[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 137 (Monday, December 6, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H10920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DEMOCRATS' MORAL VALUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last month Ohio Democrats took our 
moral values to the polls.
  For many of us, our faith guided us, and our final vote for President 
was far too close to declare, my State, a State full of evangelical 
fundamentalists.
  For many of us, moral values are grounded 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, inaccessible health care, poverty of millions of American 
children and the war in Iraq.
  For several 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 gases. Miners were forced, in those days, 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 a hundred years ago in those days had a life expectancy 
of about 47 years. Today, because of public health initiatives, worker 
safety laws, Medicare, Social Security, and other new laws, protections 
for children and minorities and the disabled, we live decades longer.
  Every bit of progress in the struggle for economic and social 
justice, often rooted in our Judeo-Christian beliefs, prevailed over 
the opposition of society's most privileged and most powerful.
  Today, those struggles continue. Our fight, in this chamber, for 
seniors who are forced to choose between medicine and food and our 
fight against the large pharmaceutical companies' greed is 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.
  George Bush approved more than 150 executions, one every 2 weeks of 
his governorship in Texas. Our opposition to the death penalty is 
grounded in the Scriptures.
  Our belief that government programs like Medicare and Social Security 
and Medicaid, not privatized imitations of them, our belief in those 
programs should serve all Americans bespeaks a faith in the greatness 
of our country and its ability and willingness to lift up all its 
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 about moral values, but in the committee rooms and the 
cloakrooms, in the halls and in the hideaways, choices are made by 
Republican leaders 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 their drug and insurance company contributors.
  This Congress hurts God's earth when it caves to the energy companies 
and the oil companies.
  This Congress hurts our communities when it gives tax breaks to 
encourage the largest corporations to outsource their jobs.
  And this Congress hurts our grandchildren when it loads huge burdens 
of debt on future generations.
  Tens of thousands of Ohioans worked feverishly for months to help 
change our Nation's course because of their moral values, because of 
their faith in God, because of their belief in our 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 teachings of Christ, my religious upbringing, 
call 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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