Congressional Record, Volume 166 Issue 118 (Friday, June 26, 2020)

[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 118 (Friday, June 26, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H2582-H2591]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

UNITE AMERICA

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Dean). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Shimkus).

In Memory of Mary Ellen Witter

Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the time and
courtesy.
Madam Speaker, I rise to speak about my West Point mom, who just
recently passed away. Mary Ellen Witter of Bluffton, South Carolina,
passed away peacefully Sunday, June 21, 2020, with her family around
her.
My West Point mom, who loved me even though I ate her food, broke her
chairs, and disobeyed a rule now and then. She was the definition of
grace.
She was preceded in death by her husband, the love of her life,
Colonel Lee Witter. They were married 61 years. She was the daughter of
the late Allan and Alma Imse, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1937.
Mary Ellen went to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, for her
bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. She received her masters
from C.W. Post Center, Long Island University, New York, in Library
Science.
She was a dedicated military wife. She represented America while
being an embassy military wife in Indonesia. She was a longtime
educator, both here and abroad.
Mary Ellen was a pianist, singer, and a devout Christian, who was
very active in her church and was part of the Stephen Ministries and
prayer groups. For those who knew her, she was a soft-spoken woman who
loved traveling, reading, gardening, camping, bird-watching, and going
to the beach. But most of all, she loved her family and her friends.
She was preceded in death by her son, Mathew. She is survived by her
two daughters, Nanette Jordan of Norwalk, Connecticut, and Dorinda
Selby of Beaufort, South Carolina. She is survived by her sister,
Sharon Quade of Crandon, Wisconsin, and her brother, Robert Imse of
Naples, Florida. She dearly loved her five grandchildren: Ashley Benusa
of Hong Kong; Taylor Jordan of Boston, Massachusetts; Zachary Jordan of
Waterbury, Connecticut; Senior Airman Mathew Selby of Davis Monthan Air
Force Base, Tucson, Arizona; and Thomas Selby of Beaufort, South
Carolina.
Madam Speaker, I look forward to attending the burial service, which
will take place at West Point Military Academy National Cemetery at a
later date. There, she will be laid next to her husband, Colonel
Witter, and her son, Mathew.
First Thessalonians 4:14 states: ``For we believe that Jesus died and
rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who
have fallen asleep in him.'' May we find comfort in this promise.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words and
express condolences for his loss of his dear friend.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko),
my colleague and longtime friend.
Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Biggs) for yielding me the time.
Lawlessness has broken out across our Nation. It is absolutely
outrageous, and it has to be stopped. Mobs are taking over parts of the
city of Seattle. They took over a police precinct.
Just last Saturday, people were shot, and one man was killed.
Criminals are looting stores and businesses all over the Nation,
including in Arizona in the upscale Scottsdale Fashion Square.
Protestors are throwing bricks at police officers. They are throwing
water bottles at police officers. And I have seen them shine
flashlights right up close into the police officers' eyes and call them
all kinds of names. Rioters are burning the flag, the American flag.
And the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial have been defaced.
Madam Speaker, a few days ago, St. Serra, the patron saint of peace,
was torn down in San Francisco.
Francis Scott Key's statue was torn down.
The statue of Ulysses Grant, who was the general for the Union was
torn down by thugs in San Francisco.

{time} 1730

And then we saw the other night how they were trying so hard, these
criminals, to tear down the statue in Lafayette Park. And they almost
had it torn down, if it wasn't for the Trump administration sending in
the National Guard to stop.
And do you know what they wrote and spray-painted on that statue,
that Federal statue? ``Killer scum.''
Does any of this show tribute to George Floyd? No.
Does any of this help? Absolutely not.
Now, I was really surprised to see that one of our colleagues,
Congresswoman Norton, who is a nonvoting Member but represents
Washington, D.C., has introduced legislation to have a statue of
Abraham Lincoln taken down, a statue that was funded by the freed
slaves.
What has our country come to? We need to return to a semblance of
civility in our country. And so that is why I call on Democrat-run
cities to clamp down on these criminals. No more autonomous zones. No
more looting. No more destructing statues. Let's bring back law and
order.
That is why I stand with President Trump and his calls to arrest and
prosecute criminals. Let's stop the lawlessness. Let's try to heal our
country.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and I appreciate
her comments.
We do see an increase in the amount of lawlessness. We have moved
from peaceful protests, which I support, I understand. That is what the
guarantee of the First Amendment is for. We all get a right to assemble
with whom we want to assemble with. We get a right to speak. We get a
right to seek redress of grievances from the government. All of those
are important rights that we support, we stand for.
But we move into rioting, looting, mayhem. There has been murder.
There has been assaults. There has been brutal violence.
I have heard some of my colleagues in this body call those protests.
It is not protesting. That is lawless rioting, and it needs to be
curbed and checked.
I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop).
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, the coronavirus pandemic
reminded us that we are in this together. Despite serious and, as yet,
unresolved ongoing questions about policy responses to that event, we
have stayed home and sacrificed for our neighbors' health. We have seen
the best of us.
But in the past month, we are seeing the worst of us: violent mobs
stoning business owners, Federal agents shot to death, looting
occurring nationwide, and avowed Marxist activists openly defending and
promoting it, six blocks of a major U.S. city ceded to anarchists.
I don't recognize this America. People experience fear repeatedly of
the

[[Page H2583]]

wanton destruction of their livelihoods, their cities on fire or being
canceled by social media mobs; government buildings attacked; monuments
and memorials spanning the breadth of our history, from Washington to
Lincoln to Roosevelt, torn down or threatened by riotous mobs.
And this is not impassioned, heat-of-the-moment destruction. It is a
targeted, organized, and methodical purge of figures who represent
ideas they wish to bury, ideas such as all people are endowed by our
creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property, and
that government by, for, and of the people shall not perish from the
Earth.
We have seen this deliberate tactic throughout history, in communist
China's cultural revolution, in the theocratic purge of Afghanistan's
Taliban, even in the terror campaigns of the Reconstruction and Jim
Crow South.
What distinguishes America is how this Nation responds to such
lawless and purposeful attacks. We hold, it is declared, that
government's very purpose is to secure the inalienable rights of all of
us and that, when order falls apart, so, too, does our Nation.
What we have seen in recent weeks begs the question: How is
government serving its core purpose?
Local and State officials have flouted that purpose, abandoned that
responsibility. But in those circumstances, the Federal Government has
the tools to secure the rights of the people.
Attorney General Barr, chapter 13 of the United States Criminal Code,
provides all the authority you may need. FBI Director Wray, the
evidence of criminal conspiracies is in plain sight.
The Department of Justice and the FBI must act without delay. This
government must restore the America we know.
Word is the Department of Justice is leading over 500 investigations,
and that is good news. We are counting on them, and we know they are up
to the task.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina
for his comments, and I echo his sentiment that what needs to happen to
restore order here is one must arrest malefactors who are committing
crimes. We must then charge them and prosecute them and give them due
process. But without a restoration of order, no one in this country has
freedom.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).
Mr. WEBER of Texas. Madam Speaker, some history from our country.
Yesterday was June 25. On June 25, 1788, the State of Virginia
ratified the U.S. Constitution and thereby became the 10th State of the
United States. Virginia willingly joined the Union. Virginia willingly
left the Union and then willingly eventually rejoined the Union, a
reminder from our past. Do we take down everything about Virginia?
Certainly not.
Madam Speaker, on June 25, 1868, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana,
Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were readmitted to the
Union. Again, they had willingly joined the Union; they willingly left
the Union; and, yes, they willingly rejoined that same Union. Reminders
from the past. Do we do away with all reminders?
On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the
constitutionality of racial segregation for public facilities as long
as they were separate but equal. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that
the use of unofficial nondenominational prayer in public schools was
unconstitutional. They got it wrong twice, just two examples. Do we do
away with any mention of the Supreme Court?

