[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  LET YOUR DEEDS MATCH YOUR APOLOGIES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 27, 2005

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, In politics apologies are always important. 
We need more apologies and less fiction among nations and groups. We 
need apologies that help to avoid wars. Apologies can never be adequate 
substitutions for restitution or reparations; however, apologies offer 
their own alternative satisfaction. The present German nation has 
apologized for the Nazi German Holocaust. But the Koreans and Chinese 
are not happy with the rather muddled apologies of the Japanese for the 
atrocities of World War II. And, of course, no one has ever apologized 
for the Atlantic Slave Trade and two hundred and fifty years of slavery 
in America. Despite the fact that there is still a huge apology gap in 
our civilization, we must applaud small apologies wherever they occur. 
We applaud Republican National Committee Chairman Mehlman for his 
recent statement to the NAACP apologizing for the ``Republican Southern 
Strategy''. This speech was given still more credibility when House 
Judiciary Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner, at that same NAACP 
Conference, pledged to lead the fight for the reauthorization of the 
Voting Rights Act. Mehlman's apology appears to perhaps be a sparkplug 
for the launching of a new Republican offensive to capture more Black 
votes. A suffering Black community challenges the Party of Lincoln to 
show us some concrete policy and program deeds to match the apologies. 
Listen to the plea of the following RAP poem:

                        Apologies Are Real Cool

     To apologize
     Is real cool
     But don't play
     The Black agenda
     For no eager fool.
     Don't rush to play,
     Delay thumping your chest,
     Push your words
     Into the action test:
     Jobs right now we need,
     Hungry mouths we have to feed,
     Lots of ills But can't buy pills.
     Prison terms often repeat
     Homeless shelters
     Are never neat.

     Tax cuts we can't eat,
     Iraq war dollars wasted
     Spell school repair defeat.
     Right now!
     Take the action test.
     Show us the Bush best.
     For any apology
     We grant a pat
     On the Republican back;
     From Democrats
     The slavery apology
     We desperately lack.
     To apologize
     Is real cool
     But don't play
     The Black agenda
     For no eager fool.

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