[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 21808-21809]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         WORDS OF VERNON JORDAN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 6, 2001

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to draw to the attention of the House 
the words of a distinguished American, Vernon Jordan. In this House, he 
is well known through the major roles that chart his extraordinary 
life: civil rights worker, civil rights leader, leading lawyer, 
international investment banker. Mr. Jordan's life will be understood 
through his own words in his autobiography entitled Vernon Can Read, 
just released and excerpted in the October 29th issue of Newsweek.
  However, Mr. Speaker, in light of what September 11 brought down on 
our country, what I want to submit for the Record today is a 
remarkable, recent speech by Mr. Jordan to the First Congregational 
United Church of Christ located in his hometown, Atlanta, Georgia.
  I can only imagine how the hometown congregation must have received 
these inspiring

[[Page 21809]]

and thoughtful words from Vernon, whom they saw off to DePauw 
University as a boy and have seen him return as one of the nation's 
wise men. I have no doubt that Mr. Jordan is also so regarded by this 
House and ask that excerpts from his remarks be made a part of today's 
Record.

                 First Congregational Church in Atlanta

       Thank you, for inviting me here today and for this 
     opportunity to join you for your homecoming service.
       For what I am and what I have achieved, I owe that 
     experience and to the people who guided me while I have run 
     this race . . . through all of life's trials and 
     tribulations, joys and triumphs.
       I had planned to talk about those people today . . . about 
     my parents who steered me on a straight and narrow path . . . 
     about my teachers at Walker Street, E.A. Ware and David T. 
     Howard High Schools, the counselors at the Butler Street YMCA 
     . . . and about the role of the black church, and its 
     historic mission as a beacon of hope and opportunity for 
     black people.
       But like all Americans, my thoughts this past fortnight 
     have been elsewhere.
       My thoughts have been with those many thousands of innocent 
     victims of horror . . . with their families and friends . . . 
     and with our wounded nation.
       My thoughts have been about how we got to this perilous 
     situation . . . what we must do to overcome it . . . and of 
     the need to affirm our values--especially as those values 
     come under attack from the forces of evil.
       The world has changed radically in the past decade. It is a 
     world that has become more complex and more integrated than 
     ever.
       The great worldwide division of the past half-century was 
     the struggle between communism and freedom. Freedom won. The 
     American model of freedom and free markets is now the world's 
     model.
       But freedom's victory is being tested in a world of diverse 
     cultural, social, and economic traditions. The giant leap 
     forward of technology and free trade have left many behind. 
     The pervasive march of modernity disrupts traditional 
     cultures. Worldwide migrations sharpen culture clashes. The 
     industrial world ages while the developing world's population 
     growth strains its ability to feed or employ its people. The 
     power of new multinational institutions--the European Union, 
     the World Trade Organization, worldwide corporations, and 
     mass media, among others--breed resentment and distrust.
       About the only constant is the craving for full 
     participation in political decisions that affect people's 
     lives and in the economic decisions that affect their 
     livelihoods.
       That is why many people believe the rush for markets and 
     profits leads to exploitation, unemployment and human 
     suffering. Americans, who have benefitted from the triumph of 
     markets, dismiss such feelings at our peril. For our vision 
     of a fair, democratic capitalist society must include social 
     justice and equitable division of the benefits of the free 
     market.
       Absent that, there is a tendency toward a turning within, a 
     rejection of the outside world and modern ways, a rush to a 
     form of traditionalism that wallows in envy and hate--a 
     traditionalism that is not only economically 
     counterproductive, but reflects insularity and deep mistrust 
     of all outsiders.
       Broadening the base of freedom and prosperity should be a 
     cornerstone of America's policy. Not only because it might 
     shrink the numbers of disaffected who can be recruited for 
     terrorism. But because it is the right thing to do, the just 
     thing, the moral thing. And it is also practical, for the 
     more people who are productive and well-fed and housed, the 
