[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 70 (Wednesday, June 8, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          CITY OF BILLINGS, MT

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, it is with great pride that I give special 
recognition to the city of Billings, MT, for the decency and civic 
mindedness demonstrated by its citizens when certain townspeople were 
attacked by a racist group. The people of Billings showed that there is 
no room for hate under the Big Sky.
  The city of Billings was presented a special citation by the American 
Jewish Committee for the reaction of its townspeople to violence and 
hateful rhetoric against a small number of their neighbors. We in 
Montana sometimes take our relatively peaceful life for granted, but 
the events in Billings are a stark reminder that violence and hatred 
are ever-ready to sabotage and intimidate even the most tranquil 
communities. The Billings community rightly regarded an attack on 
several of the town's citizens as an attack on the town itself. By 
coming together to defend those citizens under siege, Billings' 
citizens not only drove off the hate-mongers and protected their 
neighbors, but also established a model for conscientious community 
action against bigotry.
  The Billings community fought for the values that built our Nation 
and our pioneer State--the basic civic virtues of respect for the law 
and for individuals' rights, concern for the well-being of fellow 
citizens, and the conviction that peaceful, collective action for 
liberty and justice is the cornerstone of a true community. I had the 
opportunity to participate for a brief time with fellow Montanans from 
Billings in their organized fight against hate and bigotry, and I will 
never forget my experience. It was profoundly humbling to walk in 
solidarity with a community working together to defend the values upon 
which our Nation was founded.
  It is a particular honor for Montana to receive recognition from the 
American Jewish Committee, which for almost a century has itself been a 
crusader against bigotry and anti-Semitism, a leader in efforts to 
broaden understanding among ethnic racial and religious groups in the 
United States and abroad, a champion of human rights, and a respected 
articulator of the principal concerns of the American Jewish community. 
I wish them continued strength and success as they carry out their 
important work.
  With their solid American values and their courage to stand up for 
what is right, the people of Billings have made a contribution to their 
city, the State of Montana, and our Nation. I ask unanimous consent 
that the American Jewish Committee's citation of Billings, as delivered 
by David A. Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish 
Committee, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 Special American Jewish Committee Award to Billings, MT--88th Annual 
                  Dinner, Washington, DC, May 5, 1994