Madam Speaker, in 1973, June 25, again, yesterday, John Dean, White
House Counsel for President Richard Nixon, admitted that President
Nixon was involved in the coverup. Do we do away with all mention of
President Nixon?
Madam Speaker, how about President Bill Clinton, who was accused of
several sexual harassments and was found guilty of lying under oath
and, as I recall, tampering with a witness or obstruction of justice?
Are all mentions of President Clinton gone? No, not him, not Nixon.
They were Presidents of this United States.
Madam Speaker, in 1999, on June 25, Germany's Parliament approved a
national Holocaust memorial to be built in Berlin, a painful but
necessary reminder from the past.
And we could go on. We could talk about professional entertainers--
and I use the word ``professional'' loosely--who have been accused. And
the list is Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and on down. You go right
down that list. Do we demand any and all of their works, their
mentions, their movies, their shows be blotted out from memory?
We could talk about professional athletes--and again, I use the word
``professional'' loosely--who have been accused of sexual assault,
beating their wives up, their girlfriends up, caught with drugs,
performance-enhancing drugs, gambling, cheating. Do we blot them out
from all memory and all mentions? No.
Madam Speaker, even churches--the Catholic Church, the Baptist
Church, the Methodists, other churches, other denominations--scandals,
military sex scandals, Boy Scouts, congressional sex scandals, every
occupation, every race, color, creed, and religion, none is perfect.
Where does it end?
Should we pull down and attempt to erase all mentions of countries
like Japan, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China? The list is endless.
Madam Speaker, George Floyd had a criminal record, but he did not
deserve execution at the hands of an errant police officer. And then
again, those whose lives and/or their livelihoods are being destroyed
by vandals, looters, and rioters don't deserve to have their families
and their livelihoods and their lives ruined either.
It is time for the violence to stop. Peaceful protests, yes;
violence, no. The Governors and the President should send in troops
when requested and needed. I stand with the President in that.
These criminals and lawbreakers deserve to be dealt with in a manner
consistent with their behavior and the law. They are pulling down
statues that were paid for with tax dollars, erected with the consent
of the governed, no matter what community or timeframe. These thugs
simply think they can tear them down.
Do we acknowledge there are those who have an improper mindset? Of
course. Those are thugs tearing things down. Of course we do.
Do we also acknowledge that Black lives matter? You bet we do. I
cannot even begin to understand the fear of parents and their children
who live in that fear that some day they may suffer that same fate.
But let's have that conversation within the framework of a civilized
people who earnestly desire what President Lincoln called ``a more
perfect Union.''
Violence, property destruction, vandalism, arson, looting, and, yes,
killing others is hardly what I think we would want or call a more
perfect Union, Madam Speaker.
So how about a new reset? Looking backwards will only leave us hating
everyone and everything. Statues and symbols of our great country
should remind us how far we have come, but, more importantly, how far
we have got to go still.
We should be taking pride in how far we have come. Actually, let us
hope in the promises of where we can go, while being saddened as to
some of the things that have had to happen to get us to this point.
Madam Speaker, how about a reset?

{time} 1745

George Orwell once said:

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and
obliterate their own understanding of their history.

Madam Speaker, as we reassess our shared experience, let us learn
from the past in order to make a better, brighter future. America's
history is imperfect. But projecting contemporary norms through
violence while rejecting the experiences of our past does a disservice
to the sacrifices of the great men and women like President Lincoln,
who fought for equality for all.
We must not erase our history. We must learn from it. This is one of
the promises and the highest callings of America the beautiful.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments,
particularly relating to history. I am reminded, as I was pondering
that, that each of us has a history. Each of us has a personal history.
None of us are perfect. Sometimes, we have flaws that seem almost
insurmountable in our own lives. But if we deny our history,

[[Page H2584]]

then we deny who we are and who we can become.
When I hear folks out there attacking our history and saying, let's
bring down this statue or let's do this or let's do that, some of it is
so acontextual. By that, I mean it is as if there was no history to
learn from. And I think, how in the world can we be so narcissistic
that we don't accept the flaws of our own past and build upon the
promise of the future?
We have problems, for sure, but it does not inure to lawlessness,
rioting, murder, and mayhem. It should, instead, inure to the better
angels within us.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. LaMalfa).
Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague from Arizona
(Mr. Biggs) for leading this tonight and for what he has been standing
up for.
I just have to say that I am really grieved by the strife we have in
this country, especially trying to exit out of this Wuhan virus
situation and the horrific things we saw happening in Minneapolis. That
was the moment when we saw George Floyd being abused and ultimately
killed by that.
There was unity among 99.9 percent of the population of the people in
this country saying that is wrong. We had a moment to learn from that,
to build upon that.
Indeed, it seemed to be a short moment. Peaceful protests immediately
followed. We agree with those. And then that has been co-opted by these
forces coming out of the ground that have been looking for an
opportunity to divide us, divide our Nation, whether it is antifa or
other groups that are forming and now seeking political power with
this. It is now beyond racism. It is something completely different.
The violence that we are seeing, the mayhem, the destruction, the
vandalism has nothing to do with the good conversation we should have
been having in that spirit of unity that I think most Americans felt in
that window of time right after the George Floyd killing.
How are we going to come out of this? How are we going to have a good
conversation about how we can improve things with law enforcement but
not impugn law enforcement for what they are doing? They are out there
every day trying to find the balance between how to defend the public,
how to defend their own life when they knock on a door or walk up to a
car--they don't know what is going on inside there--and also being a
good ambassador for somebody who they just need to talk to.
How are we going to find this balance again amidst all of this
mayhem, amidst all of this violence? Well, certainly, the signal needs
to be sent that we are not going to tolerate the violence, the mayhem,
the destruction, the vandalism. Severe penalties need to be coming down
upon those who we already have on camera or other ways to identify in
anything going forward.
I just came from Lincoln Park about 10 blocks east of here, and they
have to put fencing and have guards out there for the statue of Abraham
Lincoln, who is shown there putting a hand up for a slave depicted in
that statue, an emancipated slave. He is still wearing the chains. He
is looking up at Mr. Lincoln, who is lifting him and going to take him
to a better place.
Yet, that is being misinterpreted in 2020 as something that is
hateful. That same statue was paid for by emancipated slaves back then
who were inspired by what Mr. Lincoln had done.
They even have a fence around Mary McLeod Bethune right next-door
because they are afraid that might get vandalized because there is
indiscriminate vandalism happening to any statue, to any memorial, to
any monument just because it is a mayhem out there.
That doesn't even make sense. It is not even logical that you would
tear down the ones, General Grant or whoever, who were actually in the
fight to end slavery. We are not going to have a very good conversation
about racism when frauds like this go on.
Even something so simple or silly as a garage at a raceway here a
while back where somebody said it was a noose in the garage, and the
media ran with it immediately without taking at least 12 hours to check
out and find out that it was a pull handle for shutting a garage door.
In no way does it meet the specifications for a noose. Unfortunately,
the driver doubled down on that and continued in interviews saying
definitely a noose.
That doesn't do anything to bring the harmony we should be having,
especially when that driver was shown an incredible amount of harmony
by his colleagues there when first that incident was reported.
Where are we going with all of this? I grieve for our country, the
one that had imperfect roots but always has strived to build upon
itself to do better, to improve.
Slavery came in with the country, but the Founders knew it wasn't
right. There were compromises made to at least form this country to be
something better than the monarchy that England had, compromises but
still building until finally in the 1860s when Mr. Lincoln came and
said enough. You had more than half the country that was already ready
to do that.
We don't get a lot of talk about that because you think the whole
country was racist. Most of the country was not. It was eradicated.
Then we had the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to grant rights to
those who originally did not have them. The Civil Rights Act of the
1960s continued on that path, the Voting Rights Act.

