[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2515-2516]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PROTESTING IS ACT OF PATRIOTISM

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, this weekend tens or hundreds of thousands of 
Americans came to Washington to protest the war. It was reminiscent of 
Vietnam, as so much of this war is reminiscent of Vietnam.
  What these people did was an act of patriotism and courage, 
exercising their first amendment rights and expressing their opinion 
that the policy of this administration and this country is wrong. As 
they protested, and throughout the weekend, American soldiers lost 
their lives. It is unfortunate that it seems that the calls of the 
people are not being heeded.
  It is particularly distressing, Mr. Speaker, to hear one of the 
Cabinet members suggest that people who disagree with the 
administration are lending aid and solace to the enemy. That is wrong. 
The first amendment is about free speech. The demonstrations, the 
protests that happened this week were

[[Page 2516]]

correct. Samuel Johnson said: ``The last refuge to which a scoundrel 
clings is patriotism.'' I think we saw people try to find patriotism to 
be the refuge rather than response to protests and analytical 
discussions of the policies in Iraq.

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