[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 116 (Tuesday, July 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7156-H7157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE ``WANTED'' POSTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida [Mrs. Meek] is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H 7157]]

  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am one of 28 infamous, so-called 
infamous, people that appeared on the fundraising poster that was put 
out by Mr. Bill Paxon of the Republican fundraising committee.
  It is respectable to be a Republican. There are many good ones who 
seek only good for all people. There are others who feel that it is not 
respectable or to be respected to be racist or sexist.
  It is truly disgusting what some people would do, Mr. Speaker, to 
raise political money. Why, in this period of fear and discontent, 
uncertainty and danger, when the country is still reeling from the 
Oklahoma City bombing, the unabolished threats and lawless, paranoid, 
violent people who can only express themselves by killing other people 
of defaming other people are inflicting pain and suffering? Why in this 
unsettled and unsettling climate, Mr. Speaker, would someone put 
another person's picture on a wanted poster that looks like something 
the FBI would put in a post office?
  This kind of thing can bring fear, particularly to a woman's heart 
who has to walk many times in dark places and dark corners of this 
country.
  The reason why? The National Republican Congressional Committee, 
under Mr. Paxon, tells us it is to raise money. I do not think that is 
a good reason, Mr. Speaker. I guess he has concluded that hate sells.
  Hate does not sell in this country, particularly when they are trying 
to separate God's people, those who are black, those who are white, 
those who are Jewish, those who are female. That is not the way that 
our Maker would have us go. So hate does not sell.
  If that is the case, then I feel sorry for those who feel that that 
is so. These people feel that it is OK to feed hate and hysteria. They 
do not mind advancing their cause by making enemies of those who have 
honest disagreements with them. Yes, I did not vote for the Contract 
With America. I did not feel that I wanted to vote for many of the 
concepts of the contract. Therefore, I voted against it.
  I was told that was the reason why I was placed on the poster. That 
could not be further from the truth, in that there were 70 or 80 other 
people who voted the same way as I did. Yet their faces did not appear 
on the contract.
  What seemed to be the target on the contract, on the poster, were 
people of African-American descent, people of Jewish faith, and white 
women. Those are the people who appeared on this poster.
  But I want to say that the Republican Party should repudiate the 
likes of the kinds of ethics and techniques that Mr. Paxon has used. He 
has not set a great example for this party. This was the party of 
Lincoln. This was the party that freed the slaves. So certainly this is 
not a good way to depict what their party stands for.
  I have been in the public a long time. I have been through the 
lynching period. I have been through the civil rights period. I have 
been through all of these periods of racial hate. But I had to come to 
the great Congress of the United States to have the kind of hate poster 
and the hate mail which I have received here.
  Do you know why? This kind of thing, coming from the top of the 
party, sets a climate of lawlessness
 and hate, and it provides the atmosphere and the climate for people 
who want to divide this country, to be able to write us here in 
Congress the kinds of hate mail and to give us the hate kinds of calls, 
using our ethnicity as a cloak to form their hate.

  This wanted poster is not a healthy sign. It is a sick sign. It is as 
much a reflection of our times as it is a product of people who think 
in a sick way.
  I have got my own wanted poster, Mr. Speaker, I want decent schools 
for the people in this country, both black and white and otherwise, and 
I want better education and training for young people. I want a way the 
senior citizens can get help in their old age and get long-term care. I 
want that, Mr. Speaker. I want to make sure that parents who buy food 
for their children, that the meat will have the proper inspection so 
they can have good health. I want good health for all people of 
America. I do not want to think this is a color-blind society. I know 
it is not. But I want everything good for everybody.
  I want to assure these older Americans that they will not go bankrupt 
if they get sick. My wanted poster is out there, Mr. Speaker, My voting 
record attests to that. It is composed of goals that all of us should 
work for, not people to search, target, and destroy, because of hateful 
literature.
  I thought that the Republican Party had come much further than Mr. 
Paxon has taken them, but I guess he wants to revive the old Nixon 
enemies hit list.
  I call on the Republicans of good faith to repudiate what Mr. Paxon 
has done.
  I have all kinds of hate mail. It is so much of it that I just make 
one or two excerpts from it to show you the kind of things that come 
from the kinds of things that are happening in the party now, and it is 
throwing a very bad light on all the rest of us. ``Sit down and shut 
up,'' as if I were not elected by the people of Florida. They use the 
``b'' word throughout much of this stuff. I cannot mention it in the 
hallowed hall of this House. They are saying;

       We are taking our Nation. We took it with force of arms, 
     defended it with force of arms, and we will take it back with 
     force of arms. You and your filthy species are nothing.

  I say to them, my father and my forefathers helped to build this 
country. I will not take a back seat to anyone. I will continue to 
voice my opinion on this floor of this House.
  They continue to say:

       ``You are primitive, childish, selfish, petulant, 
     demanding, dependent, arrogant, evil, treacherous creatures 
     regressing to your natural state, Rwanda, Biafra, Somalia, 
     Liberia, South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Los Angeles, New 
     York, Washington, Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, that is your 
     legacy. You will pay for what you have done. We are enemies 
     forever. No way around this fact. We cannot and will not 
     coexist with you animals.

  I want to say to you, Mr. Speaker, and the rest of this House and the 
rest of this country, we are God's children like everyone else. We do 
not have to tolerate this kind of bad literature that comes because it 
is stirred by the hatred from that poster.


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