Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, between November 10 and 13 I and more than twenty of our colleagues in the House will be meeting and participating in the 10th annual Caribbean Multi-national Business Conference sponsored by the New York Carib News in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands where we will be enjoying the hospitality of Carib News publishers Karl and Faye Rodney and Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Over the last decade the conference has brought together elected officials, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives of major corporations to explore opportunities for growth and expansion in the emerging markets and developing economies of the Caribbean. The conference has significantly contributed to the building of closer working relationships and personal ties between Caribbean leadership and the Members of Congress who have participated. As we approach this year's conference, I wish to recognize and pay tribute to an outstanding Caribbean leader, Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts-Nevis by placing in the Congressional Record the text of a proclamation to be awarded at the conference:

A Proclamation Celebrating the Accomplishments of Dr. Denzil L.

Douglas, Prime Minister, St. Kitts-Nevis

Whereas, It is an established and honorable tradition for

elected officials to recognize the outstanding contributions

of those persons whose leadership and life's work have made a

substantial difference to the lives of people everywhere,

especially in their own countries; and

Whereas, Such committed leaders are like beacons that show

the way to a better life for those persons at the lowest

rungs of the economic and social ladder and are therefore an

Inspiration to people at home and abroad; and

Whereas, Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, a national and Prime

Minister of the independent Federation of St. Kitts-Nevis, is

surely one such leader and dedicated public servant; and

Whereas, Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, a physician, is being cited

and honored at the annual Caribbean Multi-National Business

Conference 2005 in St. Thomas In the U.S. Virgin Islands for

his service to his native land, the wider Caribbean community

and developing nations generally, serving as head of

Government in St. Kitts-Nevis at a time when the United

Nations placed his country on the list of the World's top 50

states where the quality of life is high; is the Caribbean

Community, Caricom, lead Prime Minister on health issues,

championing the fight against HIV/AIDS infection in the

Caribbean; and

Whereas, The Prime Minister has led his country with

distinction for the past 10 years while Demonstrating to the

world that a small nation can be an international model of

development, an example when it comes to adherence to the

rule of law and parliamentary democracy; now, therefore be it

Resolved, That we salute and commend Dr. Denzil Douglas for

his distinguished an unblemished record of service to

humanity and for his leadership on the national and

international stages, within Caricom and the countries which

belong to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.

Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, between November 10 and 13 I and more than 20 of our colleagues in the House will be meeting and participating in the 10th annual Caribbean Multi-national Business Conference sponsored by the New York Carib News in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands where we will be enjoying the hospitality of Carib News publishers Karl and Faye Rodney and Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Over the last decade the conference has brought together elected officials, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives of major corporations to explore opportunities for growth and expansion in the emerging markets and developing economies of the Caribbean. The conference has significantly contributed to the building of closer working relationships and personal ties between Caribbean leadership and the Members of Congress who have participated. As we approach this year's conference, I wish to recognize and pay tribute to an outstanding Caribbean leader, Dame Billie Antoinette Miller by placing in the Congressional Record the text of a proclamation to be awarded at the conference:

A Proclamation Celebrating the Accomplishments of Dame Billie

Antoinette Miller

Whereas, It is a long and honorable tradition for elected

Officials to recognize the outstanding contributions of those

individuals

whose Life Has made an important difference to people

Everywhere, especially in their own communities; and

Whereas, Such persons serve as role models and an

Inspiration to people at home and abroad; and

Whereas, Dame Billie, a national of the independent nation

of Barbados in the Caribbean, is unquestionably such a major

contributor; and

Whereas, Dame Billie Miller is being cited and honored at

the annual Caribbean Multinational Business Conference 2005

in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for service to

Barbados, the Caribbean and the international community,

serving as a member of her nation's parliament for more than

25 years; Deputy Prime Minister for almost a decade; Minister

of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade since 1994; was the

first woman to sit in the cabinet of Barbados, for several

years was the only woman serving as an attorney at the

private Bar of Barbados, and holds the distinction of being

the first woman to be elected Chairman of the Executive

Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association since

its establishment in 1911; and

Whereas, Dame Billie, one of the Caribbean's longest

Serving cabinet ministers, was President of the 32nd Regular

Session of the General Assembly of the Organization of

American States in 2002; was Chairman of the Inter-American

Development Bank's Advisory Council on Women and Development

in the Western Hemisphere; and in 1998 was President of the

African, Caribbean and Pacific States Council of Ministers

and is the current chairman of the Inter-American

Parliamentary Group on Population and Development in the

Western Hemisphere; now, therefore be it

Resolved, That we salute and commend Dame Billie Miller for

her distinguished and unblemished record of service to

humanity.

Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, between November 10 and 13, I and more than 20 of our colleagues in the House will be meeting and participating in the 10th annual Caribbean Multi-national Business Conference sponsored by the New York Carib News in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands where we will be enjoying the hospitality of Carib News publishers Karl and Faye Rodney and Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Over the last decade the conference has brought together elected officials, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives of major corporations to explore opportunities for growth and expansion in the emerging markets and developing economies of the Caribbean. The conference has significantly contributed to the building of closer working relationships and personal ties between Caribbean leadership and the Members of Congress who have participated. As we approach this year's conference, I wish to recognize and pay tribute to an outstanding Caribbean leader, Dr. Kenny Anthony, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia by placing in the Congressional Record the text of a proclamation to be awarded at the conference:

A Proclamation Celebrating the Accomplishments of Dr. Kenny Anthony,

Prime Minister, St. Lucia

Whereas, It is an established and honorable tradition for

elected officials to recognize the outstanding contributions

of those persons whose leadership, scholarship and total

life's work have helped to transform people's lives for the

better, especially in their own countries and region; and

Whereas, Such committed leaders are reliable foundations on

which sustained economic growth and human development are

built, paving the way for a better standard of living for

all, particularly the poor, and are therefore an inspiration

to people at home and abroad; and

Whereas, Dr. Kenny, a national and Prime Minister of the

independent nation of St. Lucia is obviously one such leader

and a dedicated public servant; and

Whereas, Dr. Kenny Anthony, an attorney and recognized

legal expert with graduate degrees in law, including a PhD

from the University of Birmingham in England, is being cited

and honored at the annual Caribbean Multi- National Business

Conference 2005 in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for

his service to his country of birth, the wider Caribbean

community and developing nations generally, serving as head

of Government in St. Lucia at a time when the country has

gained international recognition for its pace of human

development; is the Caribbean Community, Caricom, lead Prime

Minister on governance and jurisprudence; and

Whereas, The Prime Minister has led St. Lucia with

distinction for almost a decade while directing much of the

work on the historic creation of the Caribbean Court of

Justice and showing the world that St. Lucia which has given

the world 2 Nobel Prize winners, one in economics and the

other in literature is contributing even more to the

improvement of the human condition and that a small nation

can be a showcase of talent and intellect while being an

example when it comes to adhering to the rule of law and

parliamentary democracy; now, therefore be it

Resolved, That we salute and commend Dr. Kenny Anthony for

his distinguished an unblemished record of service to

humanity and for his leadership on the national and

international stages, within Caricom and the countries which

belong to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.

Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, between November 10 and 13, I and more than 20 of our colleagues in the House will be meeting and participating in the 10th annual Caribbean Multi-national Business Conference sponsored by the New York Carib News in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands where we will be enjoying the hospitality of Carib News publishers Karl and Faye Rodney and Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Over the last decade the conference has brought together elected officials, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives of major corporations to explore opportunities for growth and expansion in the emerging markets and developing economies of the Caribbean. The conference has significantly contributed to the building of closer working relationships and personal ties between Caribbean leadership and the Members of Congress who have participated. As we approach this year's conference, I wish to recognize and pay tribute to an outstanding Caribbean leader, Ms. Diane Abbott, Member of House of Commons, United Kingdom by placing in the Congressional Record the text of a proclamation to be awarded at the conference:

A Proclamation Celebrating the Accomplishments of Ms. Diane Abbott,

Member of the House of Commons, United Kingdom

Whereas, It is an established and honorable tradition for

elected officials to recognize the outstanding contributions

of those persons whose leadership and life's work have made a

substantial difference to the lives of people everywhere,

especially in their own countries; and

Whereas, Such committed leaders are often pioneers, who

blaze a trail, becoming a role model for others to emulate,

especially the young and the less fortunate in society.

Whereas, Diane Abbott, the first Black woman ever elected

to the British House of Commons has earned her place on the

scroll of outstanding women of achievement and is certainly

one such pioneer.

Whereas, Diane Abbott, the daughter of Jamaican Immigrant

parents and an honors graduate of Britain's prestigious

Cambridge University, has represented a working class, multi-

ethnic District In London since she was first elected to the

House of Commons in 1987.

Whereas, Diane Abbott is being cited and honored at the

annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference 2005 in

St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for service to her

country, the Caribbean community and the developing world

generally.

Whereas, Diane Abbott, a member of the Treasury Committee

of the International Monetary Fund helped to raise the

consciousness of the International community about the damage

which the debt crisis was having on governments and people of

the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America; now,

therefore be it

Resolved, That we salute and commend Ms. Diane Abbott for

her distinguished an unblemished record of service to

humanity and for her leadership on the national and

international stages in the United Kingdom, the Caribbean as

elsewhere.

Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, between November 10 and 13, I and more than 20 of our colleagues in the House will be meeting and participating in the 10th annual Caribbean Multi-national Business Conference sponsored by the New York Carib News in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands where we will be enjoying the hospitality of Carib News publishers Karl and Faye Rodney and Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Over the last decade the conference has brought together elected officials, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives of major corporations to explore opportunities for growth and expansion in the emerging markets and developing economies of the Caribbean. The conference has significantly contributed to the building of closer working relationships and personal ties between Caribbean leadership and the Members of Congress who have participated. As we approach this year's conference, I wish to recognize and pay tribute to an outstanding Caribbean leader, Hon. Gordon ``Butch'' Stewart, Renowned Jamaican and Caribbean Business leader and Entrepreneur by placing in the Congressional Record the text of a proclamation to be awarded at the conference:

A Proclamation Celebrating the Accomplishments of Hon. Gordon ``Butch''

Stewart

Whereas, It is an established and honorable tradition for

elected officials to recognize the outstanding contributions

of those persons whose groundbreaking leadership and life's

work have helped to transform the private sector as a key

engine of economic growth while upgrading people's standard

of living, especially in their own countries;

Whereas, Such successful business leaders have earned their

places in history the old-fashion way, working hard, taking

risks, blazing profitable commercial trails, thus setting

examples for others to follow;

Whereas, The Hon. Gordon ``Butch'' Stewart, a national of

Jamaica who is Chairman of Sandals Resorts International,

sits at the pinnacle one of the largest corporate

conglomerates in the Caribbean;

Whereas, The Hon. Gordon ``Butch'' Stewart, until recently

Chairman of Air Jamaica, has been widely recognized and

honored throughout the Caribbean, North America and Europe

for his business innovation, entrepreneurship and success.

Whereas, Two of most cherished awards are his country's

highest national honors, the Order of Jamaica and Commander

of the Order of Distinction.

Whereas, The Hon. Gordon ``Butch'' Stewart is being cited

and honored at the annual Caribbean Multi-National Business

Conference 2005 in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for

service to his country, the Caribbean community and the

global business community; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That we salute and commend the Hon. Gordon

``Butch'' Stewart for his outstanding, distinguished an

unblemished record of service to business and humanity and

for his leadership on the national and international stages

in Jamaica, the Caribbean, North America and Europe.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask that we return to the framework for declarations of war set out by our Founding Fathers and found in the United States Constitution.

The Iraq War and all the damage it has done and continues to do, is a demonstration of what happens when Congress ignores the Constitution and the intentions of the Founding Fathers. As Leslie H. Gelb and Anne- Marie Slaughter point out in their article in the November 8, 2005 Washington Post ``No More Blank-Check Wars'' ``Most wars overflow with mistakes and surprises. Still, in Iraq, much that has gone wrong could have been foreseen--and was. . . . Too often our leaders have entered wars with unclear and unfixed aims, tossing away American lives, power and credibility before figuring out what they were doing and what could be done. Congress saw the problem after the Vietnam War and tried to fix it with the War Powers Act. It states that troops sent into combat by the President must be withdrawn within 60 days unless Congress approves an extension. But Presidents from Nixon on never recognized the validity of this legislation against their powers as commander in chief. Nor did Congress ever assert its rights and take political responsibility. Since the Korean War, the process has consisted of at most a Congressional resolution, a few serious speeches and authorization for the President to do whatever he wants. Odds are against changing these `political realities.' But, impaled as we are on costs and carelessness of so many of our recent wars, it is worth trying to find a better way.''

As it happens, Gelb and Slaughter point out: the answer is in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers understood that sending Americans to war required careful reflection and vigorous debate. The answer survives in Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution, which give Congress--and only Congress--the power to declare war. The authors suggest that power needs to be reestablished and reinforced by new legislation. The new legislation would require a declaration of war from Congress in advance of any commitment of troops. Requiring a declaration by Congress would require congress to debate the issues, analyze the threat, and consider the costs of a war. In the case of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the President would retain his power to repel the attack and strike back without a Congressional declaration. But if he went to Afghanistan and planned to keep troops there, topple the government and transform the country, he would need a Congressional declaration. Without the declaration, he would have no funding for nation building. These are ideas that need discussion. These ideas come from the document we all swear an oath to uphold: the Constitution of the United States.

In my view, a patriot is a person who remembers he must uphold and defend the Constitution, not a political party or a President.

[From the Washington Post, Nov. 8, 2005]

No More Blank-Check Wars

(By Leslie H. Gelb and Anne-Marie Slaughter)

Most wars overflow with mistakes and surprises. Still, in

Iraq, much that has gone wrong could have been foreseen--and

was. For example, most experts knew that 100,000 U.S. troops

couldn't begin to provide essential security and that Iraqi

oil revenue wouldn't dent war costs. But none of this was

nailed down beforehand in any disciplined review.

