[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 21, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H4326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN HONOR OF B'NAI ISRAEL AND THE TOWN OF SOUTHBURY, CONNECTICUT, FOR 
              THEIR OUTSTANDING COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS

  (Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, in 1937 the residents of 
Southbury, a small town in Connecticut, came together to prevent the 
German American Bund, a group of pro-Nazi German Americans, from 
establishing a paramilitary training facility in their town.
  Led by Rev. Felix Manley of the Southbury Federated Church and Rev. 
M.E.N. Lindsay of the South Britain Congressional Church, the town of 
Southbury passed its first zoning law to ban the use of land in 
Southbury for paramilitary training.
  As a great Jewish writer once said, ``The opposite of love is not 
hate, it is indifference.'' Mr. Speaker, it gives me a great sense of 
pride to represent the town of Southbury, where this May 31, 2008, the 
congregation of B'nai Israel will host the Human Rights Festival, 
honoring the courageous acts of those citizens some 71 years ago and 
renewing the town's commitment to justice. The proud legacy of the 
religious community in Southbury and the work of B'nai Israel to 
recognize that legacy serve as a reminder to all of us that change and 
progress must come from the bottom up.

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