[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E252-E253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               THE DECEPTIVE STORM OF GREED AND PETTINESS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 28, 2001

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, In his inaugural address President Bush left 
us with one profound image: the specter of an ``Angel in the 
Whirlwind'' guiding the fate of our nation. Democracy in America has 
survived and expanded despite the numerous whirlwinds and storms. At 
several critical periods our ship of state could have been blown off 
course and been wrecked on the rocks: from the challenges of Aaron Burr 
and Jefferson Davis, to the grabbing greed which spawned the depression 
and the racist totalitarian threat of Hitler's Nazism. Always, in the 
past, the churning American political process has produced the 
leadership capable of conquering crises. But now we are confronted with 
a new kind of subtle and invisible emergency. We are confronting an 
enemy that has no guns. Internal smugness, arrogance, and the lack of 
empathy and compassion are attacking the moral spinal cord of the 
nation. In a previous inaugural address President Clinton correctly 
identified America as the ``indispensable nation.'' Will the ``Angel in 
the Whirlwind'' guide us to new leaders who will know how to use our 
great wealth and power to fulfill this mission? At critical and pivotal 
points in our past, that great ``Angel in the Whirlwind'' has delivered 
saviors: Thomas Jefferson with his bold ideas and actions; Abraham 
Lincoln, frontier toughness with compassion far beyond any of his 
peers; Franklin Roosevelt with the vision and decisiveness that ended 
depression hardships and defeated Hitler. Now prosperity has brought 
the United States to a different kind of pivotal point in history. The 
question is, shall a nation with the unprecedented means to enhance 
survival and the resources to facilitate a less difficult pursuit of 
happiness for all of its people; shall such a nation at this critical 
moment choke on its own pettiness and greed thus rendering itself 
morally disabled forever. We pray for deliverance by the ``Angel in the 
Whirlwind.''

                         ANGEL IN THE WHIRLWIND

     Angel in the whirlwind,
     Tell us where you've been;
     Come steer us through the storm,
     Halt all this public sin.
     Angel in the whirlwind
     Blow forth great truths;
     All men are born equal,
     Some men die great;
     Profiles in courage
     Never come too late.
     Lincoln in the whirlwind
     Blew powerful justice down;
     Emancipation proclamation,
     Magnificent sensation,
     Plain ordinary people
     Transformed to noble creations.
     Sailors in the whirlwind
     Forsake all ease,
     Typhoons still lurk near,
     Patriots must not fear.
     Angel in the whirlwind,
     Jefferson at your side,
     Ships ashore at Normandy,
     In every boat you ride,
     Protect our future fate,
     Martin King's posterity
     Is waiting at the gate.
     Angel in the whirlwind
     Wrestle with the terror:
     Tornado twisted greed;
     Volcanoes belching
     Ashes of indifference;
     Human kind's highest hope
     Strangling on a golden rope;
     Merciful empire
     That might've been,
     Critically infected now
     By the virus of public sin;
     Giant graves reserved for midget men.
     Angel in the whirlwind
     Stay to save the brave and free,
     Bring back judicial integrity,
     Point us toward eternity,
     Come steer us through new storms,
     Angel in the whirlwind.


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