And Iraq, whether justified or not, is only the latest in a

long line of ill-considered and ill-planned U.S. military

adventures. Time and again in recent decades the United

States has made military commitments after little real

debate, with hazy goals and no appetite for the inevitable

setbacks. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson plunged us

into the Vietnam War with little sense of the region's

history or culture. Ronald Reagan dispatched Marines to

Lebanon, saying that stability there was a ``vital

interest,'' only to yank them out 16 months later after a

deadly terrorist attack on Marine barracks. Bill Clinton,

having inherited a mission in Somalia to feed the starving,

ended up hunting tribal leaders and trying to build a nation.

Too often our leaders have entered wars with unclear and

unfixed aims, tossing away American lives, power and

credibility before figuring out what they were doing and what

could be done. Congress saw the problem after the Vietnam War

and tried to fix it with the War Powers Act. It states that

troops sent into combat by the president must be withdrawn

within 60 days unless Congress approves an extension. But

presidents from Richard Nixon on never recognized the

validity of this legislation against their powers as

commander in chief. Nor did Congress ever assert its rights

and take political responsibility. Since the Korean War, the

process has consisted at most of a presidential request for a

congressional resolution, a few serious speeches and

authorization for the president to do whatever he wants. Odds

are against changing these ``political realities.'' But

impaled as we are on the costs and carelessness of so many of

our recent wars, it is worth trying to find a better way.

As often happens, an answer can be found with the Founding

Fathers and the Constitution. They could not have foreseen

the present age of nuclear missiles and cataclysmic

terrorism. But they understood political accountability, and

they knew that sending Americans to war required careful

reflection and vigorous debate. Their answer survives in

Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution, which gives

Congress--and only Congress--the power to declare war. That

power, exercised only a few times in our history, and not at

all since World War II, needs to be reestablished and

reinforced by new legislation. This legislation would fix

guidelines for exercising the provision jointly between the

White House and Congress. It would restore the Framers'

intent by requiring a congressional declaration of war in

advance of any commitment of troops that promises sustained

combat.

Requiring Congress to declare war, rather than just approve

or authorize the president's decision to take troops into

combat, would make it much harder for Congress to duck its

responsibilities. The president would be required to give

Congress an analysis of the threat, specific war aims with

their rationale and feasibility, general strategy and

potential costs. Congress would hold hearings, examine the

information and conclude with a full floor debate and solemn

vote.

In case of a sudden attack on the United States or

Americans abroad, the president would retain his power to

repel that attack and strike back without a congressional

declaration. But any sustained operations would trigger the

declaration process. In other words, the president could send

troops into Afghanistan to hunt down al Qaeda and punish the

Taliban in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. But if he

planned to keep the troops there to topple the government and

transform the country, he would need a congressional

declaration. Without one, funding would be restricted to

bringing the troops home soon and safely.

This declaration process should appeal to conservatives and

even neocons. It meets their valid concern that the United

States often loses diplomatic showdowns and wars not on the

battlefield but at home. It adds credibility to presidential

threats and staying power to our military commitments.

Binding Congress far more closely to war, for instance, might

have convinced Saddam Hussein of Washington's resolve to

fight him in both gulf wars; today it would help convince

insurgents in Iraq of America's long-term commitment to make

Iraq secure. Liberals and moderates, always rightly

complaining about a rush to war, would welcome the restored

declaration. Not least, the attractiveness of this approach

would be aided by the political power of the Constitution

itself.

Nor would the process proposed here diminish a president's

leadership or stature as commander in chief as he makes his

case to Congress. If, even with these advantages, his

arguments fail, then the case cannot be very compelling.

Today Congress deliberates on transportation bills more

carefully than it does on war resolutions. Our Founding

Fathers wanted the declaration of war to concentrate minds.

Returning to the Constitution's text and making it work

through legislation requiring joint deliberate action may be

the only way to give the decision to make war the care it

deserves.

Mr. Speaker, I have no idea as to what the objection was raised to. The House was not in order when the gentleman was speaking. The House has no way to know as to what objection he raised.

Is it possible for the Chair to edify the House as to why the objection was made to dispensing with the reading?

Mr. Speaker, my parliamentary inquiry was, could the Chair share with us the reason given by the distinguished objector?

I cannot hear the Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the courageous contributions and civil services of Mrs. Rosa Parks, who peacefully left the world on Monday, October 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 92.

As I look back at the struggles of African Americans, I am astounded by the fire that Mrs. Parks ignited:

On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus.

On December 5, 1955, she led a boycott by all colored people on the Montgomery buses, which lasted for 381 days.

On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama's State and local laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional. Other events continued that challenged the U.S. Constitution: The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the desegregation of Woolworth's lunch counter at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, and the desegregation of the University of Mississippi.

Nine years later, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin which provides the Federal Government with the powers to enforce desegregation.

Mrs. Rosa Parks was instrumental in changing the social and political climate of the United States of America. Her action has inspired Americans of all races and backgrounds to stand up for our basic human rights. She has taught us the power of determination and perseverance. Mrs. Parks was an activist who did not seek public attention. After the civil rights movement, Mrs. Parks continued to give back to the community. In 1987, she and her late husband, Raymond Parks, founded the Institute for Self-Development, which prepares young African- Americans for leadership positions in the workplace and the community. A subdivision of the Institute, called Pathways of Freedom, allows groups of teens to follow the Underground Railroad and visit the historical sites of the Civil Rights Movement. Her act of defiance against a powerful system showed each of us the importance of everything we do and the impact that our own acts of courage can have. Mrs. Parks lived a long and full life. She has left us physically, but will remain spiritually as she will be remembered for generations to come. Following, is a CNN report of Mrs. Rosa Park's life.

Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks Dies at 92--Long Known as the ``Mother of

the Civil Rights Movement''

Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955

inspired the modern civil rights movement, died Monday in

Detroit, Michigan. She was 92.

Parks' moment in history began in December 1955 when she

refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in

Montgomery, Alabama.

Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by

blacks that was organized by a 26-year-old Baptist minister,

the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The boycott led to a court ruling desegregating public

transportation in Montgomery, but it wasn't until the 1964

Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations nationwide

were desegregated.

Facing regular threats and having lost her department store

job because of her activism, Parks moved from Alabama to

Detroit in 1957. She later joined the staff of U.S. Rep. John

Conyers, a Michigan Democrat.

Conyers, who first met Parks during the early days of the

civil rights struggle, recalled Monday that she worked on his

original congressional staff when he first was elected to the

House of Representatives in 1964.

``I think that she, as the mother of the new civil rights

movement, has left an impact not just on the Nation, but on

the world,'' he told CNN in a telephone interview. ``She was

a real apostle of the nonviolence movement.''

He remembered her as someone who never raised her voice--an

eloquent voice of the civil rights movement.

``You treated her with deference because she was so quiet,

so serene--just a very special person,'' he said, adding that

``there was only one'' Rosa Parks.

