[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 172 (Wednesday, November 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H13216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM RECIPIENTS

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the President issued eight 
Presidential Medals of Freedom to eight great Americans. It was a 
beautiful service, and the President did our country proud at that 
program.
  One of the recipients was the Reverend Benjamin Hooks, who's a 
resident of Memphis, one of my constituents, a great man who rose from 
a segregated South to the heights of the Federal Communications 
Commission and the NAACP in this country.
  Also honored were Harper Lee, the author of ``To Kill a 
Mockingbird,'' and Mr. Francis Collins, who did the Human Genome 
Project. You know, we're 99.9 percent the same, and that's what the 
Human Genome Project told us.
  President Bush asked Rev. Hooks what can we do to move race relations 
forward. I'll tell President Bush some of the things we can do, Mr. 
Speaker. We can care about children and pass a children's health care 
program, many of those children being African Americans and minorities. 
And we can pass programs that allow for scholarships for young people 
at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
  There's much we can do, Mr. President. You did good on Monday. Let's 
keep doing good.

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