Yet, all we hear around here is, Republicans are against all that,
when you find out that, actually, Republicans were leading in greater
numbers on all of those things all the way back at that time. Now,
Democrats are trying to co-opt that and turn it into something else
completely. Indeed, the first 20 Members of Congress who were Black
were also Republican because they saw who was really trying to lead
them toward freedom.
What we have going on right now is not going to keep this great
country in a place that is free. We have lost a lot of freedom already
by the virus, first--something we have to handle--but also the freedom
to actually assemble downtown in a large city or to go visit a statue
or do anything.
Our freedoms are being eroded. Our freedoms are being eroded by
roving bands of people who--mayors in large cities, Democrat mayors,
and some Democrat Governors that govern States aren't doing anything
about it.
What are we supposed to do? Stand and watch what is going on here?
No, we are not going to watch this anymore. We are not going to put up
with it. Severe penalties need to be had for these people inflicting
this mayhem upon their own Nation, upon their own neighbors, upon
neighborhoods. It needs to be harsh.
Then, once we can get the violence stopped, maybe we can get back to
the table and have a real conversation about how we are going to
improve the situations with race.
It grieves me that young Black males feel like they are going to be
victimized by the term ``driving while Black.'' That is an awful
feeling for them and for us, I think, to see that happen.
Our great colleague over on the other side, Senator Tim Scott, when
he brought forth a bill he has been working on very hard for a long
time, looking for bipartisan efforts, his JUSTICE Act, and then someone
tells him it is a token effort.
What the heck does that mean? That really struck him deeply, that
people would say that about that and not even give him the opportunity
to have that bill developed further in the Senate. What a shameful
moment that was.
Yet, now we have legislation here that is trying to eviscerate the
ability of cops to operate how they need to, to have a little bit of
immunity because a cop doesn't know what he is walking into or what she
is walking into. They need a little latitude, not the latitude we saw
in Minneapolis, but one to simply operate.
Doctors need latitude in order to work on patients and not be sued to
death. Yet, we have this legislation that is going to be, basically,
sue a cop. That is not going to help anything.
What is that going to do for morale for keeping cops on the force,
for recruiting new ones? Do we want this mayhem we keep seeing
happening right here in D.C., Minneapolis, L.A., any other large city,
and we don't have some kind of law enforcement there?
Social workers do have their place in certain situations, and they
can be

[[Page H2585]]

helpful. But we don't take money away. We don't defund the cops who are
already shorthanded in rural areas like mine, sheriffs, police, in
order to try and change the whole game.
We have a lot of listening to do to each other on both sides. Not
everybody with light-colored skin is a racist, and I think a lot of
people around this country are really feeling, after the unity we had,
after the George Floyd ugly incident in Minneapolis, this is a time to
get together and listen to each other.
If this is allowed to continue to happen, it is going to make it
awful hard for people to listen to each other because they are feeling
under fire themselves for something they never did, never stood for.
Instead, they have always stood for the greatness of that flag right up
there. In God we trust.
I appreciate the time.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for
his passionate and heartfelt words.
It is my pleasure now to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Posey).
Mr. POSEY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
``We want America back.'' Those were just a few of the lyrics of a
song written by a group named The Steeles in 1996. Some of the lyrics
said:

Something is wrong with America.
This Nation is like a runaway train,
Headed down the wrong track.

And it concludes, in part, with:

I love America. But I do not love what she has become.

Circumstances seemed pretty despairing back then, but they pale in
comparison to what we are seeing going on across our country today,
perpetrated by Marxists, anarchists, and those malcontents who are
funding them.
Today, the miscreants are using George Floyd's death to neuter the
ability of the police to enforce the law. So far, they have been
successful in getting the police out of the way.
Without law enforcement, their mobs are free to move in, smash
businesses, injure people, and cause chaos. Those aren't peaceful
protesters, and they are not peaceful protests.
Their outcry for justice makes sympathetic, or perhaps even cowardly,
corporations and stupid movie stars send money to them. Now they are
tearing down the statues, intimidating the public and politicians into
accepting their farfetched demands, and giving them even more power.
Circumstances are advantageous for them right now because we are in
the midst of a pandemic so they have a freer rein of the streets.
Who could have ever imagined sanctuary cities where America's rule of
law is ruefully ignored by government officials?

Who would have ever imagined some elected officials would allow
domestic terrorists or wannabe revolutionaries to commandeer a complete
takeover and rule of both public and private property and have dominion
over other unwilling citizens of the United States in so-called
autonomous zones.
Give me a break.
Then, the lawbreakers have the audacity to demand our police be
defunded or reimagined, whatever the heck that means. It sounds insane.
It is really a campaign to drive our duly-elected President Donald
Trump from office. Anyone who stands in their way they think should be
destroyed.
We can expect it to get worse and worse until November 3, when they
hope to put an end to the prosperity created by the President. You have
to suffer from the world's worst case of Potomac fever, or beltway
brain drain, to think they are fooling anybody.
Meanwhile, the leadership and majority in this Chamber have been
silent. I have not heard a single word, syllable, or letter uttered by
them in opposition to the miscreants. It is past time for them to
condemn their activities, and it is time for law enforcement across
this Nation in every State, in every county, in every city, in every
little burgh, community, and the rural areas in-between to put an end
to this lawlessness.
If you don't start acting soon, there wouldn't be anything left to
tear down. I would like to take a bunch of these wannabe
revolutionaries to South or Central America for a few days to see how
their game would end if they were successful in having it their way.

{time} 1800

If you have ever traveled throughout those socialist countries there,
it is a very eye-opening experience. The State Department, and even
their own officials, warn you, don't wear any jewelry; don't carry much
cash, because there is a good chance you are going to get robbed. And
if you are approached by a robber, hand over everything, hold back
nothing, because they would just as soon shoot you and kill you as not
shoot you and kill you.
There is a lot of lawlessness, and they don't fear justice. They
don't fear the police. They are going to take, and you are going to
give, or you are going to die. And you know what the State Department
and the local officials tell you next? If you get robbed, don't call
the police. It is not like in our country where, if there is a problem,
you call the police. There, they tell you not to call the police
because they are all corrupt and they will shake you down for anything
the robbers missed.
One common denominator of the countries that I visited, which was
Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, and Trinidad, was a common denominator
that every single house that I saw, large or small, urban or suburban,
no matter how far out you went into the country, every single house
that was more than a cardboard box had bars on every window and most of
the doors. Why? Because that is what lawlessness brings.
They truly go to bed every night in those socialist countries with
the expectation that if they did not have bars, they wouldn't wake up
in the morning; or if they did, every possession that they had that was
worth anything would be gone.
Very little police, high crime, high unemployment, bars on all the
windows. Is that what we really want for our future?
We have been blessed to live in the land of opportunity, the most
free and prosperous nation in the history of the world. Many, many,
many people have risked their lives and the lives of their wives, their
grandparents, their parents, their children, family members to come
here. This place is really that good that people would risk their life
just to come here, a chance at coming here. We cannot stand back and
let it be destroyed. We want America back.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his thoughts and
taking time to share those with us.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).
Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I thank my good colleague from Arizona (Mr.
Biggs) for putting this on. I really do appreciate it because it is so
timely.
Growing pains, I think that is what we can say we are going through
is growing pains again as a nation, a nation birthed over 200 years
ago.
And for anybody who watched yesterday's debate, Madam Speaker, on the
House floor, I think it was interesting to see the amount of, I guess,
race-baiting that was coming from the other side, from my colleagues,
which I found very unreasonable that, for some reason, if you are a
Black man, you have to tell your children how to act with the police.
My mom and dad had that talk with me, probably for good reason, too,
and they said: If you get pulled over, ``Yes, sir,'' ``No, sir,'' and
then when you get home we want to know what happened and why you got
pulled over. I had to have that talk with my children. So that is
nothing new, and I think that we sometimes overplay that.
Does it happen maybe more with minority communities? Yes, I think it
does, but nobody is immune to that. When I came into Congress, I got
stopped multiple times to see if I had the right credentials. That has
happened to me.
Since we have been up here, the divide in this country has gotten so
much worse, and it has been since Donald Trump has gotten elected. And
people will blame the President for doing this, but we can go back to
other Presidents where we have seen this happen. We are Americans. We
need to come together as a nation.
I have had the great fortune of being in Congress. This is my last
term. I will have served 8 years. I was the chairman of the Asia-
Pacific Subcommittee last year, last Congress; I am the ranking member
this year. I have bean able to travel the world. I have been in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[[Page H2586]]

