[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 137 (Monday, October 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11448-S11449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   THE HONORABLE THOMAS J. HARRELSON'S JULY 1, 1998, ADDRESS TO NEW 
                                CITIZENS

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, during the past weekend in going through a 
file folder, I ran across a letter somehow placed there inadvertently 
this past July just before my surgery to replace my worn-out 1921-Model 
knees with new 1998-Models.
  The letter was from a longtime friend, Jim Lofton, well-known in 
Congress for his years as a highly respected assistant to the 
distinguished then-Congressman, Jim Broyhill, of North Carolina. (Jim 
subsequently served North Carolina's Governor Jim Martin who also had 
been a Congressman from North Carolina).
  Jim Lofton, now president of the North Carolina Association of 
Financial Institutions, had written to share the text of an address by 
another distinguished North Carolinian, Thomas J. Harrelson, who on 
July 1 had delivered an inspiring address to an audience of several 
hundred people, including 41 new U.S. citizens whose naturalization 
occurred at the ceremony in Southport at which Mr. Harrelson spoke. Mr. 
Lofton decided, quite correctly, that I might want to share Tommy 
Harrelson's remarks at Southport by inserting the text into the 
Congressional Record.
  Mr. President, with gratitude to Mr. Lofton and Mr. Harrelson, I ask 
unanimous consent that the text of Mr. Harrelson's address be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

              Address by the Honorable Thomas J. Harrelson

       It is a great honor for me to participate in this ceremony 
     and share this moment with you, your family, and friends.
       We are gathered here in this patriotic time in a setting 
     very appropriate to the occasion. This site on which we are 
     standing, Fort Johnston, was built between 1748 and 1754 and 
     was burned to the ground in 1776 by the Patriots who were 
     tired of royal rule. It was rebuilt around 1812 and figured 
     in other efforts to secure our freedom and independence. 
     After all, the Cape Fear river was the super highway of the 
     pre-colonial and colonial era, bringing some of the early 
     European settlers to our shores.
       One can imagine the native Americans, who must have come 
     here often for the bounty of the river and the ocean, seeing 
     the strange vessels and the pale skinned passengers in 
     foreign dress. How exciting and fearsome it must have been to 
     them and to the early settlers to come to terms with learning 
     to live side by side without the benefit of a common language 
     or an understanding of each other's cultures.
       Yet these early settlers were just the first of the 
     immigrants who made the United States the powerful yet 
     diverse country that it is. Just as this river and others 
     like it roll relentlessly to the ocean, so a reverse stream 
     of immigrants moved up these same rivers and streams to 
     populate the early eastern seaboard settlements, and finally 
     to take the expansion to our Pacific coast, and even to 
     Alaska and Hawaii.
       In that early time in our history, water travel was the 
     quickest, and in some cases, the only mode of transportation; 
     the expansion of knowledge was just beginning to speed up, 
     and communications depended almost entirely on the same mode 
     of transportation. Now, people have exceptional mobility, the 
     body of knowledge is doubling at an

[[Page S11449]]

