[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21526-21527]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          GOSPEL MUSIC, FOREIGN POLICY, AND HEALTH CARE REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we have some joyous moments in 
this body, and I am delighted to say that we will have that tomorrow.
  Gospel music is part of America's culture, and I was very pleased to 
pass the legislation, House Joint Resolution 12, to acknowledge gospel 
music as part of the great culture of America.
  Tomorrow here in this House, we will celebrate the gospel music 
heritage

[[Page 21527]]

legislation that was passed in this House and in the Senate by my 
colleague and friend Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln. And we will 
celebrate it with the wonderful sound of Richard Smallwood.
  We have the privilege and honor of celebrating this cultural aspect 
of America reaching from the East to the West, from the North to the 
South, in places like Nashville, Tennessee; to Iowa; to Atlanta, 
Georgia; to Houston, Texas; to New York, New York; and places in 
California and around this Nation. We had the pleasure of celebrating 
it at the Kennedy Center. Bryon Cage and the Ebenezer Choir, AME 
Church, was there on Saturday evening celebrating gospel music 
heritage.
  We're excited about it. And we thank our House leadership for helping 
us pass this honoring of those wonderful gospel musicians that all of 
us have enjoyed over the years and decades: some starting out or 
gaining their rock and roll status like Elvis Presley from their 
original origins of gospel music or Al Green, the gospel singer, or 
Mahalia Jackson or Marian Anderson or Yolanda Adams. So many great 
gospel singers have given all of us joy no matter from whence we have 
come.
  So I would like to thank the House leadership. I would like to thank 
the majority leader and his staff and Chairman Towns and the ranking 
member of the Government Oversight Committee, all of whom helped this 
day come to fruition.
  As we move into issues that require our attention, Mr. Speaker, I 
would like to comment very briefly on our position in Afghanistan. 
Tomorrow I will have the opportunity to join in listening to Ambassador 
Holbrooke, who has just returned back from Afghanistan, and I would 
like to offer these thoughts.
  I do believe that Afghanistan is very important to the United States, 
and after 9/11 it was important to respond to the attack on this 
Nation. But now I think it is important to emphasize a diplomatic surge 
and the stand-down of the military soldiers, all who are valiantly 
working there. I believe it is important to allow the Afghan people, 
through the building of schools and roads and through the building of 
the Afghan Army, to take control of their own security. We cannot allow 
this to be a 20-year war as it was with Russia, and the Afghan people 
must stand up.
  Some may say it is not the time, that it is a difficult time. And 
they are right, because instead of pursuing the cause in Afghanistan, 
over the last 8 years we failed and detoured into Iraq, Iraq that took 
thousands of American lives and still unfortunately and tragically 
struggles today with democracy and leadership in their own country. But 
I do believe it is time for a surge of diplomacy in Afghanistan, and I 
am going to work with my colleagues to see this happen.
  I wish to mention Iran, as well, as the General Assembly gathers in 
the United Nations and particularly to focus on Camp Ashraf that has 
displaced Iranians. These individuals are in Iraq and they are subject 
to abuse. I'm calling upon the administration to demand for the people 
that are displaced that happen to be Iranians who are in Iraq to be 
treated with human dignity and for that camp to be protected and for 
the Iraqi military to protect that camp and not allow the intrusion 
into that camp and the rampage that's going on and the attack on women 
and children. Enough is enough. If Iraq claims itself to be a 
democracy, it is important.
  I also call upon the General Assembly to comment on the abuses in 
Iran, the human rights abuse, the press abuse, the lack of freedom of 
press. Even as we debate this question of nuclear proliferation, we 
should not allow the kinds of abuses that are going on in Iran.
  As I move to the domestic issue, Mr. Speaker, I think it is important 
that we clarify that health care is something that America wants. Sixty 
percent of the American people want health care. And as I was coming 
here to Washington, I met someone, Mrs. Wallace, in the airport who 
indicated that her son will have to have surgery costing a million 
dollars, and she pleaded that we get our job done. I said I would take 
her message to Washington, D.C. She was sending off her sister going to 
New Zealand. They have not been hampered by a program that is, in 
essence, underwritten by the government, but we're not asking for a 
program to be underwritten by the government; we are asking for people 
to have choice. But more importantly, we are asking to have an option, 
a public option, that will provide for the competitiveness that is so 
very important in providing health care for all Americans.
  Let's stop all the myths and the attacks, and let's have an 
evenhanded debate to recognize that a public option provides for 
competition.

                              {time}  2015

  I want to conclude, Mr. Speaker, by simply saying we have celebrated 
this 1 year with the Lehman Brothers, but I will say to you that we 
have to have a recovery that makes sense, and this administration is 
working on it.

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