[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9908-9909]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        OUR DOCUMENTS OF FREEDOM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. LOUDERMILK. Mr. Speaker, quite often, as others have already done 
today, when I have come before this body, it has been to recognize 
someone who has done something significant in my district or to speak 
about a bill, whether I was for it or against it, or a piece of policy 
or an issue. But today I don't have pre-prepared remarks. I just wanted 
to remind those of us who are here of why we are here. Why do we attend 
sessions here in this body day in and day out? What is the purpose for 
our being here?
  Before I begin remarks, Mr. Speaker, I would like to personally 
extend my thoughts and prayers on behalf of myself and my family, as 
well as those of the 11th Congressional District in Georgia, to those 
victims of the horrific attack that happened last evening in 
Charleston, South Carolina.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the Committee on Homeland Security as 
well as the special task force on foreign fighters, and as part of 
that, we spend a lot of time studying terrorism and the terrorist 
attacks against this Nation. One thing that I have seen that is 
consistent about these terrorist attacks is that they are attacking us 
not because of who we are. Most of them don't even know our names. They 
may not know our families or what we believe, and it may well be the 
case in Charleston, as I know it was in Garland, Texas, in the attacks 
there, they didn't even know their victims. But what I have seen with 
these attacks of terrorism is they are attacks about what we stand for, 
and that is freedom.
  In Garland, Texas, it was an attack on the First Amendment, our 
freedom of speech. Last night, it was an attack on the most fundamental 
right that our Founding Fathers gave to us, and that is our freedom of 
religion, a right that, as they said, was given to us by God and cannot 
be taken away.
  Mr. Speaker, I have had the opportunity since being in Congress a 
short amount of time--and it is more than an opportunity, it is really 
a privilege--to take constituents as they come to the Capitol here on 
tours. As I walk down the Halls of this building and I point out the 
statue of Thomas Jefferson that we have right outside the Chamber, or 
even as I stand here, the image of Moses is looking at me as he is 
looking over the Chamber, as I see the statues of our Founding Fathers, 
they have left us reminders of why we are here.
  Mr. Speaker, as we are getting close to the great anniversary 
festival of the birth of this Nation, I think it is imperative and 
important that we as a body are reminded of why we are here. I just 
want to speak briefly about two phrases that you can find in 
Washington, D.C., that remind us not only of why we are here, but what 
it takes to preserve the freedom that we have been given.
  Mr. Speaker, as I walked down the aisle to come to this podium, I 
just glanced up above the rostrum where you are standing, and I see 
four words, ``In God We Trust.'' That is one of the phrases that my 
eyes often go to as I am sitting in this Chamber as we are debating 
bills. I reflect back on why do we have that phrase here?
  Well, it also goes back to another phrase that I have seen recently 
as I was taking a tour of The Mall outside this building, where we have 
the museums of the heritage of this Nation. There is also a building 
there, the National Archives. Inside that building are the documents of 
freedom, the most hallowed of all of our documents: the Constitution; 
the Bill of Rights; and then the one that we hold the most sacred, the 
one that is most requested by visitors to this Nation's Capital to see, 
and that is the Declaration of Independence.
  In that Declaration, our Founding Fathers expressed what they 
believed that this Nation would be one day. It was their vision, it was 
their faith, and it was their philosophy about this new Nation. They 
were revolutionary ideas that they brought forth because it was the 
first time in the history of mankind that a government existed with 
emphasis on the freedom of individual, empowering the individual. Every 
other government on the face of the Earth before this had focused its 
attention upon a group, a collective, whether it was by their race or 
their religion or aristocracy or their family line. But our Founding 
Fathers sensed something different: if we empower the individual, if we 
recognize the rights that God has given them and we give them the 
freedom to excel and exceed, then our Nation, as a whole, would excel.
  They believed that these rights were important to be protected: the 
right to speak freely, the right to have ideas, the right to pursue 
happiness, the right to pursue commerce, and the right to worship 
without fear of oppression from the government. These were 
revolutionary ideas.
  They also knew that they had a challenge. Because of these 
revolutionary ideas, they knew that they would not be well accepted by 
other governments because it threatened the power base of those 
governments. In fact, they knew they would have to take on the most 
powerful military force in the history of the entire world if they were 
ever going to see these ideas come to fruition.
  Now, think about that. This ragtag rabble of Washington's soldiers 
would have to take on the most powerful military force in the history 
of the world. It was an impossible task, and they understood that. But, 
Mr. Speaker, that phrase that is in marble above the rostrum reflects 
one of those two key phrases, because in the last line of the 
Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers wrote these words: 
``And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the 
Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.''
  You see, ``In God We Trust'' was the first element that they 
identified that we must have if we were going to preserve this freedom 
that they were fighting for.
  Now, outside the National Archives, where that Declaration is still 
on display, are the words, ``Eternal vigilance is the price of 
freedom.''
  ``Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.''
  You see, that is the second phrase that I think we must be reminded 
of today. The second part of that last line of the Declaration of 
Independence says, ``we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our 
Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.'' You see, freedom is not free, and it 
is held and it is protected at a price.
  Just recently, I was given the opportunity to travel to the beaches 
of Normandy. As I stood upon the sands of Omaha Beach, I started 
reflecting upon the price that was paid that day for our freedom and 
our liberty. I brought back a little bit of the sand from the beach, as 
my dad was in World War II and served in that theater. And as I sat at 
home right around Memorial Day, I was looking at that jar of sand, and 
I started thinking: What if these sands could speak? What would they 
say? What would they tell us in this august body here? What would they 
tell the people of our Nation if that sand could speak?
  You see, that sand absorbed the blood of American patriots who had 
the courage to step off of those Higgins boats into the line of fire, 
and I wondered why would they do that, knowing that more than likely 
they would never return back home. You see, that sand absorbed the 
blood of these patriots.
  The sand also may be able to tell us of the last words that were 
spoken by some of those patriots as they drew their last breath after 
giving their lives, their very lives, for our freedom. Would they tell 
the name of the father

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or mother as they cried out their last cry of hope?

                              {time}  1415

  Would they tell the name of a sweetheart which they will never 
embrace or a brother or a sister or a child that they will never see?
  As I started thinking about it, I started realizing that sand held 
the DNA of these soldiers--not just DNA of the soldiers, but the DNA of 
our entire Nation.
  I believe today, Mr. Speaker, that, if that sand could tell us 
anything today in this body, it is to remember what they died for.
  I believe, if that sand could speak today, that sand would tell us 
these words: this is why we died, because we hold these truths to be 
self-evident, that all men are created equal and they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that amongst these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to ensure these 
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed.
  As we are nearing that celebration--we celebrate 239 years of the 
birth of this Nation--I call upon the Members of this body to once 
again reflect on why we are here, and that is to preserve freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity to speak.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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