[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15613-15615]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2130
      YOU HAVE EARNED YOUR REST CORPORAL MICHAEL PAUL MIDDLEBROOK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
for half the remaining time until 10 p.m.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana 
(Mr. Higgins), my friend.
  Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for 
yielding to me.
  On October 1 of this year, less than one week ago, my brother of the 
thin blue line, Corporal Michael Paul Middlebrook, a nine-year veteran 
of the Lafayette Police Department, was killed in the line of duty 
while responding to a ``shots fired'' call at a local convenience 
store.
  Corporal Middlebrook is survived by his wife, three daughters, and 
his parents. During his tenure at the Lafayette Police Department, 
Corporal Middlebrook accumulated seven letters of commendation for acts 
of bravery and outstanding police work.
  Michael understood that his job as a cop began with an oath. And that 
oath was not to a chief or a sheriff or a marshal. It was an oath of 
allegiance to the constitutional principles that his badge represents. 
Corporal Michael Middlebrook recognized unwaveringly the civil 
constitutional rights of the citizens he had sworn to protect and 
defend and serve.
  In March of this year, Michael was awarded the highly prestigious 
Heart of Law Enforcement Award by the national nonprofit group Beyond 
the Badge. During the ceremony, Corporal Middlebrook was recognized by 
Louisiana's Governor and was presented a commemorative State flag. This 
award was given to recognize Corporal Middlebrook's ongoing 
contributions to the low-income community that he patrolled.
  Michael regularly took donated food items from local convenience 
stores and distributed the food to the homeless and less fortunate. 
Michael also collected clothing on his off time and delivered the 
clothing to poor souls he encountered during his shift deep in the 
night while the world slept.
  In the last 6 months alone, Corporal Michael Middlebrook was 
recognized for having saved a person's life by placing himself between 
the victim and the knife-wielding suspect, and for single-handedly 
apprehending an armed robbery suspect seconds after the 911 call was 
placed.
  Corporal Middlebrook's chief, my friend and brother, Chief Toby 
Aguillard, provided this quote: ``For many in our community, Corporal 
Middlebrook was a spearhead that brought them to justice. For many 
others, Corporal Middlebrook was a cradle of compassion. He was an 
officer's officer, loved and respected by his peers. The void he leaves 
in our department, in our community, in our hearts will be felt for 
generations. He will never be forgotten.''
  That quote was from Michael's chief.
  Brother Michael, you have earned your rest. Your watch has ended. We 
have got it from here. The thin blue line will never forget your 
service. We shall always honor your memory, and we shall watch over 
your family.
  May our Saviour bless your ascension, and may He hold your loved ones 
close to His own heart.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me.


                          How Did We Get Here?

