[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1339-1344]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




CELEBRATING AND COMMEMORATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER 
                                  KING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Wilson of Ohio). The gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank the Speaker very much. Might I say 
I thank the Speaker for his leadership and certainly his patience this 
evening.
  We have spent the last 4 days in many of our Congressional districts 
celebrating and commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther 
King, and as many of us have participated for almost 3 days as we went 
home for the weekend, these commemorations have become more than 
celebrations and the kinds of actions that take place when a holiday 
allows one to commemorate.
  As I listened to my good friends across the aisle, one would wonder 
if I am now going to again recount the great legacy of Dr. King, as my 
good friend and colleague, John Lewis, who has an enormous history with 
the movement and is certainly our conscience, passed a suspension bill 
on the floor today, one that he authored, in tribute to Dr. King and in 
recognition of his 78th birthday.
  But in this time, I wish to suggest that Dr. King's legacy is really 
a living document and a living legacy, so I want to weave the message 
that Dr. King left for America and the world throughout the changes 
that I believe are key to where we are today.
  As I listened to my friends speak about the advancing bill that will 
deal with energy reform, let me just say that coming from Houston, I 
happen to be the Congressperson that represents one of the largest 
areas, we call it the energy capital of the world. I practiced oil and 
gas law for 15-plus years before coming to the United States Congress, 
and I have in many instances supported and will continue to support the 
growth, the positive growth and the continued development of a very 
important industry in this country.
  In fact, it should be known that as I got elected to Congress one of 
the first acts that I worked on with former President Clinton was to 
assess the issue of royalty relief for the industry, at that time of 
course suffering from low development, low prices, and which needed an 
economic engine, if you will. So rather than look at the next step that 
the Democratic leadership wants us to take as undermining the industry, 
we should look at it as an opportunity for expanding on the term 
``energy.''
  One would say, how does this weave into the life and legacy of Martin 
King? Martin King was a dreamer and also an activist, and he wanted for 
Americans, all of us, of all races, of all religions, of all beliefs, a 
better quality of life. So I believe that tomorrow and Thursday when we 
have an opportunity to present this bill on the floor of the House, it 
will be an opportunity to look at alternative fuels, renewable fuels, 
new ideas, but at the same time it will give many of us an opportunity 
to plant seeds of friendship and relationships with this energy 
industry that all of us want to become an independent industry and an 
independent America.
  So, I look forward to the debate on the floor of the House in the 
tradition of Dr. King, who dreams for a better quality of life. Let us 
look at a new direction as we look to the opportunities for energy 
investment in the Gulf, which many of us supported in the last 
Congress. Let us give this initiative a chance of reforming or looking 
to an investment in alternatives and renewables. Might I say to my 
friends who are in the regions of oil and gas exploration, believe me, 
there is much room for your technology and expertise in renewables and 
alternatives.
  I wanted to just comment on my good friends, as I begin to discuss 
where we are in Martin Luther King's dream. We all need dreamers. In 
fact, I would consider President John F. Kennedy the main Camelot of 
America. I would consider Americans wanting his dream to come true, his 
dream of a new and vibrant America, his dream of a youthful America, 
his dream of going to space, his dream of a peaceful America. So there 
are many dreamers.
  But the question is, do we take the dreams and the message that those 
dreamers give us and now provide the activism that would cause America 
to have a better quality of life?
  I think of our Constitution. In essence, as the Founding Fathers 
begin to deliberate on what kind of nation they wanted America to be, 
they were dreamers, because in fact they didn't know an America of the 
21st century. They didn't know America as richly diverse as we have 
today.
  But when they organized in the Constitutional Convention this 
document that now provides a very effective road map of democracy, they 
started out as follows: ``We the People of the United States, in Order 
to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic 
Tranquility provide for the common defence, promote the general 
Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our 
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America.''

