[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
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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.
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