  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, when someone with the service of my friend 
from Louisiana, Mr. Higgins, pays tribute, you know it is somebody 
worthy, because my friend from Louisiana served with distinction in the 
United States Army, wearing the uniform of this country. He served as a 
law enforcement officer. He knows about serving, protecting others, and 
a willingness to lay down his life for others.
  It has been deeply touching to have seen accounts of what is going on 
in Las Vegas. To understand what I have seen in my years as a 
prosecutor, judge, and chief justice, when everyone is running away 
from the sound of a gun, first responders and law officers are running 
into harm's way to help and protect others.
  It was Jesus who said, ``Greater love has no one than this, that a 
man lay down his life for his friends.''
  Those who wear the uniform, as my friend has, of law officer and in 
the military, they know what that means. My 4 years in Active Duty in 
the Army, we were not in combat, but Jesus was right.
  There were so many there in Las Vegas that put their own lives on the 
line for the sake of the lives of others.
  There are others that couldn't wait to rush to a microphone to 
demand: Gun control, gun control.
  I am waiting for them to rush to the mic and scream: Knife control, 
knife control.
  Or after a van is used as the weapon: Van control, van control.
  What is clear is we need to look at the real causation, whether it is 
machetes being used to torture and kill 800,000 precious humans in 
Africa, whether it is knives, whether it is ammonium nitrate. People 
with evil in their hearts are going to find a way to wreak havoc.
  We know that without a gun being used, the biggest--worst tragedy and 
loss of life attack was on 9/11 in 2001. I don't believe there was a 
gun used in the whole process, yet it was a worse loss of American life 
than at Pearl Harbor.
  You have got to look at what is in the heart, what's causing it. If 
they are going to use knives, if they are going to use planes, if they 
are going to use vehicles, yeah, we need to protect ourselves, but we 
need to look at what is in the heart.
  I know the sheriff said the shooter may have been radicalized. We 
don't know yet. We know there was a trip to the Philippines
  I am very proud to have met out in the jungles of the southern 
Philippines with some of our special forces. Amazing. Some of the best 
America has to offer, and they were out in the jungles teaching the 
Filipino soldiers, the best that the Philippines had, how to go after 
the radicalized Islamists in the southern Philippines.
  But we don't know if this man with evil in his heart had been 
radicalized. Others say there were no indications. But one thing was 
certain, he looked down on that crowd of people enjoying life, enjoying 
their families, enjoying their loved ones, and all he could see was 
worthless people that needed to be eliminated.
  Why did he have that in his heart? Where do people get those ideas?
  I mean, we argue and disagree here on the House floor. When I was a 
judge, I watched argument. At times it seemed like they wanted to come 
to blows, but it was part of a civil process in a bastion where we come 
and we disagree and we don't use physical violence, but we are still 
supposed to have respect for each other and each other's position.
  To hear some comedian say, ``Just do something,'' would have been 
viewed by those who gave us the documents that have allowed us to be 
the greatest Nation--I think greater than Solomon's Israel, more assets 
per person, the only country in the history that I'm aware of where the 
number one health problem for the Nation's poor is obesity, and it is a 
serious issue.
  But how did we get here?

[[Page 15614]]

  Obviously, for the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, it was easier for them 
because they weren't looking in the eyes of people.
  It was easier for this guy 32 floors up because he was not looking at 
the eyes of these people, his people he wanted to kill that he didn't 
think were worth allowing to live, despite the love they were sharing 
with each other and the joy.
  Where do people get those ideas that somebody is that worthless? Is 
it from hearing people with whom someone disagrees is deplorable, that 
they simply cannot be made worthy of living?
  Here is a statement from this October 2 article. Some CBS executive 
said she was not even sympathetic for the victims of the shooting at a 
country music festival. She said: ``I am actually not even sympathetic 
because country music fans often are Republican gun toters.''

