[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 122 (Thursday, July 31, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H7132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THIS IS A SAD DAY IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I come today to this floor on what I 
believe is a very sad day for this House. There is no place left safe 
for children. Yesterday and today, we have condoned and endorsed 
activities which put children at risk. Children are not safe in 
mosques, in churches, in U.N.-protected schools, in hospitals, in 
ambulances, or even playing on the beach.
  167 years ago, my great-grandmother came from Ireland, 12 years old, 
by herself, on a boat, landed in the docks of New York. If this 
Congress had been sitting then, she would have been sent back to 
Roscommon County, to her people, to her family, where a third of the 
people were dying of famine, a third emigrated, and a third stayed. 
That is what we would have sent her back to, without a hearing, without 
anything. She had no rights. And, luckily, it wasn't that way.
  There is no resonance for Jesus' command: Suffer the little children 
to come unto me.
  Our country will rue this day.

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