[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12275-12276]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           ANNOUNCEMENT OF DECISION NOT TO RUN FOR REELECTION

  (Mrs. MEEK of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Members of my beloved House, it is 
no secret that I love this institution and I love my job in Congress. 
Working with all of you over the years has been one of the great joys 
of my life.
  I told this to my constituents in Miami on Sunday, because they mean 
a lot to me. And I love all of you, too, both the Republicans and the 
Democrats, even the independents, so I wanted you to hear it from me 
directly that I have decided not to run for reelection this fall. So 
you will have me until December. I have enjoyed this stay. It has been 
a good run, Mr. Speaker. It has been a good run.
  I was elected to Congress in 1992. Corrine Brown, Alcee Hastings and 
I were the first African Americans elected from the State of Florida 
since right after Reconstruction. I said then that we waited 100 years 
to get to this body, so we were very anxious to get to work, and so we 
did. I came here after 13 years as a State representative and a State 
senator in the Florida legislature.
  I have been impressed with the House from the very first. Every time 
I look at the Capitol dome and look at Lady Liberty I am more and more 
in awe. It will never get old to me. I am a good American. I love 
America.
  I was elected to Congress during a crisis time in my community. 
Hurricane Andrew, the costliest hurricane of all time, had just 
devastated the entire south end of my district. We worked very hard 
together, both Republicans and Democrats.
  I came here with two Republicans, we were together in the Florida 
legislature, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Corrine 
Brown, ``Queen Corrine,'' from the Florida legislature. We came here 
together and we have stood hand in hand ever since. And Alcee Hastings 
came

[[Page 12276]]

with us. He reached the highest pinnacle of the judiciary in our State 
as a Federal judge. So we came here in honor, and we love this Congress 
and we love this country.
  So while our constituents were cleaning up all of the devastation by 
the hurricane, I came to the Congress, and the Congress responded and 
helped us build back that community. It has been a lot of work, Mr. 
Speaker, and a lot of it, the people you see here, helped make it 
happen through the years. They helped us restore our community, helped 
us restore the dignity and the quality of life of many of the people we 
represented.
  A lot of problems arise in my district many times. I bring them here 
to your lap and to your feet and to your hands, and many of you, 
particularly my comrades and colleagues on the Committee on 
Appropriations, they always do whatever they can to help. Always. That 
is why I love this body so very much. I was just gifted and blessed to 
be placed on the Committee on Appropriations so I could bring the 
direct wishes and concerns of my constituency to this body, and I 
appreciate it.

                              {time}  1630

  I was confirmed just last fall on the evening of September 11 when I 
joined so many of you on the steps of the Capitol the evening after the 
terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon and we sang God Bless 
America together, Democrats and Republicans, Northerners and 
Southerners and Westerners, one Nation under God, indivisible, united 
and strong.
  Do I sound maudlin? Do I sound soft? Do I sound sad? I never asked 
for forgiveness for standing up for this country. I never asked for 
forgiveness for standing up for military preparedness. I was around 
during World War II. I will always want this country to be strong and 
to be prepared.
  Throughout my career I have always tried to think of the little 
people and to use the power of government to help improve their lives. 
I know what it is like not to have much and not to have many prospects. 
I rose from the lowest part of the neighborhood I grew up in 
Tallahassee. They called it The Bottom. It was ``the black bottom.'' I 
was thinking of this the other day because just a few weeks ago the 
adventurer Curt took me to Moscow and Beijing on a CODEL. I met with 
the Presidents of Russia and China. I have discussed national issues 
with Presidents Carter, Clinton, and Bush. I have been there, Mr. 
Speaker. I have talked to all of them, walked with kings as the poet 
would say, but not lost the common touch.
  This one black woman from The Bottom, it was one day in the State 
capitol in Florida that I was not even able during those days to go 
into the capitol and I lived two blocks from the capitol in 
Tallahassee, and I always looked up at the capitol and wondered if some 
day I would become a part of it. Who would imagine that I would become 
a part of the Florida senate, of the Florida house? Who would imagine 
that I would come here to Washington to be in the Halls of Congress? 
This is a revered body. It is a body that is well respected.
  I grew up during the period of intolerance and strict segregation. It 
was so unfair, and it left a lasting impression on me, and I knew I had 
to continue to work. I saw good people held down and prevented from 
rising to their potential simply because of their color. I knew of good 
men who were killed for the same reason. I saw that power could be used 
to build or destroy, and I saw how powerlessness could lead to 
frustration and anger.
  I can only state to this Congress, to every last one of you, how much 
I respect my blackness and my racial identity. I feel very strongly 
that there is still a debt we owe to the people who came before us.
  When I was a child, I heard Roland Hayes sing. I got a chance to hear 
George Washington Carver speak. I heard W.E.B. DuBois speak. I heard 
Marian Anderson sing. I read the poems of Countee Cullen. So that great 
diversity and love that God has given came from my experience as a 
black person.
  I stand before you today as the granddaughter of a slave. How 
wonderful. When you look at me, you can see that our Nation's legacy of 
slavery and racism is not so far removed from our lives today. But we 
have to keep fighting. One of the reasons that I was elected to this 
office was to remind you of that, and I have tried to do so to the best 
of my ability.
  In my 10 years in the Congress and over three decades of service to 
my community, I have tried to live by a commitment every day of my 
life, and that is service is a price you pay for the space that God has 
let you occupy.
  Because of the love of a strong Christian family, loving parents, 
protective older brothers and sisters, outsiders who took an interest 
in me, both white and black, and a strong desire to succeed, I was able 
to move forward.
  Education is the springboard, Mr. Speaker. I have stood for it since 
I have been here. Improving the quality of life in housing and good 
health care, these are springboards. So I know it is a vehicle, and 
that is why I think we should continue in the Halls of Congress to do 
so.
  I wanted to say a few things here today because of what I have lived 
through. We do not have time for me to go through all of it. One of 
these days I will write a book so each of you can read it. And other 
than that I will be coming back from time to time. I have six 
grandchildren and I have three children, and they all know of my 
legacy. And when I go back home, I am not going to sit still.
  My colleagues need to know some of the reasons why I am not retiring. 
I am not retiring because I am so feeble I cannot come up here every 
day. I am not retiring because I do not feel I can do the job, and I am 
not retiring because I feel that if I were to run I would be defeated. 
Mr. Speaker, I am almost undefeatable. I am almost that way in my mind, 
so that is no reason why I am leaving. But I want to go now, because I 
have other things to do and other careers to pursue.
  I love this country very much, and serving it has been the greatest 
honor of my life. We need more respect. We need respect of diversity, 
we need to embrace it, and we have to listen. I fully appreciate now 
how progress rarely comes in giant steps, but in small, incremental 
lurches forward. So I will retire from Congress, fully confident that 
our great Nation will continue to prosper.
  Dr. Benjamin Mays, the former President of Morehouse College said, 
``It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a 
calamity not to dream.''
  Mr. Speaker, I hope all of my colleagues will remember me as someone 
who tried as hard as she could to do both.

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