                              {time}  2145

  Scott Pelley has questioned whether the shooting was ``foreseeable, 
predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted.''
  But for someone who appears to know right from wrong, not suffering 
from mental disease or defect, to inflict that kind of death on people 
who are just innocent, just having a good time, there has to be so much 
evil and hate in his heart.
  So we have a Supreme Court that has been saying for years: You have 
got to get prayer out of schools. Never mind the fact that prayer got 
this country started, that prayer and worship and honoring God have 
been behind the greatest developments in this country's history that 
got us to this place, to this plateau, as a nation.
  Although some would argue we have hit the height of freedom, some 
surveys don't have us anywhere near the top of being one of the freest 
countries in the world anymore.
  It is continuing to be, after tragedies, after people with evil in 
their heart do evil things, that more cry out: We need to lose more 
freedom. We need to lose more freedom.
  That is not the answer. Let's look at what is in people's hearts and 
what would be good to have in their hearts.
  I know where we came from, but even I was surprised when my pastor, 
David Dykes, and I and his wife, Cindy, my wife, Kathy, we were going 
through the State Department. I had not done a tour of the State 
Department before because it is mostly boring, but we came to a glass 
case that had a document in it, and it said it was a duplicate.
  We know that many of our most important documents, including the 
Declaration of Independence, were made in duplicate, so I don't know if 
this was one that was actually signed or it was a duplicate. It 
appeared to be of the era.
  I said to Dr. Dykes: Did you know the Treaty of Paris began like 
that?
  I didn't know. I study history most every day.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will suspend.
  Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized until 10 p.m.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I did know that rule.
  But this was the Treaty of Paris, 1783, and John Adams was there. But 
this is where we were negotiating with England, the most powerful 
country in the world, imploring them to recognize this little upstart 
country of 13 States as an independent country, independent and free of 
the shackles that were there as Colonies by England.
  Here they have got the biggest navy. They have an impressive 
military, most powerful nation, and we are asking them to swear on a 
document that we in the United States have the right to be free and 
independent.
  So as I contemplated that, well, these first words that are in much 
bigger letters than the rest of the document, began to make sense.
  What would you have asked somebody swear under, at the beginning of 
our Nation, asking the most powerful nation in the world to swear that 
they recognize, something important enough they would not want to break 
that oath, even with the anger and the despising attitude that many in 
England had at that time?
  Well, the words they chose for those big, tall letters, were these, 
and this is a copy of the copy. ``In the name of the Most Holy and 
Undivided Trinity.''
  Well, some say we were started with the Declaration of Independence, 
recognizing that we are free and, of right, ought to be free because we 
are endowed by our Creator with these unalienable rights.
  And then we have this document where England swears in the name of 
the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity that they recognize our 
independence. That came after the Great Awakening, in the 1700s, where 
pulpits were on fire with the glory of God and the recognition of what 
God had given us and of the importance of the Bible.
  No, everybody wasn't a Christian back then, but of the signers of the 
Declaration, you had over a third of them were--may have been over half 
were actually ordained Christian ministers.
  There were secularists that supported the end of slavery, but the 
churches drove that. The churches provided the Underground Railroad, 
most often, to try to help Africans to be free Americans.
  It was an ordained Christian minister who went on to help bring about 
the full meaning of the Constitution, that this should mean what it 
said, an ordained Christian minister named Martin Luther King, Jr.
  So, Mr. Speaker, Abraham Lincoln, he started life early as, bragging 
to his law partner, he was an infidel. Going from that, as Steve 
Mansfield discusses, I believe the book is entitled ``Lincoln's 
Struggle With God.'' By the time he became President, he knew there was 
a God. And just like Benjamin Franklin said: ``I have lived, sir, a 
long time. The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this 
truth--God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall 
to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can 
rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings 
that, `except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build 
it.'''
  He said: ``I firmly believe this. I also firmly believe that without 
His concurring aid, we shall succeed in our political building no 
better than the builders of Babel.''
  So this man, kind of homely looking--I thought Daniel Day-Lewis 
captured his essence so well. When I met Doris Kearns Goodwin over at 
the Library of Congress, I said: You've got to tell me, you do such 
fabulous research--and, yes, she is a more liberal Democrat, I know, 
but she does fabulous research. And in her book, ``Team of Rivals,'' 
she has well documented he didn't have a pleasant voice, kind of high, 
raspy. Daniel Day-Lewis nailed it.
  But Lincoln came to know what Ben Franklin testified to in 1787 at 
the Constitutional Convention. He lost a son. He and his wife lost a 
son in 1861. There are indications he totally blamed himself because he 
thought he hadn't done quickly enough what God meant for him to do: end 
slavery. I don't know if that is true or not.
  But in March of 1863, this was Abraham Lincoln's declaration, and I 
will finish with this, Mr. Speaker. Abraham Lincoln's words were: ``But 
we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which 
preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; 
and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that 
all the blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of 
our own.''
  Lincoln goes on and says: ``Intoxicated with unbroken success, we 
have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and 
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It 
behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to 
confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness''--
Abraham Lincoln.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe this was not the act of God punishing 
Americans for being country music fans or being conservatives. This was 
not the act of God punishing Americans for turning away.

[[Page 15615]]

This was from a man with evil in his heart in a country where God has 
been driven out of the schoolhouse, driven out of government buildings 
by a majority of Supreme Court Justices who have no clue how far from 
the original intent of the Constitution they have wandered.
  It is the result of years of teaching people that there are those 
among our what we deem innocent in society who just should not be 
allowed to live. That is not the teaching of Jesus. It is not the 
teaching in the Bible, and it is not what this country grew so great 
believing.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________