[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H519-H532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           OBSERVING THE BIRTHDAY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution (H. Res. 61) observing the Birthday of Martin Luther 
King, Jr., and encouraging the people of the United States to observe 
the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the life and legacy of Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H. Res. 61

       Whereas Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, was 
     born January 15, 1929;
       Whereas Dr. King attended segregated public schools in 
     Georgia, and began attending Morehouse College in Atlanta, 
     Georgia, at the age of 15;
       Whereas in February of 1948, Dr. King was ordained in the 
     Christian ministry at the age of 19 at Ebenezer Baptist 
     Church, in Atlanta, Georgia, and became Assistant Pastor of 
     Ebenezer Baptist Church;
       Whereas Dr. King was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 
     1948 from Morehouse College, a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 
     1951 from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, and a 
     Doctor of Philosophy degree in theology in 1955 from Boston 
     University;
       Whereas in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. King met Coretta 
     Scott, his life partner and fellow civil rights activist;
       Whereas on June 18, 1953, Dr. King and Coretta Scott were 
     married and later had two sons and two daughters;
       Whereas in 1954, Dr. King accepted the call of Dexter 
     Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and was pastor 
     from September 1954 to November 1959, when he resigned to 
     move back to Atlanta to lead the Southern Christian 
     Leadership Conference;
       Whereas Dr. King led the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott 
     for 381 days to protest the arrest of Rosa Parks and the 
     segregation of the bus system of Montgomery, during which 
     time Dr. King was arrested and the home of Dr. King was 
     bombed;
       Whereas Dr. King responded to arrests and violence with 
     non-violence and courage in the face of hatred;
       Whereas the Montgomery bus boycott was the first great 
     nonviolent civil rights demonstration of contemporary times 
     in the United States;
       Whereas on December 21, 1956, the Supreme Court declared 
     laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional;
       Whereas between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King traveled more than 
     6,000,000 miles, spoke more than 2,500 times, and wrote five 
     books and numerous articles supporting efforts around the 
     country to end injustice and bring about social change and 
     desegregation;
       Whereas from 1960 until his death in 1968, Dr. King was co-
     pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church;
       Whereas on August 28, 1963, Dr. King led the March on 
     Washington, D.C., the largest rally of the civil rights 
     movement, during which, from the steps of the Lincoln 
     Memorial and before a crowd of more than 200,000 people, Dr. 
     King delivered his famous ``I Have A Dream'' speech, one of 
     the classic orations in American history;
       Whereas Dr. King was a champion of nonviolence, fervently 
     advocated nonviolent resistance as the strategy to end 
     segregation and racial discrimination in America, and in 
     1964, at age 35, became the youngest man to be awarded the 
     Nobel Peace Prize in recognition for his efforts;
       Whereas through his work and reliance on nonviolent 
     protest, Dr. King was instrumental in the passage of the 
     Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965;
       Whereas the work of Dr. King created a basis of 
     understanding and respect and helped communities, and the 
     United States as a whole, to act cooperatively and 
     courageously to restore tolerance, justice, and equality 
     between people;
       Whereas on the evening of April 4, 1968, Dr. King was 
     assassinated while standing on the balcony of his motel room 
     in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead sanitation 
     workers in protest against low wages and intolerable working 
     conditions;
       Whereas Dr. King dedicated his life to securing the 
     fundamental principles of the United States of liberty and 
     justice for all United States citizens;
       Whereas Dr. King was the leading civil rights advocate of 
     his time, spearheading the civil rights movement in the 
     United States during the 1950's and 1960's and earning world-
     wide recognition as an eloquent and articulate spokesperson 
     for equality;
       Whereas in the face of hatred and violence, Dr. King 
     preached a doctrine of nonviolence and civil disobedience to 
     combat segregation, discrimination, and racial injustice, and 
     believed that people have the moral capacity to care for 
     other people;
       Whereas Dr. King awakened the conscience and consciousness 
     of the United States and used his message of hope to bring 
     people together to build the ``Beloved Community'', a 
     community of justice, at peace with itself;
       Whereas in 1968, Representative John Conyers introduced 
     legislation to establish the Birthday of Martin Luther King, 
     Jr. as a Federal holiday;
       Whereas Coretta Scott King led the massive campaign to 
     establish Dr. King's birthday as a Federal holiday;
       Whereas in 1983, Congress passed and President Ronald 
     Reagan signed legislation creating the Birthday of Martin 
     Luther King, Jr. holiday, which is now observed in more than 
     100 countries;
       Whereas Dr. King's wife and indispensable partner, Coretta 
     Scott King, was a woman of quiet courage and great dignity 
     who marched alongside her husband and became an international 
     advocate for peace and human rights;
       Whereas Coretta Scott King, who had been actively engaged 
     in the civil rights movement as a politically and socially 
     conscious young woman, continued after her husband's death to 
     lead the United States toward greater justice and equality, 
     traveling the world on behalf of racial and economic justice, 
     peace and non-violence, women's and children's rights, gay 
     rights, religious freedom, full employment, health care, and 
     education until her death on January 30, 2006;
       Whereas the values of faith, compassion, courage, truth, 
     justice, and non-violence that guided Dr. and Mrs. King's 
     dream for America will be celebrated and preserved by the 
     Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial on the National 
     Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial 
     and in the new National Museum of African American History 
     and Culture that will be located in the shadow of the 
     Washington Monument; and
       Whereas Dr. King's actions and leadership made the United 
     States a better place and the American people a better 
     people: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
       (1) observes the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.;
       (2) pledges to advance the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther 
     King, Jr.; and
       (3) encourages the people of the United States to--
       (A) observe the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and 
     the life of Dr. King;
       (B) commemorate the legacy of Dr. King, so that, as Dr. 
     King hoped, ``one day this Nation will rise up and live out 
     the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths to be

[[Page H520]]

     self-evident; that all men are created equal;' ''; and
       (C) remember the message of Dr. King and rededicate 
     themselves to Dr. King's goal of a free and just United 
     States.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Chabot) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker and ladies and gentlemen of the House, I 
ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which 
to insert additional material concerning House Resolution 61 into the 
Congressional Record.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CONYERS. I also want everyone to know that the gentleman from 
Georgia's resolution, John Lewis, Members will be able to join on it up 
until the time that we have a recorded vote in case there are Members 
coming back that may not be aware of this.
  Today we have joined so many others in the Nation in honoring, in my 
judgment, our greatest American, Martin Luther King, Jr.

                              {time}  1415

  As the original author of the bill 4 days after his assassination, 
and one who worked on it for 15 years until it was passed in 1983, I am 
delighted to support and endorse the resolution of another supporter 
and one who worked closely with Dr. King, the gentleman from Georgia, 
John Lewis.
  It was an interesting time for me yesterday. Not only did City Year, 
a national service movement that has young people pledging to work in 
schools, parks, and neighborhoods full-time for 10 months, headed by 
their president, Penny Bailey, in which I delivered my remarks about 
Dr. King, but I was also at Central Methodist Church in downtown 
Detroit, where Dr. King frequently came for his Easter or the Friday 
before Easter addresses, and where I was honored on his last visit to 
be supported by his actual endorsement.
  And so I come here doubly proud of the fact that I was able to work 
with Dr. King as a young lawyer, but also to enjoy his support. Much of 
it came, of course, from Rosa Parks, who left Alabama and came to 
Detroit when she couldn't get work anymore. And she was a seamstress. 
And I was very happy to welcome her to my congressional office, where 
she worked for more than two decades. And her and Dr. King's fame and 
recognition kept growing and growing as she was called around the world 
to receive tributes.
  And I remember Dr. King's very important receiving of the Nobel 
Prize. And it was about the question of peace. And it was not just 
racial discrimination. Dr. King was not a one-note person. He was a 
visionary. Jobs, justice, economic justice, political justice, and 
peace.
  And we find ourselves wrapped up in these same considerations even 
today as we begin the third week of the 110th Congress. We need voter 
integrity. We need protection for those who seek the ballot. But more 
than anything else, I am reminded of the fact that we need to find a 
way out of the war in Iraq, an unnecessary, sad occasion in our 
history.
  And you keep thinking, what would King have said? And I remember that 
one thing he said is that those who fail to talk about what is 
important really miss their chance in history to do something that is 
significant.
  Madam Speaker, because we have so many speakers, I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 61, which 
observes and celebrates the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
and invites all Americans to join in this commemoration.
  Dr. King's pursuit of social change and making this country worthy of 
its heritage was evident in all of his work. He was a member of the 
Executive Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, the NAACP. He became the leader of the Montgomery 
Improvement Association which, of course, was the organization 
responsible for one of the most important nonviolent demonstrations of 
modern times in the United States, the 382-day bus boycott.
  In 1957, Dr. King was elected President of the Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference. Between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King appeared 
wherever he saw injustice. The injustice he saw took him many miles, 
and the speeches that he made are still taught in schools. They were 
taught yesterday. They are taught all over the country. They are things 
which we really do need to listen to and learn from and still have many 
things to learn from the things that Dr. King said.
  Dr. King led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that drew the 
attention of the world, sparking what he called a ``coalition of 
conscience.''
  Dr. King later directed a peaceful march here in Washington, DC, a 
march that a quarter of a million people attended, where he delivered 
his now famous ``I Have a Dream'' speech.
  At the age of 35, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man 
to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he 
announced that he would turn over all of the prize money to further the 
civil rights movement.
  On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his 
motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march 
in sympathy with striking sanitation workers in that city, he was 
gunned down.
  Dr. King's name is synonymous with the civil rights movement. His 
life was devoted to changing the conscience of this Nation. His 
experiences shaped his character, and through them, one of the greatest 
nonviolent leaders of our country has ever known was created.
  Today, we honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King for his service 
and strength and devotion to the principle that all Americans are 
entitled to equal treatment under the law in this great Nation. We are 
a greater Nation because Dr. King lived.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield now to the one person in the 
House and the United States Senate who now presently knows and knew Dr. 
King and his family, and the civil rights movement more than any other 
person among us, and that is, of course, the Honorable John Lewis from 
Georgia, and I recognize him for 3 minutes.
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend, my 
colleague, the chairman, for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, it is only fitting and appropriate that we salute and 
commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as we celebrate his 78th 
birthday.
  Martin Luther King, Jr., was a man of peace, a man of love, a man of 
nonviolence. He must be considered one of the founding fathers of the 
new America.
  Because of his dedication to the cause of injustice and his fight for 
human dignity, he wrestled with the very soul of this Nation and pushed 
it to reach for its greater destiny.
  Dr. King had the ability to produce light in dark places; the ability 
to bring the dirt and the filth out from under the American rug, out of 
the cracks and the corner into the open light in order for us to deal 
with it.
  He injected a new meaning into the very veins of our society and gave 
his life to make our democracy real. What he did and what he said and 
what he sacrificed inspired an entire generation and his power still 
rings today throughout the Nation and around the world.
  We are a different country. We are a better people today. Martin 
Luther King, Jr., believed in the power of love over hate, the power of 
nonviolence over violence, the power of peace over war. He liberated 
all of us, black and white, Hispanic, Asian American and Native 
American.
  If Dr. King could speak to us today, right now, he would say we must 
stop the madness of the war and bring our young people home. He would 
say that war is an ineffective tool of our foreign policy.
  We must struggle against injustice and stand up for our goals. If 
peace is our goal, then peaceful ends must take peaceful means.
  Dr. King would say, means and ends are inseparable. He would say we 
must

