[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     MAJOR LEAGUE SPORTS TEAMS HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO THE PUBLIC

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, in 1995, former Washington Bullets 
owner Abe Pollin announced that he would be changing the name of the 
Washington Bullets to the Washington Wizards. The change did not happen 
overnight, nor was everyone happy about it. But Mr. Pollin knew it was 
the right thing to do. And he did it successfully. Given the high 
homicide and crime rate in the early 1990s in Washington, D.C., Mr. 
Pollin became increasingly concerned about the Bullets' association 
with violence. Finally, when Mr. Pollin's close friend, Israeli Prime 
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated in November 1995, he made the 
final decision.
  Mr. Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, may never come to 
the realization that is so evident to us all in the 21st century--that 
the term ``redskins'' is racist, demeaning, derogatory, and offensive 
to Native Americans. But I stand today, once again, to make this appeal 
to Mr. Snyder. I am thankful for Mr. Pollin's brave decision to change 
the Bullets' name, and I urge Mr. Snyder to have the courage to do the 
same. Change the name of your football franchise.

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