[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 154 (Friday, November 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2423-E2424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WITNESS FOR JUSTICE: UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 18, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to enter into the Record ``Witness 
for Justice #223'' entitled The Sons and Daughters . . . published on 
July 18, 2005, by the United Church of Christ of Cleveland, Ohio. The 
article eloquently written by Bernice Powell Jackson, the Executive 
Minister of this Church on 700 Prospect Avenue in Cleveland, addresses 
an issue that should be in the hearts and on the lips of every 
minister, rabbi and imam when he or she stands before a congregation.
  The subject of The Sons and Daughters article was the difficulty the 
U.S. Army was having recruiting enough men and women to meet recruiting 
goals. At the time Minister Jackson wrote this article the Army was 
experiencing sufficient difficulty that they were raising the promise 
of higher sign-up bonuses, dropping standards and, as could be found, 
as she put it, circling ``vulnerable young men and women like hawks 
flying over little chicks.''
  Minister Jackson did not question the patriotism of the young people 
failing to sign up with recruiters. She speculated the young people had 
gotten wiser. Perhaps she thought these men and women were looking at 
certain realities about the pre-emptive war they would fight if they 
enlisted. At the time of this article these young people had 
experienced 2 years ``of watching a war which has so far resulted in 
nearly 1800 deaths and ten times that many injuries.'' Perhaps they 
were thinking how much life they had before them at the age of 18, 19, 
20 or 21. Maybe they knew someone who had been burned beyond 
recognition or had lost both of his or her legs and faced a life time 
of disability at the age of 21.
  Or, Minister Jackson thought, perhaps these young people had begun to 
detect the varying rationales and purposes stated by the Bush 
administration for why the United States was fighting in Iraq. The 
purpose of the War, according to the President, was to save our country 
from ``immenent danger'' from weapons of mass destruction that might 
come in the form of a ``mushroom cloud.'' But 2 years on, there were no 
weapons of mass destruction and no immenent danger; so different 
reasons for the war were being substituted for the war in Iraq. We were 
fighting in Iraq to stop the terrorists. However, many were saying the 
American presence in Iraq was creating terrorists.

  Of course, Minister Jackson speculated that these young people might 
not want to sign up for a war when the statements of the Secretary of 
Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, could not be relied upon for any certainty 
about when they would come home. Secretary Rumsfeld's statements about 
how long the United States would be in Iraq changed almost daily. 
Secretary Rumsfeld could not articulate a coherent plan for the war and 
neither could the President of the United States.
  Young people, Minister Jackson speculated, might be frightened by the 
tactics used by recruiters to pressure young, vulnerable youths whose 
personnel information, including their names, social security numbers, 
race, ethnic background and telephone numbers the Defense Department 
received because one of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act 
was being shared by the Defense Department with a sharing with a 
private contractor who sold goods and products to young men about the 
age of those being recruited.
  The tactics of the Pentagon are enabled by the No Child Left Behind 
Act as currently written. Minister Jackson pointed out that parents 
have to opt out of the program to get the military to leave their child 
off the potential recruitment list. Some in Congress have tried to 
change this law so that the parents would have to opt in so their child 
would be on the recruitment list. Those attempts failed because they 
were voted down by the Republican hawks in Congress. Minister Jackson 
noted in a column by Bob Herbert of the New York Times the statement: 
``There are always plenty of hawks in America. But the hawks want their 
wars fought with other people's children.''
  Minister Jackson wrote ``our young people are in danger.'' She 
advised all of us to write our President, Secretaries of Defense and 
Education, our Congressperson and Senators and let them know about 
these recruiters and these lists.
  This statement by Minister Jackson goes to the heart of what is wrong 
with this war. The

[[Page E2424]]

entire burden is shared by a tiny percentage of citizens of this 
country. Not one tax cut has been repealed and absent a draft only 
those who are poor, underemployed or with no hope of a job or college 
are enlisting. The people of this country do not see the flag draped 
coffins at Dover Air Force Base. They do not see the young soldiers who 
have lost their sight and their limbs or who are in comas from head 
wounds or burned beyond recognition. They do not give up a job to sit 
by the bedside of a son who does not recognize them or at the bedside 
of a daughter who has lost her legs at the age of 24. They do not 
attend the funerals of a 20 year old or an 18 year old who is dead just 
out of high school.
  For most people in this country there is no war. There were 
complaints of how veterans were treated when they returned from 
Vietnam. Think of how veterans returning from Iraq must feel when they 
realize no one in their country felt any impact of a war in which they 
lost so much.

                          ____________________