[[Page H521]]

find a way to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish 
as fools.
  39 years later, we must rededicate ourselves to the struggle that was 
his struggle, and continue to see the goals that were his goals.
  We know that his dream has not been fulfilled. It must be our task, 
our obligation, our mission, our mandate to renew our commitment to his 
dream.
  Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he might consume to 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren).
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Madam Speaker, I rise in support 
of this resolution and in support of the honoring of the birthday of 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  I can recall, two decades ago, being on this floor with the gentleman 
from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), and fighting to make sure that we 
established this holiday. Some may have forgotten that it took more 
than one time for this to occur. The resolution was defeated on two 
previous occasions. And I recall that some of us on our side of the 
aisle voted against it for fiscal reasons at that time.
  And I also recall, after having that vote, going home and talking 
with my wife and saying, you know, I think I did the wrong thing; and 
her giving me the great advice that she gave me, she said, well, if you 
did, you'd better do something about it.
  And at that time I had the opportunity to approach Congressman Jack 
Kemp, who had voted against it as well for ``fiscal reasons,'' and 
working with Ed Bethune and Newt Gingrich and others, attempting to 
garner enough support from some on our side of the aisle to ensure that 
the vote would go forward and that we would honor Dr. Martin Luther 
King.
  And the argument that was made at that time that I think was 
successful was that we have many different points of view, as we do 
today on the war, as we did at that time in how we appropriately deal 
with the then existing threat of the Soviet Union, many different 
issues that divided us in terms of our approach. But it seemed 
important for us to come together from all these different points of 
view to recognize Dr. Martin Luther King's contribution to this country 
where he brought people who had differences of opinion together in a 
united effort that reminded us very vividly that we are one people 
dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are created equal. 
And it was cutting through the differences that we had at that time on 
a number of different issues that allowed us to come together.
  And I can recall going to visit Mr. Conyers in his office and asking 
him whether it would be of any benefit for those of us who had 
initially opposed the resolution to come forward in support of it. And 
I can recall the gentleman from Michigan's statement at that time, 
suggesting that we all ought to come together.
  So today, as we are again in a period of time in which there are 
sincere, passionate differences of opinion on issues such as the war 
and how we approach it, when we have some differences on how we deal 
with certain economic matters, when we have differences of opinion with 
respect to the extent and the definition of certain applications of 
affirmative action, isn't it good for us to at least step back and 
recognize that there is a commonality of purpose, a commonality of 
dedication, a commonality of the essence of America; that we recognize 
that we will never be perfect, but as we are moving to make real the 
promise of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, that we 
actually have more that joins us together than breaks us apart. Because 
had we not had that belief, and had we not had that as our base 
decision some two decades ago, we would not now have, as a recognition 
of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, the national holiday.
  It is not an African American holiday. It is not a Hispanic holiday, 
it is not an Irish American holiday. It is an American holiday that 
recognizes that Dr. King spoke to the essence of America.

                              {time}  1430

  There could be nothing greater in the annals of American history, in 
my judgment, than his magnificent statement contained in the letter 
from the Birmingham jail, where he said that we, as the people, 
understand the difference between a just and an unjust law. He didn't 
say let us look at this legal book and tell us where it is. He said an 
unjust law is a law which violates God's law; an unjust law is that 
which we know is wrong. I can also remember his great words in there 
when people said, Well, aren't you a radical? He said, What was Jesus 
but a radical for love.
  He asked that we come together and look in our hearts, as much as our 
heads, and remember that as imperfect as we are, we do all share in 
this tremendous legacy of America, and we honor America by trying to be 
more true to that promise.
  I thank the gentleman for this resolution. I thank the manager of 
this bill for his work today and other days, and I thank the gentleman 
from Ohio for giving me this time.
  Mr. CONYERS. I thank the previous speaker, who is one of the few here 
on the floor that was around back then when these debates and this long 
15-year period took place. I thank him for his contribution.
  Madam Speaker, I now turn to the able gentlelady from the District of 
Columbia (Ms. Norton), and I recognize her for 2\1/2\ minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. I particularly 
thank him for his remarks, because what I am going to talk about, the 
link I am going to try to make, he knows very well. I appreciate his 
linking Dr. King to the broad swath of issues for which he stood. How 
can you honor King without, in fact, talking about his issues.
  Madam Speaker, recall the poor people's campaign on the Mall, and the 
gap between the rich and the poor that is greater today than when King 
lived, and recall the Vietnam war when his opposition was at high risk. 
Here we have a President attempting to escalate yet another war. But 
King's signature issue, my friends, was civil rights.
  The House of Representatives must confront a civil rights issue that 
is 200 years old, the failure of the Congress of the United States for 
200 years to grant equal rights to the citizens of the District of 
Columbia. Most recently, this has been a Republican failure. But 
Democrats are just as responsible. I would say more responsible in some 
ways, historically, than Republicans, because race was at the center of 
the denial. It was Democrats who stood in the way of home rule and a 
delegate for the District of Columbia. It was Democrats, however, who 
faced their racial failings 40 years ago, and, to their credit, became 
leaders in the fight for civil rights.
  Yet, the majority African American District of Columbia remains 
without a vote despite Democratic Party platforms and countless 
statements, especially on this floor. Now is the time for Democrats to 
act to deliver. It is the last hope for years to come, a D.C.-Utah bill 
that delivers party parity, with great credit to my Republican 
cosponsor, who tried to deliver, great credit to my cosponsor, no 
partisan advantage.
  Nonpartisan research reveals that a possible advantage occasionally 
raised is so de minimis that no credible argument can be made for 
further delay in failing to correct one of the most odious injustices 
in American history, 200,000 men and women in the District of Columbia 
sent to America's war since the creation of the Republic, second per 
capita of taxation without representation.
  Dr. King held public officials on both sides of the aisle 
accountable. The only risk to Democratics on this issue is paying only 
lip service to his principles.
  Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  We have no further speakers at this time. However, I would note in 
the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, the gentleman from Michigan 
indicated he may have more speakers than he has time for. I would be 
happy to yield time to accommodate him if it comes to that.
  Mr. CONYERS. I thank the gentleman.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from North 
Carolina (Mr. Butterfield) 2\1/4\ minutes.
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia, my 
friend, John Lewis, for introducing this resolution. I thank the 
gentleman

[[Page H522]]

from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for allowing time for me to speak today.
  Madam Speaker, Dr. King was a visionary leader. He understood that 
America could never be a moral leader in the world when citizens within 
its own borders were treated legally as second-class citizens. I recall 
so vividly attending a standing-room only speech that Dr. King gave at 
the Booker T. Washington High School gymnasium in Rocky Mountain, North 
Carolina, on November 27, 1962.
  Dr. King's speech included the ``I Have a Dream'' passage that he 
used in the historic march-on-Washington speech the following year. 
After the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we were having 
difficulty in the south persuading black voters that it was really 
uncomplicated to register the vote. The act had removed the literacy 
test, and the process was easier. But black citizens were reluctant to 
step forward to register to vote for fear of intimidation and reprisal. 
At the urging of local leaders in my community, Dr. King accepted our 
invitation to lead a voter registration march on April 4, 1968.
  But as fate would have it, he canceled his promised trip to our 
community so that he could go to Memphis to assist the garbage workers 
of that city, and we know the rest. Despite the absence of Dr. King 
from the registration march, we launched a massive voter registration 
drive and later filed and won a voting rights lawsuit in my district 
resulting in electoral opportunities.
  Now, Madam Speaker, we have 301 elected black officials in my 
congressional district. In addition to having an African American 
Member of this body in the first district, African Americans hold the 
following office: 48 county commissioners, 7 sheriffs, 20 mayors, 129 
municipal officials, 5 at our General Assembly, 6 superior court 
judges, 9 district court judges, 69 on boards of education, 4 
registrars of deeds and 3 clerks of court.
  Madam Speaker, much of this electoral progress that we have made in 
the South can be directly attributable to the life and work of Martin 
Luther King, Jr.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I would like now to call upon David Scott 
of Georgia and to yield to him 2 minutes.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Thank you to the gentleman from Michigan. It is 
a pleasure to be on the floor with you.
  Madam Speaker, more than anything else, Dr. King was a man of God. 
You know, when I think of Dr. King, I think of three people. The first 
one was the great prophet Isaiah. As you recall, Isaiah cried out in 
the year that King Uzziah died, was the year that I also saw the Lord. 
He went on to say that there was a voice that came to him that said, 
who will go for us, and whom shall we send?
  Like the prophet Isaiah, in 1956, as a young 26-year-old person down 
in Alabama, it was Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, Here am I, Lord, 
send me. Just like the prophet Isaiah. The second person is David the 
shepherd boy, who climbed up to go see about his brethren, and there 
was Goliath, issuing all kinds of threats.
  They told him to go back, much as they did with Martin Luther King, 
Jr., but he didn't go back. Instead, he stood there and Martin Luther 
King, Jr., like David said, Is there not a cause. There is a cause for 
me, and there is a cause for you, and that is to beat down the Goliaths 
of racism, of prejudice and discrimination.
  The third one is Jesus Christ, for when the Pharisees asked Jesus 
Christ what was the greatest commandment of all, Jesus said to love thy 
neighbor as thyself. At the bottom of it all, Dr. King's essence was 
love. As Jesus said, There is no greater love than that you would give 
your life for another. Dr. King paid that price and gave his life, 
love.
  As the song writer said: Them's that got shall get and them's that 
not shall not lose cause the Bible says, and it still is news. Your 
mama may have and your poppa may have, but God bless this child. Martin 
Luther King, more than anything else, was a child of God, and we thank 
God for sending Martin Luther King, Jr., our way.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am now pleased to yield to my good 
friend, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, 2 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Thank you, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Lewis and all Members of 
Congress.
  Madam Speaker, as we honor Dr. King's legacy, let's remember it is a 
living legacy. We are not talking about cold prose and someone who is 
so distant from this moment. His ideas are so alive today and so needed 
today; that is why a month from now, I will be introducing legislation 
to create a Cabinet level Department of Peace, which takes Dr. King's 
vision of an America which organizes around principles of nonviolence 
and brings it to life in addressing the issues of domestic violence, 
spousal abuse, child abuse, violence in the schools, racial violence, 
violence against gays, police, community relations conflicts, and 
provides the resources so that we can deal with these as a living 
testimony to the love that we are showing today for Dr. King.
  But he also was a visionary on the matter of war. He spoke many times 
warning this country about the danger of what happened in Vietnam. He 
spoke about the price that was being paid for the people of two nations 
in a speech at Riverside Church nearly 40 years ago. At Ebenezer 
Baptist Church he spoke about the interrelationship of all people, but 
how all people are one. It was that understanding of oneness that drove 
him to take a stand for peace.
  Let us celebrate not only his life, but let the principles of his 
life continue to guide us as Americans. This is the moment to take a 
stand as we grapple with the question of Iraq.
  I met with representatives of over 1,000 soldiers today who say it is 
time to get out of Iraq. Let us protect Dr. King's memory by standing 
for peace.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to put into the Record Dr. King's speech 
from Ebenezer Baptist Church and part of his speech from Riverside 
Church, which need to be read today. I would also like to put in the 
Record a speech that I gave recently called ``Out of Iraq and Back to 
the American City,'' which shows that only when we take a stand for 
peace are we able to get the resources that we need to provide jobs and 
health care and education and retirement security and housing for the 
American people.
  Make Dr. King's legacy a living legacy.

