[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 4 (Monday, January 8, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7-H8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FREEDOM IS NOT PARTISAN

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, freedom is not partisan.
  Yesterday, on the corner of Post Oak and Westheimer in Houston, 
Texas, I stood with Iranian Americans, linking arms with them as they 
protested and petitioned for a free and democratic Iran. I told them 
that the cries of hunger and economic needs, and the cries of young 
people who wanted freedom in Iran were my cries, and that we believed 
in democracy, freedom, and peace, and that we would not leave them 
alone.
  So, again, I say to them: We stand not as Democrats and Republicans, 
but as Americans, wanting for a free government that allows the 
people's voices

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to be heard, and that despotic governments have no place in a society 
that relishes and thirsts after freedom.
  I want to thank the law enforcement officers who stood by in the 
cold--yes, the cold in Houston--and allowed for a peaceful protest in 
this time of honoring them a national law enforcement commemoration. 
Again, I want to thank them, for they go to places where they are 
needed and they allow democracy to reign. I will say democracy will 
reign in Iran, and Iranian Americans are not alone in their quest for 
freedom, democracy, and peace.

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