[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23879]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



     COMMEMORATING 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY MEDIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise to help celebrate the 25th 
anniversary of the Alliance for Community Media. This is a nonprofit 
organization which was founded in 1976 to provide access to voices and 
opinions that otherwise would not be heard. The alliance promotes this 
idea through public education, progressive legislation, regulatory 
outreach, coalition building, and grassroots organizing.
  The alliance's primary goal is to educate and advocate on behalf of 
the community at large. It works with the Federal Communication 
Commission, Congress, State legislatures, State regulatory agencies, 
and other partners to ensure that all people, regardless of race, 
gender, disability, religion or economic status, have access to 
available technology to express their opinions, to express their views.
  In my congressional district back in Chicago and in the western 
suburbs, I use extensively this media to reach out to my constituents. 
We do a program called Hotline 21, where citizens can call in and voice 
their opinions and get answers to their questions. That is a 30-minute 
one. We do another one that is an hour where individuals come in and 
talk about public issues, public policy directors, notions, concepts 
and ideas. As a matter of fact, the group of community producers, 
individuals who have their own shows, who have learned how to use 
technology, how to use cameras, as a matter of fact, they have built up 
quite a following; and everybody knows that whatever it is that they 
want to get out, they can get it out through this media.
  So I again commend the Alliance for Community Media, congratulate 
them on their 25th year anniversary; and I also congratulate their 
executive director, Bunnie Riedel, and her associates for having done 
an outstanding job and for having helped to keep alive the notion that 
as people talk and interact, share notions, ideas and concepts that 
really binds us closer together as a Nation, it helps to promote the 
concepts of democracy and it helps to make America a stronger, more 
open, more productive Nation.

                          ____________________