[[Page 1340]]

  This is the very Constitution that Dr. King vested himself in, the 
13th and 14th and 15th amendments. So he answered the call of Rosa 
Parks in the mid-1950s, because he had an idea that our Constitution 
was not working. Was there actually equality or due process as the 14th 
amendment would suggest? Were we as colored people, Negroes, truly 
free, as the 13th amendment might suggest?
  I think Dr. King in his theological wisdom and his intellect probably 
recognized that this was not a free nation. So he accepted the call of 
Rosa Parks to question why free people could not sit anywhere they 
wanted in public modes of transportation. Many people consider the 
Montgomery bus boycott, and they used the terminology ``bus'' because 
it was a bus. But it was symbolic of the dividing line of color in 
America.
  So Dr. King was very eloquent in his words, that he wanted to make 
sure that the dream of freedom, the more perfect union, was one that we 
could accept as a reality.
  I want to acknowledge the King family. His children, Yolanda, and 
Martin, III, Dexter, Bernice; his wonderful, wonderful wife, of which I 
had the privilege of having a beautiful friendship, relationship, as 
she befriended women across America. This strong, regal woman, who 
after the death of her husband, a widow with four children, she was not 
going to let his dream die, and then organized the Martin Luther King 
Center in Atlanta, the memorial, the tribute to his works. The King 
family, Dr. King's family, Daddy King, and his mother. And the Ebenezer 
Baptist Church that still stands and has the legacy of the King family, 
and the tragic loss of his mother, doing what she loves best, playing 
in the church.
  No one pays attention to the comprehensiveness of the life of the 
King family and their commitment to public service and the tragedies 
that have befallen them, but this weekend and this past day, in 
remembering what they stood for, should catapult us, propel America, 
into doing better.
  That is why I am so proud that Democrats have weaved into their 
message of a new direction the understanding of the values of Martin 
King, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Franklin, 
individuals who would not have known where we would be in this 21st 
century, but would have hoped for a wonderful and valiant America.
  Alexander Hamilton, for example, charged us with the responsibility 
of not letting our democracy age as the paper upon which it was 
written, but he reminded us in 1775 that ``the sacred rights of mankind 
are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They 
are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature by 
the hand of divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by 
mortal power.''
  As I talk about Dr. King, I must reflect on Guantanamo Bay or Abu 
Ghraib or where we are today in the Iraq war. You see, we are not 
isolated to view Dr. King simply as a holiday, a Federal holiday, or 
``that civil rights leader,'' or the man who had this wonderful oratory 
and spoke eloquently in August of 1963, in the March on Washington. 
That is not all that his legacy should leave us. In fact, he too has 
provided a road map of which I am most saddened that we seemingly have 
left its pathway.
  As I started to say, I am grateful in this new election when America 
spoke volumes of what changes they wanted to see. We have the kind of 
leadership that is not turning a deaf ear to the voice of America. And 
Americans, if I might speak that you might hear, do not count your vote 
as your final word and say. You, too, are America.

