[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 16, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H4348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   VIOLENCE NOR SILENCE IS THE ANSWER

  (Ms. STANSBURY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, violence is never the answer, but neither 
is silence.
  We must reject political violence in all of its forms and push back 
against all who would seek to stoke further violence, division, and 
fear amongst us. In fact, the very foundation of our democracy is built 
on the idea that the voices of our people are our most powerful tool, 
exercised at the ballot box, the debate podium, and in our communities. 
That is how we come together as a nation to form a more perfect Union.
  Indeed, the very concept of democracy was forged in that crucible, 
that a government by the people and for the people is exercised through 
the fellowship of debate.
  Let us join in that fellowship to see our fellow Americans as 
brothers and sisters, as neighbors and friends, even when we disagree. 
Yet, let this not become a moment to silence debate or silence dissent 
or silence the truth or those of conscience who work to hold our 
leaders accountable and right the wrongs of an unjust world. That is 
how history will remember us: those who stood, those who spoke, and 
those who fought to protect our democracy and bend the arc of history 
toward justice.

                          ____________________