[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10285-H10286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE MILLION MAN MARCH AND THE O.J. SIMPSON TRIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I indicated that on Thursday, 
tomorrow, I would do a special order for 60 minutes on the whole 
tragedy surrounding the O. J. Simpson double murder, the trial, the 
verdict. Mr. Speaker, I have not only a very astute and politically 
active wife, but five grown children, the first who will soon turn 40, 
and the other four are all in their middle to late thirties. To a 
daughter and to a son, three daughters, two sons, they said, ``Dad, 
talk about the march, the gathering of 400,000 people on The Mall. 
Explain why you went. Talk about race relations in America, and only 
use the O. J. Simpson tragedy in passing reference.''
  So, Mr. Speaker, I think I will do that and take that advice of my 
grown children tomorrow.
  I did want to mention that probably was a short count. I have been to 
many gatherings on The Mall, 200,000 with Martin Luther King, one of 
the proudest days of my life to join that true march. I have often seen 
it when it was 300,000, 400,000. I came to one of the ugliest Vietnam 
demonstrations of all time with hundreds of arrests and trashing of the 
city. They claim that was about 600,000.
  Mr. Speaker, if that was 600,000, then I think yesterday was a half a 
million. I mean Monday was half a million or 600,000.
  Be that as it may, I started at the Lincoln Memorial, right where I 
had sat in the third row when Dr. King gave his stirring 19-minute 
speech. He had only been allocated 7, but it was certainly a stirring 
19, and it took me about 3 hours to wend my way in a serpentine pattern 
all the way up to the grandstand at the west front of our Capitol. It 
was a beautiful day with more fathers and sons together than I had seen 
in many years in this city, until I got up near the front. Then you 
could pick up the feeling of Mussolini, people in fake uniforms, people 
with glazed looks, security guards, and a man who if he had quit at 19 
minutes and taken the part about protecting the innocence of children 
in all of our communities and the condemnation of young artists 
shucking corn to sell it to a degenerate society, and to stop throwing 
their talent back in God's face, Mr. Farrakhan might have ended up a 
winner. But the other 2 hours was discombobulated garbage, and some of 
it still hinting at hatred and division in our country.
  While all this was going on and while I was speaking yesterday, O. J. 
Simpson is beginning his rehabilitation, playing golf yesterday at a 
white country club in Florida, signing autographs for stupid young 
women who, I guess, missed the signature John Wayne Gacy or the Boston 
Strangler, and I hope that people will look in their newsmagazines from 
last week and look at another victim of this double murder, O. J. 
Simpson's son Jason. This is not a son celebrating a ``not guilty'' 
verdict, as the mom rightfully would do, and the sisters and the 
daughters would do. This is a son with a broken heart who knows that 
his dad committed a double murder and has put a cloud over his whole 
family, not to mention innocent little Justin and Sydney, and to keep 
coming in our face the way O. J. is, a Republican millionaire who, I 
repeat, told the gentleman from California [Mr. Dreier] here that he 
voted for George Bush. That would be a jury of his peers, the 8 
millionaires out of the 10 of us. I am not one of them in the Senate. I 
am in the Presidential conquest.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to a distinguished lawyer, the gentlewoman from 
Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee].

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, I welcome the gentleman's expression on 
the feelings that he has had. That is what this country represents. But 
I am disturbed at the gentleman from California's attempt to 
characterize what has captured the hearts and minds of many in the 
African-American community, the question of equal justice, the question 
of the ability to be treated with equal justice under the law and to 
address their grievances, which I think the march Monday reflected; and 
I am, however, glad the gentleman noted the bonding, of fathers and the 
sons, black men from all walks of life. That was the real story of last 
Monday.
  I did not have the opportunity to hear your comments yesterday. 
Actually, I am involved in a fight to save Medicare right now. However, 
I would hope we applaud those that you see the value in American 
citizens peacefully protesting and recommitting their lives to a better 
way of life.
  And as to the O.J. trial, which this is not a time to debate, I hope 
that we can applaud the fact that the judicial system was in place 
because otherwise we would have anarchy. I am just hoping that we can 
put the definition of what happened both Monday and at the conclusion 
of the O.J. Simpson trial, in context, no matter what one's opinions 
may be about the laws that govern this country--the right to a peaceful 
protest and the right to a trial by jury worked.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Dornan] has expired.
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, could I ask, and if anybody wants to object, 
I certainly understand, that the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-
Lee] have 5 minutes out of order?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. That unanimous-consent request is out of 
order during the special orders.

[[Page H 10286]]

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California 
for having yielded to me.
  Mr. DORNAN. Courtesy of half a second then, Mr. Speaker?
  I would hope, Mr. Speaker, we could have an hour discussion, every 
Member of this House, on the O.J. Simpson trial, because most Americans 
think the justice system broke down, that he was as guilty as sin.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. That would be worthy. I think the American people 
need to hear both sides of the story.
  Mr. DORNAN. I agree.

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