think of the Bronx as a haven for political activity, but where do you think
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revolutions begin? I was born to fight the establishment. Resistance is in my blood
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We wore black armbands to protest World War I. I knit woolen caps for Russian soldiers
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When my father opened his butcher shop in Hell's Kitchen, and in active defiance against
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the imperialist powers of World War I, he named the place the live and let live meat market
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A mixed metaphor if there ever was one. But that's not politics
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That's community. You're either part of the world or you aren't. Which is probably why I became a lawyer
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Ever since I was a little kid, that's all I ever wanted to be was a lawyer. Don't ask me why
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I didn't know any lawyers. but I somehow got it in my head. If I wanted to change the world, I had to be a lawyer
1:00
Me, I was born here. These are my people. I looked like them, I sounded like them
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and as I predicted, the press was intrigued. She has the shoulders of a steam pipe fitter
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and the strut of a plainclothes cop She give you a chop in the ribs then powder her nose while you sink to the ground Sexist Oh yeah
1:27
But also the stuff of which legends are made. Far better that than the way the New York Times endorsed me
1:35
More often than not, she'll say the right thing. You know, my very first day in the House
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House, a congressman, a New York delegation, a Brooklyn guy, a bit of a drunk, a lot of a drunk
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He turns to me and says, you are going to start at the bottom. And it looks to me like you got a
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pretty good bottom. They stuck me on a subcommittee no one else wanted. Government information and
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individual rights. You want to know how unpopular it was? They made me chair. Big mistake
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I uncovered a resolution that hadn't been heard in 27 years. And I used it to release secret documents
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to the floor of the House. The Republicans were so nervous that they held the vote while I was out of the room
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But a congresswoman said, your mother waited nine months for you, you can wait five minutes for Mrs. Abzouka
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So did I get my vote? Of course I got my vote
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And that vote put the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record. You're welcome