                              {time}  2200

  As we proceed in this very new and exciting time of listening to you, 
so much so that we committed ourselves to the first 100 hours, and in 
that 100 hours, you can now look to see that we have reformed the 
lobbying debacle that we experienced in the last couple of Congresses, 
we now realize that we must reform ourselves. We passed that 
legislation limiting the intrusion of lobbyists and recognizing that 
there should be restraints that close the door to special interests but 
open the doors to America. That was the dream of Martin King.
  Then, of course, we moved on to ensure that as we all fell to our 
knees during 9/11, as we saw the throngs of so many die, and made a 
commitment as we sang ``God Bless America'' on the very steps of this 
United States Capitol, Democrats and Republicans, we made a commitment 
to the fallen. We made a commitment to those mourning families. We made 
a commitment after the 9/11 Commission had finished its work to finish 
the job on homeland security.
  But for Congress after Congress, we could not pass simple tasks such 
as inspections of airline cargo and a number of other funding needs for 
our first responders, our firefighters and our police persons, and we 
are still working on interoperability and looking to do better things 
with rail security and highway security.
  We could not get it done; but in this new Congress, that took the 
dream of a dream of a better quality of life of Dr. King, we made his 
message a reality, passing the 9/11 Commission report.
  We moved on to something that in all actuality, Mr. Speaker, really 
brought tears to my eyes. I have been here 12 years, and I have never 
served in the majority, frustration of the Medicare prescription drug 
benefit vote, and the vote on the war, and the vote on over and over 
again of rejecting hate crime legislation. Nothing extraordinary, Mr. 
Speaker, just legislation that would indicate that simply we would not 
tolerate hateful acts against people because of their difference. I sat 
in painful hearings listening to people denigrate hate crimes 
legislation, just a simple addition, having come from the State that 
saw a man decapitated just a few years ago in Jasper, Texas, because of 
the color of his skin.
  I felt that pain of not getting legislation passed, and yet I believe 
it was last Wednesday we cast a vote for the minimum wage, an 
overwhelming vote, and I applaud my colleagues from both sides of the 
aisle.
  Tears came to my eyes because I have to go back to a restaurant where 
a waitress stopped me. Well, sometimes we do not give America much 
credit for all the knowledge that they have. I enjoy being out 
listening to my constituents. They are so instructive, and this 
waitress just stopped me while she was putting the food there on the 
steam table. Those of you know we get good Southern food at the steam 
table. And so she stopped me and said are we going to get an increase 
in the minimum wage. That vote last week, reflective of the message of 
Dr. King, acting on his dream, gave us that opportunity.
  We moved on, of course, to cast a number of other votes that would 
see improvement in the lives of Americans.
  This week we have the opportunity as well to address the piercing 
interest rates on our college students. We have always prided ourselves 
on believing in equality of education. It was an equalizer for 
immigrants in the early 1900s, as it is today, certainly for 
minorities, women, African Americans who started off as second-class 
citizens. You always had their parents telling you, get an education, 
but yet these spiraling interest rates, and we are getting ready to cut 
it in half. What an inspiration to be able to focus on that.
  So I want to acknowledge our vice-chair, John Larson, who many people 
do not know is a lover of history but also a protector of history and 
helped to introduce the Amistad slave ship to the rest of America. 
These are the new direction leaders.
  Rahm Emanuel who economically is one who helped guide the Clinton 
administration but helped to frame our debate on Medicare, and we know 
his sensitivity to these issues.
  Jim Clyburn, who always provides a steady compass of morality, who 
recognizes we were a divided America, and now is in a position to be a 
healer with his words and his actions.
  Of course, our majority leader who has an early history in civil 
rights and is certainly someone who is grounded in the leadership 
direction that we should be taking in this Congress.

[[Page 1341]]

  And of course, our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, symbolically and in reality 
exudes Dr. King's dream for I know that he would be comforted in his 
78th year that maybe America has listened.
  This is the leadership team that I think will carry forth this dream, 
and as I participated in events over the weekend, the silent march 
organized by councilmember Ada Edwards that saw almost 5,000 people 
marching silently, the mayor of Houston and others who were there, an 
overwhelming experience, and then, of course, to commemorate and 
celebrate with our working men and women. The AFL-CIO national 
organization was in Houston celebrating the weekend with many, many 
union heads, including Richard Trumka and Richard Womack and Clayola 
Brown, locally John Bland and Richard Shaw and Claude Cummings and many 
others, along with President Little of the Transit Workers Union, and 
they were out and about serving, commemorating Dr. King's dreams, 
serving. We worshipped together with Reverend Sharpton on Sunday 
morning, and then we reflected in a breakfast on Monday morning, 
reflections of the past and dreams of the future by the North Houston 
Frontiers Club.
  I am sure these kinds of events were in our communities all over. And 
why did we have them? Why do people do this? Why is that it on that day 
we try to find people that do not look like us and embrace them? Why is 
it a day that we speak of love and unity and harmony? What is it about 
this man called King?
  Certainly during his lifetime he agitated quite a few, so much so 
that we can find him in any number of compromising positions. I hold 
this up. We can see law enforcement, with his hands shackled behind his 
back, and of course, again, being taken off to jail. This is the 
predicament that Dr. King would find himself in quite often. He even 
got sent to jail and wanted to insist that no one let him out, but they 
would bond him out anonymously so they could get him out of town; but 
Dr. King knew that if he did not suffer with those who likewise 
displayed a nonviolent protest, his message could not prevail.
  Dr. King saw the likes of dogs and hoses going after American 
citizens who simply wanted to have a sense of equality.
  He was found in many places, and I think that is why people stop on 
that day, and even as we sing over and over again, we shall overcome, 
tears come to the eyes of white clergy, young Hispanic men and women, 
Muslims, Protestants, those of the Jewish faith who were very much part 
of this ongoing movement, the labor movement, African Americans, 
religious beliefs of all kinds. They stopped for a moment, those who 
are sincere and believe in this great message.
  So this picture that reflects the marchers who would not stop going 
past the sign that reads ``Citizens Council, States Rights, Racial 
Integrity,'' which was a sign of a racial purity group of those who 
believed that there was inequality, in fact, superiority of one group 
over another.

