[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14027]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       HEAL THE WOUNDS OF RACISM BY PASSING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. SCOTT of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this Voting Rights Act is the most 
important piece of legislation that has been passed in this modern time 
in our Congress.
  As I stand here, I am reminded of the words that we used so much as 
we would go through the South, going up against the Bull Connors, going 
up against the night riders, going up against the Ku Klux Klan with the 
courage that was taken and that is still needed today because, 
unfortunately, discrimination still exists throughout this Nation in 
various places.
  And for those who want to say, why punish the South or why punish the 
State, why is it that you would think of the Voting Rights Act as a 
punishment? The Voting Rights Act is not a punishment. It is a 
liberator of those who have been punished, where all they have had was 
to sing that song: ``Sometimes I feel discouraged, feel my work's in 
vain; but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. There is a balm 
in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. There is a balm in Gilead that 
makes the wounded whole.''
  This balm in Gilead for us today is the Voting Rights Act to heal the 
wounds of racism that have been inflicted on this country and that we 
still, unfortunately, suffer from.
  Let us vote to pass this Voting Rights Act this day and this week and 
send a resounding message that America is for everybody, black as well 
as white, rich as well as poor, all of us.

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