[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11976]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               OUR UNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, in 2 weeks, we will be observing the 230th 
anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, and I think it was on 
June 21, in 1788, that the State of New Hampshire was actually the 
ninth State to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
  When the United States was founded, there was a search for a national 
motto, and the first motto of our country, e pluribus unum, Latin, 
translates to, out of many, we are one.
  The very words, United States, speaks to the unity, not just of 
colonies and then States, but really speaks to a deeper meaning of 
human unity. Out of many, we are one. It is not simply unity in this 
country. It is the unity of people all over the world.
  This year, in our 230th year since we declared our independence, we 
find ourselves gripped by a type of thinking which separates us from 
the rest of humanity, which causes the United States to be locked into 
dichotomized thinking of us versus them, whoever they are.
  With that comes a very heavy price. It comes a separation which has 
led us to war. It comes a separation that has separated us from the 
ambitions of people all over the world who are hoping for a rising 
standard of living through having guarantees for workers rights, human 
rights, environmental quality principles, which they had hoped that the 
United States would stand for.
  We separate ourselves from human unity by not participating in a wide 
range of international agreements, and yet we are the United States. 
Our very name speaks to unity.
  How then can we find ourselves again as a Nation? How can we come to 
reconnect with the deeper meaning of who we are? How can we step away 
from this experience which since 9/11 has taken us into a blind alley?
  If there was ever a time when this country needed a period of truth 
and reconciliation, this is it. We find so many of our fellow 
countrymen and women still believe that Iraq had something to do with 
9/11. It did not. But at a time when 9/11 gave us an opportunity to 
start a whole new national discussion about who we are and how we can 
reconnect with the world, decisions were made which further separated 
us. We went down a blind alley, and in that blind alley we remain, 
unaware of the truth behind 9/11, not with respect to who did it, but 
with respect to what is our role in the world, what is America's 
position in the world.
  This, the 230th year of our experience of declaring independence, is 
a perfect time for us to recommit ourselves to perhaps call for a 
declaration of interdependence, accompanied by a vision which sees the 
world as one, which sees the world as being interconnected and 
interdependent, which understands that when we build nuclear weapons, 
we, the United States, threaten the world; that we have a 
responsibility to lead with nuclear non-proliferation; that we have the 
responsibility to lead with the biological weapons convention, fully 
participating in that, and the chemical weapons convention and the 
small arms treaty and the land mine treaty, to join the International 
Criminal Court, to sign the Kyoto climate change treaty, to truly 
participate the entire world.
  We are independent, but we are also interdependent, and there is no 
paradox there. It is a fact that both of those modalities can and must 
exist simultaneously in order for our Nation to be healthy, in order 
for us to grow.

                              {time}  2310

  Mr. Speaker, although I didn't really agree with many of his 
policies, one of the President's I admired the most was Ronald Reagan, 
because I saw him as being connected to the optimistic nature of 
America. One of the casualties of 9/11 has been our optimism, our 
courage.
  This Nation has the capacity to be much more than it is today, and 
whether we are Democrats or Republicans, we need to try to search for a 
deeper meaning of who we are. We need to reach for a deeper meaning of 
who we are in the world and we need to confirm that our purpose is 
human unity, not just the unity of 50 States.

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