                              {time}  2210

  That is not the New Direction Congress, and so frankly I believe that 
more than ever Dr. King's dream brings about a reality.
  Now, let me tell you why I think we can use some of his writings for 
where we need to go next. As we all know, we are continuing the 100 
hours with a cut in the student interest rates. Just last week, as I 
indicated, we did a number of reform measures, including fixing the 
Medicare Prescription part D. And, Mr. Speaker, you haven't lived until 
you live through a 6-hour vote when the clock stays open for 6 hours, 
not during the day but starting from 12 a.m. until 6 in the morning. 
You haven't lived until you are sort of circling this august place 
trying to talk, if you will, sense in Members about who will you be 
hurting if you deny us the right to negotiate a lower price, who will 
you be hurting if you put a doughnut hole? Just the concept of it. You 
are going along and everybody knows these, if you will, holes in the 
streets, whether they are cavities that fall in because the street is 
not built right or either these utility areas here, everybody has had 
or not had, but imagine the unpleasant experience of your car going 
down a sink hole. You usually can't get out on your own. It is usually 
unexpected. To think that in that Medicare part D vote we voted not to 
negotiate cheaper prices and to allow our seniors to go into a sink 
hole. But with Dr. King's message and the New Direction Congress, we 
voted on Friday to reform that, at least to allow the negotiating of 
lower prices. And, of course, there were all kinds of naysayers; the 
veterans would suffer and others. And, Mr. Speaker, you know we know 
better. We know how strong we have been on veterans, and, frankly, we 
know that we will have vehicles in which that we will make sure that it 
is a fair and balanced initiative.
  Let me tell you why I think that we have utilized the map that Dr. 
King left, and I take first of all to cite that point is his letter 
from a Birmingham jail. And I want everyone who has thought for a 
moment, ``I can't press the envelope on this.'' It may be that you are 
in a place of employment, that you have got a better way to do 
something and you just can't move to get to the boss' door, you are 
just a little intimidated. Or your fellow workers are saying, ``You 
know, you had better not go there. You know how they are.'' It takes a 
sense of courage to go against the tide when you know that some ill can 
befall you. So to America, we need some Dr. Kings. We need people who 
are willing nonviolently or with a word or pen to go against the grain. 
America needs that kind of inspiration again.
  And I just want to remind you, it is hard when you are a man of the 
cloth. Your friends are the clergy. They are rabbis, they are priests, 
they are Protestant ministers, they are deacons and deaconesses. These 
are your contemporaries and your friends. Dr. King got into the 
Birmingham jail. And it is lonely enough in jail. I can certainly tell 
you and know that people who have protested nonviolently and wind up in 
jail, it is a lonely place. You may have an idea that you are going to 
get out, but you begin to think of all kinds of loneliness, and are you 
sure they are going to let you out? Are you sure they are going to come 
and get you? Dr. King found himself in a Birmingham jail at the hands 
of Bull Connor; but, more importantly, the clergy of America thought it 
was important to just address him, or I would say dress him down. They 
thought it was important to tell him that, you know, you are a clergy 
and we are a little sensitive that you are getting out of hand. You are 
an outside agitator. You are disrupting things. The business community 
in Birmingham, they don't want you here. There is nothing more 
devastating or impacting than your colleagues, your clergy, those you 
hang out with giving no comfort to what you are doing or telling you to 
just go away. And that is what they did with a signed letter in the New 
York Times and in the papers across America, that you are really being 
a trouble maker.
  And you know how we are with our human emotions. The normal response 
would have been a harsh letter and more to come: How dare you write to 
me sitting in a jail in Birmingham that was probably one of the longer 
stays that Dr. King had?
  But he took time to introduce himself to America by saying: You may 
not know, but I am President of the Southern Christian Leadership 
Conference in the letter that he wrote. You may not be aware that we 
have 85 affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is 
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. And, by the way, they 
invited me here to Alabama.
  He mentioned that he came because his staff asked him to come. But 
then he got into the source of his inspiration, and he used it from a 
biblical perspective. So allow me just to say these words from his 
letter. He answered the clergy with their own scriptures. How many 
times do we do that? We are more apt to be able to write that insulting 
letter. It is hard for us to write an educating letter, a letter that 
is calming and peaceful. And Dr. King said:
  But, more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

