[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 147 (Thursday, November 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SERVICE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE 7TH DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EARL F. HILLIARD

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2002

  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to give honor to this great body, 
which I shall leave at the end of this term. This is the most 
Democratic body in the Federal government, turning to the American 
people in our districts every other year for reinstruction and 
rededication, as well as reelection.
  We are the representatives who most directly represent America, and I 
am proud to have been elected by the people of the 7th District of 
Alabama to serve them for a decade. It is my hope that these good 
Americans believe that I have represented them well--I know that I have 
tried with all my mind, my soul and my body to do so.
  I feel good that I was able to maintain a 100% voting record for the 
working men and women of Alabama, the consumers and the constituency I 
represented in the U.S. Congress.
  It has been a special burden and a special honor to represent one of 
the poorest districts in the richest nation in the world.
  It has been a special burden and special honor to represent a 
district mostly comprised of a minority not long ago enslaved by the 
very nation in which they are now citizens.
  It has been a special burden and a special honor to represent the 
victorious battleground of the civil rights movement, a battleground 
that gave America nonviolent resistance, and gave the world a more 
honorable way to struggle for human rights.
  As I leave this body, it is my prayer that America will make as its 
first priority the ending of poverty in the richest nation in the 
world. To have poverty in the midst of riches is unconscionable and we 
must move immediately to end this most destructive condition from the 
American people forever.
  It is my prayer that America will finally move beyond the ignominious 
history of racism that has eaten at our nation's heart since the 
conception of this nation. The racism which has historically oppressed 
Blacks such as myself in this nation too easily turns against others, 
against Arabs, Asians, and may well turn again against Jews.
  It is my prayer that America will find a way to place human values 
before monetary ones. Today, money is the engine of everything in this 
nation. People matter less and less in the face of monetarism, both in 
this nation and in the world. Globalization is not the high-minded 
internationalism we have dreamed of--it is instead the take-over of the 
world by transnational corporations which may have been born in America 
but which are loyal only to wealth. We have to put people before 
profits before the people are nothing but products.
  It is my prayer that America will find a way to achieve international 
peace. We cannot continue to use cheap nationalism to reduce people to 
less than human, religious arrogance to call others evil, or media 
blitzkriegs to whip the American people into imperialist cheerleaders.
  For this intertangled world, there is only one way to survive and 
that is to survive together. However many nations exist, there is only 
one human race. It is neither good nor evil--it is human. I for one 
find it deeply lovable. I place myself in its service, in the service 
of the people of the world.

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