[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 111 (Friday, July 5, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





               CELEBRATING JULY 4TH INDEPENDENCE DAY 2024

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, July 5, 2024

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, each July 4th we have an opportunity to 
pause and reflect upon our past and celebrate our future for what we as 
a Nation have accomplished.
  Today, we can celebrate that over the nearly two and a half centuries 
we have conquered the crucibles faced: from the civil war, global 
conflicts and global deadly pandemics and an assault on our Capitol--
the citadel of Democracy--the birthplace of all modern democracies.
  The success of our democracy and the means provided to the people of 
this Nation to shape its present and guide it into the future has been 
and continues to be the ballot box.
  Martin Luther King's Speech at the March on Washington explains the 
power of the vote to empower We The People to shape our destiny.

       ``Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry 
     the federal government about our basic rights . . . ``Give us 
     the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal 
     government for passage of an anti-lynching law. . . ``Give us 
     the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of 
     good will . . . ``Give us the ballot and we will place judges 
     on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy 
     . . . ``Give us the ballot and we will quietly and non-
     violently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the 
     Supreme Court's decision of May 17, 1954 [in Brown v. the 
     Board of Education]

  We are not governed by the rule of might makes right--which is what 
almost happened when January 6 insurrectionists attempted to overthrow 
our governmental process for electing our Nation's president.
  We are Nation of laws--made by Americans on the behalf of Americans.
  Which is why it also important to affirm and understand our history 
as Americans.
  The United States came into being under impossible odds, a vast land 
mass housing separate colonies of disparate people with parochial 
interests up against the world's sole superpower of their time.
  After the revolution, and a government was organized, King George was 
not alone in predicting its demise, because it was a collection of 
colonies trying to rule itself as a Nation.
  The first schisms appeared as the industrial revolution took hold and 
women began to push against the bonds that limited them in social, 
economic and political expression.
  Frederick Douglass a man ahead of his time championed the rights of 
women to vote and expressed the frustration of Black persons who knew 
the constitution's acceptance of slaves as three fifths of a person 
were wrong headed and counterproductive to the potential of the new 
Nation.
  Douglass, wrote about ``What to the slave is your 4th of July'':

       ``[A] day that reveals to him, more than all other days in 
     the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the 
     constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your 
     boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, 
     swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and 
     heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted 
     impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow 
     mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and 
     thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, 
     are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and 
     hypocrisy--a thin veil to cover up crimes which would 
     disgrace a nation of savages''.

  But Frederick Douglass was not bitter with America, he was determined 
to perfect America by making it better through his writings, lectures, 
speeches, and civic activism.
  The efforts at perfecting this Nation are small and sometimes very 
great.
  I am happy to have contributed to this effort by introducing 
legislation that led to the establishment of Juneteenth as a Federal 
Holiday--making manifest the Nation's rejection of slavery and embrace 
of the freedom and equality of rights Douglass hoped for.
  The work of past generations and our work today is to perfect this 
democracy--to keep the experiment going--until we have made it 
consistent with its founding document:


            THE PREAMBLE OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

       We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
     created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
     certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, 
     Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these 
     rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their 
     just powers from the consent of the governed . . .

  To celebrate our Nation's continued existence would be hollow if we 
do not remember and acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of 
the men and women in the uniform services who fill the ranks of the 
Army, Airforce, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines, to 
defend this Nation.
  We also owe our thanks to the nameless and faceless thousands of 
brave and patriotic public servants who are in our Nation's 
intelligence agencies who serve in support of the missions of the 
uniformed services through the Executive Office of the President.
  These brave Americans know well Lincoln's Lyceum speech, in which he 
warned us about the need to be vigilant in defense of our precious 
democracy--and that nothing should be taken for granted about this 
experiment.
  They know that attacks and threats on our democracy should not be 
ignored--the cost of doing so can be grave.
  They know, like many of you, that our Nation was not a century old 
when it was plunged into a civil war--with brother taking up arms 
against brother--where the soil and creeks of battlefields turned red 
with the life blood of warriors in conflict about which direction the 
Nation would go--would it be slaveholding, freedom loving or would it 
end.
  The Civil War made manifest Lincoln's warning that a house divided 
against itself cannot stand.
  This fourth of July--we must rededicate ourselves to work towards a 
system of democracy that hears the voices of all citizens no matter 
their color, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, or social 
or economic status, for if we do less than allow them access to the 
ballot box where all votes are counted as cast--it would dishonor those 
who fought and died over the centuries so that this country might 
endure.
  And we must give thanks to those who dedicate themselves to our 
Nation's preservation for the next generations to come.
  I know that this is a Nation of patriots--and as we honor its birth 
we may not celebrate in the same way--but I believe that our love of 
country is real and present in the minds and hearts of the people of 
this Nation.
  Self-governance of a Nation by the people and for the people who come 
from such diversity is an experiment that has yet to run its course.
  While living this experiment for two-hundred and forty-five years--we 
have also expanded and extended the blessings of liberty to former 
slaves, women, young people, native Americans, Asian-Pacific Islanders, 
Hispanics, and LGBTQI+ persons.
  While we are still a work in progress, as each generation learns how 
best to perfect our democracy, we indeed have a great deal to be 
thankful for this July 4th.

                          ____________________