[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4694-4695]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              IMPORTANCE OF ISSUES DEBATED IN SUSPENSIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Clarke). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, as we debate various issues 
here in the United States Congress and in this House, it is sometimes 
important to remind Members of the history of this Nation and the 
importance of matters that Members discuss. They are called 
suspensions, but they're no less important and speak eloquently to the 
history and the diversity of this Nation.
  I would quickly like to acknowledge my support for the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964 commemorative coin and support my colleague John Lewis for 
offering this very important initiative, for a country that does not 
remember its history is doomed to repeat the past. We've gained much 
from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and I support the legislation.
  As we speak today about honoring our history, I am also reminded that 
this is the week of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. 
Martin Luther King. This past Friday, I was able to stand in front of 
the hotel in which he was assassinated, walk out on to the balcony and 
be reminded of this peaceful giant. And so it is important for us to 
take a moment, of which we will do on this coming Thursday, to remember 
not so much his death and the violence of his death, but his love for 
humanity and the ability to bring people together. He truly was a 
leader of a movement.
  Today, I stood with my colleagues, Congressman Baca and others, to 
support the national holiday for Cesar Chavez because they were 
brothers, Martin King and Cesar Chavez.
  I think it is important as we look at Women's History Month that we 
recount not only our national figures as I support the debate that 
reminded us this past month, March 2008 was Women's History Month, how 
exciting it is to see the historic opportunities that women have had 
and are increasingly having, knowing that they just gained a vote in 
1920.
  I was very honored to be able to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues Ramona Tolliver, a champion and a fighter for empowerment of 
those in the Fifth Ward area; Nellie Joyce Punch, again from Houston, a 
fighter for those in the Fifth Ward area and educator and a lover of 
providing equal opportunity to young people; Dr. Deason, a long-
standing principal in Houston of the High School for Health 
Professions. There is certainly no greater lover of education and 
helping our children than Dr. Deason. And certainly I think it is 
important to acknowledge Commissioner Sylvia Garcia in Houston who has 
turned the corner as the first woman commissioner in Harris County. 
Then, of course, I salute Shirley Chisholm and Carole Mosley Braun, 
women who ran for President, and my former predecessor Barbara Jordan.
  Women are on the move, and it is certainly important to acknowledge 
their history in this country, and it should not be ignored that women 
have struggled to overcome, and that is, of course, the women who get 
up every morning and ride the buses and teach the schools and work for 
us in restaurants and in hospitals and are doctors and lawyers and 
others. Women deserve the honoring of this month.

                              {time}  1745

  And one who certainly deserves it is a Civil Cross winner, a young 
19-year-old from Texas, Monica L. Brown.
  Which brings me to the upcoming testimony of General Petraeus and 
Ambassador Crocker. Having just come back from Iraq, let me simply say 
that the legislation that I have offered, which I will discuss over the 
next couple of days into the testimony of the two individuals that will 
be coming, first of all, let me thank them for all of their service and 
offer my concern for the public servants and U.S. personnel in the 
Green Zone, of which we have stayed, who have been bombed in the last 
couple of days. It is the very clarity of what I saw that says to me it 
is time to bring our troops home. We serve no large purpose to engage 
in, if you will, the civil war that may be going on in Iraq. We can 
serve as technical advisers and counselors, and we can bring other 
nations together to assist in a peaceful transition. We can, as my bill 
says, bring our soldiers home in honor and begin a diplomatic surge; 
make the Maliki government engage in nonsectarianism, as the Sunnis 
told me face to face; eliminate the sectarianism, Shiite and Shiite, 
Kurds and Sunnis; and begin to talk about a stable Iraq. That is not 
America's task; it is a task of the Iraqi government, the Iraqi people. 
And it certainly is a task that we must charge Iran for them to stop 
sending mortars and ammunition to create the havoc that is going on. 
But that is not the war. That is not the resolution. That is not the 
war of America. It is clearly a time to transition.
  Those are the hard questions that we will pose to our heroes, 
Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus. We appreciate that they have 
been trying to serve America in the best way possible, but it is now 
time to serve not only America and our sons and daughters but the 
American people who deserve an investment in their country, a 
rebuilding of the military, and an acknowledgment and celebration of 
the heroes of the Iraq War and certainly a recognition of those who 
still fight in Afghanistan for it is time now to focus our attention 
there.
  With that, Madam Speaker, we look forward to saving America.

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