                      A Christmas Sermon on Peace

       Dr. King first delivered this sermon at Ebenezer Baptist 
     Church, where he served as co-pastor. On Christmas Eve, 1967, 
     the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired this sermon as 
     part of the seventh annual Massey Lectures.
       Peace on Earth. . . .
       This Christmas season finds us a rather bewildered human 
     race. We have neither peace within nor peace without. 
     Everywhere paralyzing fears harrow people by day and haunt 
     them by night. Our world is sick with war; everywhere we turn 
     we see its ominous possibilities. And yet, my friends, the 
     Christmas hope for peace and good will toward all men can no 
     longer be dismissed as a kind of pious dream of some utopian. 
     If we don't have good will toward men in this world, we will 
     destroy ourselves by the misuse of our own instruments and 
     our own power. Wisdom born of experience should tell us that 
     war is obsolete. There may have been a time when war served 
     as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an 
     evil force, but the very destructive power of modern weapons 
     of warfare eliminates even the possibility that war may any 
     longer serve as a negative good. And so, if we assume that 
     life is worth living, if we assume that mankind has a right 
     to survive, then we must find an alternative to war--and so 
     let us this morning explore the conditions for peace. Let us 
     this morning think anew on the meaning of that Christmas 
     hope: ``Peace on Earth, Good Will toward Men.'' And as we 
     explore these conditions, I would like to suggest that modern 
     man really go all out to study the meaning of nonviolence, 
     its philosophy and its strategy.
       We have experimented with the meaning of nonviolence in our 
     struggle for racial justice in the United States, but now the 
     time has come for man to experiment with nonviolence in all 
     areas of human conflict, and that means nonviolence on an 
     international scale.
       Now let me suggest first that if we are to have peace on 
     earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than 
     sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, 
     our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a 
     world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation 
     can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going 
     to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon 
     us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or 
     we are all going to perish together as fools.
       Yes, as nations and individuals, we are interdependent. I 
     have spoken to you before of our visit to India some years 
     ago. It was a marvelous experience; but I say to you this 
     morning that there were those depressing moments. How can one 
     avoid being depressed

[[Page H523]]

     when one sees with one's own eyes evidences of millions of 
     people going to bed hungry at night? How can one avoid being 
     depressed when one sees with one's own eyes thousands of 
     people sleeping on the sidewalks at night? More than a 
     million people sleep on the sidewalks of Bombay every night; 
     more than half a million sleep on the sidewalks of Calcutta 
     every night. They have no houses to go into. They have no 
     beds to sleep in. As I beheld these conditions, something 
     within me cried out: ``Can we in America stand idly by and 
     not be concerned?'' And an answer came: ``Oh, no!'' And I 
     started thinking about the fact that right here in our 
     country we spend millions of dollars every day to store 
     surplus food; and I said to myself: ``I know where we can 
     store that food free of charge--in the wrinkled stomachs of 
     the millions of God's children in Asia, Africa, Latin 
     America, and even in our own nation, who go to bed hungry at 
     night.''
       It really boils down to this: that all life is 
     interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of 
     mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever 
     affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to 
     live together because of the interrelated structure of 
     reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can't leave for 
     your job in the morning without being dependent on most of 
     the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom 
     and reach over for the sponge, and that's handed to you by a 
     Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that's 
     given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go 
     into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and 
     that's poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe 
     you want tea: That's poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or 
     maybe you're desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and 
     that's poured into your cup by a West African. And then you 
     reach over for your toast, and that's given to you at the 
     hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the 
     baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, 
     you've depended on more than half of the world. This is the 
     way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated 
     quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we 
     recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of 
     all reality.
       Now let me say, secondly, that if we are to have peace in 
     the world, men and nations must embrace the nonviolent 
     affirmation that ends and means must cohere. One of the great 
     philosophical debates of history has been over the whole 
     question of means and ends. And there have always been those 
     who argued that the end justifies the means, that the means 
     really aren't important. The important thing is to get to the 
     end, you see.
       So, if you're seeking to develop a just society, they say, 
     the important thing is to get there, and the means are really 
     unimportant; any means will do so long as they get you 
     there--they may be violent, they may be untruthful means; 
     they may even be unjust means to a just end. There have been 
     those who have argued this throughout history. But we will 
     never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize 
     that ends are not cut off from means, because the means 
     represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, 
     and ultimately you can't reach good ends through evil means, 
     because the means represent the seed and the end represents 
     the tree.
       It's one of the strangest things that all the great 
     military geniuses of the world have talked about peace. The 
     conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace, 
     Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, were 
     akin in seeking a peaceful world order. If you will read Mein 
     Kampf closely enough, you will discover that Hitler contended 
     that everything he did in Germany was for peace. And the 
     leaders of the world today talk eloquently about peace. Every 
     time we drop our bombs in North Vietnam, President Johnson 
     talks eloquently about peace. What is the problem? They are 
     talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but 
     one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a 
     distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we 
     arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through 
     peaceful means. All of this is saying that, in the final 
     analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is 
     preexistent in the means, and ultimately destructive means 
     cannot bring about constructive ends.
       Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned 
     about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward 
     men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all 
     human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of 
     God. And so when we say ``Thou shalt not kill,'' we're really 
     saying that human life is too sacred to be taken on the 
     battlefields of the world. Man is more than a tiny vagary of 
     whirling electrons or a wisp of smoke from a limitless 
     smoldering. Man is a child of God, made in His image, and 
     therefore must be respected as such. Until men see this 
     everywhere, until nations see this everywhere, we will be 
     fighting wars. One day somebody should remind us that, even 
     though there may be political and ideological differences 
     between us, the Vietnamese are our brothers, the Russians are 
     our brothers, the Chinese are our brothers; and one day we've 
     got to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. But in 
     Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. In Christ there is 
     neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither Communist 
     nor capitalist. In Christ, somehow, there is neither bound 
     nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And when we truly 
     believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won't 
     exploit people, we won't trample over people with the iron 
     feet of oppression, we won't kill anybody.
       There are three words for ``love'' in the Greek New 
     Testament; one is the word ``eros.'' Eros is a sort of 
     esthetic, romantic love. Plato used to talk about it a 
     great deal in his dialogues, the yearning of the soul for 
     the realm of the divine. And there is and can always be 
     something beautiful about eros, even in its expressions of 
     romance. Some of the most beautiful love in all of the 
     world has been expressed this way.
       Then the Greek language talks about ``philia,'' which is 
     another word for love, and philia is a kind of intimate love 
     between personal friends. This is the kind of love you have 
     for those people that you get along with well, and those whom 
     you like on this level you love because you are loved.
       Then the Greek language has another word for love, and that 
     is the word ``agape.'' Agape is more than romantic love, it 
     is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, creative, 
     redemptive good will toward all men. Agape is an overflowing 
     love which seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say 
     that it is the love of God operating in the human heart. When 
     you rise to love on this level, you love all men not because 
     you like them, not because their ways appeal to you, but you 
     love them because God loves them. This is what Jesus meant 
     when he said, ``Love your enemies.'' And I'm happy that he 
     didn't say, ``Like your enemies,'' because there are some 
     people that I find it pretty difficult to like. Liking is an 
     affectionate emotion, and. I can't like anybody who would 
     bomb my home. I can't like anybody who would exploit me. I 
     can't like anybody who would trample over me with injustices. 
     I can't like them. I can't like anybody who threatens to kill 
     me day in and day out. But Jesus reminds us that love is 
     greater than liking. Love is understanding, creative, 
     redemptive good will toward all men. And I think this is 
     where we are, as a people, in our struggle for racial 
     justice. We can't ever give up. We must work passionately and 
     unrelentingly for first-class citizenship. We must never let 
     up in our determination to remove every vestige of 
     segregation and discrimination from our nation, but we shall 
     not in the process relinquish our privilege to love.
       I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and I've 
     seen hate on the faces of too many sheriffs, too many white 
     citizens' councilors, and too many Klansmen of the South to 
     want to hate, myself; and every time I see it, I say to 
     myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must 
     be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: 
     ``We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our 
     capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical 
     force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will 
     still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your 
     unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because 
     noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is 
     cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will 
     still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, 
     and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your 
     hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the 
     midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave 
     us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send 
     your propaganda agents around the country, and make it 
     appear that we are not fit, culturally and otherwise, for 
     integration, and we'll still love you. But be assured that 
     we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day 
     we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for 
     ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience 
     that we will win you in the process, and our victory will 
     be a double victory.''
       If there is to be peace on earth and good will toward men, 
     we must finally believe in the ultimate morality of the 
     universe, and believe that all reality hinges on moral 
     foundations. Something must remind us of this as we once 
     again stand in the Christmas season and think of the Easter 
     season simultaneously, for the two somehow go together. 
     Christ came to show us the way. Men love darkness rather than 
     the light, and they crucified him, and there on Good Friday 
     on the cross it was still dark, but then Easter came, and 
     Easter is an eternal reminder of the fact that the truth-
     crushed earth will rise again. Easter justifies Carlyle in 
     saying, ``No lie can live forever.'' And so this is our 
     faith, as we continue to hope for peace on earth and good 
     will toward men: let us know that in the process we have 
     cosmic companionship.
       In 1963, on a sweltering August afternoon, we stood in 
     Washington, D.C., and talked to the nation about many things. 
     Toward the end of that afternoon, I tried to talk to the 
     nation about a dream that I had had, and I must confess to 
     you today that not long after talking about that dream I 
     started seeing it turn into a nightmare. I remember the first 
     time I saw that dream turn into a nightmare, just a few weeks 
     after I had talked about it. It was when four beautiful, 
     unoffending, innocent Negro girls were murdered in a church 
     in Birmingham, Alabama. I watched that dream turn into a 
     nightmare as I moved through the ghettos of the nation and 
     saw my black brothers and sisters perishing on a lonely 
     island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material 
     prosperity, and saw the nation doing nothing to grapple with 
     the Negroes' problem of poverty. I saw that dream turn into a 
     nightmare as I watched my black brothers and sisters in the 
     midst of anger and understandable outrage,

[[Page H524]]

     in the midst of their hurt, in the midst of their 
     disappointment, turn to misguided riots to try to solve that 
     problem. I saw that dream turn into a nightmare as I watched 
     the war in Vietnam escalating, and as I saw so-called 
     military advisors, sixteen thousand strong, turn into 
     fighting soldiers until today over five hundred thousand 
     American boys are fighting on Asian soil. Yes, I am 
     personally the victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hopes, 
     but in spite of that I close today by saying I still have a 
     dream, because, you know, you can't give up in life. If you 
     lose hope, somehow you lose that vitality that keeps life 
     moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps 
     you go on in spite of all. And so today I still have a dream.
       I have a dream that one day men will rise up and come to 
     see that they are made to live together as brothers. I still 
     have a dream this morning that one day every Negro in this 
     country, every colored person in the world, will be judged 
     on the basis of the content of his character rather than 
     the color of his skin, and every man will respect the 
     dignity and worth of human personality. I still have a 
     dream that one day the idle industries of Appalachia will 
     be revitalized, and the empty stomachs of Mississippi will 
     be filled, and brotherhood will be more than a few words 
     at the end of a prayer, but rather the first order of 
     business on every legislative agenda. I still have a dream 
     today that one day justice will roll down like water, and 
     righteousness like a mighty stream. I still have a dream 
     today that in all of our state houses and city halls men 
     will be elected to go there who will do justly and love 
     mercy and walk humbly with their God. I still have a dream 
     today that one day war will come to an end, that men will 
     beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into 
     pruning hooks, that nations will no longer rise up against 
     nations, neither will they study war any more. I still 
     have a dream today that one day the lamb and the lion will 
     lie down together and every man will sit under his own 
     vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid. I still have a 
     dream today that one day every valley shall be exalted and 
     every mountain and hill will be made low, the rough places 
     will be made smooth and the crooked places straight, and 
     the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh 
     shall see it together. I still have a dream that with this 
     faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair 
     and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. 
     With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when 
     there will be peace on earth and good will toward men. It 
     will be a glorious day, the morning stars will sing 
     together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.
                                  ____


      Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam--A Time To Break Silence

       I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because 
     my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this 
     meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and 
     work of the organization which has brought us together: 
     Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent 
     statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of 
     my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read 
     its opening lines: ``A time comes when silence is betrayal.'' 
     And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
       The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission 
     to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when 
     pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily 
     assume the task of opposing their government's policy, 
     especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move 
     without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist 
     thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. 
     Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they 
     often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always 
     on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must 
     move on.
       And some of us who have already begun to break the silence 
     of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a 
     vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all 
     the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but 
     we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this 
     is the first time in our nation's history that a significant 
     number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond 
     the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a 
     firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the 
     reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. 
     If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own 
     inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are 
     deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so 
     close around us.
       Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the 
     long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. 
     This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait 
     eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too 
     great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our 
     message be that the forces of American life militate against 
     their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? 
     Or will there be another message--of longing, of hope, of 
     solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their 
     cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we 
     might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial 
     moment of human history.
       As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, 
     eloquently stated:

     Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide,
     In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil 
           side;
     Some great cause, God's new Messiah offering each the bloom 
           or blight,
     And the choice goes by forever `twixt that darkness and that 
           light.
     Though the cause of evil prosper, yet 'tis truth alone is 
           strong
     Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon the throne be 
           wrong
     Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim 
           unknown
     Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

