[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5678-5679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              THERE IS NO POWER LIKE THE POWER OF A MOTHER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Comstock). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Rush) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, Mother's Day is soon approaching, and as we, 
our Nation, take time to honor our mothers, I would like to make a 
special appeal to African American mothers across this country that 
they begin to use their awesome powers to take back our streets from 
the daily violence that far too many of our youth, far too many of our 
families, and far too many of our communities are experiencing each and 
every day.
  It is now time, time right now, for Black mothers to once again rise 
up to stop the unmitigated and endless violence that is occurring 
often--far too often--in our Nation's streets.
  Madam Speaker, there is no power like the power of a mother. Beside 
me today is an image that many across the Nation have seen, and it is 
the subject of conversation all across our country. It is the image of 
a strong Black mother giving her son what I will call a ``love 
whipping''--a ``love whipping,'' Madam Speaker--to snatch him back from 
the grips of senseless violence that is currently plaguing the city of 
Baltimore, Maryland.
  As this picture demonstrates, Madam Speaker, mothers can and mothers 
must be the mobilizing force to take back our streets. Mothers feel the 
pain of a loss of a child unlike any other. The primal scream of a 
mother at the sudden death and departure of her child is unlike any 
other outcry known to mankind.
  As my own history has demonstrated, I am not one to excuse police 
brutality and police murder and police mayhem and police utter 
disrespect for the citizens that they are pledged and sworn to serve 
and to protect. And as a former member of the Black Panther Party, we 
in the party have always said, and I quote, that ``spontaneity is the 
art of the foolish.''
  What the Baltimore rioters and other rioters across this Nation fail 
to understand, particularly those who are in Baltimore, what they fail 
to understand and what they fail to consider is how many people in that 
neighborhood were depending on the CVS drug store, or how many older 
neighbors of those same young people were looking forward to the day 
that they could call that burned-down senior citizens home a home for 
themselves, and they were looking forward to it being completed. ``When 
is the move-in date?'' They were looking forward to the comfort of that 
senior home.
  Simply put, Madam Speaker, senseless destruction of your own 
neighborhood is not protesting; it is pillaging. It is not political; 
it is pillaging--nothing more, nothing less. It is pillaging your own 
neighborhood.
  That is unintelligent. That makes no sense. That is eating the 
wrapper and throwing the candy bar away. It makes no sense to pillage 
your own neighborhood and deny your own people.
  Beyond Baltimore, Madam Speaker--yes, and there is a beyond 
Baltimore. Beyond Baltimore, we must look at the whole picture of 
violence in our Nation. The violence that has plagued Baltimore didn't 
come out of nowhere. It wasn't just a spark out of nowhere.
  Instead, Madam Speaker, it was sparked by the frustration that so 
many African Americans feel with the reports of the death of yet 
another young African American man at the hands of our Nation's police. 
It was sparked by the flame of frustration that far too many of our 
Nation's youth are facing each and every day of their lives: 
unemployment, disrespect, broken-down homes, broken-down communities, 
failed education systems.
  All these frustrations, frustrations that deny them a sense that 
there is a future for them in this Nation, these frustrations inflame 
all the fires in Baltimore or in other places across this Nation.

                              {time}  1945

  That said, Madam Speaker, from my friend Fred Hampton, my friend 
Michael Clark in 1969 to Michael Brown and Eric Garner and Tamir Rice 
and now Freddie Gray in 2015, we have seen far too many young men of 
color fall victim to the very same people who were sworn to serve and 
protect.
  This mother is demonstrating the power of a mother's love and the 
power of a mother's courage. She walked into harm's way 
straightforward, directly to, located her son. And she is demonstrating 
a power that is beyond imagination and beyond all selflessness.

[[Page 5679]]

  To honor her and the important role that all mothers, mamas, our 
mothers--including my own mother--to honor them and to honor the 
important role that they play in taking back our streets and ending the 
violence that plagues our communities all across this Nation, I humbly 
call on America's mothers, those in the African American community and 
outside of the African American community, those in urban areas and 
those in rural areas, all American mothers, to wear yellow, to wear 
yellow, to wear yellow on Mother's Day in a symbolic show of solidarity 
and to create a ``Mothers in Yellow'' movement to end the violence that 
plagues this Nation's cities, this Nation's communities, this Nation's 
neighborhoods.
  Mothers, rise up now. Use this as an occasion to take back the 
streets. Your pain, the pain that you feel, your sense of loss of hope 
for your child, your sense of finality in terms of a future of your 
child, that pain must stop, and you have the power to stop it.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________