Africa is a continent of 1.2 billion, yet today, in the 21st century,
650 million people do not have electricity. I suppose they have a
reason to protest. I suppose they have a reason to complain. But do
they have the right to protest?
Being on the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee we got to travel to a lot of
the Asian countries. We all know what is going on in Hong Kong today.
Hong Kong is a province of China. There was an agreement of one
country, two systems, where Hong Kong was supposed to be a semi- or a
self-ruling area with an independent judiciary committee. Yet, 23 years
into that agreement, Xi Jinping, the leader of the Communist Party,
said that is null and void, and they have put the heavy hand of the
Communist Party in there.
These young students are out there holding up that flag behind you,
Madam Speaker, holding up that flag for liberty and freedom because
they have tasted that. That is all they have ever known. Yet the
Chinese Communist Party wants to take that away because it scares them.
Free thought, independent thinking, freedom, they know the Communist
Party cannot survive, so they are going in there to squash that.
These students are holding those signs up. Our flag is up. They have
been in my office here in the Washington Capitol. They have a reason to
protest, but they do not have the right.
You talk about Venezuela, somebody talked about it. Go down to Cuba
and talk against the Castro regime. You don't have the right. Talk
about religion in those countries. You do not have the right.
But then I look at this country, and I am as guilty as anybody else
in this country. We have the right to protest, the First Amendment, but
sometimes I think--and this is where I feel like I am guilty, like a
lot of us. I think we take it for granted what we have in this country.

It was interesting because I was with the Ambassadors of both
Malaysia and Indonesia, and they talked about the founding of their
country. When they got their independence, when they broke away and
they formed those countries, they told me that their founding fathers
could have picked any system in the world. They could have taken Great
Britain's system of government. They could have taken Germany's,
Russia's, China's. But you know who they took? They took the principles
of America because they had read our history, they had read those
documents and what those documents meant.
And I heard people over and over here today, since I have been in
Congress, America is not a perfect country because people are in it,
and people are not perfect, but the ideals laid out there were the best
ideals that have ever been laid out. If not, why are other countries
adopting them? Why do people in Cuba come across the ocean, a 90-mile
stretch, on inner tubes, on rafts, on surfboards to get to this
country? It is called freedom. It is called justice.
But do you know what? We are not going to fix it if this side is
accusing this side, and this side over here is accusing that side of
pandering to our audience.
So what that meant to me when I was with those Ambassadors from
Indonesia and Malaysia, what it meant to me was: Do you know what?
America is bigger than a Presidency. It is bigger than the Democratic
Party. It is bigger than the Republican Party. It is those ideals that
this country stands for that we all need to fight to hold on to.
I want to read something that one of my constituents sent me. It
says: ``The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply
this, that the man who will get up will be helped up, and the man who
will not get up will be allowed to stay down. . . . Personal
independence is a virtue and it is the soul of which comes the
sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large
share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must
be developed from within.''
I had an African-American man, a conservative Republican who is
afraid to tell people he is a conservative Republican because he gets
labeled Uncle Tom. You have been put on the plantation.
These are not my words. These are words coming from him.
But that quote came from somebody I wish we could go back and meet,
Mr. Frederick Douglass, a person born into slavery who picked himself
up by the bootstraps, who educated himself. He stood beside President
Lincoln when they dedicated the Emancipation statue.
And I have got these people out here who loathe, despise, disdain
this country, and it is being flamed by people--and I can't blame just
people, the Democrats. There are people out there who just hate this
country, but they are using that to tear this country apart instead of
remembering the ideals that this country is built on. And those are
American ideologies--not conservative, not liberal, not Republican or
Democrat, American--and I think it is time that we all come together
and realize we are Americans and we are on the same team.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his passionate
comments about freedom.
Madam Speaker, those of us who have had the good fortune of studying
history, we know that it bumps and claws along. We do see progress
sometimes, and we also see devolution sometimes.
What we are seeing today, though, reminds me an awful lot of a
revolution that took place in the early part of the 20th century. It
was not a large revolution; it was a small revolution. It was the
Bolshevik Revolution. It was funded by some of the bourgeoisie who did
not like the form of government in then-Russia. It was not a massive
revolution. It wasn't widespread, but it changed that entire nation's
form of government.
I am reminded that it was Trotsky who prevented the military from
intervening against the lawless revolution. What I am seeing here today
reminds me an awful lot of that. This is a small revolution that is
violent in nature, is anti-American in nature.
And so when my colleagues mention the police and what they need to
do, what happens is there has been an emasculation of the police. They
don't really want to get involved because, should they get involved,
there is a legitimate concern that they will be sued, arrested, et
cetera. So when you get rid of the blue line of defense against
lawlessness, then you basically destroy the foundation of the
protection of your freedoms.
President Trump called certain groups antifa, domestic terrorists. In
our debate in the Judiciary Committee, some of my colleagues said
antifa is a fiction. So I said: Well, you know, is it a fiction?
So I went to CNN, because I knew that if I went to FOX and referred
to FOX, nobody was going to believe that that was not biased. So I went
to CNN because I wanted to find out what they said, and you can go
through and find extensive interviews where the conclusion is clear:
antifa is a real organization. It is a group. And the group sometimes
chooses to resort to violence.
So what do you have? They are definitely domestic. They are
committing terrorist activity in this country. Thus, they are domestic.
And what would terrorism be? Terrorism is the use of force,
intimidation, violence to change or alter behavior for a particular
purpose.
So you begin to see you have domestic terrorism going on.

{time} 1815

18 U.S. Code, Section 2339A, I call on FBI Director Wray to begin
using that statute, make the arrests necessary to restore order. And I
call on Attorney General William Barr to use that same section to
charge and prosecute these individuals who are attempting to intimidate
Americans out of their freedom.
A lot of these Federal monuments and statues that are coming down,
these memorials that are being ripped to shreds, destroyed are on
Federal property.
And you know what? 18 U.S. Code 1369 is the statute that Director
Wray should be having his Federal agency make arrests under. And then I
call on Attorney General Barr to have his U.S. attorneys charge and
prosecute under 18 U.S. Code 1369 for destruction of veterans'
memorials. And we can go forward.
But why do I even bring that up? It is because I believe sincerely
that this country is built on the idea that each

[[Page H2587]]

of us should have agency, will, choice. It hasn't always worked out
really well or perfectly. There are those who have had their choices
and will taken away from them. That is inexcusable, of course.
But if we are going to have will and choice and freedom, then we are
part of this great social contract where I delegate my right to defend
myself because I can't do it all the time. There are people who are
stronger or more vicious or are more malevolent who want to compel me
to do something or take something from me.
We delegate police authority to police. It is not carte blanche. It
is reasonable.
We have got to restore respect for the law, for the police, for the
courts, and for process.
It is imperfect. I worked in that system for a lot of years on both
sides, prosecuting and defending. It is not a perfect process.
The reality is, though, it is as Winston Churchill said, Democracy is
the worst form of government except for all those others.
It is the best humankind has come up with.
To destroy our history seems so antithetical to making progress,
eradicating our history, erasing it.
College professors are now saying we have got to go through and
remove books from the library.
Remove them from the library, because why? They have unpopular ideas
in them. They may be unpopular ideas, but you know what is better than
taking them out and burning them or removing them and trashing them ala
Adolph Hitler and the Nazis? It is letting us read them, discuss them,
and point out their flaws, and rehabilitate us, our hearts.
Artwork being removed from museums, being removed from this House.
Why? Because some were not 2020 politically correct. What they did was,
to some, unconscionable and abominable. Let's have the discussion.
Removing your history allows you to repeat the mistakes of your
history. I simply don't understand it.
We have now moved beyond a motivational or some kind of philosophical
attempt to remove historical items. Now we are seeing indiscriminate
action.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a series of articles.