Gregory Reed, a longtime friend and attorney, said Parks

died between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. of natural causes. He called

Parks ``a lady of great courage.''

Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for

Self Development to help young people pursue educational

opportunities, get them registered to vote and work toward

racial peace.

``As long as there is unemployment, war, crime and all

things that go to the infliction of man's inhumanity to man,

regardless--there is much to be done, and people need to work

together,'' she once said.

Even into her 80s, she was active on the lecture circuit,

speaking at civil rights groups and accepting awards,

including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the

Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

``This medal is encouragement for all of us to continue

until all have rights,'' she said at the June 1999 ceremony

for the latter medal.

Parks was the subject of the documentary ``Mighty Times:

The Legacy of Rosa Parks,'' which received a 2002 Oscar

nomination for best documentary short.

In April, Parks and rap duo OutKast settled a lawsuit over

the use of her name on a CD released in 1998.

Bus Boycott

She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on

February 4, 1913. Her marriage to Raymond Parks lasted from

1932 until his death in 1977.

Parks' father, James McCauley, was a carpenter, and her

mother, Leona Edwards McCauley, a teacher.

Before her arrest in 1955, Parks was active in the voter

registration movement and with the National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People, where she also worked as a

secretary in 1943.

At the time of her arrest, Parks was 42 and on her way home

from work as a seamstress. She took a seat in the front of

the black section of a city bus in Montgomery. The bus filled

up and the bus driver demanded that she move so a white male

passenger could have her seat. ``The driver wanted us to

stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning,

but he says, `Let me have these seats.' And the other three

people moved, but I didn't,'' she once said. When Parks

refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her.

As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked,

`Why do you push us around?'' The officer's response: ``I

don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest.''

She added, ``I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that

it was the very last time that I would ever ride in

humiliation of this kind.''

Four days later, Parks was convicted of disorderly conduct

and fined $14. That same day, a group of blacks founded the

Montgomery Improvement Association and named King, the young

pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as its leader, and

the bus boycott began.

For the next 381 days, blacks--who according to Time

magazine had comprised two-thirds of Montgomery bus riders--

boycotted public transportation to protest Parks' arrest and

in turn the city's Jim Crow segregation laws. Black people

walked, rode taxis and used carpools in an effort that

severely damaged the transit company's finances. The mass

movement marked one of the largest and most successful

challenges of segregation and helped catapult King to the

forefront of the civil rights movement.

The boycott ended on November 13, 1956, after the U.S.

Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Montgomery's

segregated bus service was unconstitutional.

Parks' act of defiance came one year after the Supreme

Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision that led to the

end of racial segregation in public schools.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a Democrat, told CNN

Monday he watched the 1955-56 Montgomery drama unfold as a

teenager and it inspired him to get active in the civil

rights movement.

``It was so unbelievable that this woman--this one woman--

had the courage to take a seat and refuse to get up and give

it up to a white gentleman. By sitting down, she was standing

up for all Americans,'' he said.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow I will be attending the funeral of Kenny Swygert, beloved husband of my long-time staff assistant and friend, Brenda. I submit to the record the remarks I will be making at the service.

At times such as this we find that words can never adequately provide a true expression of the sympathy we feel, and words seem so unlikely to provide comfort, but we gathered here this morning to show Brenda and her family that we are grieving with you over the loss of your beloved Kenny.

Having known Kenny from the time Brenda met him, and remembering that it was in my first Congressional office that they met due to the matchmaking efforts of brother Pat, I have always felt partly responsible for the success of their marriage, and, Brenda, you two found such happiness together that I came to believe that your marriage was one of the best things I have ever been a part of.

Over the years Brenda and Kenny have defined a good marriage for me and for all who know them, so we know how difficult this loss will be for you, Brenda, and how difficult it will be for you to be without your life partner.

Please know that your many friends, and all of those whose lives you and Kenny have touched over the years, are with you in spirit at this time of sorrow and that you and your family are in our thoughts and prayers.

I believe that it is often the case that those who work with someone on a daily basis have a very good opportunity to know of the quality of a marriage. It is on a daily basis that one has, particularly in a small Congressional office, to see what the people with whom you work are experiencing in their lives away from the office. With Brenda, I could tell that she was married to a man who supported her and enabled her to devote herself to the demands of a Congressional career as well as give of herself to friends and family as generously as she has over the years.

And give of herself Brenda has, so much so that I knew Kenny must be a wonderfully supportive husband to tolerate her missing so many evenings at home while she was working late with me. I have benefited so much over the years from Brenda's professionalism and dedication that I haven't thought enough of thanking Kenny for allowing her to be as devoted as she is.

When Brenda was sick a couple of years we were able to see the kind of love and support that Kenny provided and how his prayers and his strength and determination that she survive was a force that encouraged and sustained Brenda in her fight to breathe and restore her health. We all worried about the illness that threatened her life and the capacity of her doctors and medicine to overcome it, but we had absolutely no worry about Brenda's will to live and her fighting spirit and that she was not alone because Kenny was there fighting with her.

Brenda, I hope that you and your family will be comforted at this time by the memories of the many good times you shared and by the knowledge that you were able to care for and comfort him at the end of his life, at his side

as he was with you. By being with him as he passed you truly fulfilled your wedding vow ``until death do us part.''

I once heard a Pastor of a younger congregation, who counseled many couples before marriage and continue in touch with them through a Married Couples club in the church, tell the story of the death of an elderly male member of cancer and saw at his bedside at the moment of his death his wife beside him holding his hands, mopping his brow, and giving him comfort. He said to the young people that evening that he knew there were many good ways for a marriage to begin, but there was no better way for a marriage to end.

I know, however, that what is important to you and your family at this time is that Kenny has been taken from you. May God give you the strength and courage at this time of sorrow to help you bear your burden of grief, and may He strengthen your faith in the resurrection promised by Jesus to provide hope of reunion in Heaven.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay my recognition and respect to the extraordinary contributions of the world renowned playwright August Wilson who died October 2, 2005 of liver cancer. Mr. Wilson was a Tony Award winner and two time Pulitzer Prize winner whose plays not only chronicled and captured the harsh realities African American families faced throughout the 1900s, they have provided insight into Black life, depicting its struggles to overcome discrimination and poverty with dignity and nobility amidst the pain and the struggle that all communities are able to appreciate. His plays poetically depict the effects of slavery and oppression on Black Americans in every decade of the 20th century, and show that despite the harshness of life, this crucible produced great strength and resilience that have enabled us to overcome.

August Wilson was born on April 27, 1945 as Frederick August Kittel, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He later changed his name after his father left out of respect for his mother. Mr. Wilson grew up on ``the Hill,'' which was a predominantly Black and poor neighborhood in Pittsburgh. It was the daily experiences of this African American community that inspired the content of his plays. At 13 years of age he moved to predominantly White Hazelwood, but he did not forget the unique culture of the Hill, especially when he had to suffer the racial taunts in Hazelwood. The racial discrimination that Wilson faced led Wilson, at the age of 15 to drop out of high school because his teacher couldn't believe that a Black student could create a well written term paper and accused him of plagiarism. This however, did not impede his thirst for knowledge or his love for writing. With diligence and self discipline, August Wilson continued his education through self-study at Carnegie Library. He began reading Black literature and other Black works, like Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, and Arna Bontemps.

