[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18715-18716]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICANS NEED THE TRUTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 160-or-so years ago, Congress passed 
a rule prohibiting Members of Congress from debating the issue of 
slavery. The issue of slavery, the greatest blemish on our Nation's 
history, was actually not debated in Congress for many years because 
conservative leaders of this body simply said it could not be, and 
passed a rule prohibiting it.
  John Quincy Adams, former President and later Member of Congress in 
the 1830s and 1840s came to this Chamber of the House of 
Representatives and collected letters from his constituents. He called 
them petitions from mostly women's group in Massachusetts. Women in 
those days were not allowed to vote, as most of us know. He brought 
these petitions from women who were opposed to slavery and read them on 
the House floor.
  While the rules said he could not debate slavery, he was simply a 
mouthpiece, a conduit, was a megaphone for the concerns of the people 
in his district about a great national problem.
  Fast forward the clock to 2003. We now have a legislative leadership 
which is again saying no to debating issues of what really happened 
with the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons 
of mass destruction program. While the President may have made, perhaps 
we are not really sure quite what happened, but we want to investigate. 
We want to know more. There has been no avenue to do that in this body.
  So as a result a group called Moveon.org has gathered online hundreds 
of thousands of petitions and tens of thousands of American citizens 
including dozens, dozens, dozens in my district, thousands in the State 
of Ohio, tens of thousands around the country, speaking out about what 
they think.
  So I am going to share in the next 3\1/2\ minutes or so, Mr. Speaker, 
what people in my district are saying when they sign this petition 
saying that Congress should support an independent commission to 
investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's 
weapons of mass destruction program.

                              {time}  1715

  John Ciraldo of Akron, Ohio, in my District, ``It seems to me that 
the evidence of deceit led by the Bush administration is becoming more 
and more prevalent.''
  ``I feel that it is becoming more of an issue to the American people. 
As part of a democracy, we believe that we have a right to know.''
  ``Please take a stand,'' Mr. Ciraldo writes, ``for what I believe you 
know to be right. Be fair to our Nation and show a true patriotism, 
investigate. All of America has the right to know.'' Mr. Ciraldo from 
Akron.
  Thomas Spalding, also from Akron, Ohio, shorter letter, ``Please 
pursue an open investigation of the rationale for war that was used by 
the Bush administration to assuage public doubts about preemptive, 
unilateral action against Iraq.'' Mr. Spalding from Akron, Ohio.
  From Elyria, Ohio, Linda Mitchell writes, ``As an American and one of 
your constituents, I want to know the truth behind what led up to the 
grossly unjust `war' in Iraq. It is time for Congress to shed light 
upon what I believe we all know was the administration's misuse of the 
tragedy of September 11 to meet their own greedy need for oil.'' Ms. 
Mitchell from Elyria, Ohio.
  From Strongsville, Ohio, John Regetz, Junior, ``I strongly urge you 
to vote for the establishment of the commission to investigate the 
validity of the evidence that the present administration used to start 
the Iraq war. It appears to me that, for the first time in our 
history,'' for the first time in our history Mr. Regetz writes, ``we 
unjustly started a war without first being truly provoked. I think the 
American people need to know the true facts about this whole mess we 
now find ourselves in.''
  Elizabeth from Akron, Ohio, ``There is little argument that the past 
three years have been the saddest in our Nation's history. A nonelected 
President and his staff callously made critical decisions that deeply 
affect us all today and for generations to come. One such decision,'' 
she writes, ``was to end the weapons inspection program and 
preemptively strike Iraq, supposedly before we were struck by weapons 
of mass destruction.
  ``Now, countless civilian and soldier deaths later, yet still no 
evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the administration is willing 
to admit that the intelligence leading to this mess was flawed. At the 
same time, they are talking about sending even more of our military 
personnel into the chaos that they have created.''
  Susan Clements, also from Akron, Ohio. Ms. Clements writes, It really 
is of crucial importance that we find out the truth in the matter. 
Lying to the American people about anything is troubling, but to lie 
about something like this is outrageous. Support for this war was 
lukewarm at best. Even that was a result of that argument. To date, 
thousands of people have died, a country has been devastated, a region 
thrown into turmoil simply to allow Bush's cronies to make a fortune by 
cleaning up the mess that he made. This is unconscionable. Please 
support the American people and hold them accountable. Thank you.
  The last letter I will share with my colleagues as my time runs out 
is from Ron Collins of Barberton, Ohio. Mr. Collins writes, I am 
certain that you, like many of us here were frightened by the 
statements made in public back in the State of the Union and earlier by 
the Bush administration. If those statements were false, we must know 
of this Mr. Collins writes. Please show America that you are not afraid 
to stand up for the rights of the people who put you in office. Despite 
any pressures you may have been placed under to ignore these issues, 
those of us in your district implore you to live up to the oath of 
office you took when you were sworn in.
  I thank those people in Ohio that have shared their concerns with me 
and, most importantly, with the members of this body and with the 
American people because their concerns do indeed, Mr. Speaker, need to 
be heard.

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