[From Breitbart News]

A greater percentage of U.S. registered voters believe
Confederate statues, which have been targeted by protesters
in recent weeks, should remain standing despite activists'
demands to remove them, a Morning Consult poll released this
week revealed.
The survey, taken June 6-7, showed that a greater number of
Americans believe Confederate statues should remain standing,
44 percent, as opposed to the 32 percent who say they should
be removed. Twenty-three percent expressed no opinion on the
matter.
The fundings reflect a slight shift in opinion over the
last three years. In August 2017, 52 percent of voters
indicated that the statues should be left alone, with just
over a quarter, 26 percent, indicating otherwise.
However, Morning Consult reported that the purported
increase in support over the years is largely driven by
Democrats:
The rise in support for removing the statues was driven by
Democrats, a majority of whom now take that position, and
independents, who still favor keeping those statues standing
by a 10-point margin. Eleven percent of GOP voters say the
statues should be removed, virtually unchanged since 2017.
The vast majority of Republicans, 71 percent, believe the
Confederate statues should remain standing, whereas the
majority of Democrats, 53 percent, believe they should be
taken down. Forty percent of independents believe they should
remain standing, with 30 percent vying for their removal and
30 percent expressing no opinion.
The survey was taken among ``roughly'' 1,900 voters, with a
margin of error of +/- two percent.
The survey comes as protesters vandalize and, in some
cases, tear down Confederate statues and others they deem
offensive, including statues of Christopher Columbus.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also embraced the
calls for change, requesting in a letter on Wednesday the
removal of Confederate statues occupying the U.S. Capitol, or
as she called them, ``monuments to men who advocated cruelty
and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end.''
``Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to
achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to
these ideals,'' she said in a letter to Committee Chair Roy
Blunt (R-MO) and Vice Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). ``Their
statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be
removed.''
Interestingly, Pelosi has remained silent on her own
father's role in the dedication of a Confederate statue in
Baltimore's Wyman Park in 1948.
As Breitbart News detailed:
However, her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., oversaw the
dedication of such a statue in Baltimore's Wyman Park--the
Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument--as mayor of the
city in 1948. At the time, the Speaker's father said people
could look to Jackson's and Lee's lives as inspiration and
urged Americans to ``emulate Jackson's example and stand like
a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek
to destroy the liberty of the world.''
World Wars I and II found the North and South fighting for
a common cause, and the generalship and military science
displayed by these two great men in the War between the
States lived on and were applied in the military plans of our
nation in Europe and the Pacific areas,'' D'Alesandro said at
the dedication ceremony, as detailed by the Baltimore Sun. He
continued:
Today with our nation beset by subversive groups and
propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can
look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to
remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our
sacred institutions . . . remain steadfast in our
determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves,
but for other liberty-loving nations who are striving to
preserve their national unity as free nations.
Pelosi's office did not return Breitbart News's request for
comment.
____

[From Fox News, Aug. 21, 2018]

Which Confederate statues were removed? A running list

(By Christopher Carbone)

More than 30 cities across the United States have removed
or relocated Confederate statues and monuments amid an
intense nationwide debate about race and history.
After a ``Unite the Right'' rally in Virginia in August to
protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee
resulted in the death of a woman who was demonstrating
against white supremacy, other cities have decided to remove
Confederate statues.
Many of the controversial monuments were dedicated in the
early twentieth century or during the height of the Civil
Rights Movement. Discussions are under way about the removal
of monuments in Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Pensacola,
Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, Richmond, Virginia,
Birmingham, Alabama, and Charlottesville, Virginia.
Here is a running list of all the monuments and statues
that have been removed and the cities that have taken them
down:

Annapolis, Md.

Under cover of darkness, city workers removed a statue in
August 2017 of former Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney that
had been on the State House's front lawn for 145 years. Taney
authored the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision, which
held that African-Americans could not be U.S. citizens. The
city's Republican mayor said through a spokesman that it was
removed ``as a matter of public safety.''

Austin, Texas

The statues of four people with ties to the Confederacy--
Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnson, John H. Reagan and
former Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg--were removed from
pedestals on the University of Texas campus on Aug. 17, 2017.
UT's president said in a written statement the deadly clashes
in Charlottesville made it clear ``Confederate monuments have
become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.''
Separately, a 1,200-pound bronze statue of Confederate
President Jefferson Davis that was removed from UT's campus
in 2015 has now returned to the campus, at the Briscoe Center
for American History.
The Austin school board voted to strip Confederate names
from five district schools, though they haven't been renamed
yet. The board had previously renamed Robert E. Lee
Elementary School in 2016.
The Austin City Council approved renaming Robert E. Lee
Road and Jeff Davis Avenue.

Baltimore, Md.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh told reporters she wanted to
move ``quickly and quietly'' to take down four Confederate
statues or monuments--statues of Lee and Thomas, J.
``Stonewall'' Jackson and monuments for Confederate Soldiers
and Sailors and Confederate Women--from the city's public
spaces. Although the plan had been in the works since June
2017, the Baltimore City Council approved it only two days
after the deadly events in Charlottesville. On March 10,
2018, the space where the Confederate statues had stood was
rededicated to abolitionist and civil rights pioneer Harriet
Tubman.

Bradenton, Fla.

Mantee County removed a Confederate soldiers memorial
obelisk on Aug. 24 after the city commission voted 4-3 to
take it down and place it in storage. The monument, which had
stood there for more than 90 years, was accidentally broken
into two pieces when city workers removed it. The removal
came after days of protests from residents and activists,
most of whom were in favor of taking it down, and it cost
$12,700 to remove.

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Plaques honoring Lee were removed from an episcopal
church's property on Aug. 16,

[[Page H2588]]

2017 and the governor called on the Army to remove the names
of Lee and another Confederate general from the streets
around a nearby fort. ``It was very easy for us to say, `OK,
we'll take the plaques down,' '' said Bishop Lawrence
Provenzano, of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, who
called them ``offensive to the community.'' New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a review of all the
city's public art to identify ``symbols of hate'' for
possible removal.

Dallas, Texas

A bronze statue of Robert E. Lee, formally called the
Robert Edward Lee Sculpture, was removed in mid-September
2017 from Robert E. Lee Park, which was also named in honor
of the Confederate general. The Dallas City Council voted 13-
1 to remove the statue, which has stood in Lee Park for 81
years.
The park was dedicated to Lee by President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt in 1936 during a renaming ceremony of the park.

Daytona Beach, Fla.

Three Confederate monuments were removed from a city park
Friday morning. A city spokesperson said the plaques were
going to be cleaned up and taken to a nearby museum. The
decision to remove them did not require public input, the
spokes-person told FOX35, because they were donated and not
purchased with taxpayer funds.

Chapel Hill, N.C.

