[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H5182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          IN APPRECIATION OF THE VETERANS OF THE UNITED STATES

  (Mr. McNULTY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, we are about to again celebrate our 
independence day. I mentioned on the floor yesterday how grateful we 
should be to all the men and women who wore the uniform of the United 
States military through the years. Because had it not been for their 
sacrifice, we would not have the privilege of going around bragging 
about how we live in the freest and most open democracy on the face of 
the Earth.
  Freedom is not free. We paid a tremendous price for it. But it goes 
beyond freedom in the United States of America. Just in the past 
decade, we have seen the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the 
democratization of all of Eastern Europe, the breakup of the Soviet 
Union. And we should recognize that the sacrifice of our soldiers have 
meant freedom and democracy for hundreds of millions of other people 
all around the world.
  So it is a weekend where we should practice great gratitude. And, in 
my opinion, Mr. Speaker, I hope more and more Americans do what I do 
every morning when I get up. First I thank God for my life, and then I 
thank veterans for my way of life.

                          ____________________