[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 26, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REAL HISTORY TEACHES REAL LESSONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss a topic that is being 
debated today in our media regarding the NBC airing of ``Schindler's 
List'' on Sunday night.
  One of my colleagues has taken offense to the airing of the show 
because it depicted nudity and violence on TV where our children would 
watch. I deeply respect my colleague and his point of view, but I have 
to stand today and first and foremost congratulate NBC News for airing 
uninterrupted a 3\1/2\-hour movie of one of the worst tragedies in our 
global history.
  I must also add that the rating system voluntarily initiated by TV 
broadcasters was used that night. I must also reiterate that Steven 
Spielberg, creator of the movie, came on with a personal appeal to 
allow parents to know that what they were about to see would be 
graphic, violent, and they should caution their children against 
watching this show.
  Mr. Speaker, this movie is real. The events of the Holocaust are 
real. This is not fantasy, this is not Disney World, this is not make 
believe, this happened to real people. Their possessions were taken 
from them, their clothing was stolen, their lifelong belongings were 
stolen, and they were executed and murdered by Nazis.
  This was not some rating attempt to boost revenues. Ford Motor Co. 
paid for the entire production of the show that evening without running 
a commercial, the first time I can remember networks ever giving up 
commercial rights during a broadcast.
  Superbowl, $200,000 for a 30-second ad went like that, a full lineup 
of commercials during Superbowl, made lots of money. NBC News chose to 
not take revenue, because America and every person on this planet needs 
to know the truth about the Holocaust, needs to know what happened, 
needs to see the historical significance of a tragedy that occurred so 
that they can become sensitive to the issues that confront us in this 
country.
  It is not enough to talk about anti-Semitism and trying to eliminate 
it in America; you need to know the roots of the problems of why people 
have been hurt and harmed. We talk about civil rights. We have to 
understand from a black person's perspective of where we have been in 
America, where they were denied access to water fountains, where they 
were made to sit in the back of the bus, where they were treated as 
second class citizens. It is only through history will our children 
learn to become sensitive to the things that can change the course of 
history.
  Yes, it was a tragic, tragic show, and I watched it Sunday night 
myself, and I have seen it before, and I thought as that movie went on 
and on how these people felt, how they were herded off to their deaths 
by a demonic creature who was murdering millions of Jews because they 
were Jews, and we are not supposed to tell that story.
  We are not supposed to air it on TV, we are supposed to pretend it 
did not happen. We are supposed to make up some whole new story and put 
people in clothes and not show the gunshot wounds to the head. We are 
supposed to camouflage all of that destructiveness, that evilness, so 
that we can show people something that is not even a true portrayal.
  Then we have calls for government to make mandatory ratings. So 10 or 
20 years from now we may never know what happened. We may not know the 
tragedies that are going on in Cuba today with Fidel Castro in charge 
because we are not allowed to talk about it. We cannot portray what is 
really happening in our globe. I am frightened for the children in our 
society that are not being told the truth.
  But the one thing that I feel so great about in this country is when 
I look at the young people, they are embracing each other, blacks, 
whites, Hispanics, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, because they believe 
in order for this world to survive we must be together as one people, 
regardless of race, color, creed, or ethnicity, one people.
  That is my hope for our future in this country, that we will join 
together in a spirit of democracy and freedom for each and every one of 
us, regardless of where we were born, what our last name is or what the 
color of our skin is. But it will not happen if we cannot tell the 
truth, it will not happen if we cannot tell it like it is.
  So for the government to get in the rating business now and say we 
are going to have mandatory ratings and take away the historical 
importance of the show I watched Sunday night and was proud to view 
simply because it told me something about what happened at that 
horrible event. So I urge people around America to call and support 
what NBC showed on Sunday night, because I think that is what America 
is about, telling the truth.
  Mrs. KENNELLY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will 
yield, I would like to associate myself with the remarks of the 
gentleman.

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