[[Page 1342]]

Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and 
carried their thus saith the Lord far beyond the boundaries of their 
hometowns, and just as Apostle Paul left the village of Tarsus and 
carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-
Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my 
own hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian 
call for aid.
  Now, I am not reading a Christian interpretation for those who may be 
Muslim or other faiths or agnostic. What I am reading is a secular 
usage of his response to the clergy who said you need get out of there. 
You are an outside agitator. What he said is, is that I have got to go 
and help to bring freedom where there is a need for me to bring help.
  So my challenge to my colleagues as Dr. King's birthday passes on for 
another year and we go on about our normal duties, are we going to be 
the kind of Congress that renders aid and solves problems as we move 
into the formulation and the reform of Leave No Child Behind? I don't 
believe there is one Member who cannot recount a story where their 
schools are crying for relief, whether it is to give teachers more 
freedom in teaching, whether it is to give low performing schools the 
right kind of funding. We couldn't do that in the last Congress. We 
passed Leave No Child Behind. We had good intentions. But there were no 
dollars going to the schools to help them be fixed. So, for example, in 
Houston, TX our school boards felt obligated to close schools. And I 
hope that we will put school boards in a position that they will choose 
courageously to render aid to schools.
  There are many school districts who can be proud of their records. I 
believe that we have a number of proud moments in the Houston 
independent school districts at All Dean Klein, Cyprus Springs, North 
Forest Independent School District. Of course we have proud moments. 
But there are moments when we should be ashamed of what we are doing to 
our children; poor equipment, boxing them in so their educational 
desires are stifled, overtesting them.
  So I hope that this Congress will answer the Macedonian call, listen 
to our teachers. I hope we will bring them in in throngs. Let us listen 
to school children, let us listen to parents, the PTOs, the PTAs, how 
do we get a better educational system in America that balances out the 
excellence that we believe we derive from charter schools and private 
schools? Because I believe a Nation that dooms its public schools dooms 
its heritage and its legacy.