     ever-increasingly rapid pace, and the internet, satellites 
     and television make communication both instantaneous and very 
     personal. But one thing has been constant over the years: 
     every immigrant group has brought new vitality and vigor to 
     our society.
       We who are already citizens of the United States gather 
     during this time to attest our loyalty and patriotism. It is 
     also a time to reflect upon the suffering and sacrifice we 
     have faced to get this far. How brave the people were in 1776 
     to rise up in defense of liberty and confront a powerful 
     empire. Five of the signers of the Declaration of 
     Independence were captured by the British and tortured as 
     traitors. Nine fought in the War for Independence and died 
     from their wounds or hardships they suffered. Two lost their 
     sons in the Continental Army. Another had sons captured and 
     at least a dozen of the fifty six had their homes pillaged 
     and burned.
       I am sure we have with us men and women who have served in 
     our armed forces in defense of our liberty, or family members 
     who have lost loved ones in this cause. I am also sure that 
     some of those of you who will soon be our fellow citizens 
     have stories of personal sacrifice and hardship to arrive at 
     this point.
       We later fought a civil war in which it was determined that 
     we would remain one nation and that all people, regardless of 
     race, would be free and have the rights and responsibilities 
     of citizenship. Earlier this year, a local historian 
     discovered that two of our black citizens had fought on the 
     side of the Union. How brave they must have been to take that 
     step!
       There was bravery and courage on both sides of that sad 
     conflict. We were a divided society back then and remained 
     divided for generations, separated by fear and mistrust. It 
     speaks volumes about the positive changes in our attitudes 
     that the entire community of Southport joined recently to 
     celebrate these two unsung heroes.
       If we fought a civil war in which we determined that all 
     who are Americans would be free, we have also fought a series 
     of wars both hot and cold, to defend our own liberty and 
     expand freedom to other peoples. We live in a marvelous age, 
     having seen the collapse of Soviet communism and the freeing 
     of millions of people from its cruel oppression. This 
     happened because we and our allies remained firm and strong 
     in our beliefs and stalwart in the defense of liberty. We as 
     Americans have an awesome responsibility to the world. We 
     have made great scarifies to ensure fairness and equality at 
     home to extend democratic ideals and freedoms to others 
     throughout the world.
       The world will never be truly safe until all peoples have a 
     sense of fellowship and common interests. As the civil rights 
     leader, and U.S. Congressman, John Lewis, recently said, ``to 
     achieve the beloved community, we must teach not only 
     tolerance, but acceptance and love. We must recognize the 
     wonderful opportunity our nation's diversity presents. Every 
     culture in our society offers its own contributions of art, 
     industry and experience.''
       This sentiment needs to be embraced at home and in our 
     dealings abroad. To be an American is to have responsibility 
     to the world and to our neighbor at home.
       We who are here together, the citizens and the citizens to 
     be, have much in common. We are either the descendants of 
     immigrants or immigrants ourselves. We or our ancestors came 
     here to be free from hunger, free from fear, free from 
     oppression, or free from slavery or servitude. When our 
     framers of the Declaration of Independence put those words on 
     paper, they became part of our culture and were also written 
     in our hearts and souls.
       Our system of government is important, but what really is 
     more important is the fact that liberty lies in the hearts of 
     men and women. As the great jurist, Learned Hand said in a 
     4th of July speech toward the end of World War II, ``When it 
     dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no 
     constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. 
     While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no 
     court to save it. And what is this liberty which must lie in 
     the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the 
     unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is 
     the denial of liberty and leads straight to its overthrow. A 
     society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom 
     soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of 
     only a savage few--as we have learned to our sorrow.''
       Mr. Justice Hank went on to describe his own faith in 
     liberty. ``The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not 
     too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the 
     spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and 
     women: the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their 
     interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of 
     liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth 
     unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, 
     near two thousand years ago, taught mankind a lesson that it 
     has never learned, but has never quite forgotten--that 
     there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and 
     considered side by side with the greatest.''
       Before I close, let me take the opportunity of passing on 
     some advice to our new citizens. In the past, the children of 
     immigrants were often ashamed of their heritage and 
     deliberately turned away from both their ancestral culture 
     and language. I will agree that it is important to embrace 
     and understand the culture of your new country and to be 
     fluent in English. However, with the growing importance of 
     international relations and the globalization of the economy, 
     your children should be encouraged to appreciate your culture 
     and learn your native tongue, and to use them as a 
     springboard to understand other cultures and learn still 
     other tongues.
       It used to be that we were fairly isolated in the United 
     States. That is no longer the case. Some counsel to our 
     current citizens is in order too. We are seeing an increase 
     in immigration from all over the world. I predict that, 
     despite the fears of some, these new immigrants, much like 
     all who came before them, will contribute to an ever 
     improving quality of life in our country. And as United 
     States citizens, new and old, we should never be satisfied 
     until freedom--political, religious, and economic--is enjoyed 
     by all the people of the world.
       In a few moments, we will join together, new citizens and 
     old, to recite our pledge of allegiance. In so doing, I hope 
     you will recall with me the words of another famous American, 
     who challenged our country to greatness and helped bring 
     about freedom for the peoples of Eastern Europe, former 
     President Ronald Reagan:
       ``The poet called Miss Liberty's torch, `the lamp beside 
     the golden door.' Well, that was the entrance to America, and 
     it is. And now you know why we're here tonight. The 
     glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, 
     every opportunity is still golden in this land. And through 
     that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the 
     knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is 
     America. Her heart is full; her torch is still golden, her 
     future bright. She has arms big enough and strong enough to 
     support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her 
     people. She will carry on unafraid, unashamed, and 
     unsurpassed.''
  (On Friday, October 2, 1998, two statements were inadvertently 
omitted from the Morning Business section of the Record. The permanent 
Record will be corrected to include the following:)

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