       Good evening. When we first saw this just-shown segment on 
     ABC television, we quickly decided that we wanted in some way 
     to honor the town of Billings--the thousands of its citizens 
     who expressed their moral decency and courage when some of 
     their fellow citizens were, as you saw so vividly, threatened 
     and attacked.
       Last year at this time, we honored one man--Jan Karski--a 
     Polish Catholic who had gone to extraordinary lengths during 
     the Second World War, as a member of the Polish Underground, 
     to alert a largely indifferent world to the Nazi 
     extermination of the Jews. As we know, so well, there were 
     all too few Jan Karskis of their time.
       So, too, were there then too few communities that stood 
     together with their fellow Jews in the face of unspeakable 
     evil. The remarkable story of the Danish people, who managed 
     to smuggle to Sweden nearly 7,500 of the country's 8,000 
     Jews, will forever stand as the quintessential act of 
     communal solidarity and courage. And there were other, often 
     lesser known examples--Bulgaria's protection of its own Jews, 
     Albania's Finland's * * * and a few towns and villages. Among 
     these, perhaps, the most poignant was the French town of Le 
     Chambon-sur-Lignon, which took in some 5,000 Jewish children 
     during the war and saved them from deportation and probable 
     death. Imagine, if you will, not one but a dozen, two, three 
     dozen such villages doing the same and what the result might 
     have been, but alas, it was not to be.
       Pierre Sauvage, one of the Jewish children rescued in Le 
     Chambon, subsequently wrote:
       ``If we do not learn how it is possible to act well even 
     under the most trying circumstances, we will increasingly 
     doubt our ability to act well even under less trying ones.
       ``If we remember solely the horror of the Holocaust, it is 
     we who will bear the responsibility for having created the 
     most dangerous alibi of all: that it was beyond man's 
     capacity to know and care.
       ``If the hard and fast evidence of the possibility of good 
     on earth is allowed to slip through our fingers and turn into 
     dust, then future generations will have only dust to build 
     on.''
       Ladies and Gentlemen, the world today is an increasingly 
     complicated place. More and more, we are seemingly presented 
     with two contrasting ways to live--as one human family in 
     which all of us, whatever our race, religion, ethnicity, 
     recognize that each of us is created in God's image, that 
     each of us is worthy of respect, that this respect for others 
     in no way diminishes our own self-worth or, for that matter, 
     our own distinctiveness.
       Or, we can let the haters and hatemongers, the bigots, the 
     anti-Semites, the racists, the ethnic cleansers seek to 
     divide us and replace pluralism with so-called purity. As the 
     late Martin Luther King, Jr. said: ``We must all learn to 
     live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as 
     fools. That is the challenge of the hour.''
       The American Jewish Committee has from its inception 88 
     years ago stood unyieldingly for the principles of pluralism, 
     inter-group harmony and enhanced understanding between 
     peoples of diverse faiths and racial and ethnic backgrounds. 
     And, to that end, we have sponsored two of the most seminal 
     research works of the post-war era--the landmark study 
     entitled ``The Authorization Personality,'' published in 
     1950, and, its converse, if you will, ``The Altruistic 
     Personality,'' in 1988.
       These studies teach us that if we are to achieve 
     communities, countries, indeed, a world based on tolerance 
     and mutual respect, it is not enough that we preach it from 
     the podium. To succeed, as the examples of Denmark and Le 
     Chambon illustrate, these values must become an integral part 
     of our daily lives, of what parents, educators, clergy and 
     political leaders demonstrate by example, not by words alone. 
     It must be part of a profound and unshakable recognition of 
     the intrinsic worth of each and every human being.
       The response of the people of Billings, Montana, to the 
     unprecedented wave of fear generated by Skinheads, whose aim 
     was to attack vulnerable minorities, especially Jews, but 
     also African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans, 
     demonstrated that a sense of genuine community existed, that 
     residents truly felt that an attack on any one of their 
     number was an assault on the entire community, that each 
     person was as much part of the fabric and fiber of the 
     community as any other. It should also serve to remind us yet 
     again why minority groups need to strengthen their links with 
     one another and not cede ground to those who would divide us.
       And what is so exceptional about the people of Billings, 
     just like the people of Denmark, the villagers of Le Chambon, 
     or individual rescuers during the Second World War, though 
     the circumstances clearly are not identical, is that they do 
     not regard their acts of solidarity and identification as 
     anything exceptional or out of the ordinary. Yes, they 
     have experienced fear in Billings, fear, for instance, 
     that a rock might be thrown through their children's 
     window and cause injury or worse.
       No doubt, however, they have taken strength from the many 
     who have stood together, from the knowledge that what they 
     are doing is, in fact, the ultimate fulfillment of what is 
     written in Leviticus: ``Love thy neighbor as thyself,'' and 
     from the inspiring example of community leaders.
       Among these community leaders are our two special guests 
     this evening, Police Chief Wayne Inman, whom you saw in the 
     film clip, and Wayne Schile, the publisher of the Billings 
     Gazette that printed the thousands of copies of the menorah 
     that eventually were placed in the windows of so many homes.
       And in this there is a lesson for all of us. If we have the 
     courage and conviction in our own lives, as do Police Chief 
     Inman and Mr. Schile, to strive towards affirmation of that 
     which is right and good and principled, then our example will 
     be contagious for those around us. And we--and our world 
     view--shall prevail. But if we simply mouth pieties, preach 
     but don't practice, legislate but don't lead--or if our 
     attitude reflects only apathy or indifference--then the 
     skinheads, the bigots, the anti-Semites, the racists, the 
     haters will step into the breach. And we know only too well 
     from history what that can bring.
       And so, on behalf of the American Jewish Committee, it is 
     my profound honor and privilege this evening to present this 
     special award to the town of Billings, Montana, for showing 
     us all how we can demonstrate the principles of decency, 
     goodness and caring in the face of raw hate.
       At this point, I would like to invite Police Chief Wayne 
     Inman to come forward, to be followed by Wayne Schile, the 
     publisher of the Billings Gazette. They have travelled a long 
     distance to be with us this evening and we could not be more 
     pleased.

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