[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7668]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

                                 PRAYER

  The Reverend Ross Thomson, Bammel Church of Christ, Houston, Texas, 
offered the following prayer:
  Lord, as we gather in this city named for him, we remember George 
Washington's most precious possession: the keys always on his 
nightstand, the keys given to him by General Lafayette, the keys to the 
Bastille.
  Lord, we thank You that, two centuries later, we still hold the keys 
of freedom. We are mindful that then and now, our greatest power is our 
ability to win hearts and minds; our greatest gift to mankind the 
inspiration of our ideas; our greatest influence that of moral 
persuasion.
  Lord, You have allowed this Nation the honor of being freedom's first 
line of defense, and her last bastion of hope. Grant that we might live 
worthy of our calling and worthy of the hope of those who have gone 
before; that we in this place, might conduct ourselves with honor, 
courage and integrity, worthy of this great Republic, worthy of the 
sacrifices of its citizens. Amen.

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