Protesters toppled the ``Silent Sam'' statue that has stood
on the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus
since 1913 on Aug. 20. More than 200 people had gathered and
were chanting ``hey, hey, ho, ho, this racist statue has got
to go.'' In a statement, UNC Chancellor Carol Folt called the
act ``unlawful and dangerous,'' adding that law enforcement
were investigating the incident. The statue had been a source
of controversy, with school officials claiming that state law
prevented them from removing it.

Durham, N.C.

A nearly-century old statue of a Confederate soldier was
toppled not long after Charlottesville by protesters
associated with the Workers World party. North Carolina
Central University student Takiyah Thompson, along with three
others, were arrested and charged with felonies in the days
following. As the bronze statue lay crumpled on the ground,
protesters could be seen kicking it on social media. A
Worthington assistant city manager said the community seeks
to be one that ``promotes tolerance, respect and inclusion.''
A statue of Lee was removed from the entrance to Duke
University Chapel on Aug. 19, 2017 and is set to be preserved
in some way to study the university's ``complex past.''
``I took this course of action to protect Duke Chapel, to
ensure the vital safety of students and community members who
worship there, and above all to express the deep and abiding
values of our university,'' university President Vincent
Price wrote in statement to the school.

Franklin, Ohio

A monument to Lee was removed in August 2017 by Franklin
workers. Gainesville, Fla.
A chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy paid
for the removal of a monument to Confederate soldiers known
locally as ``Old Joe'' that stood in front a building in
downtown Gainesville for 113 years. It was moved to a private
cemetery outside the city in August 2017.

Helena, Mont.

The state's capital city on Aug. 18, 2017 removed a
memorial to Confederate soldiers that had been in a public
park since 1916. The granite fountain, which was dismantled,
had been donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
City Parks and Recreation Director Amy Teegarden told the
Spokesman-Review that the fountain initially will be stored
in a city warehouse--but it could be reassembled at a future
date.

Kansas City, Mo.

A Confederate monument was boxed up in summer 2017 and is
slated to be removed. The Missouri division of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy had asked Kansas City Parks and
Recreation to find a new home for it.

Lexington, Ky.

Two 130-year-old Confederate statues were removed from
downtown Lexington on October 18 after the state's attorney
general issued an opinion giving the city permission to take
them down and move them to a private cemetery. Lexington used
private funds to take the statues, of Confederate General
John Hunt Morgan and John Breckinridge, a former U.S. Vice
President and the last Confederate Secretary of War. Private
funds will cover the cost of their upkeep in the cemetery.

Los Angeles, Calif.

A large stone monument commemorating Confederate veterans
was taken down Aug. 16 from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
after hundreds of people demanded its removal. The 6-foot
granite marker was loaded into a pickup truck and taken to a
storage facility. A petition calling for it to be taken down
had garnered 1,3000 signatures.

Louisville, Ky.

A statue of a Confederate soldier was removed from the
University of Louisville campus after a legal battle between
the city residents, the mayor and the Sons of Confederate
Veterans. It was relocated to Brandenburg, Kentucky, which
hosts Civil War Reenactments.

Madison, Wis.

A plaque honoring Confederate soldiers were removed Aug. 17
from a cemetery not long after residents and city leaders
began calling for it to be taken down. ``The Civil War was an
act of insurrection and treason and a defense of the
deplorable practice of slavery,'' said Mayor Paul Soglin in a
statement. ``The monuments in question were connected to that
action and we do not need them on city property.''

Memphis, Tenn.

Crews removed two Confederate statues from Memphis parks on
Dec. 20 after the city sold them to a private entity. The
City Council voted unanimously earlier in the day to sell
both Health Sciences and fourth Bluff Parks where the
Confederate statues, of Confederate General Nathan Bedford
Forrest and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, were
located.

Nashville, Tenn.

The Legendary Ryman Auditorium, where stars like Dolly
Parton, Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn made their Grand Ole
Opry debuts, quietly moved a sign on Sept 21 hanging the
venue's upper level that read ``1897 Confederate Gallery.''
Honoring an 1897 reunion of Confederate veterans at the
Ryman, the sign had been shrouded over the years but has now
been permanently removed from the main auditorium and added
to a museum exhibit that explains the history of the 125-
year-old music hall.

New Orleans, La.

New Orleans city workers removed four monuments in April
dedicated to the Confederacy and opponents of Reconstruction.
The city council had declared the monuments a public
nuisance. The monuments removed were of Confederate General
P.G.T. Beauregard, Davis and Lee. Also removed was the
Liberty Place Monument, which commemorated a Reconstruction
Era white supremacist attack on the city's integrated police
force. The mayor plans to replace with new fountains and an
American flag.

New York, N.Y.

Busts of Lee and Jackson were removed overnight on Aug. 17
from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community
College. Prior to its removal, Bro x Borough president Ruben
Siaz Jr. had said ``there is nothing great about two men who
committed treason against the United States to fight to keep
the institution of slavery in tact.''

Orlando, Fla.

A Confederate statue known as ``Johnny Reb'' was moved in
June 2017 by officials from Lake Eola Park to Greenwood
Cemetery in response to public outcry about it being symbolic
of hate and white supremacy. A spokesperson for Orlando's
mayor told Fox News that city officials are working with
historians on a new inscription to put the monument ``in
proper historical perspective.''

Richmond, Va.

The Richmond school board voted 6-1 on June 18, 2018 to
rename J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama
Elementary School. The process began several months prior and
involved input from students, teachers, administrators and
local stakeholders. Virginia is home to the largest number of
Confederate monuments and symbols in the country.

Rockville, Md.

A 13-ton bronze Confederate statue that had stood for
decades next to Rockville's Red Brick Courthouse was
relocated in July next to a privately run Potomac River ferry
named for a Confederate general. The relocation cost about
$100,000, according to the Washington Post.

San Diego, Calif.

A plaque honoring Davis was quietly removed Aug. 16, 2017
from a downtown park. ``This morning I ordered the immediate
removal of a plaque honoring the Confederacy at Horton Plaza
Park,'' Mayor Kevin
Faulconer told the Los Angeles Times. ``San Diegans stand
together against Confederate symbols of division.''

San Antonio, Texas

A Confederate statue was removed from Travis Park overnight
Sept. 1, 2017 after the City Council voted 10-1 in favor of
taking it down the previous day. There were no protesters
during or after the removal, according to local media
reports. ``This is, without context, a monument that
glorifies the causes of the Confederacy, and that's not
something that a modern city needs to have in a public
square,'' said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg following the
council vote.

San Antonio, Texas

A Jefferson Davis highway marker was removed in 2016.

St. Louis, Mo.

The Missouri Civil War Museum oversaw the removal in late
June 2017 of a 32-foot granite and bronze monument from
Forest Park, where it had stood for 103 years. It shouldered
the costs of removal and will hold the monument in storage
until a new home can be found for it. The agreement
stipulates the monument can be re-displayed at a Civil War
museum, battlefield or cemetery. In Boone County, a rock with
a plaque honoring Confederate soldiers that had been removed
from the University of Missouri campus was relocated a second
time after the Charleston AEM church massacre to a historic
site commemorating a nearby Civil War battle.

[[Page H2589]]

St. Petersburg, Fla.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman ordered city workers to
remove a bronze Confederate marker at noon on Aug. 15, 2017
after determining that it was on city property. It's being
held in storage until a new home can be found for it. ``The
plaque recognizing a highway named after Stonewall Jackson
has been removed and we will attempt to locate its owner,''
Kriseman said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times.

Washington, D.C.

