[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 136 (Friday, July 31, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4207-H4208]
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. And still I rise, Mr. Speaker.
  It is my honor to stand here in the House of Representatives. It is 
my honor to be a Member of this Congress, and I am grateful to the many 
persons who made great sacrifices so that I would have this 
opportunity.
  Today I would like to use this opportunity to make an appeal to my 
colleagues, to my friends, and to people who are within the sound of my 
voice. I want to make an appeal to persons to please take the 
coronavirus seriously. I ask that you take it seriously because it is 
not a joke. It is not a laughing matter. People are dying. We have had 
over 150,000 deaths in this country. It is not a laughing matter. We 
have had over 4 million cases in this country. It is not a hoax. It is 
real.
  I am asking my friends, my colleagues, and those who are within the 
sound of my voice, please, let's do what we can to protect ourselves 
and others. I beg that we would please wear the face mask. Let us wash 
our hands. Let us maintain the distancing.
  I know that it won't happen all of the time. We can have a memory 
lapse. We might just rush out of the house and not have our mask on. 
But let's not, with intentionality, leave home without it. Let's not, 
with intentionality, mix and mingle with the persons around us without 
a mask on. Let us, with intentionality, do all that we can to protect 
ourselves and others.
  This virus is not relenting at this time. It is relentless. Hospital 
ICU beds in many places in hot spots around the country are at 
capacity.
  We see evidence that this virus is going to continue for a while 
longer. I don't know how long. I am not sure anybody does. But I do 
know that we ought not take it lightly, that we ought not allow persons 
who are within our space, our personal space, if you will, to catch it 
from us. I don't want to give it to someone, and I would trust that no 
one would want to give it to me.
  So let's be sensible. Let's be responsible. Let's honor the protocols 
that we have set here in the House of Representatives. Let's honor the 
protocols to social distance.
  I know it is difficult. I won't pretend that I keep the social 
distancing as properly as I should. I understand. I make mistakes. But 
I don't do it intentionally. I am not going to intentionally take off 
my mask and communicate with persons.
  I am not going to try in any way to demonstrate that somehow I am 
invulnerable, I am invincible, this is a joke, this is a hoax, and that 
we need not try to protect ourselves from this virus. I am not going to 
do it, and I am going to ask that others would not do it.
  Let's love each other and protect each other. This is a matter of 
life and death.
  Finally, on this topic of the virus, we have had some persons who 
contract the virus who are associated with the House. I want you to 
know, Mr. Speaker, that I care about them. I pray for them. And I want 
you to know that I am asking that we all make sure that this doesn't 
become a means by which we distance ourselves from other people simply 
because they have had the virus.
  My hope is that persons who contract it will heal and they will be 
back at work and we will treat them with the same love and respect that 
we have always treated them, show them that they are welcome back to 
the House of Representatives. This is something that we can do to show 
each other how much we appreciate the persons who have survived this 
virus.
  I hope that every person who contracts it will survive it. I don't 
want to see anybody lose life or become chronically injured in some way 
because of this virus. It ought not be that way, and my hope is that we 
won't allow it to happen in the sense that people will contract it and 
we will find ourselves distancing ourselves from them.
  As I am about to leave now, I want to mention one additional item 
that is important. I am still concerned about invidious discrimination, 
and I am concerned that we are reaching a plateau now as it relates to 
the movement that had as a part of its genesis the death of George 
Floyd.
  I am concerned that I don't see the movement continuing with the 
amount of momentum that it richly and justly deserves. I am concerned 
that we are slowly getting back to bigotry as usual, we are slowly 
getting back to a point where we will do more talking about bigotry and 
discrimination than acting on the elimination of bigotry and 
discrimination.
  It really is a major issue in the country, and we should not allow 
ourselves to slip back into making it more about what we think ought to 
happen than doing what we can do to prevent this sort of discrimination 
from continuing to happen.

  So I am concerned, and because I am concerned, when we return, I hope 
to take some measures, some steps, if you will, to help us to remember 
that it doesn't just go away because we don't have a front-page issue. 
The front-page issues heighten our awareness, but it is still there 
after it is no longer on the front page, this invidious discrimination, 
this homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia, all of the various 
phobias that harm people--that other people produce to harm people, I 
might add. So I am concerned, and I refuse to allow this issue to 
simply become another incident and we get back to bigotry as usual.
  At some point, we do need a department of reconciliation in this 
country so that people can depend on our government doing all that it 
can to eliminate discrimination and hate in the country.
  At some point, we need to have this department functioning at the 
highest level, with a secretary who reports to the President of the 
United States and that is funded properly so that we don't find 
ourselves siloing each circumstance that involves invidious 
discrimination and dealing with each one individually as opposed to 
dealing with all of this collectively.
  We have come a long way in this country, no question about it, but we 
dearly and truly have a long way that we have to go. What better way to 
get there than to say to the world that we are drawing this line, a 
bright line, and that we are going to have a department that is 
dedicated to the elimination of segregation to the extent that it 
exists--and it does exist in some places in our country--but also to 
eliminate this invidious discrimination wherever it exists in our 
country and against whomever it is perpetrated.
  Is it systemic? Yes, it is systemic.

[[Page H4208]]

  Just recently, a very prominent person in our country, the Attorney 
General, had some problem acknowledging that systemic racism exists. It 
does. I have no problems acknowledging it, nor should anyone else, 
because the empirical evidence is there to support the fact that it 
exists.
  So my hope is that we won't get back to bigotry as usual, and when we 
come back from this opportunity to work in our districts that we will 
take up issues associated with racism and invidious discrimination here 
in the Congress of the United States of America.
  This is where people expect us to act. And if we act, we can lead the 
Nation as opposed to reacting to what the Nation is doing. It is time 
for us to take a lead and get rid of this scourge on our society.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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