[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DOES GOD TRUST US?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Rangel) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, as we see the Nation going 
through such pain, I rise once again to see why we can't get along, why 
Republicans and Democrats find it almost impossible to try to raise 
some solutions to the problems we face.
  There is no question that there are many Republicans in the House and 
Senate that believe that the most important contribution that they can 
make to our country is to get rid of the President. But at the same 
time, we have 14 million people that have lost their jobs, many have 
lost their homes, their savings, their hopes for the future. Probably 
double that number we find underemployed. And the millions and millions 
of people in districts like mine where people have actually given up 
hope that they can restore their dignity and get the resources 
necessary to provide for their families.
  Yesterday, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would support 
the motto ``In God We Trust.'' I reluctantly supported it because I 
didn't want anyone to believe that I didn't trust God. But I felt 
awkward because I didn't see where that was the question.
  The real question, I would think, is, does God trust us? Does God 
trust us to do the things that every religion says we should be doing? 
Are we trusted to provide care and compassion for the vulnerable? Are 
we trusted to know that we have a responsibility to the sick, to the 
aged, to the disabled? That's where God really counts, no matter what 
your religious background is.
  And to talk about a motto and sharing that, I don't think that has to 
be challenged. What is challenged is, what are we going to do about it?
  Why do we find people young and old around the country protesting 
against the disparity that exists between the poor, who God said 
through his servant Jesus, his son Jesus, that they should be taken 
care of? And the Scriptures are not too kind--at least not as kind as I 
am--to the rich. But common decency would expect that there be fairness 
in the resources this great Nation would have.
  And that when we find that less than 1 percent of Americans control 
42 percent of the national wealth, would we find that our educational 
system is definitely not going to allow us to be competitive in the 
future? When we see that the American Dream--and that to me is the most 
important part of my pride in being an American; you don't have to 
succeed in America, but the hope and the dream that people from all 
countries can come here and have an opportunity to break out of their 
class system, out of poverty, and join the middle class.
  Even those who came as slaves and had their backgrounds just 
eliminated; their names, their culture, their songs, their history, but 
nevertheless, because of the Congress and trust in God they, too, have 
been able to achieve, even to the extent of becoming President of the 
United States and honored Members of the Congress through the 
Congressional Black Caucus.
  So once that hope is challenged by anybody, then it means for the 
whole world the symbol that America is supposed to be. It's not one 
that improves your quality of life but finds us having people losing 
hope in the system. The fact that we don't speak out when thousands of 
young Americans, brave warriors, are being killed and have been killed 
in countries that their families have no idea where the countries are 
located or what the issues were, and the necessity of protecting oil 
has no longer been the issue.
  So I say, yes, in God we trust, but we've got a few days left to see 
whether or not we can have God trust in us.

                          ____________________