[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 132 (Wednesday, November 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H9875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CARING MORAL VALUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, on November 2, Ohio Democrats took 
our moral values to the polls. For many of us, our faith guided us, 
too, and our final vote for President was far too close to declare Ohio 
as a State full of evangelical fundamentalists.
  For many of us, moral values are guided in our religious faith. My 
Lutheran upbringing instructs me and my fellow Christians in the 
teachings of Jesus to read and to follow as best we can the words of 
the Beatitudes, to try to live our lives and practice our politics as 
Jesus would have wanted us to.
  For others of us, those moral values take the form of a faith in our 
country's greatness to solve our most pressing problems of racial 
inequality, of inaccessible health care, of the poverty of millions of 
American children, and of the war in Iraq.
  For 3 years I have worn a lapel pin depicting a canary in a cage. A 
century ago, miners took a canary into the mines to warn them of toxic 
gasses. Miners were forced to provide for their own protection. No mine 
safety laws, no trade unions able to help, no real support from their 
government.
  A baby born in those days had a life expectancy of about 47 years. 
Today, because of public health initiatives, worker safety laws, 
Medicare, Social Security, protections for children and minorities and 
the disabled, as a result we live decades longer. Every bit of progress 
in the struggle for economic and social justice often rooted in our 
Judeo-Christian beliefs, every bit of progress prevailed over the 
opposition of society's most privileged and most powerful.
  Today, those struggles continue. Our fight for seniors who are forced 
to choose between medicine and food in our fight against the large 
pharmaceutical companies' greed comes from our understanding of the 
holy word.
  Our opposition to tax cuts for America's most privileged adults and 
Head Start cuts afflicting our least privileged children follow from 
the teachings of Christ.
  Our opposition to the death penalty, keep in mind George Bush 
approved an execution every 2 weeks during his 6 years as governor of 
Texas, our opposition to the death penalty is grounded in the 
scriptures.
  Our belief that government programs like Medicare and Medicaid and 
Social Security, not privatized imitations of those programs, those 
programs should serve all Americans. Our belief that they should serve 
all Americans bespeaks a faith in the greatness of our country and its 
ability and willingness to lift up all of God's children.
  As we have seen over the last 4 years, Republicans campaign to their 
religious friends on their moral values, mostly opposition to abortion 
and gay rights, and then govern for and with their corporate allies and 
contributors.
  On the floor of the House of Representatives in the light of day we 
hear much talk from our Republican friends about moral values. But in 
the committee rooms and in the cloakrooms and in the back of the 
Chamber, choices are so often made and deals are cut that run counter 
to the teachings of Christ and Mohammed and the Jewish prophets and fly 
in the face of the values upon which our Nation was founded.
  This Congress hurts families by underfunding Leave No Child Behind 
and college student loans, while giving tax cuts to the wealthiest 
among us.
  This Congress hurts the elderly by defeating legislation to bring 
down the price of prescription drugs and then passing a Medicare bill 
that further enriches the drug and insurance industry.
  This Congress hurts our God's earth when it caves to the energy and 
chemical companies.
  This Congress hurts our communities when it gives tax breaks to 
encourage the largest corporations to outsource our jobs.
  This Congress hurts our grandchildren when it loads huge burdens of 
debt on future generations.
  Those are not the right moral values.
  Tens of thousands of Ohioans worked feverishly for months to help 
change our Nation's course because of our moral values, because of our 
faith in God and because of our belief in the Nation's history of 
taking care of the least among us.
  In no way do I question the faith of my political opponents, but I am 
weary of the far right's claim that they are the only ones guided by 
the hand of God.
  My understanding of the teaching of Christ, my religious upbringing 
calls me to walk a different path and to express and act upon my faith 
in the cause of social and economic justice.

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