[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 72 (Friday, June 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 THE REAL MEANING OF THE D-DAY COMMEMORATION--NO TIME FOR PARTISANSHIP

  (Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute, and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I was one of those American veterans and 
Members of this body who joined hundreds of thousands of others, 
Americans, Britons, French, Belgians, Poles, Czechs, and others in 
assembling on the beaches of Normandy to celebrate an event of great 
courage and of great moment in the history of this world.
  I am proud that our President led that delegation.
  I am proud that he remembered D-day. I am proud that he joined us in 
honoring those great Americans and soldiers and veterans of other 
nations in the great crusade led by General Eisenhower. A bipartisan 
group of Members of this body joined the President at the site of this 
great invasion. It was one of the greatest and most moving celebrations 
of courage, of human dedication to freedom and liberty, that I have 
ever had the privilege of seeing. And it was an event in which there 
was no whit of partisanship.
  It was an event which commemorated an event 50 years ago in which 
thousands of Americans, British, French, and others died for liberty 
and freedom. It was an event which was celebrated every place in this 
country, and it was an event in which the leaders of every Nation 
involved in the Allied effort was present.
  Our President went, and he led the commemoration on behalf of the 
people of this country. In his addresses, he restored in good part the 
memories of that great even which are now growing dim with the passage 
of time. He helped Americans and others understand why we were there. 
He helped Americans to understand what it is that we must do in the 
future so that we do not have to have more D-days, so that we can have 
a national and international dedication of freedom and liberty, and so 
we can prevent the kind of events that led to that unfortunate day.
  It is a proud event, and it was an event that was worthy of this 
country, the leadership of this country and the leadership of others in 
the free world. It was an event which set in place 50 years of freedom.
  I understand there are some who are now carping in a partisan fashion 
about the fact that the President and others, veterans, Members of this 
body, Members of the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, in a bipartisan 
fashion, went to celebrate this event. To those who are saying this, I 
say, Shame. It is clear you do not understand what took place on D-day. 
It is equally clear you do not understand why D-day took place. It is 
perhaps even clearer that you have no great desire to forge the 
national consensus and the international consensus that this Nation and 
this world needs to avoid that kind of unfortunate event.
  Mr. Speaker, to those who would make a political event of criticizing 
this kind of occurrence, I say, ``Shame.''

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