                              {time}  2220

  Dr. King asked us to render aid, and that is important as we look to 
the many needs that we have.
  If we are to do a better job, then it is clear that we must develop a 
country that provides employment for all Americans, and weave into 
that, we have to address the question of keeping jobs here in America. 
Let me remind you that Dr. King lost his life in Memphis, Tennessee on 
April 4, 1968. And if your history is a little rusty, he wasn't there 
for providing opportunities to sit in the front of the bus or sleep in 
a hotel, he was there about jobs. He was there about the dignity of 
jobs. He was there because a labor union was organizing the garage 
workers, and they were not sanitation workers, they were garbage 
workers, treated like garbage. He went there for full employment so 
working people could have the dignity of their work.
  We as Members of Congress must invest in America, whether it be her 
technology, science, math, so that we can be at the cutting edge of job 
creation in this century. What does that mean? Some would say, Did Dr. 
King speak about research and innovativeness? Well, I think he laid out 
a road map. Remember, I said he was a dreamer.
  We have to start putting more dollars into basic science and research 
and math. We need to be developing in our Nation more mathematicians 
and inventors. Where is the massive investment we failed to get out of 
this administration into research and science? Where are our Ph.D.s, 
our physicists, our chemists, our biologists? Where are the quality 
laboratories in our universities? Where are the partnerships between 
universities and the Federal Government?
  Let us be reminded that it is well known that the Defense Department 
was probably at the cutting edge of the Internet 30 or so years ago. 
And so what are we doing by draining this Nation of all of its 
resources and not putting back into it so that 10-20 years from now, we 
can look to the new physicists to challenge the creativities of the 
last century, the Alexander Bells and others, who put us on the then-
technological map with the telephone.
  Dr. King dreamed of an equal and free and just America, but he wanted 
to make sure that as we created that opportunity, the creative juices 
of America would certainly run free. Dr. King cannot be isolated in a 
box of civil rights. We as Members of Congress can use that dream to 
implement a better quality of life; and in basic research and science 
and technology, we have failed. We are flat-leveled. We have got to do 
a better job of finding those young mathematicians.
  That's why I hope in the reform of Leave No Child Behind, you can 
have a mathematical genius, they score high on the math test, but that 
little one may have trouble spelling. It is just the way we are. We are 
all different. We have to find a way to reform the educational system 
that has the opportunity for that young mathematician to block and work 
with the spelling so they are not held back. We have to address the 
question of 10th graders and 11th graders failing tests or having 
grades of Bs or C-minuses so they can graduate, but that last test, as 
a senior they leave and they don't come back so they don't get even a 
GED.
  We have to find a way to make an educational system that is 
accountable, but it must be as Martin's dream has offered to us and as 
Martin's words on April 3, 1968 offered to us, he had seen the promised 
land and he really believed America had the ability to get to the 
promised land for all Americans. So when we look at the reform or the 
reauthorization of Leave No Child Behind, let us be reminded that Dr. 
King gave us a road map. He gave us the ``I Have a Dream'' speech, and 
I always like to remind everyone of that thrilling experience, 250,000, 
the largest march ever in our history at that time in Washington, D.C., 
and what I found most thrilling as a little girl was the array of 
diversity. We talk about diversity now. That is our new lingo. But 
1963. And the pride of the people who were there. I am from California, 
I am from Illinois, I am from Texas, I'm from Georgia. Everybody had on 
their State hats or State insignia. Young people, people in 
wheelchairs, veterans. What an experience. What an experience.
  And then to be between the Lincoln Monument, the Washington Monument, 
to be able to be on the steps of the Lincoln Monument, what a 
magnificent statement to America that we should never forget.
  I don't want to sound unrealistic. I know how holidays are given to 
us and they are one day. But I thought I would come to the floor 
tonight so that if anyone gleaned anything from what I am saying, it is 
that holidays are given for purposes, for lives, for reason. We 
commemorate President's Day because we are grateful to George 
Washington and Abraham Lincoln for the historic role that they played 
in America. George Washington, who guided us through the Revolutionary 
War and said we will stand. And Abraham Lincoln, for whatever his 
reasons as we have analyzed and critiqued about whether he was freeing 
the slaves or unifying the Union, he understood the death of soldiers 
and brother against brother. So we honor him because whatever happened, 
we stayed unified as a Union. That's why we have these holidays, so we 
can live again and again the value of our history.
  That's why we advocated and pushed and John Conyers offered the 
legislation on Martin Luther King Holiday, not for the fact that he was 
good then but so people could recycle what he stood for.
  I think now we have really, Mr. Speaker, lost our way. We have 
clearly

[[Page 1343]]

not been able to capture all of the dream of Dr. King. So I would like 
to bring us almost full circle in terms of where we are today in the 
21st century.
  This war in Iraq goes against all that Dr. King tried to convince us 
of in his commitment to nonviolence. Of course when I begin to speak of 
this issue of nonviolence, I know what I will get from most Americans 
and many of my colleagues, and certainly my friends on the other side 
of the aisle, particularly as I try to segue into this discussion on 
Iraq. They will tell me this is a post-9/11 world. Mr. Speaker, I 
understand that. You can be assured that every single American 
understands that, and they want us to secure America. I don't reject 
that responsibility.
  But what I do say is we can take some of the teachings of Dr. King 
and maybe we would be better off as we look for a new direction to 
craft a legislative response, a courageous legislative response, that 
would begin to redeploy our troops and to find a better way. Remember 
now, we are not isolated in our leadership. We are viewed as the most 
powerful Nation in the world. What does that mean? Conflicts around the 
world will look to us for relief: Sudan, South and North Korea, the 
changes in South America. They will look to this Nation for its 
guidance, and a Nation that is bogged down in an unceasing conflict 
where any one of us could account for you that we have had measuring 
sticks of success.
  I did not vote for the war, but I am not going to take away from that 
that, one, we invaded Iraq. Saddam is not there. We can debate that 
question. I would be happy to debate it. There was a democratic 
election. I will not take away from those benchmarks.