       And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able 
     to transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm 
     of peace.
       If we will make the right choice, we will be able to 
     transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful 
     symphony of brotherhood.
       If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to 
     speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, 
     when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness 
     like a mighty stream.
                                  ____


               Out of Iraq and Back to the American City

                          (By Dennis Kucinich)

       We are losing our nation to a philosophy of war and 
     destruction. It is time for policies of peace and 
     construction. It is time for the philosophy of peace, 
     nonviolence and economic justice. This was the philosophy of 
     Dr. King, Gandhi, Jesus, Fredrick Douglas, A. Philip 
     Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth, 
     Cesar Chavez, and Jesse Jackson.
       We are all united with the philosophy which birthed the New 
     Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, the dreams of 
     social and economic justice which could be called forth by 
     those who were ready to stand up, to speak out, to march, to 
     demand, to testify about the good news:
       The world is interconnected. The world is interdependent. 
     We are not just our brother and sisters keeper, on a deeper 
     spiritual level we are our brothers and sisters. This is the 
     meaning of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have 
     them do unto you. This is the meaning of Love Thy neighbor as 
     thy self. This is why policies of unilateralism, first 
     strike, and preemption are dead ends. This is why nuclear 
     proliferation is a threat to every person on the planet. This 
     is why the very idea that war should be an instrument of 
     policy needs to be challenged. War is not inevitable. Peace 
     is inevitable if we are prepared to work for it.
       Dr. King understood this. In his speech ``Beyond Vietnam: A 
     time to break silence'' in New York City nearly forty years 
     ago, he created a synthesis of peace and civil rights. 
     ``Somehow this madness must cease,'' Dr. King told those 
     assembled at Riverside Church about the annihilation of the 
     Vietnamese people and their nation. ``I speak as a child of 
     God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for 
     those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are 
     destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. . . . I speak as 
     a citizen of the world, for the world, as it stands aghast at 
     the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to 
     the leaders of our nation: The great initiative in this war 
     is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours too.''
       That is why tomorrow I will present Congress with a plan to 
     get out of Iraq. We must end the occupation, close the bases, 
     and use the money that is there now to bring the troops home 
     while we prepare Iraq for an international security force. I 
     led the effort in the House of Representatives challenging 
     the Bush Administration's march toward war in Iraq. I 
     organized 125 Democrats to vote against the war.
       There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But 
     there are plenty of weapons of mass destruction here in the 
     United States which need to be removed. Poverty is a weapon 
     of mass destruction, homelessness is a weapon of mass 
     destruction, joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, 
     poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction, theft of 
     pensions, a weapon of mass destruction, hopelessness is a 
     weapon of mass destruction.
       Let's deal with the WMD's in our cities. It is time to get 
     out of Iraq, which did not have weapons of mass destruction 
     and into our American cities, which are loaded with weapons 
     of mass destruction.
       This then is a call for a politics of unity where human 
     unity becomes an imperative. This is a call for a politics of 
     economic justice, where wealth creation is available to 
     everyone, where the government becomes an engine to create 
     wealth for all, where it functions to equitably redistribute 
     the wealth.
       We know the challenges. The war in Iraq is the product of 
     the same type of thinking which underlies racism. Us vs. 
     them. The minute there is a they or a them it creates 
     separation. Separation is the basis for discrimination. 
     Separation is the basis for subjugation. Separation is the 
     basis for insularity. Separation is the basis for conflict. 
     Separation is the basis for war. Separation is the basis for 
     the destruction of our environment. Separation is the basis 
     for the destruction of the planet.
       We are at a moment where our survival instinct causes us to 
     declare the imperative of human unity. A unity of states is a 
     superficial unity if it does not embrace policies which 
     promote human unity, human equality, human striving, the 
     practical aspirations of people.

[[Page H525]]

       There has been a massive redistribution of wealth in our 
     society. Government has been turned into an engine to 
     redistribute the wealth upwards. Our whole monetary system is 
     based on debt creation for the masses and wealth creation for 
     the few. War has become an engine of wealth for military 
     contractors. Health care has become an engine of wealth for 
     the pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies. The 
     tax system is used to accelerate wealth to the top. Our 
     banking and credit systems accelerate wealth to the top. Our 
     electric utilities, our gas companies, our oil companies 
     accelerate wealth to the top. Our energy systems accelerate 
     wealth to the top. Our transportation systems accelerate 
     wealth to the top. Our information systems accelerate wealth 
     to the top.
       The concentration of wealth in our society has jeopardized 
     our democracy. It has created a two class society. And in 
     doing so jeopardizes the very institutions of wealth 
     creation. Franklin Roosevelt recognized this in the creation 
     of the New Deal which saved not only economic opportunities 
     for the masses, but also saved capitalism itself.
       There is an unlimited amount of wealth that can be created 
     in our society. We need to teach our children wealth 
     creation. But we need to challenge the fundamental 
     assumptions that guide our society, assumptions such as ``a 
     certain amount of unemployment is necessary to the 
     functioning of the economy.'' or ``let the market decide 
     access to health care.'' We need to perfect our union. This 
     then is the perfect opportunity for us to perfect our union, 
     to perfect the purpose of government, to perfect our mutual 
     pledge to each other. It is time for a declaration of human 
     economic rights of citizens of an urban society, and tie that 
     declaration to legislation and use that legislation to create 
     wealth and harmony and peace.
       Langston Hughes wrote: ``Life for me ain't been no crystal 
     stair.'' We know that experience, we also know that we can 
     teach people to create wealth if we can help them find a way 
     to get access to wealth.
       I am a product of the city. My parents never owned a home. 
     I grew up in 21 different places by the time I was 17, 
     including a few cars. I've learned about opportunities. I've 
     learned that if you believe it you can conceive it. I've 
     learned about pulling oneself up by bootstraps. I've also 
     seen the cynicism which comes when you tell people to pull 
     themselves up by their bootstraps and then you steal their 
     shoes. I've seen people dreaming the dreams and stuck singing 
     Sixteen Tons.
       We are not going back to the days of Sixteen Tons.
       So let it be said here:
       We have a right to a job.
       We have a right to a living wage.
       We have a right to an education.
       We have a right to health care.
       We have a right to decent and affordable housing.
       We have a right to a secure pension.
       We have a right to air fit to breathe.
       We have a right to water fit to drink.
       We have a right to be free of the paralyzing fear of crime.
       We have a right to be free of a government tapping our 
     phones, opening our mail, checking out our library reading 
     lists, snooping into our medical records, and our credit 
     records.
       We have a right to fair, open, and verifiable elections 
     where every vote counts and every vote is counted.
       We have a right to peace.
       We have a right to prosperity.
       This means ending the war in Iraq.
       This means bringing the money home to our cities.
       This means a full employment economy.
       This means good paying jobs.
       This means a living wage.
       This means a federal infrastructure bill to put millions to 
     work rebuilding our schools, our bridges, our libraries, our 
     universities our hospitals, our city halls, our recreation 
     centers, our sidewalks, our street lights, our parks, our 
     water systems, our sewer systems, our neighborhoods.
       This means a more perfect union.
       This means every child goes to a prekindergarten and every 
     young person goes to a junior or a four year college.
       This means universal health care.
       This means a new housing initiative where everyone has 
     access to affordable housing.
       This means full protection of social security and no 
     privatization.
       This means protection of private pension funds.
       This means giving workers access to the power of their 
     pension funds to invest in job creation.
       This means cleaner energy, greener energy.
       This means programs for safer neighborhoods.
       This means initiatives which bring people out of prison and 
     into the mainstream of society.
       This means a Department of Peace and nonviolence.
       I don't just talk the talk. I walk the walk.
       The universal health care bill is called Conyers-Kucinich. 
     It calls for a universal single payer not-for-profit health 
     care system to lift everyone up. To give everyone access to 
     health care.
       I wrote the federal infrastructure bill.
       I wrote the universal pre-kindergarten bill.
       I wrote the bill for a Department of Peace and non-violence 
     to make Dr. King's dream of non-violence a reality. That bill 
     will deal with the realities of violence in our society and 
     take a path towards more peaceful relationships. It will help 
     families who suffer from domestic violence, spousal abuse, 
     child abuse; it will meet the challenge of violence in the 
     schools, racial violence, violence against gays, police 
     community conflicts, using the principles for which Dr. King 
     lived. And it will create a context where a peaceful America 
     can help to create a peaceful world. Imagine. Peace as an 
     organizing principle. Prosperity as an organizing principle.
       And when I am elected President of the United States, in my 
     first day in office I will be ready to push. I will send to 
     the Congress a bill for universal single payer not-for-profit 
     health care.
       I will send to the Congress legislation for creating 
     millions of jobs through rebuilding America's infrastructure, 
     I will send congress legislation to create a summer jobs 
     program.
       I will send Congress legislation to create affordable 
     housing.
       I will send congress a bill to establish a cabinet level 
     Department of Peace and Non Violence.
       I can do this because I have already written many of these 
     bills. They are ready and so am I. I will move to restore the 
     Constitution, restore habeas corpus, and repeal the Patriot 
     Act. If you are ready, I am ready for a new America. And I am 
     ready to unite this country in the cause of peace, justice 
     and prosperity.
       Our unity extends to all people everywhere. The Bible tells 
     us to make peace with our brother because we are all one. We 
     are told whatever we do for the least of our brothers and 
     sisters, we do for the Lord, because we are all one in 
     spirit. We are told that we have an obligation to feed the 
     hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked not simply 
     because we are our brother and sisters keeper, not just 
     because there but for the grace of God go I, but because 
     wherever there is a hungry person, there I am. Wherever there 
     is someone who is homeless, there I am.
       Wherever someone is walking the streets looking for a job. 
     That person is my brother and that person is me. Wherever a 
     child goes to bed hungry, I am there. We connect with each 
     other in our profound, human experience. We connect with each 
     other through the imperative to love one another. We bind to 
     each other in all of our hopes, in all of our dreams, and in 
     all of our sufferings. The awareness which bids us to pursue 
     a more perfect union make us aware of the perfectibility of 
     our social systems, our economic systems and our own lives. 
     We are meant for higher things. We are meant for better 
     things. We are meant for peace, for prosperity, for 
     enlightenment, for health, for love, for a more perfect union 
     with ourselves, with each other, with our nation and with the 
     world. Human unity is the great path that we all can walk 
     upon. The world is interconnected. The world is 
     interdependent.
       I know that we are on the threshold of greatness because 
     the people are great and we just need to call forth that 
     awareness, call forth that ability, give people the 
     resources, show people the money, show them their power, show 
     them their beauty, show them that we can all be more than we 
     are, better than we are. It's about reaching up and reaching 
     out. It's about Push. It's about the Rainbow Coalition. It's 
     about Human Unity. It's about a new America. It's about a new 
     world. Let us begin.

  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased now to yield to my old 
friend, the delegate from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega) 2 minutes.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Madam Speaker, I am honored to be here this morning 
and certainly want to thank my good friends, the gentleman from 
Michigan and the gentleman from Georgia, for allowing me to participate 
in this proposed legislation to honor the memory and legacy of one of 
the great spiritual giants, not only as a native son of our Nation, but 
certainly of the world, that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Dr. King was not a political leader, nor was he a military leader, 
nor was he a noted writer or author. Nor was he a philosopher. He was a 
Christian minister who understood thoroughly the real spiritual and the 
moral force of the principles taught by the Savior some 20 centuries 
ago, that of loving our neighbors as ourselves, showing tolerance and 
respect for our fellow human beings.
  Dr. King was well aware of the social, economic and political 
inequalities that existed in our Nation, that his own people, the 
African Americans for some 200 years, have been treated as second-class 
citizens despite the hundreds of thousands of their sons and daughters 
who fought and bled and died defending our Nation against its enemies.