His hopes of becoming a writer were quickly challenged when his mother urged him to become an attorney. Disapproving of his dreams for a writing career, his mother forced him to leave the house. In 1963, Mr. Wilson enlisted in the U.S. Army only to be discharged in 1964. Determined to continue his pursuit for a writing career, he invested in the purchase of his first typewriter and moved into a rooming house in Pittsburgh. To support himself he worked a series of odd ``blue collar'' jobs, like short-order cook, dishwasher, porter, stock boy, and gardener. Starting out as a poet, his poems were published in the late 1960s and early 70s in several periodicals, one being the Negro Digest created by the late John Johnson.

However, it was not until August Wilson heard the voice of legendary Bessie Smith's record ``Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jellyroll Like Mine,'' he realized that it was his responsibility to carry the torch of his ancestors and assume the role as the representative of Black American culture, telling the world our history and dignifying our struggle. Hearing the blues motivated, challenged, and empowered the young poet to document Black American culture in his writings. Wilson describe this epiphany as the ``Universe stuttered and everything fell to a new place . . . I cannot describe or even relate what I felt . . . it was a birth, a baptism, a resurrection, and a redemption all rolled up in one. It was the beginning of my consciousness that I was a representative of a culture and the carrier of some very valuable antecedents . . . I had been given a world that contained my image . . . The ideas of self-determination, self-respect, and self-defense . . . are still very much a part of my life as I sit down and write. I have stood [these ideas] up in the world of Bessie Smith on the ground captured by the Blues. Having started my beginning consciousness there, it is no surprise that I would mature and my efforts would come to fruition on that same ground.'' As a result he established two organizations that promoted Black American writing: the Center Avenue Poets Theatre Workshop, and Black Horizons. Plus, he continued writing plays chronicling different experiences that Afiican Americans faced.

His big break was the debut of the 1982 play ``Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,'' the first of a 10-drama series that would chronicle each decade of the Twentieth Century, which premiered at Broadway's Cort Theater on October 11, 1984. Set in Chicago in 1927, the play focuses on White record companies' exploitation of Black musicians. This play mirrored the images and positions that African Americans faced in a society dominated by White racism. The beauty of the play, grabbed national attention earning Mr. Wilson several Tony nominations, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. ``Fences'', however, a play depicting a 1950s Black family's personal and economic issues, grossed a record $11 million in a year, which broke the record for nonmusical plays. As a result, Wilson became The Chicago Tribune's Artist of the Year; the play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, four Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Featured Actress; and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Finally, ``The Piano Lesson,'' inspired

by Romare Beardon's painting illustrated family conflict over an heirloom built by a slave ancestor. This 1986 play earned the New York Drama Critics Award, the Tony for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award, the American Theatre Critics Outstanding Play Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Wilson's subsequent plays continued to receive accolades and awards, solidifying his position in American Theatrical history.

August Wilson was not only a champion of Black America by representing and dignifying African American culture during a time when it wasn't otherwise appreciated; he was a pioneer in the world of literature and theatre. Although his body is no longer with us, his work and his impact on American History will continue on for posterity. On October 17, Broadway's Virginia Theatre will be renamed the August Wilson Theatre in Mr. Wilson's honor. His final play, ``Radio Golf' is scheduled to be produced on Broadway during the 2006-2007 season. Mr. Wilson is survived by his wife, Constanza Romero; their daughter, Azula, 8, and an adult daughter from a previous marriage, Sakina Ansari.

I submit to you an article from the October 4, 2005 edition of the Washington Post, illustrating the type of man and impact August Wilson had on this country.

[From the Washington Post, Oct. 4, 2005]

The Cycle of August Wilson's Life

(By Peter Marks)

The death of August Wilson does not simply leave a hole in

the American theater, but a huge, yawning wound, one that

will have to wait to be stitched closed by some expansive,

poetic dramatist yet to emerge.

To say that Wilson was the greatest African American

playwright the nation has produced--as some inevitably do--is

to limit the scope of his significance as a contributor to

the country's dramatic heritage. Wilson wrote scathingly

about racism, yes, in ``Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,'' and the

indelible scars of slavery, in ``The Piano Lesson'' and ``Gem

of the Ocean.'' He also wrote about the Oedipal conflict of

fathers and sons (``Fences'') and the universal quest for the

easy score (``Two Trains Running''). His concerns were as

multifaceted as the hard-pressed people he wrote about.

Over the past 20 years, Wilson had staked a legitimate

claim to the title of nation's most important dramatist.

During that time he won two Pulitzers and a Tony, and among

his plays he polished off at least three that will rank among

the classics: ``Ma Rainey,'' ``Joe Turner's Come and Gone''

and ``The Piano Lesson,'' along with what will perhaps endure

as his favorite with audiences: ``Fences,'' the story of an

embittered former baseball prospect, played on Broadway by

James Earl Jones.

All this may not have meant as much as it did in the days

when playwriting giants roamed the countryside, when a new

play by Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller or Eugene O'Neill

had the power to galvanize public discourse, and even land an

actor on the cover of a national magazine. We've moved away,

sad to say, from the era of the stage as a truly vital

pulpit. In the commercial realm, Wilson's plays were usually

not moneymakers. But the fact that he could consistently

count on clicking the ``send'' button and having a play end

up in the in box of Broadway--even in this lean and

inhospitable time for serious drama--stamps him as a theater

man of nothing but consequence.

Wilson died ludicrously young on Sunday, at the age of 60

in his adoptive home town of Seattle, where he wrote plays,

big, garrulous, angry, lyrical, ponderous, often beautiful

plays, in an office in his basement. He went public with his

terminal liver cancer a little more than a month ago and when

he did, he came forward with a breathtaking serenity. He

pronounced himself prepared for what was coming. ``I've lived

a blessed life,'' he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the

paper of the city of his birth, the metropolis that served as

backdrop for many of his major plays. ``I'm ready.''

He cannot, of course, have been content to leave his

family, especially his 8-year-old daughter, Azula, whom he

proudly told me last December was writing her own plays.

Work-wise, however, he may have been expressing a measure of

relief, in that he had satisfied the exacting requirements of

the towering assignment he had given himself: a cycle of 10

plays, one set in each decade of the 20th century. (``Radio

Golf,'' the last one, has yet to reach New York; its regional

debut comes at Center Stage in Baltimore in March.)

Not that he was exactly through with writing. In an

interview over breakfast at a diner in the Edison, the modest

Times Square tourist hotel that was his longtime New York

base, he revealed that he was working on a comedy whose

milieu now seems heartbreakingly prescient: Pittsburgh coffin

makers.

