[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 22 (Thursday, February 9, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1130
                       SENDING UP A SIGNAL FLARE

  (Mr. ROSKAM asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to send up a signal flare about 
a grievous concern that has foisted itself upon this Nation from the 
Obama administration, and that is this: the Obama administration is now 
going up to communities of faith and poking their chest and saying, 
either you will change the dictates of your conscience, or we will fine 
you. We will use the long arm of the Federal Government to manipulate 
you into our view of the world, not the view of the world that you 
think is bestowed upon you by God.
  Mr. Speaker, that is a grievous error. That is a provocation that 
needs to be answered, and, in a nutshell, we have a foreshadowing of 
what happens when that isn't answered. It's a foreshadowing that comes 
in the form of a quote from Pastor Martin Niemoller, an anti-Nazi 
activist, who said:

       First they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out 
     because I was not a Jew.
       Then they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak out 
     because I was not a Communist.
       Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak 
     out because I was not a trade unionist.
       And then they came for me, and there was no one left to 
     speak out for me.

  Mr. Speaker, it's time for this country to rise and to speak out and 
to push back on this outrageous provocation from the Obama 
administration.

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