                              {time}  2230

  But what I will say, as I would expect my good friend and colleague 
in the Senate, the other body, who served in the Reagan administration 
and who understands these issues, as many of my colleagues do 
firsthand, Senator Webb, I know that we are not denigrating things that 
have occurred. We won't deny that. But what we are saying is, is there 
not a better way? Is there not now time to turn the corner?
  Are we advancing any progress for Iraq or this Nation or the world 
with the mounting death, now 3,000-plus Americans, moving up from 
25,000 maimed? And might I say, Mr. Speaker, we have returning Iraqi 
vets that don't have jobs who are in our communities and asking what 
happened to the work.
  By the way, I hope we will quickly pass the new GI Bill of Rights. I 
have had these people stop me in my community; and as mothers typically 
do, which I am, though I certainly act congressional, but tears well up 
in me that I have to have a veteran ask me what about a job or what 
about going to college. We are not prepared for these veterans. We say 
we are. We are making more of them, many of them maimed and needing to 
be retrained, and we are saying we are not ready. We are saying some of 
our hospitals don't have enough beds.
  Dr. King, in his Birmingham speech, again, talked to the clergy about 
why you may well ask why direct action. Because, as you well know, 
there was protest and petitions. Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? 
Isn't negotiation a better path? You are quite right in calling for 
negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. 
Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such 
attention that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is 
forced to confront the issue it seeks so to dramatize the issue that it 
can no longer be ignored.
  Now, why am I citing this? Because of course I would imagine you 
would not think I am talking about direct action in Iraq, but what I am 
saying is that there are many ways to get factions to the table other 
than the bloody violence and the presence of our soldiers on the soil 
of Iraq, at least as they are now being used. Is this misdirected, Mr. 
Speaker? We are not bringing anyone to the table of negotiation, not 
with the constant violence, the constant maiming of our soldiers, and 
the constant fueling the fire of sectarian violence.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I need tell no one of the enormous tragedy that we 
experienced today. I can't cite for you the numbers, but the U.N. now 
says that 34,000 Iraqis have died. The headline: ``Suicide Bombings Go 
on as U.N. Says 2006 Dead in Iraq Top 34,000.'' The United Nations said 
34,452 Iraqi civilians had been killed in sectarian violence in 2006.
  This is not insurgents or al Qaeda coming across the border. These 
are Iraqi civilians caught up in sectarian violence. We have not been 
able to stop it. This is a terrible day today. We have over 100 today 
that have died. Over 100.
  So when we begin to try and resolve this question of Iraq, can we not 
put in place serious diplomatic negotiations? Can we not work in a 
bipartisan manner? Can we not suggest that we have done enough to 
warrant the Prime Minister at the table along with Sunni leaders? Can 
we ask the Prime Minister not to be so singular in his viewpoints? Do 
you expect, with his relationship with the cleric, that he would in any 
way provide the kind of necessary commitment that we have been told by 
this administration will be required for the Baghdad policy to work, 
dividing Baghdad into nine districts, forcing our soldiers, 20,000-
plus, into neighborhoods, dragging people out of their neighborhoods 
when the bombing that occurred today occurred at the end of al Sadr, 
the city? The largest and one of the most egregious horrific bombings 
and we are to expect that our soldiers will be able to be in the midst?
  Oh, yes, I have the greatest faith in our young men and women. And I 
do believe they are well trained. I take nothing away from them, and I 
thank them for being willing warriors. They are called and they go, and 
we should never diminish them. They are our defenders. And when the 
Commander in Chief calls them, they respond.
  And, yes, Mr. Speaker, in the times I have gone every year since we 
invaded Iraq, I have gone along to Afghanistan, I have been in Mazul 
and Tikrit, and I have spoken to soldiers, and I probably left some 
behind who lost their lives. And every one of them would give you a 
stiff upper lip. They are there. As I got to go more recently, 
unfortunately I would see those who are there on their second and third 
redeployment, and those who will go back will be on the second and 
third redeployment.
  So Dr. King's dream is being extinguished in the bloodiness, in the 
misdirectedness of an ongoing war, longer than World War II, with no 
solution. We leave Dr. King's dream of nonviolence, of ways of using 
nonviolence, extinguished and stomped under our feet.
  So I say to the American people, Dr. King's birthday is past, it was 
yesterday, and we had a weekend of activities, I'm sure, in many, many 
cities. You won't remember it again until next year this time, but I 
believe we are commanded by icons like Dr. King and our own Founding 
Fathers who indicated first that we organize this Nation to form a more 
perfect Union. It is right here in the Constitution, the very document 
that provides for us the right kind of way to declare war, which we 
never did.
  Then, of course, Alexander Hamilton wanted to make sure we didn't 
leave our democracy, our freedom, our ability to speak just on some 
parchment paper they had written on. He said it has to be living, and 
we are not living the dream or living freedom here in America today. 
And, America, is what I am saying to my colleagues, you voted in 
November, I know, but it is time to break the silence. That is what 
Martin King said on April 4, 1967, a year before his death. Beyond 
Vietnam, a time to break the silence.
  That was a stepping away from Dr. King's whole legacy at that time. 
And, believe me, he received enormous criticism. But he said a time 
comes when silence is betrayal, and that time has come for us in 
relation to Vietnam. He even went on to say, when pressed by the 
demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing 
their government's policy, especially in times of war. Nor does the 
human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of 
conforming

