[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           BRIDGE DEDICATION

                                  _____
                                 

                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 13, 2013

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I consider it a great tribute to have the 
Poplar Street Bridge renamed in my honor. I wish to thank those who 
participated in making this happen. Let me personally thank . . .
  Let me especially thank my friend, Representative Penny Hubbard, for 
her untiring effort in managing the bill through the legislature.
  Let me say to Rep. Penny and those that participated in naming this 
bridge in my honor that prior to this dedication, two bridges have had 
a special meaning in the life of the Clay family and me. The first was 
the McKinley Bridge, where the electric train carried my father, five 
days a week, back and forth, to work in Venice, Illinois, for more than 
30 years.
  He earned a good living that enabled him to take care of his wife of 
60 years and us 7 children. How can the Clay's not remember and 
appreciate what that fabulous bridge meant in our lives?
  The second bridge that had a tremendous influence in my life was the 
Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. It was there on a Sunday that 
John Lewis and 600 other marchers attempted to cross on their way to 
Montgomery. They were peacefully demanding the right to register and 
vote like all other Americans.
  But Governor George Wallace ordered local and state police to stop 
the march on the flimsy ground of ``public safety.''
  What followed is now infamously known as ``Bloody Sunday.'' Police, 
armed with billy clubs, dogs, and tear gas, were seen around the world 
on television beating men, women, and children unmercifully.
  That scene on the Edmund Pettis Bridge was the stimulus for passing 
the 1965 Voting Rights Act and subsequently my election to Congress. At 
the time, there were only five blacks in Congress. Today, because of 
what happened on that bridge, there are 42 blacks.
  My mission while in Congress for 32 years was to build bridges that 
carried resources to the economically underprivileged, and to those 
discriminated against because of race, gender and age.
  My message to those of you still battling the forces of hatred and 
ignorance is to ignore that group of idiots that want to destroy 
bridges provided by government assistance. Do not join those chanting 
the idiotic slogan of ``government is the problem and should get out of 
the way.''
  Government has a sacred responsibility to play a major role in 
building bridges that elevate the standard of living for its citizens. 
It must build roads leading to bridges that take our children to 
schools, our adults to jobs, our sick to hospitals.
  Bridges must enable the working poor to move into the middle class 
and our seniors to live the remainder of their lives in dignity.
  You in the legislative body must always remember that bridges take 
people to untold opportunities. I am proud of the bridges I helped 
build while in Congress that now provide for family and medical leave, 
that gave political freedom to federal employees, that assured that 
after five years you are vested in your pension plan, that rewrote the 
higher education law, the elementary and secondary education bill, and, 
yes, Rep. Hubbard, the one that makes our workplace safe.
  Yes, Rep. Penny Hubbard, I know you will continue building bridges 
that take people from poverty to prosperity, from hopelessness to 
dreams fulfilled.
  Government must not let the excessive greed of some exploit the 
helpless in the name of providing jobs that pay less than a living 
wage.
  Government must provide the bridges that guarantee a good education 
for its citizens, a decent job with adequate pay and health benefits, a 
nice home in a safe neighborhood. If building bridges that establish a 
strong, vibrant middle class is seen as government being in the way, I 
say to those . . . well, I say that, and much more.
  OK, I have had my say. So, Rep. Penny Hubbard, let me thank you again 
for remembering that bridges have played an indispensable role in my 
life. Thanks for remembering that building bridges has made my life 
worth living.

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