                              {time}  1445

  Dr. King's statement and speeches are well noted throughout the 
world. One of the statements that I like best is, ``At the end, we will 
not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our 
friends.'' And, yes, we all

[[Page H526]]

remember one of his most memorable speeches in that August during the 
summer of 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial, where he spoke before some 
250,000 people and hundreds of millions more around the world, when he 
echoed the words, ``I have a dream, that my four children will one day 
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their 
skin, but by the content of their character.''
  Madam Speaker, this is what America is all about, and I thank Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr., for reminding us what our Nation should stand 
for, the real meaning of freedom under the provisions of our national 
Constitution.
  Mr. CHABOT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Madam Speaker, we have heard a number of very moving tributes to Dr. 
Martin Luther King and I think it is important that we continue to 
remember what he said. I think what Mr. Faleomavaega quoted sums it up 
better than anything else, and that is that a person should be judged 
by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. I 
think that is something we should always strive for in this Nation.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the Members that have participated in this 
activity. We will have 5 days to continue to introduce our comments 
into the Congressional Record, and I also remind those that would like 
to join in the cosponsorship of Congressman Lewis' resolution, they 
still have an opportunity to do so.
  Madam Speaker, I will introduce into the Record five articles dealing 
with Dr. King. One is from the Washington Post entitled, ``From Dr. 
King, a reminder on Iraq.'' Another from the same source, ``The quest 
to keep King's legacy alive.'' Another, ``Walking just like King did.'' 
Another, ``Democrats hail civil rights leader King.'' Finally, the last 
one, ``Martin Luther King papers go on display.''
  Madam Speaker, what I would conclude with is the pleasure that I have 
in seeing this holiday increasingly observed from year-to-year. Martin 
Luther King's birthday is not a shopping day. It is not a day off. It 
is not a day that you worry about getting some things done around the 
house. There are untold thousands of celebrations, some large, some 
small, some in churches, some signified by marches. There are so many 
different ways that he is being observed.
  I was so pleased yesterday to be at the church that Dr. Martin Luther 
King had the privilege of addressing on numerous occasions. Then 
earlier I was with some very young people who were just learning about 
Dr. King, and they were taking a day on instead of a day off. They are 
working with schools and other youngsters in parks and recreation, in 
the City Year agency led by Penny Bailey.
  So, Madam Speaker, I am pleased that the Congress under the 
leadership of the gentleman from Georgia would have this resolution 
brought to the floor today.

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2007]

                 The Quest To Keep King's Legacy Alive

                          (By Hamil R. Harris)

       On Monday, the country honors the Rev. Martin Luther King 
     Jr., who would have been 78 years old. The civil rights 
     leader, who was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39, 
     launched many of his efforts from the pulpit. To mark his 
     birthday, religious leaders were asked: Is King's legacy of 
     social activism still alive in the faith community today?
       The Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/Push 
     Coalition: ``The activist black churches are still the 
     conscience of our nation. . . . I was with Dr. King on his 
     last birthday. We must remember that a lot of churches didn't 
     support King then. He was expelled from the National Baptist 
     Convention. Our mission today is to green line a red-lined 
     America. It is good to talk about raising the minimum wage in 
     Congress, but for those who don't have jobs, the issue 
     doesn't touch them. We need to continue to work on an urban 
     agenda.''
       Rabbi Marla J. Feldman, director of the Commission on 
     Social Action of Reform Judaism: ``Dr. King's legacy is very 
     much still alive and his legacy continues to inspire the 
     faith community across the country. I know that . . . 
     reformed congregations around the country will do something 
     special for the King holiday to honor his legacy. . . . There 
     will be congregations all over the country involved in social 
     activist enterprises, including in the Washington, D.C., 
     area. All of the rabbis that I know will be preaching about 
     Dr. King and the issues that we are wrestling with today, 
     such as economic justice and the war in Iraq.''
       The Rev. Artie L. Polk, assistant pastor of Mount Gilead 
     Baptist Church in the District and founder of the Martin 
     Luther King memorial breakfast celebration in Prince George's 
     County: ``It is a real challenge to keep the King legacy 
     alive, especially in light of this new prosperity gospel 
     where preachers are talking about name it and claim it. Too 
     many people are focused today on themselves instead of 
     keeping alive King's legacy of service and commitment to the 
     least of these.''
       Mohammed Shameem, a broadcast engineer from Bowie who 
     volunteers at the Prince George's Muslim Association in 
     Lanham: ``More so than ever before, people of the faith 
     community should adhere to Dr. King's principles in terms of 
     equality and unity in the community because our civil rights 
     are being eroded today, and the civil rights of Muslims are 
     being trampled upon. Social activism calls for pointing out 
     injustice. Hardworking and innocent Muslims are being 
     profiled just because of their faith. A group of imams were 
     stopped in the airport because they were being profiled.''
       Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson, prelate of the 2nd 
     Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: 
     ``The movement is still regarded as effective for that time, 
     but that style has changed. The frightful part is that in the 
     old days, there was a theological mandate to do social 
     activism, now among Generation Next, there is an emphasis on 
     acquisition and materialism, much to the exclusion as to what 
     is good for the whole community. There is nothing wrong with 
     a prosperity message, but you have to guide people to 
     understand the whole gospel, which also includes helping 
     others; it can't be selfcentered, it has to be others-
     oriented.''
       Rabbi Douglas Heifetz of the Oseh Shalom Congregation in 
     Laurel: ``Yes! King's legacy is alive today. It needs to be 
     spread far and near. For example, the Jewish community has 
     been extremely active in working with a coalition of other 
     groups to call for an end to the genocide in Darfur because 
     this is massive human rights abuse on a wide scale. We are 
     called to follow King's legacy because the Hebrew Bible calls 
     for ongoing social transformation to affect the lives of 
     people, paying special attention to the lives of those who 
     are most in need.''
       Auxiliary Bishop Martin D. Holley of the Archdiocese of 
     Washington: ``King's dream is very much alive today. It is 
     very prophetic, especially his letter from the Birmingham 
     jail. Here was a man who believed so much in the dignity of 
     the human person that he was willing to go to jail for it He 
     led by example. He went beyond making statements. He paid a 
     heavy price. He gave his life for all people.''
       Cain Hope Felder, professor at the Howard University School 
     of Divinity and founder of the Biblical Institute for Social 
     Change: ``I am sick and tired of hearing Dr. King's 'I Have a 
     Dream' speech when the daily reality is that for an 
     increasing number of Americans, and the African American poor 
     in particular, living is a nightmare. Dr. King's legacy is 
     barely alive today. There needs to be a vigorous effort for 
     religious leaders to be far more proactive than they have 
     been in the past two decades of co-optation.''
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2007]

                   From Dr. King, A Reminder on Iraq

                          (By Colbert I. King)

       Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom the 
     nation will honor on Monday, took to the pulpit of Riverside 
     Church in New York City at a meeting organized by Clergy and 
     Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. The date was April 4, 1967, 
     one year before his assassination in Memphis.
       King said he was in New York because his conscience had 
     left him no choice. In his speech, ``Beyond Vietnam: A Time 
     to Break Silence,'' King declared: ``That time has come for 
     us in relation to Vietnam.''
       King acknowledged the reluctance of some people to speak 
     out on Vietnam--the same hesitation some Americans may have 
     today over voicing their concerns about Iraq. People, he 
     explained, ``do not easily assume the task of opposing their 
     government's policy, especially in time of war.''
       But King concluded that too much was at stake. He and the 
     other religious and lay leaders were moved by what the 
     conflict in Vietnam was doing to the United States. Vietnam, 
     King said, was consuming American troops and money like 
     ``some demonic, destructive suction tube'' even as that war 
     was laying waste to the Vietnamese people and to America's 
     standing in the world.
       And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in 2007.
       More than 3,000 Americans have been killed in Iraq, while 
     22,000 others have been wounded. Billions of dollars that 
     could have been invested here at home have been spent there, 
     a lot of it wasted, some of it stolen, plenty of it 
     unaccounted for. And Iraqis in Baghdad, who cowered for 
     decades under a brutal dictator, have been living in the 
     midst of violence almost continuously since Saddam Hussein 
     was deposed.
       ``We are creating enemies faster than we can kill them'' 
     read a bumper sticker in Washington this week.
       Now enter George W. Bush--the president who got America 
     into this debacle through a series of misjudgments that would 
     make Alfred E. Neuman look brilliant. This week

[[Page H527]]

     Bush announced plans to plop down thousands of additional 
     troops in the middle of a sectarian war and to shell out 
     billions of additional dollars to pacify a war-weary Iraqi 
     population that, truth be told, wants America gone.
       Why trust this administration?
       Contrary to what Bush and his allies said:
       There were no weapons of mass destruction poised to strike 
     America and her allies.
       A quick defeat of Hussein did not lead to chocolates and 
     flowers in the streets of Baghdad.
       An American invasion did not produce a unified, 
     nonsectarian and Western-oriented Iraq or spark a desire for 
     U.S.-style governance throughout the Arab world.
       De-Baathification and the imposition of a market economy at 
     gunpoint did not usher in a period of tranquility or the 
     flowering of capitalism.
       The Bush administration struck first because it had the 
     power to strike and the arrogance to think, foolishly, that 
     it could win and dominate the conquered on the cheap.
       King spoke in '67 about ``the Western arrogance of feeling 
     that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn 
     from them.'' Witness the Bush team in Iraq.
       Today they have a bloodbath on their hands to show for 
     their labors, and Iran is on the verge of getting an Iraqi 
     neighbor beyond its wildest dreams.
       Yet even now, neoconservatives inside and outside of 
     government are counseling Bush to remain in Iraq for years to 
     prevent the Shiite-dominated regime from collapsing. They 
     also are encouraging him to prepare for battle with Iran and 
     Syria if those countries start meddling in Iraq--as if they 
     aren't now. With what exactly and for how long we are 
     supposed to do battle with Tehran and Damascus, the 
     militaristic neocon noncombatants in Washington don't say. 
     But then again, they have a tolerance for risk and cost that 
     exceeds that of those who actually do the fighting and dying.
       Forty years ago at Riverside Church, people of conscience 
     declared that ``a time comes when silence is betrayal.'' They 
     went beyond using their voices and votes when they agreed to 
     break their silence. They responded, as King had urged, by 
     matching their words with actions. ``We are at the moment 
     when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to 
     survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must 
     decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we 
     must all protest,'' King preached that day.
       Yes, this is a different time and a different world. Global 
     terrorism is a sobering reality. And America is on the right 
     side in that war. To not fight back is tantamount to 
     indulging a death wish.
       But the first blow in Iraq, which was not a battleground 
     for terrorism, was struck by Bush. He now, stubbornly and in 
     the face of legitimate opposition, proposes to make matters 
     worse.
       Remember King and the words: ``A time comes when silence is 
     betrayal.''
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2007]

                Martin Luther King Papers Go on Display

                           (By Errin Haines)