[[Page 1344]]

thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.
  He said, again, it is time to break the silence. Tonight, as he spoke 
to the congregation in this speech, he said: However, I wish not to 
speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, then of course our 
proposed enemies during Vietnam, but rather to my fellow Americans, who 
with me bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has 
exacted a heavy price on both continents.
  So this is what I leave with my friends. It is the responsibility of 
America. It is our responsibility to end the conflict that has exacted 
a heavy price on both continents.

                              {time}  2240

  And so I ask Americans to push forward. Let us hear from you on the 
cutting off of funds because, as we have heard over the weekend, the 
administration refuses to listen to the voices of the American people. 
And I was told the Vice President indicated that we have enough money, 
and so the Congress is not needed.
  But I remain committed and inspired by Martin King's dream. And he 
had a wonderful dream for a better America. He wanted to see all of us 
of all hues and religion, little black boys and girls and white boys 
and girls and brown boys and girls, and all races and creeds of his 
era, now translated to today sitting down at the table of peace and 
harmony.
  It may sound dated, but it is relevant today, and the New Direction 
Congress has grabbed hold, if you will, of the idea of making America 
great.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot make America great unless, of course, we 
bring, in dignity, the end to the Iraq conflict. 34,000 dead. And 
America must speak against the funding and the continued funding of 
this horrific, misdirected conflict.
  Might I say, it has nothing to do with cutting off the resources of 
our valued soldiers on the battlefield, for, as we have heard, there 
are monies there. But unless our voice is heard, nonviolently, and 
comprehensively, we have a failed policy and a failed direction 
continued by the executive.
  I close, Mr. Speaker, by citing in the Constitution the recognition 
that there are three branches of government, the executive, the 
judiciary, and the legislature. The Founding Fathers made sure, not 
knowing of Dr. King's dream, that they were equal and balanced.
  And I respect the President as a Commander-in-Chief, but it is time 
now for America to breathe life into this Constitution, and to ensure, 
as we breathe life into this constitution, we, the people who are here 
to form a more perfect union, demand in debate and demand in action 
that we redeploy and bring our soldiers home.
  And we can be successful because America has always lifted her voice 
of reason and brought people to the table in negotiation. And all the 
violence in Iraq, all of the violence in Iraq has not brought the 
parties together. All of the warring, all of the militia and our 
soldiers on the ground has not brought the parties together. That is 
where the administration fails in its duty to heal America and to make 
a solution that recognizes sectarian violence is going to require those 
sects to sit down and find a valid peace.
  Martin King left us with good words, answer the Macedonian call to 
render aid, and we, as Americans, would get to the promised land some 
day. He might not be with us, but we have the opportunity, still, to 
continue our greatness and be part of the promised land.
  I thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you again for your patience this 
evening and having given us an opportunity to remind Americans that our 
history is not one that is passed, but it is living. Dr. King's dream 
must live within us.

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