His dramas are connected by a palpable sense of geography,

usually, a rambunctious district of Pittsburgh; by the

mordant humor of characters who spit at hardship; by an eye

that seemed to see a story taking shape in every soul. They

also reveal the acumen of Wilson's ear in the cross currents

of language that flow from his characters as if pouring out

of deep, lustrous, meandering canals.

He wrote for authentic-sounding stage creatures, and yet

his dialogue might have found a place in novels. ``Now I'm

gonna show you how this goes, where you just a leftover from

history,'' Toledo, the piano player, tells the other Black

musicians in dialect in ``Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.'' The

play, set in the 1920s, was the first of Wilson's to make it

to Broadway. It was an auspicious coming out. Wilson, wrote

drama critic Frank Rich in the New York Times at the play's

1984 opening, ``sends the entire history of black America

down upon our heads.''

Wilson returned again and again to the idea of Black

America's unique historical inheritance, to reminders of how

the South's peculiar institution was not at all a dead memory

but a living shadow. As many other characters would in the

Wilson pantheon, Toledo offers in ``Ma Rainey'' his own

homespun history lesson about the African diaspora:

``Everybody come from different places in Africa, right?

Come from different tribes and things. Soonawhile they began

to make one big stew. You had the carrots, the peas, and

potatoes and whatnot over here. And over there, you had the

meat, the nuts, the okra, corn . . . and then you mix it up

and let it cook right through to get the flavors flowing

together. Then you got one thing. You got a stew.''

Wilson's own favorite playwright was Chekhov, and you can

see how their theatrical stews might simmer well together.

Wilson was a conjurer of characters, not an accomplished

spinner of plot or master of compression. He was, in fact,

legendary for writing one overlong draft after another, and

working with a director--most successfully Lloyd Richards,

head for many years of the Yale School of Drama--who could

help him pare it down. A script was by no means complete once

rehearsals began, he told me. He even liked to seek out

actors and ask them what else they needed from him.

He had a reputation for feistiness and a certain amount of

ego. The talk of the theater world in 1997 was his Manhattan

debate with Robert Brustein, the director, critic and founder

of Harvard's American Repertory Theatre, over their

disagreement about whether a theater exclusively devoted to

Black experience is desirable. Wilson was a passionate

advocate of Black theater, and the evening at Town Hall

stands as the last occasion on which a philosophical theater

argument grabbed headlines.

When I sat down with him late last year, Wilson seemed

anything but combative. He was in a pleasant frame of mind,

as a playwright might be with the work of grinding out a play

completed. The play was ``Gem of the Ocean,'' set in 1904,

which as a result became the prologue of the cycle he'd been

writing for much of his professional life.

As it happens, the first in the chain was the last he'd

ever get to see on Broadway. The chain he'd long promised,

and true to his word, the chain he delivered.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to your attention and strongly endorse the position taken by former president Jimmy Carter in support of the preservation of America's greatest wildlife preserve. President Carter's position was stated in his opinion editorial article ``Arctic Folly'', in the Washington Post, September 13, 2005.

President Carter criticizes a policy advanced by the Bush administration and adopted by the Congress in the energy legislation passed earlier this session which favors increased production of domestic oil over the protection and preservation of the environmental treasures contained in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and which do nothing to encourage the preservation of oil.

President Carter states, ``Now is a time to speak out for the ecological integrity of this unsurpassed 18-million acres wilderness. If we do not respect those acres, many species will be affected.'' This ``Frozen Desert'' as Mr. Carter describes it, is a rich Serengeti-like haven of life; serving as a nursery for Caribous, polar bears, walruses and millions of shore birds and waterfowl. Nevertheless, Mr. Carter warns that ``. . . In a few months Americans could lose this special and amazing place through a backdoor legislative maneuver . . .''

I strongly support Mr. Carter's commitment to the preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and I am glad to know that he is

asserting leadership to preserve this important legacy for our wildlife and future generations.

[From the Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2005]

Arctic Folly

(By Jimmy Carter)

Congress is about to make one of those big decisions that

marks an era. Unless wiser heads prevail, it may do it

badly--making the wrong decision in the wrong way and about

the wrong place. At stake is America's great wildlife

sanctuary, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To dissaude

Congress from this environmental tragedy, Americans must

rally, and quickly.

Congress had its Pyrrhic energy victory this summer, with a

new energy policy that ignores much-needed conservation

measures and gives the oil industry large new tax breaks

regardless of where it drills and pumps. Surely Congress has

done more than enough to increase the profits of the oil

industry.

Yet now, in a separate decision, the White House and Big

Oil are pressuring Congress to allow drilling rigs to rip

into the ecological heart of America's preeminent wildlife

sanctuary. We must not confuse this with Prudhoe Bay, which

lies west of the Arctic refuge and is already an industrial

landscape resembling Houston more than Yellowstone.

With increasing gasoline prices bringing economic hardship

and concern to many Americans, we must not be misled by oil

lobbyists who are trying to convince us that our energy

security is singularly dependent on sacrificing the Arctic

refuge. They promote the false premise that development will

touch just a few thousand acres when, in fact, it would

introduce roads and pipelines spider-webbing across hundreds

of thousands of acres on the fragile coastal plain.

We cannot drill our way to energy security or lower

gasoline prices as long as our nation sits on just 3 percent

of world oil reserves yet accounts for 25 percent of all oil

consumption. An obvious answer is to increase the fuel

efficiency of motor vehicles, at least to the level we set

more than a quarter-century ago.

Instead, the administration recently proposed a tiny

increase in gas mileage for SUVs, miniVans and pickups. Not

effective until the 2011 models, this would save about one

month's current consumption of fuel over the next 20 years--

far less than will be saved in just one state by a new

California law. The new ruling offers automobile makers an

opportunity to avoid the reductions by modifying the size of

various models as they persist in manufacturing gas guzzlers.

It is not a coincidence that Moody's has just downgraded the

debt of General Motors and Ford to junk status, while makers

of efficient vehicles prosper.

I have been to the coastal plain of the Arctic National

Wildlife Refuge to study the wilderness wildlife. Far from

being the frozen ``desert'' some suggest, this is a rich,

Serengeti-like haven of life: nursery for caribou, polar

bears, walruses and millions of shorebirds and waterfowl that

migrate annually to the Lower 48. To sit, as Rosalynn and I

did, watching a herd of musk oxen circle-up to defend their

young and then to find yourself literally in the midst of

thousands of caribou streaming by is to touch in a

fundamental way God's glorious ark of teeming wildlife.

We Americans use a lot-of energy, and millions of us want

to do so in a more efficient way that also allows us to

cherish our disappearing wilderness heritage. In the Arctic

refuge we cannot have it both ways. In the next few months

Americans could lose this special and amazing place through a

backdoor legislative maneuver.

Each fall Congress endeavors to combine budgetary

directives covering the nation's $2.5 trillion dollar annual

budget in a single ``reconciliation'' decision. In a tricky

ploy to avoid full debate, drilling advocates have buried

their despoil-the-Arctic goal in this mammoth measure. So,

conservation-minded Americans must ask our elected

representatives to vote down any final budget reconciliation

bill that would allow the sacrifice of our Arctic sanctuary.