       Atlanta.--The legacy of Coretta Scott King loomed large 
     Monday over the first observance of Martin Luther King Jr. 
     Day since her death, with tributes at the church where her 
     husband preached and visits to the tomb where both civil 
     rights activists are now buried.
       ``It is in her memory and her honor that we must carry this 
     program on,'' said her sister-in-law, Christine King Farris, 
     at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. ``This is as she 
     would have it.''
       Mayor Shirley Franklin urged the congregation not to pay 
     tribute to King's message of peace and justice on his 
     birthday and then contradict it the next.
       ``Millions can't find jobs, have no health insurance and 
     struggle to make ends meet, working minimum-wage jobs. What's 
     going on?'' Franklin said, repeating a refrain from soul 
     singer Marvin Gaye.
       As King condemned the war in Vietnam 40 years ago, 
     Ebenezer's senior pastor, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, 
     denounced the war in Iraq.
       ``The real danger is not that America may lose the war,'' 
     Warnock said. ``The real danger is that America may well lose 
     its soul.''
       Not far from the church, visitors also paid homage to the 
     Kings at their tomb.
       ``They're together at last,'' said Daphne Johnson, who was 
     baptized by King at Ebenezer.
       Coretta Scott King died last year on Jan. 31 at age 78. An 
     activist in her own right, she also fought to shape and 
     preserve her husband's legacy after his death, and founded 
     what would become the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for 
     Nonviolent Social Change.
       Crowds lined up early at the Atlanta History Center to see 
     the first exhibition of King's collected papers since they 
     were returned to his hometown. The papers brought back 
     difficult memories for some.
       ``I remember a lot that I don't care to say,'' said Bertis 
     Post, 70, of Atlanta, who marched with King in Alabama and 
     Atlanta. ``I always wanted to see the papers in person--just 
     to be here and be around what you believe.''
       The exhibit includes King's letter from the Birmingham 
     jail, an early draft of his famous ``I Have a Dream'' speech, 
     his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize and more than 600 
     other personal documents.
       In California, Stanford University released some of King's 
     earliest sermons and other writings Monday, a decade after 
     the documents were discovered in a moldy cardboard box in an 
     Atlanta basement.
       The texts include sermons written when King was a 19-year-
     old seminary student in 1948 until 1963.
       In a 1949 sermon, King asked God to ``help us work with 
     renewed vigor for a warless world, a better distribution of 
     wealth and a brotherhood that transcends race or color.''
       Elsewhere, thousands observed the holiday by volunteering. 
     Organizers expected about 50,000 people to participate in 
     about 600 projects, said Todd Bernstein of the group MLK Day 
     of Service.
       President Bush, in an unannounced stop at a high school 
     near the White House, said people should honor King by 
     finding ways to give back to their communities. Classes were 
     not in session but volunteers were sprucing up the school.
       ``I encourage people all around the country to seize any 
     opportunity they can to help somebody in need,'' Bush said. 
     ``And by helping somebody in need you're honoring the legacy 
     of Martin Luther King.''
       A historical marker was unveiled commemorating the site in 
     Rocky Mount, N.C., where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one 
     of the earliest versions of his ``I Have A Dream'' speech. 
     Hundreds of people attended a ceremony and march held near 
     the high school where King spoke in November 1962.
       Several hundred people gathered in West Columbia, S.C., for 
     a breakfast prayer service, where the Rev. Brenda Kneece said 
     King set the standard for sacrifice and vision.
       King's ``vision became even more powerful because he 
     understood the risks he was taking,'' said Kneece, executive 
     minister of the South Carolina Christian Action Council. 
     ``It's very important for our children to know that his 
     sacrifice didn't win the war. We still have to keep at it''
       At Michigan State University, officials presented a one-day 
     civil rights exhibit that displayed slave shackles, a 
     document from King's voting rights march in Alabama and a 
     fingerprint card for Rosa Parks made after her 1955 arrest 
     for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.
       Marchers commemorating King Day in Troy, Ohio, were heckled 
     by a group of seven neo-Nazi protesters shouting white power 
     slogans and carrying signs, police said. There were no 
     arrests.
       And in North Carolina, 400 workers walked off the job or 
     refused to show up at a huge Smithfield Foods Inc. hog 
     slaughtering plant in Tar Heel after managers refused to 
     grant the King holiday as a paid day off.
       The company said a union request last week for the day off 
     came too late for a change of work plans.
       King, who would have turned 78 this year, was assassinated 
     April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of a hotel in 
     Memphis, Tenn. His confessed killer, James Earl Ray, was 
     arrested two months later in London.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 16, 2007]

                       Walking Just Like King Did

               (By Michael E. Ruane and Hamil R. Harris)

       The opening song was No. 540 in the hymnal, but most people 
     at the Covenant Baptist Church tribute to the Rev. Martin 
     Luther King Jr. yesterday already knew the words well.

     Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Til earth and heaven ring. . . . 
           Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast'ning rod. . . 
           .

       Inside the venerable Washington church, which was the 
     destination for hundreds participating in the city's Martin 
     Luther King Peace Walk, the throng sang the verses to James 
     Weldon Johnson's civil rights anthem with gusto.

     Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet come to the 
           place for which our fathers sighed?

       It seemed a fitting climax to the 18-block walk honoring 
     King's birthday, which was led by DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty 
     and wound along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE to the 
     church on South Capitol Street.
       It was one of numerous tributes across the region to the 
     slain civil rights leader, who would have turned 78 
     yesterday. King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
       The peace walk began about 10 a.m. at V Street SE in 
     Anacostia after speeches by the mayor and other officials, 
     clergy members and civic leaders. Crowding the sidewalk for 
     blocks, the marchers enjoyed balmy January weather as they 
     strode south on the avenue, chanting slogans and carrying 
     banners.
       ``Today we're blessed. The weather is not a problem,'' said 
     Denise Rolark Barnes, one of the walk's organizers. Over the 
     years, King birthday commemorations have been affected by 
     harsh winter weather, she noted.
       While an official King Day parade in the District is 
     scheduled for April 7, Barnes said many people believed 
     King's birthday needed to be observed, too. ``Many of us who 
     work and live along the avenue just felt as though there was 
     something that we should do. . . . We said, `Rain, snow, 
     sleet or hail, we would be out here,' and fortunately it 
     doesn't look like we're going to get any of that.''
       Fenty (D) said the walk would be a simple statement ``We're 
     going to just go out and put one foot in front of the other, 
     and tell people that, although we made a lot of progress, 
     we've got a long way to go.''
       He said it could be especially instructive for the children 
     participating.
       ``It won't be hard to explain to the kids how Martin Luther 
     King was able to make so much progress just by walking when 
     they're

[[Page H528]]

     going to do it themselves,'' Fenty said. ``I think they'll 
     appreciate the hours and hours and months and months [spent 
     walking] in the South to get civil rights advancements if we 
     do a little bit of walking here ourselves.''
       Residents watched from front porches and windows as the 
     march proceeded and a recording of one of King's speeches 
     drifted from a passing car, along with the thump of pop music 
     from another.
       Past the avenue's multitude of churches the marchers went, 
     past the nail salons and convenience stores. One house on the 
     route was adorned with the images of King and fellow civil 
     rights champion Malcolm X arrayed on its front steps. There 
     were black marchers and white marchers, people in sneakers 
     and others wearing cuff links.
       One marcher, Keith Day, 45, who works at a drug addiction 
     prevention agency, said: ``I came down here to keep the 
     legacy of Dr. King alive. If it wasn't for him, none of this 
     would be happening. It took a man like him to stand up for 
     peace.''
       Elsewhere yesterday, more than 300 people gathered at the 
     La Fontaine Bleu banquet facility in Lanham for the 13th 
     Annual Martin Luther King memorial breakfast sponsored by the 
     Ebony Scholarship Society. There, Bishop Adam Jefferson 
     Richardson Jr. of the Second Episcopal District of the 
     African Methodist Episcopal Church challenged those gathered 
     to go beyond just remembering King.
       ``From memorial to movement, let the movement begin anew,'' 
     Richardson said. ``It is right for us to be told Dr. King's 
     words, to hear what the words mean in the context of 2007. At 
     a time when we are waging war like swatting flies, it would 
     be refreshing to hear King's words that violence is a poor 
     teacher.''
       Maryland Del. Carolyn J.B. Howard (D-Prince George's), who 
     attended the event, said that although such programs have 
     become common since King's death, ``we still need to remember 
     what he did.''
       ``It is easy to stay away, but we need to come out,'' she 
     said. ``There needs to be a new sense of activism today.''
                                  ____


               [From the Associated Press, Jan. 16, 2007]

                Democrats Hail Civil Rights Leader King

                           (By Jim Davenport)

       Columbia, S.C.--Democratic presidential hopeful Joseph 
     Biden said Monday he thinks the Confederate flag should be 
     kept off South Carolina's Statehouse grounds.
       The comments by the U.S. senator from Delaware on a day of 
     events celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy came 
     as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack 
     Obama, evoked the memory of the slain civil rights leader.
       ``As I recall, Dr. King wasn't hanging out in Manhattan, 
     Dr. King wasn't hanging out in Beverly Hills,'' Obama, D-
     Ill., told a King remembrance service in an economically 
     depressed south Chicago suburb.
       Introducing Obama, the Rev. Jesse Jackson told a crowd at 
     the annual King scholarship breakfast, ``it's a long, nonstop 
     line between the march in Selma in 1965 and the inauguration 
     in Washington in 2009.''
       Screaming admirers managed to get Obama's autograph after 
     he advocated removing troops from Iraq, rebuilding struggling 
     areas such as the suburb of Harvey where he was speaking and 
     increasing civic activism and calling on people, especially 
     fathers, to be better parents.
       In San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reminded more 
     than 1,000 people attending a union-sponsored breakfast 
     honoring King that the slain civil rights leader spoke out 
     against the Vietnam War because he saw domestic and national 
     security issues as inexorably intertwined.
       Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats would counter President 
     Bush's proposal to send more troops to Iraq with a plan 
     changing the U.S. mission there ``from combat to training, to 
     fighting terrorism, to protecting our forces.
       ``The nation is spending ``two billion a week in Iraq--
     think of what we could do a week, a month, a day with that 
     money,'' Pelosi said, adding that the nation also has paid 
     too great a cost in casualties, its international reputation 
     and military readiness at home.
       In Columbia, S.C., more than six years after the 
     Confederate flag was taken down from the Capitol dome, its 
     location in front of the Statehouse remains an issue.
       ``If I were a state legislator, I'd vote for it to move off 
     the grounds--out of the state,'' Biden said at an NAACP march 
     and rally at the Statehouse.
       Jim Hanks stood across from the South Carolina Statehouse 
     with about 35 Confederate flag supporters. ``We love this 
     flag. We love our heritage,'' said Hanks, of Lexington.
       Some carried signs saying, ``South Carolina does not want 
     Chris Dodd,'' referring to the Connecticut senator who, along 
     with Biden, attended the National Association for the 
     Advancement of Colored People rally at the Statehouse.
       On Sunday, Dodd told The Associated Press at a King 
     remembrance service in Greenville that the Confederate flag 
     belongs in a museum.
       ``I don't think it belongs on the Capitol grounds,'' Dodd 
     said.
       In 2000, as the NAACP began a South Carolina tourism 
     boycott, the flag was flying on the Capitol dome and in House 
     and Senate chambers. Legislators agreed to take the flag down 
     that year, but raised the banner outside the Statehouse 
     beside a Confederate soldiers monument.
       Biden expects legislators here will eventually move the 
     flag. Pointing to his heart, he said, ``as people become more 
     and more aware of what it means to African-Americans here, 
     this is only a matter of time.''
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2007]

                      Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

       On April 4, 1968, the day of the Rev. Martin Luther King 
     Jr.'s assassination, the doctor who examined his body 
     estimated that, after years of sit-ins, marches, long nights 
     and inspiring speeches, Dr. King, 39, had the heart of a 60-
     year-old. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, America honors not 
     only Dr. King's accomplishments, though they are profound; 
     his oration, though it is lyrical; and his dream, though it 
     lives on; but also the tireless devotion with which he 
     pursued them.
       For too many Americans, however, the holiday has become 
     little more than an excuse to skip work and sleep in.
       Enter the Corporation for National and Community Service, 
     the government agency that administers the AmeriCorps 
     program. It wants to make the King holiday a time of service 
     rather than sloth, and it is organizing community projects 
     and events across the country to do it The agency is 
     particularly eager to make the Washington area a model of 
     civic participation and service on Dr. King's birthday. Its 
     spokesmen boast that it has assembled an event schedule 
     including a kickoff at Howard University and 80 community 
     service projects around the District. Organizers from the 
     Corporation for National and Community Service expect 10,000 
     volunteers to contribute time and effort across the region 
     today.
       We hope even more show up. We can think of little more 
     fitting than celebrating the values of service and self-
     sacrifice on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Though ground has 
     been broken on a long-awaited memorial to Dr. King on the 
     Mall, words etched in stone, however grand, cannot honor his 
     legacy as emulating his example can. Visit http://
www.mlkday.gov. find a project in your area, and paint a 
     school or clean up a sidewalk today.

  Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to revise and 
extend my remarks.
  All of us here, representing Congress have the distinct honor and 
privilege of working in the one place where America's history meets the 
law of our land, the one place that displays the many historic 
monuments, memorials, and permanent images of our Nation.
  One of the most powerful images in Washington for me is the image of 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., conveying his dream during his 1963 
``March on Washington'' on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King 
dedicated his life to achieving equal rights for all Americans and had 
a clear vision on that day in 1963 for what America should look like 
today.
  Dr. King understood government has a fundamental responsibility to 
meet the needs of all Americans regardless of race or economic class. 
His vision was for true equal economic opportunity for all. In his ``I 
Have a Dream'' speech, Dr. King spoke of the ``fierce urgency of now.'' 
He said, ``This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to 
take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.'' Those words were true in 
1963 and continue to remain true today.
  My Democratic colleagues and I are working hard to ensure that 
Congress fulfills its responsibility to realizing Dr. King's dream. 
Within these first 100 hours of this Congress, we have already passed 
legislation to make the American people safer, make our Congress more 
honest and open, make life better for our seniors, and to give a living 
wage to all Americans.
  As our Nation celebrates Martin Luther King Day, we remember him as a 
beacon of change. Dr. King helped change America by leading the civil 
rights movement. He gave people the faith and courage to work 
peacefully for change to stop racial discrimination, and promote 
equality and opportunity across America. So on this day, and everyday, 
let us recommit to changing and working to bring about opportunity for 
all Americans.
  Madam Speaker, as we celebrate Dr. King's birthday, let us carry out 
his vision for social justice, equality, and peace. Let us continue to 
work together for the common cause, in the effort of humanity and 
brotherhood, so all people may enjoy a better way of life and a higher 
dignity.
  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor the 
extraordinary life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Few individuals have 
left such an indelible mark on society through their selfless and 
tireless actions to improve the lives of those around them. Dr. King 
was a powerful voice for justice and equality, and we must remember his 
legacy, not simply by reading aloud his works, but by heeding his call 
for action.
  After receiving his doctorate from Boston University, Dr. King worked 
to confront the civil rights abuses that targeted the Black residents 
of Montgomery, Alabama. After the Montgomery bus boycott earned him 
national attention, Dr. King used his platform to highlight other forms 
of racial segregation in the South. His actions, including nonviolent 
civil

[[Page H529]]

disobedience, laid the foundation for passage of both the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite his myriad 
accomplishments, Dr. King continued to work day and night until his 
death, often delivering rousing speeches even when physically and 
mentally exhausted.
  These later speeches included powerful denunciations of the Vietnam 
war, and calls for a more just and peaceful society. Dr. King 
recognized that resources that could have been used to fight racial and 
economic inequalities at home were being squandered on an unnecessary 
war half a world away. Dr. King demanded that people sacrifice their 
energy to fight for causes larger than themselves. I am glad to see 
that the Corporation for National and Community Service has asked 
Americans to honor that call by volunteering their time on Martin 
Luther King, Jr., Day. We must all actively work to achieve peace, both 
in our communities and abroad, and I am proud to stand before this body 
today to celebrate the life of Dr. King.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, today we are here 
to recognize Dr. King's legacy and the millions of men and women who 
have fought for freedom and justice for all Americans.
  It is rare that one person can change the fate of our Nation; however 
Dr. King was able to do just that. Dr. King relied on his relationship 
with God and his faith in justice to articulate his vision for America 
in a way that touched the hearts and minds of the American public.
  Dr. King called on all of us to no longer stand alone in silence, but 
to stand up together as a voice against injustice. He inspired us to 
fight for change through nonviolent means, and paved the road for us to 
continue that fight even after his death.
  Dr. King once said ``All progress is precarious, and the solution of 
one problem brings us face to face with another problem.'' This 
statement was not meant to be a deterrent, but rather to remind us that 
we need to remain diligent, and prepare for the long road ahead. If we 
become apathetic we will regress. We have not, and must not forget the 
fight is not over.
  This is the first year that we'll recognize Martin Luther King Day 
since the death of Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Mrs. King and I were 
friends and confidants for many years. She was an incredible woman--
graceful and dignified--who showed strength in the face of indignation 
and tragedy.
  Following Dr. King's assassination, she continued his legacy 
promoting social and economic justice for all. Mrs. King was determined 
to make his dream a reality. And we would not be celebrating the legacy 
of Dr. King today without her contributions.
  There are many young people who may not have experienced Dr. King's 
battle towards equality. That is why it is so important to familiarize 
them with our history and struggles. It is imperative we recognize the 
history of our nation, because we cannot look towards the future 
without applying the lessons we have learned from the past.
  Today's Martin Luther King Day is as much about the past as it is 
about the future. Dr. King's dream is truly timeless, and I hope that 
all the young people will find inspiration in his faith and vision.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of 
H. Res. 61, and thank my friend from Georgia, John Lewis, for authoring 
this important resolution.
  Madam Speaker, yesterday the Nation observed for the 21st time the 
Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. Each year this day is set aside for 
Americans to celebrate the life and legacy of a man who brought hope 
and healing to America. The Martin Luther King holiday reminds us that 
nothing is impossible when we are guided by the better angels of our 
nature.
  Dr. King's inspiring words filled a great void in our Nation, and 
answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by 
its noblest principles. Yet, Dr. King knew that it wasn't enough just 
to talk the talk; he knew he had to walk the walk for his words to be 
credible. And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who 
put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day.
  We honor the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and 
beatings, and even bombings. We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 
times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the 
ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting 
and organizing anyway.
  Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we ``will walk 
in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive 
selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is 
`what are you doing for others?' ''
  And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his 
last sermons, on February 4, 1968, in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist 
Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of 
a full life. ``I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther 
King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others,'' he said. ``I want 
you to say on that day, that I did try in my life . . . to love and 
serve humanity.

  Madam Speaker, during these difficult days when the United States is 
bogged down in a misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq, which has 
claimed the lives of too many of our brave young service men and women, 
we should also remember that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was, 
above all, a person who was always willing to speak truth to power. 
There is perhaps no better example of Dr. King's moral integrity and 
consistency than his criticism of the Vietnam war being waged by the 
Johnson administration, an administration that was otherwise a friend 
and champion of civil and human rights.
  Speaking at the historic Riverside Church in New York City on April 
4, 1967, Dr. King stated:

       I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as 
     anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are 
     submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing 
     process that goes on in any war where armies face each other 
     and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of 
     death, for they must know after a short period there that 
     none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really 
     involved. Before long they must know that their government 
     has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more 
     sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the 
     wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.
       Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak 
     as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of 
     Vietnam. . . . I speak as a citizen of the world, for the 
     world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak 
     as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: 
     The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to 
     stop it must be ours.

  Madam Speaker, these words were spoken by Dr. King 1 year to the day 
before his death. Thus it is that nearly 40 years after his death, Dr. 
King continues to teach us all.
  Madam Speaker, the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
will never overshadow his life. He was both a dreamer and a man of 
action. He leaves a legacy of hope, tempered with peace. It is a legacy 
not quite yet fulfilled.
  Madam Speaker, Dr. King's dream of equality under the law will never 
die so long as there are those like us in the Congress, and millions of 
people in this country and around the world, who are willing to 
continue the fight to make it real for all persons.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Madam Speaker, Dr. King brought the civil rights 
movement to every living room in this country. He marched for freedom 
in the face of unspeakable racial prejudice, yet preached a message of 
nonviolence, civility, and tolerance. It took Dr. King's forceful 
movement and powerful words to bring about real and lasting change to 
this country.
  This will be the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day since the passing 
of Dr. King's wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, a legendary civil rights 
advocate whose memory we honored at a community-wide march last year in 
Miami. During a time of national grief and unrest following Dr. King's 
assassination, she became a symbol of her husband's struggle for peace 
and unity. On this day, we also honor this wonderful matriarchal 
figure, a role model who helped lead the struggle for equality.
  Minority communities face obstacles every day--poverty, unemployment, 
lack of healthcare, and access to housing. It is a tragic waste that 1 
in 5 children live in poverty, including more than one-third of African 
American children.
  Dr. King paved the way for so many people, including me, to assume 
roles of influence in this country. And for all this work, he created a 
more just society and made this country an even better place to live. 
On this day of remembrance, let us work even harder toward fulfilling 
Dr. King's legacy of public service.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, the fabric of our lives and the lives of 
all Americans has been shaped indelibly by the work of Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. Dr. King had just 39 years to teach our country the 
way to achieve racial and economic justice through peace and 
nonviolence. Although his life was short, his legacy--the rich vision 
of social justice he inspired--is alive and well 40 years after his 
death. It is with great pride that I take part in this celebration 
today, to pay homage to his memory.
  Dr. King was a leader who focused his efforts on improving the lives 
of the disadvantaged in our society. He knew that we must be forever 
attentive to the least privileged, for they are the measure--the only 
measure that matters--of the depth of our compassion and the strength 
of our laws.
  We still have much to learn from Dr. King, as the dreams he 
envisioned for our grandchildren still resonate in today's America: 
equal opportunity, freedom from oppression, justice for all. The 
eloquent cadences of his ``I

[[Page H530]]