     higher everyone's living standards will be. The world over.
       But it is easy for many of us to be so fixed upon existing 
     poverty and injustices that we confuse case and effect. They 
     are not the causes of terrorism.
       A hatred of modernity and a love of evil are the causes of 
     terrorism. And in this world, as we have so painfully seen, 
     there is no hiding place from terrorism.
       It is good to remember that at a homecoming service whose 
     theme is ``For the Glory of God and the Good of Humankind.'' 
     For destroying innocent lives has nothing to do with the good 
     of humankind and everything to do with pure, unadulterated 
     evil.
       Our response to the evil of September Eleventh is very 
     clear. By definition, those acts were acts of war. By the 
     principles of international law, self-defense and common 
     sense, we will strike back at the networks of terrorists who 
     attacked us, the networks that support them and are committed 
     to harm us, and the governments that give them shelter, arms 
     and resources.
       War is a terrible thing. No one in his or her right mind 
     wants it. But if it is forced upon us--as it has been--it 
     must be pursued as Jeremiah says, with ``fury like fire, and 
     burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your 
     doings.''
       Even as we do so, we must be clear about what we are 
     fighting for and why. For many Americans today, gripped by 
     shock and trauma, simple revenge is enough. But great causes 
     cannot be rooted in negativism. Nor can they be driven by raw 
     emotions.
       We did not go into World War II solely to avenge Pearl 
     Harbor or because the Nazis were bad. We went to war--and won 
     that war to defend freedom and democracy from those who would 
     replace it with tyranny and despotism.
       Yes, our democracy was flawed. But our affirmation of 
     democracy during World War II set the stage for its expansion 
     and growth in the post-war era.
       Now we are called upon to defend freedom from chaos and 
     mindless terror. This new kind of war will be long and 
     difficult, for the enemy is elusive and as we have seen, 
     modern societies are highly vulnerable.
       We will win that war if we fight for our American values 
     and if we act consistent with those values.
       If we defeat them militarily but in the process become less 
     free, less open--they will have won.
       Such measures are part of being at war and they are 
     acceptable limitations so long as our basic freedoms are 
     intact.
       We must not allow the inroads on those basic freedoms that 
     can happen in times of national emergency. In World War One, 
     there was a ``Red Scare'' in which the government ignored 
     constitutional rights like freedom of speech. In World War 
     Two, Japanese Americans, including U.S. citizens were forced 
     into detention camps.
       Such things happen during wartime, when feelings run high. 
     They must not happen again. For even if we win battles, we 
     would lose the war. We must be on guard against subverting 
     our constitution and our civil liberties in the name of 
     defending the constitution and liberty.
       The terrorists who turned civilian planes into destructive 
     missiles were sending a message. It was a message that was 
     not addressed to the White House or the Pentagon or to Wall 
     Street. It was addressed ``to whom it may concern'' and that 
     means all Americans and all free people.
       But they are all Americans. And in the eyes of the 
     terrorists, they all stand for values that are central to the 
     American fabric. And that was enough to make them targets. 
     Just as you and I and all our loved ones are targets now.
       Black Americans hold America's values dearly. At times, it 
     seemed as if we were the only ones who did. When this nation 
     was in the grip of racism and segregation, it was black 
     people who reminded America of its basic values of freedom 
     and democracy. It was black Americans who helped America to 
     close the gap between its beliefs and its practices.
       And America has responded to our pleas and our demands by 
     changing. Not as fast as we might wish. Not as willingly as 
     we hoped. But change it was. We must understand that change 
     and help moved it forward. For we cannot be frozen in a 
     bitter past; we cannot forever lick yesterday's wounds.
       And if we have done so much when we had so little, think 
     how much more we can do now that we have so much more.
       We have in fact changed the face of American and the world. 
     We are a great people, and we are patriotic Americans. Take 
     heart from our glorious past and be encouraged by it because 
     it can inspire us to understand the great things we can do 
     when we come together to do them.

     

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