The stewards of the National Mall announced this week that
the exhibit alongside the Thomas Jefferson Memorial will be
updated to showcase his status as both one of the country's
founders and a slaveholder. ``We can reflect the momentous
contributions of someone like Thomas Jefferson, but also
consider carefully the complexity of who he was,'' an
official with the Trust told the Washington Examiner. ``And
that's not reflected right now in the exhibits.''
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill in Sept. 2017
to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol Building.
The National Cathedral voted that same month to take down
two stained-glass windows of Confederate generals. The
removal could take a few days and workers seen putting up
scaffolding around the windows to start the process-
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, signed a bill to
replace a statue of a Confederate general at the U.S. Capitol
with one of Mary McLeod Bethune, a black woman who founded a
school that became BethuneCookman University in Daytona
Beach, Florida. She'll become the first black female to be
honored in Statuary Hall.

Worthington, Ohio

Worthington removed a historic marker Aug. 18 outside the
former home of a Confederate general.

[From the Huffington Post, Aug. 23, 2017]

Polls Find Little Support for Confederate Statue Removal--But How You
Ask Matters

(By Ariel Edwards-Levy)

Americans are generally unsupportive of attempts to remove
memorials honoring Confederate leaders, new polling shows--
although the way the question is framed may make a
significant difference.
In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, a third of Americans favor
removing statues and memorials of Confederate leaders, with
49 percent opposed. Just 29 percent of Americans favor
changing the names of streets, schools and buildings
commemorating Confederate leaders, while half are opposed.
Those surveyed are effectively split on whether the
Confederate flag is more a symbol of Southern pride (36
percent) or racism (35 percent), with the rest unsure or
saying it represents neither. But even if Americans don't
overwhelmingly recognize the flag as a symbol of racism,
there's also little widespread enthusiasm for its use. Just
34 percent of Americans say they approve of displaying the
Confederate flag in public, while 47 percent disapprove.
Opinions on the Confederate memorials are divided along
racial lines, but to an even greater degree along political
ones. Black Americans are 18 percentage points likelier than
white Americans to favor removing statues of Confederate
leaders--but the gap between Democrats and Republicans on the
question is 46 points. And the difference between Hillary
Clinton voters and those who supported President Donald Trump
in last year's election is a full 58 points.
Within the Democratic Party, white and black people are
about equally likely to favor removing the statues: 64
percent and 63 percent, respectively, say they'd like to see
them taken down. There are differences, however, by ideology
among the party's members--77 percent of self-described
liberal Democrats, but just 40 percent of self-described
moderates or conservatives--want to see the statues removed.
Most other surveys released in the past few weeks find at
best modest support for removing Confederate memorials,
although two distinctively-worded questions stand out in
these results.
The strongest support for keeping memorials in place came
in the poll conducted by Marist for NPR and PBS NewsHour,
which gave respondents a choice between letting statues
``remain as a historical symbol'' and removing them ``because
they are offensive to some people.'' (Arguably, the question
might have been better balanced had the first option been
written as ``because some people view them as a historical
symbol.'')
The only poll to find majority support for removing some
monuments, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy
Polling, adopted a framework far more sympathetic to the
monuments' opponents, asking about their ``relocation''
rather than their ``removal.''
PPP found voters split--39 percent to 34 percent--on
whether they ``support or oppose monuments honoring the
Confederacy.'' But those voters were largely willing to
relocate Confederate monuments if the issue was instead
presented as an attempt to move them ``to museums or other
historic sites where they can be viewed in proper historical
context.'' Unlike other questions, PPP also asked
specifically about memorials on government property, rather
than a broader question about public spaces.
Opinions surrounding Confederate symbols have also proved
to be fairly mutable in response to current events. After a
white supremacist killed nine members of a black church in
Charleston, South Carolina, two years ago, support for the
Confederate flag dropped quickly and significantly.
That doesn't appear to have happened yet following the
violence earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia,
sparked by a white nationalist rally opposing efforts to
remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. But if the
issue remains a flashpoint in the days to come, its
prominence could possibly polarize views even further than
they already are. (Charlottesville on Wednesday draped black
shrouds over the Lee statue and one for Confederate Gen.
Thomas ``Stonewall'' Jackson.)
Since Trump took office, Democrats have repeatedly rallied
around opinions that serve as anti-Trump shibboleths,
expressing sharply increased alarm about global warming,
mistrust of Russia and support for immigration. While
Democrats are already generally in favor of taking down the
Confederate statues, their level of support for doing so
ranges between 45 percent and 72 percent in recent surveys--
far lower than the party's almost unanimous dislike for the
president.
____

[From the Federalist, June 12, 2020]

Abolitionist Monuments Defaced by Anti-Racism' Rioters Is What Teaching
Fake History Gets America

(By Joy Pullmann)

The imagery couldn't be more direct. Across the nation,
rioting and unrest that has killed black Americans and
destroyed black neighborhoods has included the defacement of
historic monuments, including those to abolitionists.
The last wave of monument destruction, in 2017, largely
focused on Confederates and slave holders, erasing all the
accomplishments of figures such as George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson with a scarlet S, for slave-holder. This
time, the ignorance has descended even further.
The rioters are now tearing down and defacing memorials
wantonly, apparently assuming that if someone is being
celebrated that person is ``probably a racist,'' as the image
below says.
This prejudiced ignorance appears to be widespread, and
unchecked by local authorities. Several of the defaced
monuments are of abolitionists, including the Great
Emancipator Abraham Lincoln, as Tristan Justice reported
Thursday. For example:
``[I]n Boston, demonstrators also vandalized a monument to
the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the second all-black
volunteer regiment of the Union Army,'' Justice writes.'' . .
. Add to the growing list of civil rights freedom fighters
defaced by social justice protestors a Minnesota memorial to
three black men who were lynched in 1920 following false rape
accusations from a white woman.''
These mob actions are not the result of accidental
ignorance, but of cultivated prejudice. One month ago, I
collected just a few pieces of evidence pointing in this
direction:

A 2019 poll found . . . that ``more than 80 percent of
Americans ages 39 and younger could not say what rights the
First Amendment protects, and three-quarters or more couldn't
name any authors of The Federalist Papers.'' Another 2019
poll found ``just 57 percent of millennials believe the
Declaration of Independence `better guarantees freedom and
equality' than the Communist Manifesto.'' A 2016 Federalist
article notes, ``40 percent of recent grads were unaware that
Congress has the right to declare war and 10 percent think
Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court.''

In February, I presented more such evidence:

Today, 4 in 10 Americans who are younger than 39 disagree
that the United States ``has a history we should be proud
of,'' according to a 2019 poll by FLAG/YouGov. The poll also
found that half of all Americans agree the United States is a
sexist and racist country, including two-thirds of
millennials. Millennials showed the lowest level of agreement
with the statement, ``I'm proud to be an American.'' Thirty-
eight percent of ``younger Americans do not agree that
`America has a history that we should be proud of,' ''
according to the poll. 2019's annual poll from the Victims of
Communism Memorial Foundation found that 37 percent of
millennials think the United States is ``among the most
unequal societies in the world.''

