[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 199 (Thursday, December 12, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H10236-H10237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AND STILL I RISE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, with love of
country at heart and my mnemonic notes in hand.
I rise today, Mr. Speaker, remembering something from my childhood.
My grandfather was a minister, and he reminded the grandchildren that
there is no one so blind as he who chooses not to see. 20/20 vision,
but the person who chooses not to see is the blindest of all. No one is
so blind as those who choose not to see.
I bring this to the attention of those who are listening for a
specific reason. I cannot impose understanding. I cannot cause people
to say that they understand that which they already understand but
choose not to acknowledge.
What I can do is this: I can encourage us to open our eyes and see
what is happening to our country, the country that I assume we all
love. I encourage us to see what is happening to public discourse, to
pay attention to things that are happening in the public arena that are
greatly different than the things we have been acclimated to.
Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that we should have, in our public
discourse, the Chief Executive Officer saying things that we don't want
our children to repeat. The Chief Executive Officer is to be a leader
in many ways.
We tell our children: One day you can grow up and be the Chief
Executive Officer. You can be the head of state. And we want people to
look up to the Chief Executive Officer, to the head of state.
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I don't think most of us would have our children go to a public rally
and engage in some of the discourse that we have seen, some of the
scatology, the profanity that seems to become a part of this discourse
and is almost commonplace now from the Chief Executive Officer.
My dear friends, there is something happening to us. While it may not
occur all in 1 day, over a period of time, it can become commonplace.
Have you not noticed how on the various talk shows people are using a
level of discourse that we would find unacceptable, that I find
unacceptable, that was not commonplace some years ago, not so very long
ago? I am hearing more profanity being used.
I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant. I am not a perfect
person. I don't claim to be perfect. But I can say to you that I want
to live in a country where children are proud to grow up and say they
want to be like that person who happens to be the Chief Executive
Officer.
At some point, something has to say to us that something is going on
here that is unacceptable. When you weaponize hate so that you can have
an advantage, there is something wrong. We ought not weaponize hate and
bigotry to gain an advantage. We ought not try to, with intentionality,
create ashes on the dreams of others, turn them into ashes so that we
can fulfill some desire. We ought not, with intentionality, say things
that we know are not true that can be harmful to others.
I am not a perfect servant, but I see something happening to my
country, and I beg that we open our eyes and look at this for what it
is. The level of hate is increasing. The level of harm being done to
people by others that they don't know who will traverse great distances
just to hurt them because they happen to be of a certain ancestry, who
go into a certain neighborhood to hurt people because they happen to be
of a certain religion, we are seeing more of this level of hate.
I say to you that we must open our eyes and see what is happening to
our country. There is a desire to believe that this is just something
that we can laugh at, that it is just amusing. This discourse that we
see when the Chief Executive Officer has throngs of people around him
making light of things that at one time we would not tolerate.
There is something wrong when you start to tolerate this. Those who
tolerate hate perpetuate hate. We are going to be a part of the reason
why this continues to grow, to propagate, to infect our society.
We can do something about this. We should not allow this level of
discourse to continue.
By the way, the something that we can do about it is not allow it to
be something that we accept. We don't have to do anything more, for
some of us, than change the channel. Maybe that will send a message,
when they don't get good ratings. Or don't attend events where these
kinds of things are taking place. We don't have to make this something
that is acceptable to any one of us.
[[Page H10237]]
I mention all of these things because I know that this level of ugly
discourse is going to be something that we are going to have to live
with for a lot longer than we choose, unless we choose to do something
about it.
I ask of you just to pay attention to what is happening to our
society. Pay attention to the words that are being said and the way
people are being demeaned by the Chief Executive Officer, who sets the
standard, who is a standard-bearer. Pay attention to what is going on.
I beg that, please, let's open our eyes and see how a single person
is corrupting the discourse, not only, by the way, at rallies and among
those who are on talk shows but also here in the Congress of the United
States of America.
I arrived here in 2005. Since then, the discourse in Congress has
changed to the extent that people are saying things that I thought we
would never hear in the Congress in terms of scatology, profanity,
demeaning commentary.
Now, I am not saying don't speak truth. Speak truth. But what I am
saying is what we are saying to hurt people just to be harmful, to let
people somehow be demeaned just to demean people, I find that
unacceptable.
I just beg that we would not be so blind as those who choose not to
see. I think that society is not lost overnight, but the genesis of the
loss is discourse, public discourse that degenerates to the extent that
the humanity of every person is lessened, where people at some point
conclude: Those people, they don't belong. Those people, they don't
count.
Every human being means something and counts. We ought not allow
ourselves to allow things to happen to babies in cages. We ought not
allow ourselves to conclude that certain religions are unacceptable.
What can happen to one religion can happen to any religion. Every child
is precious. We ought to respect the humanity of every person and
accord a certain amount of decency to all people. I cannot believe some
of the things that we are now tolerating.
There was a time in this country when we would not tolerate having a
person acknowledge that, among racists and bigots, there were some very
fine people or nice people. There was a time when we wouldn't tolerate
that, but we do now. There was a time when certain tropes that are
being used and propagated, we wouldn't tolerate it, but we do now.
My comment to America, to our country, and to the people who care is,
at some point, this level of hate is going to become a bigger problem
than we care to deal with, unless we deal with it now. We should. We
should deal with it. We cannot allow it to become something that future
generations will have to contend with. It is easy to believe that this
is a temporary condition until it is no longer a temporary condition.
``Irreparable harm'' is a term that we use in law. At some point,
this becomes irreparable harm. At some point, there are some people who
will suffer to the extent that they can't recover.
I know of people in the Latino community who live with a great degree
of apprehension. People born in this country, Americans, live with a
great degree of apprehension because of what happened in El Paso.
I know of people who are of a certain faith, citizens of this
country, who live with apprehension because of what happened in
Charlottesville.
We ought not allow the discourse, this incitive discourse, to create
circumstances where people are harmed. We are seeing it happen, but I
think that some of us choose not to see the harmful impact that it is
having on our society.
My message is very simple today. I beg, let's take a look, just open
our eyes and let's look at what is happening to our country. If we can
do this, we can change this.
This ought not be the case in the greatest country in the world.
There is no one so blind as he who chooses not to see. I hope that
understanding will prevail and that we will decide that we will not
tolerate the level of hateful discourse that we are suffering and that
many people suffer from because there are other persons who hurt them
after being exposed to this incitive discourse, this incendiary
language, this weaponization of hate. People are hurting.
I don't say these things because I want to make sure I personally am
protected. I come to this podium to bring these words and this message
because I know of the suffering in various communities.
Those who are suffering from anti-Semitism, I know about it. Those
who are suffering from racism, I know. Those who are suffering from the
various insidious forms of hate related to who you happen to be, I know
about it. The homophobia, the Islamophobia, the xenophobia, all of the
various phobias that are harmful to people, I know.
I have constituents, and I know that they expect me to do this. They
expect someone to say that people are quietly suffering. They expect us
to do this. They send us to Congress to do this. We ought not tolerate
this level of hate because we perpetuate it, and we ought to do
something about it.
In the beginning was the word. This is the word. I am talking about
it now. But there is much more that we can do, and I pray that we will
become, each of us, a committee of one to do something about the hate
that is being perpetrated among people in this country that is causing
harm to other people in this country.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
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