Have A Dream'' speech left a lasting impression on America, and we 
cannot afford to forget his words. For Dr. King's dream, his concrete 
vision for the future, has yet to be realized. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues in this Congress to further the realization 
of his goals and his strong vision.
  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker I rise in strong support of House 
Resolution 61, a resolution which honors the great Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr., for his outstanding contributions to our country in the past 
and the continuing impact of his life and legacy.
  Born on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr., was destined to 
follow in his grandfather's and father's footsteps as a Baptist 
minister, but no one could have known he would play such an important 
role in this history of our Nation. After graduating from high school 
at the age of 15, Martin Luther King, Jr., attended Morehouse College 
in Atlanta, GA., just as his grandfather and father had done before. He 
became a pastor in Ebenezer Baptist Church, and quickly rose to become 
the leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, 
inspiring first the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, and subsequently a 
nationwide battle to bring an end to racial discrimination in our 
Nation's laws and public accommodations, and to ensure full voting 
rights for African Americans. Though bus boycotts had been attempted 
before, none lasted as long, drew as much attention or were as 
successful. The Montgomery Bus boycott lasted for almost an entire year 
and had a profound effect on the businesses in Montgomery.
  In recognition of his great leadership, Reverend King was the 
youngest person ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35. He 
donated all of the prize money to the Civil Rights Movement.
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a spiritual giant who possessed a 
keen intellect and remarkable insights on the human condition. In 
Massachusetts, we feel a sense of privilege knowing that this 
extraordinary historic figure lived and learned among us during his 
lifetime. In 1955, he received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic 
Theology from Boston University. He also studied at Harvard University. 
But most important, it was in Boston that he met Coretta Scott, who 
became his wife, the mother of his four children, and his indispensable 
partner in a destiny of struggle, transformation and remarkable 
achievement.
  Many of the words of Dr. King speak greatly to the adversities that 
we still face today. As we work to change the direction of our country, 
those of us in government must repeatedly seek out those with whom we 
may sometimes disagree to accomplish those great things that are most 
worth doing. ``Like an unchecked cancer,'' said Dr. King, ``hate 
corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a 
man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe 
the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the 
true with the false and the false with the true.''
  As Dr. King so eloquently put it, ``In the end, we will remember not 
the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.''
  I urge adoption of the resolution.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues today in honoring the 
legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.--a man who answered humanity's 
highest calling and profoundly transformed the world in which we live.
  Yesterday, like many of our colleagues here, I had the privilege of 
joining with my constituents in rejoicing, remembering and giving 
thanks to God for the wisdom that Dr. King imparted and the enduring 
spirit he shared with all mankind.
  And at an event at St. Mary's College in southern Maryland, I 
encountered a man who told me that the third Monday of every January 
isn't just a national holiday--it's a national holy day--and he was 
exactly right.
  The commemoration of Dr. King's birthday and the ideals for which he 
stood represent a sacred trust--an opportunity to take note of the 
heights we have reached as a Nation and celebrate the hard-earned 
triumphs of African Americans, while also demonstrating the courage to 
accept that we are sill far from perfect and much good work remains 
undone.
  Coretta Scott King, who provided a shining example of strength and 
determination in her own right, once said, ``Struggle is a never ending 
process and freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in 
every generation.''
  I would take that statement a step further and say that it is up to 
us to win it and earn it in every day, hour, minute and second of our 
lives.
  If we take nothing else from the life and work of Dr. King, it should 
be that each of us shares the responsibility of preserving the legacies 
of peace, equality and understanding that were left in our hands.
  And if we take nothing else from yesterday's commemoration, it should 
be that our work is never done, and our mission is never completed.
  In his letter from a Birmingham City Jail in April of 1963, Dr. King 
reminds us all that, ``Human progress never rolls on the wheels of 
inevitability--it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to 
be co-workers with God.''
  One of those co-workers is a distinguished Member of this body, an 
inspiration to all of those who continue to fight for social justice 
and equality, and the sponsor of this legislation. I, of course, am 
referring to our colleague and my very good friend, Congressman Lewis 
of Georgia, who I regard as nothing less than a national hero for 
demonstrating the courage to confront centuries of prejudice and racism 
and helping to move us toward a day where men and women are judged by 
the content of their character not the color of their skin.
  As we continue to be co-workers with both the American people and the 
divine spirit that guides them, we should never forget Dr. King's 
immortal words from that Birmingham jail or the lessons he taught.
  We are indebted to men and women like Dr. King and Coretta Scott King 
and John Lewis. Through their courage and their fortitude, we are a 
better Nation today.
  While this important day is indeed a day of remembrance, it also is a 
day of reaffirmation--reaffirmation of the principles that guided Dr. 
King's life.
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Speaker, I strongly support H. Res. 61, 
which observes and celebrates the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., 
and encourages the people of the United States to celebrate his life 
and legacy.
  We should all thank Dr. King not only for his role in helping to end 
discrimination, but also for his role in helping to remove a stain on 
American history that had lingered far too long.
  Dr. King's commitment to nonviolent change never wavered. Between the 
time he assumed leadership of the Montgomery, AL, bus boycott in 1955, 
until his tragic assassination years later, Dr. King faced hundreds of 
death threats and a firebombing of his home with his wife and children 
inside. Still, he remained an unblinking beacon to all those who sought 
peaceful change. He grew from a person taught in segregated schools to 
a world leader who was awarded the Nobel Prize.
  Dr. King delivered his now famous speech entitled ``I Have a Dream'' 
following a march of 250,000 people in Washington, DC. Twenty years 
ago, the City of San Antonio's Martin Luther King, Jr., Commission 
began honoring Dr. King with a march that furthers his legacy and 
serves to educate local citizens regarding his deep, rich legacy. That 
march has become one of the largest in the country and this march 
marked its own 20th anniversary yesterday, the day Dr. King would have 
turned 78.
  Despite near freezing temperatures, the San Antonio march attracted 
thousands of people of diverse backgrounds, which in the past has 
featured Rosa Parks, the woman who sparked the modern civil rights 
movement by refusing to sit at the back of the bus. Those in the march 
knew that no matter what the weather, it paled in comparison to the 
slings and arrows--the death threats and beatings, and the repeated 
arrests--Dr. King faced during his too-short but immensely inspiring 
life.
  Such peaceful marches are possible today in large part because of Dr. 
King's abiding courage. The San Antonio march serves as a powerful 
reminder that if one person finds the strength to keep walking forward, 
determined to reach what Dr. King called the ``Promised Land,'' he or 
she can leave in their wake a lasting legacy of marches--stretching 
from generation to generation--that celebrate and encourage changes in 
both laws and attitudes that will continue to make America a better 
place.
  Mr. REYES. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 61, a 
resolution observing and celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther 
King, Jr., and encouraging the people of the United States to celebrate 
the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his life and legacy.
  When Martin Luther King, Jr., articulated his dream on the steps of 
the Lincoln Memorial before 200,000 people in the tumultuous August of 
1963, I was living and working on my father's farm in Canutillo, Texas, 
not yet a high school graduate. Though instilled with the values of 
hard work and education by my parents and grandparents, I first 
encountered Dr. King's hopeful and empowering words with an unfortunate 
understanding, one borne from the prejudice of the times. As a Mexican-
American, I knew, I would be limited in my pursuit of the celebrated 
American dream. Dr. King's dream contradicted that understanding.
  Although Dr. King's ``I Have a Dream'' speech addressed the plight of 
the African American, his commitment to civil rights, equality, and 
empowerment through education lifted all people. With Dr. King's 
leadership, through the sheer force of his will and the strength of his 
arguments, men and women of my generation, Black, White, and Brown, 
were able to rise and prosper in society on the basis of our hard work 
and God-given talents.
  Dr. King's work and influence on society opened doors for me that, as 
a teenager, I

[[Page H531]]

thought would always be closed. I had a long and successful career in 
the U.S. Border Patrol, rising from agent to be the agency's first 
Hispanic sector chief. In 1996, I ran for Congress and became the first 
Latino to represent El Paso, a city that is 80 percent Hispanic. And 
just this past year, I was selected as chairman of this body's 
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, completing a journey from 
the farm in Canutillo that I would never have been able to imagine 
during that August of 1963.
  I thank my colleagues and urge adoption of the resolution.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, this Monday the Nation 
observed for the 21st time the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday On 
Monday, we celebrated the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and 
healing to America. The Martin Luther King holiday reminds us that 
nothing is impossible when we are guided by the better angels of our 
nature.
  Dr. King's inspiring words filled a great void in our Nation, and 
answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by 
its noblest principles. Yet, Dr. King knew that it wasn't enough just 
to talk the talk, that he had to walk the walk for his words to be 
credible. And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who 
put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day.
  We honor the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and 
beatings, and even bombings. We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 
times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the 
ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting 
and organizing anyway.
  Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we ``will walk 
in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive 
selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question,'' he said, is 
``what are you doing for others?''
  And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his 
last sermons, on February 4, 1968, in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist 
Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of 
a full life. ``I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther 
King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others,'' he said. ``I want 
you to say on that day, that I did try in my life . . . to love and 
serve humanity.''
  Madam Speaker, during these difficult days when the United States is 
bogged down in a misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq, which has 
claimed the lives of too many of our brave young service men and women, 
we should also remember that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was, 
above all, a person who was always willing to speak truth to power. 
There is perhaps no better example of Dr. King's moral integrity and 
consistency than his criticism of the Vietnam War being waged by the 
Johnson Administration, an administration that was otherwise a friend 
and champion of civil and human rights.
  Speaking at the historic Riverside Church in New York City on April 
4, 1967, Dr. King stated:

       I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as 
     anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are 
     submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing 
     process that goes on in any war where armies face each other 
     and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of 
     death, for they must know after a short period there that 
     none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really 
     involved. Before long they must know that their government 
     has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more 
     sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the 
     wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.
       Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak 
     as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of 
     Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, 
     whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being 
     subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the 
     double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and 
     corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for 
     the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I 
     speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own 
     nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the 
     initiative to stop it must be ours.

  Madam Speaker, these words were spoken by Dr. King 1 year to the day 
before his death. Thus it is that nearly 40 years after his death, Dr. 
King continues to teach us all.


            The Life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 
1929.
  Martin's youth was spent in our country's Deep South, then run by Jim 
Crow and the Klu Klux Klan. For a young African-American, it was an 
environment even more dangerous than the one they face today.
  A young Martin managed to find a dream, one that he pieced together 
from his readings--in the Bible, and literature, and just about any 
other book he could get his hands on. And not only did those books help 
him educate himself, but they also allowed him to work through the 
destructive and traumatic experiences of blatant discrimination, and 
the discriminatory abuse inflicted on himself, his family, and his 
people.

  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that we celebrate here today 
could have turned out to be just another African American who would 
have had to learn to be happy with what he had, and what he was 
allowed. But he learned to use his imagination and his dreams to see 
right through those ``White Only'' signs--to see the reality that all 
men, and women, regardless of their place of origin, their gender, or 
their creed, are created equal.
  Through his studies, Dr. King learned that training his mind and 
broadening his intellect effectively shielded him from the demoralizing 
effects of segregation and discrimination.
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a dreamer. His dreams were a tool 
through which he was able to lift his mind beyond the reality of his 
segregated society, and into a realm where it was possible that white 
and black, red and brown, and all others live and work alongside each 
other and prosper.
  But Martin Luther King, Jr., was not just an idle daydreamer. He 
shared his visions through speeches that motivated others to join in 
his nonviolent effort to lift themselves from poverty and isolation by 
creating a new America where equal justice and institutions were facts 
of life.
  In the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote, 
``We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are Created 
Equal.'' At that time and for centuries to come, African Americans were 
historically, culturally, and legally excluded from inclusion in that 
declaration.
  Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's ``I Have a Dream'' Speech, 
delivered on August 28, 1963, was a clarion call to each citizen of 
this great Nation that we still hear today. His request was simply and 
eloquently conveyed--he asked America to allow of its citizens to live 
out the words written in its Declaration of Independence and to have a 
place in this Nation's Bill of Rights.
  The sixties were a time of great crisis and conflict. The dreams of 
the people of this country were filled with troubling images that arose 
like lava from the nightmares of violence and the dissension that they 
had to face, both domestically and internationally.
  It was the decade of the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam war, and 
the assassinations of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Malcolm X, 
Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy, and the man we honor here today.
  Dr. Martin Luther King's dream helped us turn the corner on civil 
rights. It started with a peaceful march for suffrage that started in 
Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965--a march that ended with violence at 
the hands of law enforcement officers as the marchers crossed the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge. But the dream did not die there.
  Dr. King led the Montgomery bus boycott, often with Rosa Parks. The 
boycott lasted for 381 days, as an end result, the United States 
Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation on all public transportation. 
Dr. King used several nonviolent tactics to protest against Jim Crow 
laws in the South. Furthermore, he organized and led demonstrations for 
desegregation, labor and voting rights.
  On April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, he spoke out 
against the Vietnam War, when he saw the devastation that his nation 
was causing abroad and the effect that it had on the American men and 
women sent overseas. I quote:

       . . . it became clear to me that the war was doing far more 
     than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was 
     sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to 
     fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative 
     to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young 
     men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 
     eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast 
     Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East 
     Harlem.

  When the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was stolen from us, he 
was a very young 39 years old. People remember that Dr. King died in 
Memphis, but few can remember why he was there.
  On that fateful day in 1968 Dr. King came to Memphis to support a 
strike by the city's sanitation workers. The garbage men there had 
recently formed a chapter of the American Federation of State, County 
and Municipal Employees to demand better wages and working conditions. 
But the city refused to recognize their union, and when the 1,300 
employees walked off their jobs the police broke up the rally with mace 
and billy clubs. It was then that union leaders invited Dr. King to 
Memphis. Despite the danger he might face entering such a volatile 
situation, it was an invitation he could not refuse. Not because he 
longed for danger, but because the labor movement was intertwined with 
the civil rights movement for which he had given up so many years of 
his life.

[[Page H532]]

  The death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will never 
overshadow his life. That is his legacy as a dreamer and a man of 
action. It is a legacy of hope, tempered with peace. It is a legacy not 
quite yet fulfilled.
  I hope that Dr. King's vision of equality under the law is never lost 
to us, who in the present, toil in times of unevenness in our equality. 
For without that vision--without that dream--we can never continue to 
improve on the human condition.
  For those who have already forgotten, or whose vision is already 
clouded with the fog of complacency, I would like to recite the words 
of the good Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., himself:

       I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the 
     sons of former slaves and the sons of former shareholders 
     will be able to sit down together at the table of 
     brotherhood.
       I have a dream that one day even the State of Mississippi, 
     a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering 
     with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an 
     oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four 
     little children will one day live in a nation where they will 
     not be judged by the color of their skin, but for the content 
     of their character. I have a dream today.
       I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its 
     vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping 
     with words of interposition and nullification--one day right 
     there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be 
     able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as 
     sisters and brothers.
       I have a dream today.
       I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, 
     every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough place 
     will be made plain and the crooked places will be made 
     straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and 
     all flesh shall see it together.

  Dr. King's dream did not stop at racial equality, his ultimate dream 
was one of human equality. There is no doubt that Dr. King supported 
freedom and justice for every individual in America. We continue that 
fight today and forever, in the great spirit that inspired the Rev. Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Madam Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for being here and 
remembering Dr. King's dream and for all that has been done to keep his 
dream alive.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Solis). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 61.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those voting have responded in the affirmative.
  Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

                          ____________________