Now is the time to speak up for the ecological integrity of

this unsurpassed 18-million-acre wilderness. Many Americans

will be in Washington on Sept. 20 for the Arctic Refuge

Action Day rally on the Mall and to contact congressional

representatives personally.

If we are not wise enough to protect the Arctic refuge,

future generations will condemn us for needlessly sacrificing

the wilderness of their world to feed our profligate, short-

term and shortsighted energy habit. The pathway to a better,

more sustainable energy future does not wind through the

Arctic National Wtldlife Refuge.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present resolution H. Res. 179 giving homage to one of America's forgotten heroes, Asa Philip Randolph. A champion for workers' rights and civil rights for African Americans, he has achieved many gains and survived many losses in his battles to achieve racial, social and economic equality for all Americans.

Mr. Randolph was born in the post-Reconstruction South on April 15, 1889 in Crescent City, Florida. At the age of twenty-two, he moved to Harlem, New York to attend City College where he studied politics and economics, and soon joined the socialist party. During the onset of WWI, Mr. Randolph and his friend Chandler Owen established a controversial magazine called ``The Messenger,'' which initiated his open stance against the segregation of the military and other anti-war sentiments. He believed that the statement ``making the world safe for democracy'' was a fallacy and a tremendous offense to the intelligence of Black Americans because at that time Blacks were being lynched and denied the right to vote, in the South especially, and were victims of segregation and discrimination all over the Nation. WWI became the catalyst for his commitment to fight for the rights of all.

Although Mr. Randolph has done a lot for the Civil Rights Movement, including initiating the famous March on Washington which led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he has done much more with concern for workers' rights and the labor movement. Employment, better wages and equal access are the only ways in which he believed the fight against discrimination and racism could be won. Just before WWII, Mr. Randolph traveled throughout the Nation to unite African Americans against discrimination, which shut them out of well-paying jobs in the factories. As a result of his efforts, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order ending discrimination in defense plant jobs. Once more in 1948, the power of persuasion and the justice of his complaints convinced President Truman to sign an order calling for the end to discrimination not only in the armed forces, but also in federal and civil service jobs.

His greatest accomplishment, however, has been attributed to his leadership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Initially, Randolph was approached by a group of Black Pullman porters who wanted the right to bargain for better wages and improvements in working conditions. They wanted to unionize. This was considered the first serious effort to unionize the Pullman Company. In retaliation, the company fired union members, put fear in the men by threatening them with tougher assignments, assignment cuts, or termination. However, to no avail. A. Philip Randolph and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters continued to fight for their right to unionize. In 1935, 12 years after they started their fight against the Pullman Company, the American Federation of Labor reversed its previous position and voted to make them an international charter. Two years later, the Pullman Company agreed to sit down with the Brotherhood and they signed a contract. He then became heavily involved within the ranks of the AFL- CIO, trying to build a mass movement by working with and through trade unions.

The words and deeds of A. Philip Randolph show us the unyielding strength of his lifelong struggle for full human rights for African Americans and all the disinherited of the Nation. He believed that the condition of blacks in America were a symptom of a larger social illness, an illness which is caused by an unfair distribution of power, wealth, and resources. Mr. Randolph left a legacy of activism and triumph for all Americans to cherish. He fought long and hard to secure the rights of working class Americans regardless of race, color or creed. His life and legacy was based on the principle that ``Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher social, economic, political and religious relationships.''

A. Philip Randolph's position, whether an attitude toward the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain for their terms and conditions of employment; or his anti-war stand, or a political position with an aim of economic change, has consistently reflected his socialist ideals. He has always believed in a movement based on the workers as the main force, and has always been committed to the idea that a democratic redistribution of wealth is the first step toward greater freedom for all people, Black as well as White. This is why I believe that Congress should support resolution H. Res. 179 expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that A. Philip Randolph should be recognized for his lifelong leadership and work to end discrimination and secure equal employment and labor opportunities for all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Jewish New Year or Rosh Hashana. This is the 5766th year on the Jewish calendar. Rosh Hashana is the Hebrew phrase which literally translates to ``the head of the year.''

As the Jewish people of our great country and around the world celebrate this new year, let us join them in their prayers for peace, justice and equality. Let us not forget those of us, of all faiths, who are struggling, especially in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf.

A new year is a symbol of hope and this year is no different. Today, we need to have hope more than ever. Hope for less wars and more diplomacy, hope for breaking racial barriers and coming together, and hope for restraint and modesty in the face of great challenges.

Jewish people throughout the world join their loved ones and friends to take part in a traditional dinner where they enjoy sweet foods such as apples and honey. These foods symbolize the notion of starting a new and sweet year.

Even many of the 10,000 Jewish Katrina evacuees got to celebrate this new year. In Houston, Rabbi Robert Loewy of Congregation Gates of Prayer led a service for 120 of these evacuees. Many of them had not seen each other since the hurricane hit their communities over a month ago. Such coming together after a tremendously painful experience only serves to show the resilience of America's communities and the necessity of maintaining them.

I know my colleagues from both sides of the aisle will join me in wishing a happy new year to all Jews in my district, in our country and around the world--both in the Diaspora and in Israel. May God continue to bless all of us as we face some of the most difficult tests we have ever been faced as a nation.

Shana Tova Umetuka--Have a good and sweet year!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask Congress to please join me in cosponsoring H.R. 1433, the Thurgood Marshall Commemorative Coin Act to commemorate the life and legacy of the Honorable Thurgood Marshall, one of America's distinguished Civil Rights leaders and the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and many more, Thurgood Marshall led a civil rights revolution in the twentieth century that forever changed the landscape of American society. Working through the courts to eradicate the legacy of slavery and destroying the racist segregation system of Jim Crow, he had an even more profound impact on race relations than many of his peers in the Movement. As the leader of Legal Defense Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mr. Marshall won Supreme Court victories breaking the color line in housing, transportation and voting, all of which overturned the `Separate but Equal' apartheid, which was the oppressive reality of American life for Blacks from emancipation to the 1960's. It was Marshall who was the mastermind behind the strategies which won the most important legal case of the century, Brown v. Board in 1954, which ended the legal separation of black and white children in public schools and initiated the dismantling of the legal framework which supported segregation. The success of the Brown case sparked the 1960's Civil Rights Movement.

Marshall's first major case in 1933 desegregated the University of Maryland and initiated his long and distinguished career as the most notable civil rights attorney in American history. Heavily involved with the NAACP, Mr. Marshall navigated through the court system a series of cases to legally challenge the laws that sought to legitimize the denial of constitutionally guaranteed civil rights to African Americans. He was even invited by the United Nations and the United Kingdom to help draft the constitutions of both newly formed Ghana and Tanzania.

