[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18458]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         AMERICA SHOULD BE STRONG PARTICIPANT IN UNITED NATIONS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today to talk for 
1 minute about today being United Nations Day. It is also the beginning 
of the decade of peace in the world. They are trying to begin to 
emphasize how to bring peace in a variety of different places across 
the globe.
  It is important for us in this body to recognize the important part 
we play, not only by our contributions to the U.N. in which we have 
lagged seriously behind, but in our support for what goes on.
  The United States has, from time to time, supported the U.N. when it 
has been in our interests and at other times we walk away from them. 
But as we look across the globe with all of the places, Sierra Leone or 
Liberia or Somalia, when we look, we see always that the U.N. sometimes 
has our support and sometimes does not.
  Now, if we are going to be the leader of the world, we certainly are 
economically, but if we are politically going to be leaders of the 
world, we must participate in the United Nations in a very strong way. 
That means paying our dues.

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