[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 120 (Thursday, September 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE ART OF BEING FREE

  (Mr. WELDON of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, one reason why education is such 
an important issue is because it is education which should play such a 
vital role in teaching, in the words of Alexis de Toqueville, ``the art 
of being free.''
  Mr. Speaker, few Americans these days think about the art of being 
free, I suspect, and few schools talk about the democracy and the 
American republic in terms of the art of being free. But all one has to 
do is look around the world and it is quite obvious that societies are 
free not by virtue of free elections alone; not by the virtue of a 
written constitution that guarantees freedom on paper only; not by 
virtue of a judicial system that promises justice, but is corrupted by 
arbitrary Government power and police misconduct.
  No, Mr. Speaker, the art of being free must be taught at home, 
cultivated in school, and given free expression and practice. The 
habits of freedom are encouraged in schools through the study of the 
uniqueness of America, our belief in individual rights over group 
rights, our history of forward-looking optimism, and the shared faith 
in the availability of the American dream to all.

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