As a result of the success of many of his Supreme Court challenges to state sponsored discrimination, President John F. Kennedy appointed Mr. Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. As a Federal Court judge Thurgood Marshall wrote over 150 decisions including support for immigrants' rights, limiting government intrusion in cases involving illegal search and seizure, double jeopardy, and right to privacy issues. As U.S. Solicitor General, Mr. Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued in front of the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. Through this position he represented and won more cases before the Supreme Court than any other American. Therefore it was befitting that in 1967 Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court, making Thurgood Marshall the first African American to be a Supreme Court Justice.

Throughout his tenure as a Supreme Court Justice, Marshall was a strong advocate for equal rights under the law. He strongly believed that integration was the only route to achieving equal protection for all. Once individual rights were accepted, blacks and whites could rise or fall based on their own ability. However, Justice Marshall believed that the Constitution was inherently defective in its acceptance of slavery, and he made it clear that while legal discrimination had ended, there was more to be done to advance educational opportunity for people who had been locked out and to bridge the wide canyon of economic inequity between blacks and whites. Therefore he was a very strong advocate for programs such as Affirmative Action, preferences, set-asides and other race conscious policies.

Although Thurgood Marshall worked most of his life on behalf of the rights of African Americans, he built a structure of individual rights that became the cornerstone of protections for all Americans. He succeeded in creating new protections under law for women, children, prisoners, and the homeless. Justice Marshall ``refused to acquiesce in outdated notions of `liberty', `justice' and `equality,' '' and worked to better them. Therefore, as we now experience the process of appointing a new Supreme Court Justice, let us remember the life and legacy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. For his strength and struggle has contributed greatly to American history and his impact on the Supreme Court fully represents the true essence and purpose of our Constitution.

I believe it is most appropriate at this time in our national history to recognize and honor Thurgood Marshall in a special manner. That is why I have introduced a bill to authorize the minting of a special coin in honor of Thurgood Marshall. I submit the text of my proposal legislation for the Congressional Record and ask for the support of its early consideration and passage.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to wish L'Shanah Tova ``Good Year'' to my Jewish friends in Congress and to Jewish people around the world as they begin the celebration of the Days of Awe: the sacred Holy Days beginning with Rosh Hashanah continuing to the holiest day Yom Kippur, which falls on October 13, 2005. To those Jews who must feel the most forgotten and alone whether in Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the remnants still living in poverty in Poland, Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe who can only celebrate these Holy Days in their hearts, I rise to say you are not forgotten.

For Jewish people Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as well as the days between are the most solemn of all the Jewish Holidays and for some the most important. These ten days are sometimes known as the Days of Remembrance, the Days of Repentance and the Days of Awe. Unlike other Jewish holidays and festivals which are closely tied to harvests and changes of seasons, the High Holy Days are spiritual days of soul- searching and prayer.

Rosh Hashanah is a beginning of a spiritual new year, when each Jew can ask forgiveness for sin of conduct and of the heart, atone for those sins and begin again asking God to inscribe him or her in the ``Book of Life.'' On Rosh Hashanah the Book is opened. The Shofar, the curled ram's horn, calls the Jewish people to gather together to pray on Rosh Hashanah as the Book of Life is opened, just as it has for the last 3000 years.

The Jewish liturgy or prayers said during this holiday not only ask for forgiveness from God for sins against both of conduct and of the heart, the prayers remind the people that they cannot be forgiven by God for sins committed against their fellow man. For forgiveness from others, they must atone by seeking it from the people they have hurt and doing charity. The liturgy, both the ancient derived from many beloved psalms as well as newer liturgy, which recognizes political realities of

our time, center on ethical concerns, searching for the core of the ethical human being, the meaning of righteousness and good.

For Jewish people this High Holy Day is one for evaluating their conduct of the past year, not only toward their fellow man, but for all the creatures of the earth and for the earth itself. This re-thinking of their conduct requires each person to examine his or her moral and spiritual values, principles, ethical standards, in other words the moral core of their being. The Jews from ancient times valued these high holy days more than the other holidays and traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem so the High Priests could perform the spiritual rituals that would cleanse them of their sins and seek blessings of peace for them and inscribe each with his or loved ones in the Book of Life. This day is the beginning of the Jewish calendar year. It is a beginning in a spiritual sense which is more important than a change in the calendar.

For the Jewish people, each Rosh Hashanah is a new year that is one more step in a history thousands of years long. Jewish people strive to understand the values of our forebears and build on what has gone before. Jewish people all over the world read from the writings of the sages who wrote during the long exile in Babylon a model for moral behavior:

``The one who proceeds with integrity, and takes action for

justice, and speaks truth with their heart, the one who does

no harm to others, and does not raise trouble for their

neighbor. . . .''

On Rosh Hashanah Jews also reflect on the words of Isaiah,

``Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean. Put away the evil

of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil; learn

what is good. Seek justice; relieve the oppressed; Speak out

for the orphan; advocate for the widow.''--Isaiah, I: 16-17

The prayers are also a promise to God to strive for peace. In this Holy Day liturgy which spans the millennia, the Jewish people around the world pray for God's peace: Bring peace, the Jews sing, peace to the Jews and to the whole world.

The second High Holy Day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, reflection and prayers. The names of this day in Hebrew are many: Yom HaZikkaron, ``Day of remembrance,'' Yom ha-Din ``Day of Judgment'', the day on which God judges all human beings by their deeds during the year just ended and inscribes their fate in the heavenly record book for the next year. Some believe the Book of Life will close at sundown on Yom Kippur. As the sun slowly sinks in the sky, the fasting people stand for the entire evening service. Some believe literally, others believe metaphorically, that on this day God has determined who will live, and who will die. They make a last plea for their loved ones and themselves. They also pledge to live the ethical life they believe is required of them by soul or spirit that is the spark of God in them. In Judaism, ethics are the foundation of prayer and the theology of prayer. This is most evident on the High Holy Days.

Yom Kippur is also called in Hebrew, Yom Teruah, ``The Day of the Sounding of the Shofar'' In the ancient past trumpet sound called the people together to repent sins, to forsake evil and to pursue goodness and mercy. One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the repeated trumpeting sound of the Shofar in the synagogue.

For most Jews the call of the Shofar is a reminder of their rich heritage, the centuries in a Diaspora when they had nothing but their Holy Book and their liturgy. The call of the Shofar reminds Jews they survived the Roman Empire which burned their Holy Temple twice and drove them to exile; survived expulsion from Spain, survived pogroms, poverty and restrictive regulations in Russia and Eastern Europe and even survived the Nazi ``final solution, genocide the murder of their men, women and their babies; survived to have a Jewish Country and flag. In all that time and through all those trials, the Jews of the world have kept their Holy Days. Their Holy Book is unchanged from the day they took it into exile. The Jews have lived now to hear the Shofar blown in Israel as it was before the Diaspora. The liturgy has remained as it was in ancient times, but in the last century prayers and remembrances have been added for the victims of the Holocaust.

The words of the Kaddish are a hymn that praises God. It is a public declaration of the Jewish belief that God is Great and Holy and it envisions a time when Peace will be established on earth. One form of the prayer says ``may He who makes peace in heaven, make peace for us.''

On the High Holy Days, the Days of Awe of 2005, I join with my Jewish friends and wish peace for us.