The anti-American group of recent graduates is not a fringe
element. It is a substantial and ominously growing group of
voting-age adults.
The recent riots have given us many more indications that
America's education institutions do not merely keep kids
ignorant, but actively teach them to hate their country. Just
refer to any of the emails and website banners you've been
subjected to from every company you've ever purchased from
online, detailing about how they're all ``fighting racism''
by frantically donating to people and organizations that make
a living off heightened racial tensions.
These messages reveal that the nation's leadership class
has all been re-educated extremely successfully to believe a
pack of things that just aren't true about American history
and ideals. They are well-catechized in what is billed as
antiracist attitudes and activities that are rooted in false
information and more likely to instead increase racial
tensions.
Hardly a one of them, or any other American, can tell you
much about George Washington besides he was a slave owner.
Hardly

[[Page H2590]]

one of them can identify Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt as bona fide, deep-dyed racists. Not one of them
know one of the first acts of Congress--the Congress that
existed before today's Congress, the one that pre-dates the
Constitution--was to pass a massive document outlawing
slavery in territory newly acquired from Great Britain during
postwar negotiations.
But they all have heard of Audre Lorde, whose great
contribution to society is basically being black and gay.
They are all up on movies directed by black women like Ava
DuVernay and books by pathos-filled but fact-challenged black
writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates. They all know Michael Brown
put his hands up and said ``Don't shoot'' even though he
didn't. They're passing around discredited fake history like
The New York Times's 1619 Project as if it were accurate, and
using it to justify supporting totalitarian thought policing
because a black guy says this will solve racism.
These people's heads aren't empty. Their hate isn't blind.
It's very well-formed. And it's been deliberately aimed at
the very country that has paid for and overseen their
indoctrination into political violence.
I've now spent about a decade tracking information like
this, and have researched and written about it in more detail
than most, and therefore can assure you there is much more to
find. Entire books have and could be written to detail more.
Each generation of American children has learned less real
history than the generation before it. Each generation of
American children has instead been subject to greater levels
of indoctrination in place of genuine education. The alarms
have been sounded for decades, even a century, and nothing
effective has been done.
So now we have riots and unfettered monument smashing. This
is no accident. It is a logical consequence of convincing
ourselves, against all evidence, that America's public
education institutions are largely sound outside a few
crazies who never happen to be in one's own school district,
and even if they were, one's own children would of course be
impervious. Not like their stupid dupes of classmates, who in
just a few short years will go on to vote and tear down
monuments to American abolitionists in the name of anti-
racism.
This is what happens when conservatives spend 120 years
complaining about the left controlling academia while the
politicians conservatives vote for and cheerily profile in
our publications keep increasing funding for these
intellectual enemies of our country. Seventy years later, God
and man are still objects of scorn at Yale, and so is our
nation, but still we keep sending them our kids and money,
hiring their graduates to teach our children and rule us, and
funding their students.
The postwar convention of Minnesota niceness in politics
has been a disaster. That's because cowardice ultimately is
not nice. It leaves the innocent and the vulnerable
defenseless. And, as with Stockholm Syndrome, some of the
preyed upon ultimately turn predator themselves after
identifying too strongly with their captors.
How many more statues and American minds have to get
smashed before people who genuinely love their country gain
the courage to start fighting effectively for her restoration
before it's too late? Here's part of what that would look
like: Civil authorities first stopping vandalism and pursuing
the vandals to mete out their just, legally determined
penalties; second, politicians who claim to love America
fighting for her by refusing to send public funds to
institutions that fail to prove their graduates honor the
country that pays for their education. At this point, that's
just about all of them.
It's time for a new, non-racist boycott, divest, sanction
movement--for taxpayer-funded education. Liberate public
funds from these institutions with a century-long record of
failure. Return it to families. At least half of them will be
delighted to choose pro-America schools. That's a lot more
than pick proAmerica schools now. It would give this country
a chance to strive toward its ideals once more rather than
burn them in chaos.
____

[From the Federalist, Aug. 17, 2017]

Here's a List of All the Monuments Liberals Want To Tear Down So Far

(By Bre Payton)

In the wake of the violence that took place in
Charlottesville over last weekend, numerous activists and
politicians have called for the destruction of more
historical monuments, although a significant majority of
Americans (62 percent) think the monuments should stay put.
Only 27 percent of Americans think these statues should be
removed for fear of offending some people. As usual, public
opinion's not stopping liberals from pursuing an unpopular
agenda.
Though by no means comprehensive, here's a list of the
monuments that are facing calls for removal or have already
been torn down.

1. The Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC

In a PBS interview, Al Sharpton called for the Jefferson
Memorial in Washington DC to be abandoned because the third
president of the United States and author of the Declaration
of Independence was a slave owner.

2. Statues In The Capitol

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
have both called for statues commemorating Confederates to be
removed from the U.S. Capitol.

3. Mount Rushmore

Vice News's Wilbert L. Cooper called for Mount Rushmore to
be destroyed because the U.S. presidents whose visages are
carved into the mountainside are problematic by today's
standards.

4. Monuments In Baltimore

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh had Civil War monuments
removed from the city in the cover of night, without any
public hearings or any public discussion process. Pugh told
The New York Times that she used her emergency powers as
mayor to take down statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall
Jackson from a public park--surprising even some members of
the city council.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan also called for a statue
memorializing Roger B. Taney, a Supreme Court justice who
penned the infamous Dred Scott decision. which determined
that anyone descended from a slave could not be an American
citizen, be removed from the pedestal where it had been
erected since 1887.

5. Stone Mountain

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams called for
a frieze depicting Confederate soldiers to be removed from
Stone Mountain in Georgia.

6. Albert Pike Statue In Washington DC

In Washington DC, a group of protestors gathered on Sunday
to call for the statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general,
to be torn down.

7. Chicago Parks Named After Washington And Jackson

A Chicago pastor has asked the mayor to remove the names of
two former presidents--George Washington and Andrew Jackson--
from city parks because both men owned slaves.

8. Confederate Soldiers Monument In Durham, North Carolina

The Confederate Soldiers Monument was torn down by
protesters from its spot in front of the old Durham County
Courthouse on Monday. Four have been arrested in connection
to this instance of vandalism. The Workers World Party
released a statement claiming that it should be their right
to tear the monuments down.

9. Monuments Throughout The State of North Carolina

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has called for additional
monuments to be torn down and is asking the state legislature
to repeal a 2015 law that prevents the destruction of Civil
War monuments.

10. Monuments Throughout The State of Virginia

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Virginia Gov.
Terry McAuliffe is asking state legislators and city
officials to tear down monuments throughout the Old Dominion.

11. `Old Joe' Statue In Gainesville, Florida

In Gainesville, Florida, a statue of a Confederate soldier
was removed Monday from outside a county administrative
building.

12. Statues In Lexington, Kentucky

The City Council of Lexington, Kentucky voted unanimously
on Tuesday to remove Confederate statues from the lawn in
front of an old county courthouse. In response, a white
nationalist group is reportedly planning a protest.

13. Statues In Louisville, Kentucky

On Monday, protesters gathered in favor of removing a
statue of Civil War officer John B. Castleman from
Louisville, Kentucky.

14. Statues In Nashville Tennessee, Including One On Private Property

In Nashville, Tennessee, protestors gathered to call for
the removal of a monument depicting Nathan Bedford Forrest, a
lieutenant in the Confederate army, from the state capitol on
Monday. People have also called for a memorial of Forrest,
which sits on private property, to be hidden from view of the
nearby highway.

15. Two Statues Vandalized In Wilmington, North Carolina

``A white flag was hung on the gun of the statue and its
head and feet were spray painted,'' WECT reports. ``Officers
were called back to the scene and found a rope tied to the
statue's neck. Upon examination, officers said they believe
it was likely tied to a vehicle in an attempt to pull the
statue over.'' Another statue was marked with graffiti.

16. A Cemetery Marker In Los Angeles

A statue that stood in the Confederate section of Hollywood
Forever Cemetery for more than 90 years was toppled on
Wednesday, Los Angeles Times reports. A plaque commemorating
Jefferson Davis was also removed from a park this week.
Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I will say that as we go forward, if we
continue to denigrate all police officers because of a few police
officers, if we denigrate all of our society because of a few in our
society, we will see this Nation, the ideals of individual freedom,
erased from this Earth.
I used to do work at multilateral institutions and at the United
Nations, and I will tell you this: This country, to me, is special and
unique; imperfect, but the idea, the ideals, the people who have gone
before us, how can we erase what they have done? Some made magnificent
sacrifices that we might enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today, and yet
they were wrong on other issues in their lives.

[[Page H2591]]

How can we erase our history? We must face our history squarely and
openly and build upon that history to the great promise of the ideals
of this Nation if we are going to persist as a Nation.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

____________________