[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 35 (Friday, February 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          FUNDING FOR THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

  (Mr. LEWIS of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to 
cuts in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. There are 
those who say we should abolish public radio and sell public television 
to cable. To those of my colleagues, I say to you, there are people in 
our country who cannot afford to pay $400 a year for cable. There are 
those who will be left out and left behind, those who will be left in 
the dark, left in silence.
  I know what it is like growing up in rural America. I grew up on a 
small farm just outside Troy, AL, in the heart of the segregated South.
  Radio was my window to the larger world. It was on the radio that I 
first heard the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. I heard his voice--the 
voice of the civil rights movement--and it became my cause, my purpose 
and my mission for the next 30 years of my life. That voice changed my 
life and the lives of millions of Americans.
  Today, public broadcasting reaches out across this country, bringing 
nonviolent children's shows, news, and job training programs. It brings 
light and hope into every corner of this Nation. Some of my colleagues 
say we cannot afford public broadcasting. I say, can we afford to live 
without it?

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