[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 21 (Friday, February 17, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E179-E180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           TSUNAMIS, FLOODS AND EARTHQUAKES, SEEN AND UNSEEN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 16, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the Record 
``Witness for Justice # 248'' entitled Tsunamis, Floods and 
Earthquakes; Seen and Unseen, published December 26, 2005 by the United 
Church of Christ of Cleveland, Ohio. The article eloquently written by 
Rev. Sala W.J. Nolan, Minister for Criminal Justice and Human Rights of 
this Church on 700 Prospect Ave. in Cleveland reminds us of the 
existence of unseen tsunamis, floods and earthquakes that continue to 
overrun communities around the world--stifling the voices of those 
forgotten. Recalling the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed nearly 
300,000, and Hurricane Katrina that took the lives of more than 1,000 
Gulf Coast residents, leaving even scores more homeless and displaced, 
Rev. Nolan speaks of unseen tsunamis, floods and earthquakes that 
manifest throughout the world in the form of racism and other forms of 
injustice. ``They take place in U.S. prisons, which house one-fourth of 
all prisoners in the world and young Black men exist at 8 times the 
population rate of the Black men of South Africa at the height of 
Apartheid,'' explains Rev. Nolan. The ``invisible flood of 
incarceration'' as described by Rev. Nolan--the imprisonment of our 
Black and Hispanic youth--is robbing our communities of future 
entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, political and community leaders and 
tearing them away from their families--leaving them to languish and 
surrender their dreams within a less-than-colorblind criminal justice 
system with a swift, revolving door.
  I also join Rev. Nolan in her concern over the erosion of freedoms 
not protected in a political environment where the Republican-
controlled White House and Congress have mistakenly justified the 
infringement of personal freedoms for the sake of a safer America. Rev. 
Nolan says that since the PATRIOT Act has passed, ``our government has 
acquired vastly broadened authority to monitor, arrest and detain 
citizens. We have learned that freedoms not protected will erode.'' 
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has jailed 
and deported immigrants who have been living in our country for many 
years, obeying our laws, contributing to our society and working hard 
to support their families. It has created an atmosphere of fear and 
suspicion of anybody who seems to be a foreigner. We must force this 
secret tsunami to retreat off our lands and we must restore freedoms 
to those left most victimized by the misplaced political zeal for 
power--the poor, the enslaved, and the tortured.

  I join Rev. Nolan in all her concerns and her wish for a more just 
America free of unseen tsunamis, floods and earthquakes. Witness for 
Justice #248, Dec. 26, 2005.

           Tsunamis, Floods and Earthquakes: Seen and Unseen

                          (By Sala W.J. Nolan)

       As 2005 draws to a close, we have much suffering to 
     address. The tsunami of last December 26 still reverberates 
     throughout the world. The worst hurricane season in U.S. 
     history has damaged the Gulf Coast in ways that will extend 
     to generations. And an earthquake has devastated Kashmir, 
     where relief is terribly complicated by Indian and Pakistani 
     political claims.
       The events were life shattering and will leave enduring 
     legacies. They are especially notable because of the human 
     suffering that was unmasked. We saw aging and Africa-American 
     citizens in the wake of Katrina, without food and water or 
     medical care, left abandoned on bridges and in nursing homes 
     and sports arenas. The visible poverty among so many citizens 
     of the richest country in the world--and their utter 
     abandonment by the institutions obligated to serve them--
     shocked the planet.
       Every day there are unseen tsunamis, floods and 
     earthquakes. They take place in U.S. prisons, which house 
     one-fourth of all

[[Page E180]]

     the prisoners in the world and young Black men at eight-times 
     the population rate of the Black men of South Africa at the 
     height of Apartheid. They happen among immigrants in the 
     housing projects of France. They occur among the farmers of 
     Vieques and fishers of the Marshal Islands whose livelihoods 
     and health have been damaged by years of bomb testing and 
     with school-aged children in broken neighborhoods; with 
     Afghan nationals in the cells of Guantanamo; and in secret 
     prisons in Eastern Europe and Saudi Arabia. All over our 
     world, where governments and institutions fail to protect 
     their citizens or actively harm them, the earthquake happens. 
     And when those who suffer are forgotten, the devastation is 
     terrible.
       Consider the political activists who were imprisoned in the 
     late 1960s and 1970s. Richard Williams was one of them. 
     Following 9/11, he was placed in isolation for 15 months 
     without cause. He was given poor medical care, which often 
     occurs in prison. He passed this month, at the age of 58, and 
     we remember him. Remember Marilyn Buck, Leonard Peltier, 
     Oscar Lopez and others who have languished in prison. 
     Remember Assata Shakur, who has a price on her head. In June, 
     ten environmental and animal protection activists from the 
     San Francisco Bay area were subpoenaed to a grand jury after 
     police raids failed to produce evidence of criminal 
     wrongdoing. Since the Patriot Act passed, our government has 
     acquired vastly broadened authority to monitor, arrest and 
     detain citizens. We have learned that freedoms not protected 
     will erode.
       Recently, I traveled to the Gulf Coast after the 
     hurricanes, carrying supplies and assessing what we could do 
     to help. I met a little boy, about 10 or 11, collecting toys 
     for his younger brother and sister. When his turn came, there 
     were no appropriate toys in the can for him. He turned away, 
     dejected. Then I remembered that my 5-year-old niece had 
     given me her most precious rubber frog and told me to give it 
     to somebody special. I pulled the frog out of my pocket and 
     gave it to the boy. His face lit up and he ran off with it, 
     laughing and teasing his little brother. In that moment, the 
     disaster was forgotten and he was just a boy again.
       The prisons of the U.S. hold fathers and mothers whose 
     children, more likely than not, will grow up in an earthquake 
     of poverty and chaos. You probably know some of them, because 
     the invisible flood of incarceration is enormous, but you may 
     not know the secrets that keep because discrimination is a 
     powerful force in their lives. Remember them. What could you 
     do for the children? What could you do for someone who is 
     ill? How much could be done by remembrance and a well-placed 
     word for political prisoners and indigenous peoples of 
     contaminated lands. Remember those who suffer from the secret 
     tsunamis of out world today, and consider that is in your 
     hand. What will you do with what you have?

                          ____________________