[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 117 (Friday, August 2, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE'S PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN

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                            HON. JOHN LEWIS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 2, 1996

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call to the 
attention of my colleagues a very constructive public education 
campaign that has been undertaken by the American Jewish Committee 
[AJC], an organization with which I have had the pleasure to work with 
for many years.
  As part of its mandate to promote tolerance and safeguard the 
essential ideal of pluralism, the AJC has run full-page advertisements 
in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications 
enunciating the theme, ``It Takes All Kinds.'' The AJC statement 
proudly commends our country for having achieved, to an extent nowhere 
else on Earth, a common dream of freedom. But, at the same time, the 
statement acknowledges that this dream has been subject to challenge. 
From the recent series of church burnings, to the increasingly loud 
voices that promote division along racial, ethnic, and religious lines, 
and with the threat of domestic and international terrorism within our 
borders, America's common dream is threatened by the haters and the 
dividers.
  I applaud the American Jewish Committee for the service it has 
performed in raising public consciousness of the danger posed to all of 
us by those few who espouse words--and carry out actions--of hate and 
divisiveness, and in inviting us to partake in the daily enterprise of 
ensuring that America fulfills its promise of freedom, justice, and 
mutual respect for all.
  I ask that the text of the American Jewish Committee's ad ``It Takes 
All Kinds'' be included in the Congressional Record.

                           It Takes All Kinds

       The tired. The poor. The huddled masses yearning to breathe 
     free.
       From every corner of the world, from every race, faith, 
     culture and creed, we have come or been brought to America. 
     Separately and together, we have dreamed of freedom. And in 
     America, as nowhere else on earth, we have made the dream of 
     freedom real.
       But today, that common dream of freedom, that common 
     pursuit by a diverse people of a stronger and fairer America, 
     is challenged. In communities across the land, suspicious 
     fires lay waste to African-American and other churches, 
     sowing fear and outrage. In the media, in the halls of 
     Congress, on the campaign trail and in the streets, angry 
     voices echo distressingly familiar calls to divide America 
     into ``us'' and ``them'' along ethnic, racial, religious and 
     other lines. The well-being of American democratic 
     pluralism--in which each of us holds an equal stake in our 
     nation's future--is in question.
       At the American Jewish Committee, we have worked for 90 
     years to safeguard that essential ideal of pluralism. The 
     task is critical. Too easily and too often, the delicate 
     cords of law and civility that bind society have frayed, 
     setting group against group. When those cords snap, all are 
     threatened, indeed, the essence of America is imperiled.
       Join us in the cause of keeping America safe from the 
     haters and dividers. Join us in the vital, daily enterprise 
     of ensuring America fulfills its promise of freedom, justice 
     and mutual respect for all.

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