[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 207 (Wednesday, December 1, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H6722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MEMORIAL GARDEN FOR RETIRED STATUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Burchett) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, State and local governments across the 
country are caving to woke demands and removing statues of certain 
United States Presidents from their public buildings. Last week, Thomas 
Jefferson's statue--if you can imagine, Thomas Jefferson's statue--was 
removed from New York City's City Hall.
  Radical leftists want these statues removed because their goal is to 
erase every part of our Nation's history that doesn't get their stamp 
of approval. They don't want to see statues of historical figures they 
don't like. They don't want you to see them, either, Mr. Speaker.
  Governments can decide what they want to display in public buildings, 
but what happens to the statues of Presidents they remove? Will they 
get covered with a tarp or moved to a dusty corner of a basement 
somewhere? Or even worse than that, will they decorate our country's 
landfills?
  Instead of taking up space in some storage or waste facility, statues 
of U.S. Presidents that get removed from government buildings should go 
to a national memorial garden. That way they can still be viewed by 
people who want to see them and learn about those who led our country 
in the past.
  In fact, there is a pastor in my district who is a good friend of 
mine; he is willing to take presidential statues that these politicians 
don't want. Pastor Clarence Sexton will start the national garden 
himself at Crown College in Powell, Tennessee, where he serves as 
president.
  Mr. Speaker, he has probably one of the best collections of United 
States memorabilia that I think I have seen outside of the Smithsonian 
and has letters and autographs and things from every President since 
George Washington.
  The far left can pretend all it wants that these figures do not 
exist, but you cannot cancel history, Mr. Speaker.


                   UFOs are of Great Public Interest

  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, last summer's UFO report from the Director 
of National Intelligence was bogus. The report raised more questions 
than answers about unidentified objects in the skies. It stunk of a 
government coverup, Mr. Speaker.
  Now the Pentagon is starting a new office to collect information on 
these unidentified objects. The office is called the Airborne Object 
Identification and Management Synchronization Group. I don't know where 
they came up with that name. I am sure they paid somebody a lot of 
money to come up with that.
  I do not trust this new office, Mr. Speaker. I don't think it will be 
transparent with lawmakers or the public about its findings. This is a 
national security issue. Congress needs to know what is going on so we 
can respond accordingly.
  Today, I am requesting the leaders of this new office bring Members 
of Congress in on their UFO findings. This is a matter of great public 
interest and has been for a very long time to a lot of Americans. Our 
government should not hide the truth from us for another second.
  If this new office is to be held accountable, our country will get 
more reports like the one that came out last summer or, worse, they 
will be silent and hope we all just forget about the phenomena.
  We do not need to fear these airborne unidentified objects. They 
would have shown themselves to be dangerous a long time ago by now if 
they were a threat. Our citizens and country can handle the truth, Mr. 
Speaker.

                          ____________________