[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 150 (Monday, September 18, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMARKS BY STEPHEN W. CAMP

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 18, 2017

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to include in 
the Record remarks made by the Reverend Stephen W. Camp at the Be the 
Light Interfaith Candle Lighting Vigil at Congregation Beth Israel in 
West Hartford, CT on August 23, 2017.

      The Reverend Stephen W. Camp, M.Div., Senior Pastor, Faith 
                 Congregational Church of Hartford, CT

       ``The prophetic voice Maya Angelou once said, `I've learned 
     that people will forget what you have said; people will 
     forget what you did, but people will never forget how you 
     made them feel.'
       America was sent a message recently, a message that America 
     rarely feels as deeply. As America watched the unfolding 
     story centered in the little sleepy college town in Virginia. 
     it was forced to feel, the kind of feeling that one never 
     forgets. It was reminiscent of Selma and ``Bloody Sunday.'' 
     It brought to mind Birmingham with the dog and fire hoses; it 
     reminded America of the open hostility and defiance of a 
     George Wallace. As America watched in recent days, some were 
     stirred by the memory of ancestors and family members being 
     marched into ovens, reminded of some of the worst inhumanity 
     that our world has produced. The genie, we thought, was back 
     in the tightly dosed bottle, the monster was locked away in 
     its cage, but here it was again raring it ugly head, saying, 
     ``I'm not dead yet! America felt pain once again.
       For some I'm sure, it simply felt like a scab had been 
     ripped off an old wound. Still others may have thought these 
     days were behind us, a past just-as-soon forgotten. But lest 
     we forget, lest we ignore for even a moment--this pain rooted 
     in forced Indian reservations and the buying and selling of 
     human beings, lest we forget, it will surely surface and seek 
     to cause havoc and pain until it is faced and fixed. The 
     events of late teach all of us, as if any had doubt; that 
     America is not healed yet. The work is not done. It seems 
     just yesterday that Jewish cemeteries were vandalized, or 
     just the other day that terrorist bombed a mosque or burned 
     churches in the south. Were they just isolated incidents? No, 
     but somehow they connected us and called us to feel, to be 
     awake, to be alert--to mobilize for good. And here we are 
     again.
       Charlottesville conjured up old feelings. Many who marched 
     in Charlottesville that day, as we watched, most of us glued 
     to the television, as they boldly marched, unhooded this 
     time, khaki wearing white men, with their contorted angry 
     faces, and carrying tiki torches, trying it seemed to 
     desperately symbolize their power, their might, but only 
     succeeding to pull back the scab and memory of historic 
     oppression, failing to offer even a flickering of light, and 
     of peace. We watched with sadness while they shouted hateful 
     words and embodied a most detestable part of the American 
     mosaic, frankly, only making many of us remember and feel the 
     acute sickness that is still a part of America. For those who 
     marched with counter intent, with ``never again'' etched upon 
     their hearts, with ``non-violent direct action'' embedded in 
     their spirit, many of them young people who have gotten the 
     lessons that many of us who are older have tried to teach. So 
     many counteracted and confronted, they stood tall and whether 
     we liked it or not, they stood their ground and they gave us 
     hope that one day the pain would give way to promise.
       We can take heart, because through them we knew that ``we 
     shall indeed, overcome.'' But dearly, we have not yet reached 
     that Promised Land. We have not yet fully embraced the place 
     that Dr. King and Rabbi Hershel who marched arm in arm tried 
     to show and to teach us. We haven't yet felt how Malcom who 
     epitomized both the hope and the worry of the movement for 
     justice, worry that integrity in the movement would be 
     comprised given the times they were in, yet united with a 
     yearning to taste real freedom for all. All of them 
     understood that justice had a cost attached to it. However, 
     we still haven't learned yet, how to include all the voices, 
     sit with all the pain, open and feel all of the diverse ways 
     we are together, but there is hope shining through, maybe 
     given the Boston event, that we will get there. The beloved 
     community will one day be! Think of the blueprint that was 
     left to us, the light that was given and passed to us, as 
     they each in their own ways, gave their lives to pass on to 
     us, a real hope for a better tomorrow.
       What I guess Charlottesville has challenged me to do, is to 
     keep singing songs of justice, keep speaking words of peace. 
     The challenge is to sing a new song in this often strange 
     land, this place where America is still striving to form a 
     more perfect union, this place where free speech should 
     always be celebrated, must always be protected, but never 
     allowed by any to be abused. We are called to sing together 
     the words of peace, the words of hope, sing so as to feel 
     that hope and that peace until it is never forgotten, until 
     it is so deeply felt that no one is left behind without voice 
     or value.
       So we come together again, gathered by the many ways God 
     gathers us, we come together to sing even when we may not 
     feel like singing, sing even though the words may not always 
     be dear to us or the language understood by everyone is not 
     plain. We come together to share words of peace, even when it 
     seems the world is bent upon acts of violent expression. We 
     come together knowing that love trumps hate, that without 
     love and hope we perish, so we hope, we believe and work for 
     a better day.
       Maya Angelou was right, people will never forget--when it 
     is felt. It is our work, to help each other feel the presence 
     of peace. It's our work to care for one another, to bind up 
     those who are broken, to repair the world and make the world 
     a just place for all. This is our work to feel, not the hate 
     that some would have us feel, but to offer a binding, 
     sustaining and enduring feeling that builds community and 
     opens hearts to know and feel that another world is possible. 
     It is there, don't you feel it, can't you see it? It is 
     there, just over the horizon. Let's go there together! Thank 
     you.''

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