Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to enter into the Record a press release and letter to Members of Congress from Troops Home Fast, a new initiative of the peace organization CODEPINK whose members are holding a hunger strike to highlight their call to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. I pay tribute to the members of CODEPINK who are participating in the Troops Home Fast and praise their creative efforts to assist our troops in Iraq and those wounded at Walter Reed Hospital by many campaigns protesting the continuing occupation of Iraq. One of their peace actions is a Friday night vigil at Walter Reed Hospital to protest the war and thus prevent further casualties. Today I especially want to bring attention to their latest campaign taking place here in the District of Columbia, around the country and around the world--the Troops Home Fast.

While many Americans were celebrating Independence Day with barbeques and fireworks, CODEPINK was launching this new campaign--a fast-- calling for independence from war. Among the Washington Fasters are Cindy Sheehan, legendary comedian/civil rights activists Dick Gregory, activist/environmentalist Diane Wilson, former Army colonel Ann Wright, Iraq war veterans, Vietnam veterans, and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. They are joined by almost 3,500 others from other countries. Celebrities and other well-known public figures have committed to join including actors Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Danny Glover, musicians Graham Nash and Willie Nelson, and more. The group is supported by Gold Star Families for Peace and endorsed by other organizations.

The Fast ceremony began at Gandhi's Statue at Massachusetts Avenue and Q St., NW in Washington DC with a brief Rally and a March to Lafayette Park in front of the White House. The fasters in DC which included co-founders of CODEPINK Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, Gael Murphy and Cindy Sheehan were present as were other fasters including comedian and social activist Dick Gregory who has fasted for many causes.

On July 10, 2006, I received a letter sent tall members of Congress from Troops Home Fast calling themselves a ``group of concerned citizens who are conducting an open-ended fast in front of the White House calling for our troops to come home from Iraq. . .'' and asking for each member's help in this cause.

Troops Home Fast asks for the following: Legislation to set a time line for the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq and bring he troops home. In the opinion of the Troops Home Fast Congress is moving ``far too slowly.''

Troops Home Fast believes as I do and as Congressman Murtha has repeatedly stated that the American people are way ahead of Congress. The polls show that a solid majority of the American people now want a time table and a quick end to our involvement in Iraq. They want American troops home.

According to a recent poll, 87 percent of Iraqis want their government to set a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Iraq's president, vice resident and national security advisor have all called for such a timeline. General Casey, the commander of American troops in Iraq has established a time table. It is only the President and his supporters in Congress who will not follow the will of the American people ho elected them, or the will of the Iraqi people who have spoken and whose democratic government has spoken for them who continue to refuse to hear anything but their own slog:

``Stay the Course'' or ``We will never give up until we have achieved victory'' or the least excusable ``we will stay and achieve victory so that our men and women who have died in Iraq will not have died in vain.''

I honor those who are fasting as Gandhi did to bring about the change they believe is essential to preserve the character of this nation and to save the lives of Americans and Iraqis. I wish them great strength and pray with them for peace in Iraq.

July 11, 2006.

Dear Representative, We are a group of concerned citizens

who are conducting an open-ended fast in front of the White

House calling for our troops to come home from Iraq, and we

are asking for your support via the attached form.

The fast, called Troops Home Fast, was initiated by

CODEPINK and Gold Star Families for Peace, and endorsed by

dozens of organizations. It began on July 4, 2006, and more

than 3,500 people in the U.S. and around the world are

participating, with hundreds more joining every day.

(Additional information about the fast is available at the

website www.troopshomefast.org.)

You have the power to enact legislation to achieve the goal

of this fast: set a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S.

military forces from Iraq and bring the troops home. We

deeply appreciate the efforts of members of the House and the

Senate who have already been working to end this war.

But Congress is moving far too slowly. Every day, more

American soldiers die, more Iraqis die, and more federal

funds are squandered which could be used to alleviate a whole

host of problems here in the United States.

We all know that a solid majority of the American people

now want to bring our military involvement in Iraq to a quick

conclusion and bring our troops home. Iraqis are even more

adamant about ending the war quickly. A remarkable 87 percent

of Iraqis want their government to set a timetable for U.S.

withdrawal. Iraq's president, vice president and national

security advisor have all called for such a timeline.

Americans who want to end this war have gone through all

the traditional methods of petitioning the President and you,

our members of Congress, to urge you to act. We have marched,

done vigils, written letters, lobbied our representatives,

and formed broad-based coalitions in an effort to bring this

war to end. Yet the war goes on without end.

That's why we're here now in front of the White House,

fasting. Fasting is a time-honored way to move people to

action, from Gandhi's nonviolent liberation of India to Mitch

Snyder's fasts for the homeless right here in Washington D.C.

We hope you will support our efforts and work with us to

bring our troops home--FAST. Attached is a form to record

your support. We thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evan

and Gael Murphy,

On behalf of Troops Home Fast.

Press Release

July 4, 2006.

Cindy Sheehan, Diane Wilson, Dick Gregory, Iraq veterans

and Iraqi citizens gather in front of the White House on July

4th, their first day without food.

After eating their final meal in front of the White House

yesterday, participants in the ``Troops Home Fast''--a

historic hunger fast organized by CODEPINK: Women for Peace

and Gold Star Families for Peace--will spend their first day

without food on the Fourth of July. They will gather at the

White House at 10 a.m. and plan to hold a spiritual ceremony,

send a message of peace to the Independence Day parade, and

remain outside the White House with their message to bring

the troops home from Iraq now.

Among the Washington fasters are Cindy Sheehan, legendary

comedian/civil rights activist Dick Gregory, environmentalist

Diane Wilson, former army colonel Ann Wright, Iraq war

veterans, Iraqis and Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.

They are joined by almost 3,000 others from around the United

States and 18 other countries. Celebrities and other well-

known public figures have committed to join the fast,

including Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Danny Glover,

musicians Graham Nash and Willie Nelson, writer Alice Walker,

and more.

``While others are enjoying their barbecues and fireworks

today, we will be going hungry for the most noble cause of

all: peace,'' said Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan, who began

an open-ended fast today. ``We are the true American patriots

today. Our founding fathers cautioned future generations

against engaging in wars of aggression for empire and

economic gain, lest we lose our national soul. And the war in

Iraq is exactly the kind of war our Nation's leaders once

cautioned against.''

The hunger strike will continue throughout the summer.

``This fast has obviously touched a chord with the public,''

said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin. ``We thought there

might be 3 or 4 of us fasting, and it is more like 3,000.

Every day hundreds of new people are signing up for the fast.

Some communities are doing rolling fasts, each person taking

a day. This is sparking a new level of commitment to get out

of Iraq.''

For more information, please see www.troopshomefast.org or

meet the fasters in front of the White House at 10-11 a.m. or

5-7 p.m.

Support War Resisters! For the first time in the Iraq war,

an officer in the U.S. Military, Lt. Ehren Watada, has

publicly refused orders and will be brought to court-martial

this summer. Click here for ways to show your solidarity and

here to read a letter from Carolyn, Ehren's mom, and find out

more about his case. You can also support Army Specialist

Suzanne Swift, who suffered sexual harassment at the hands of

her commanding officers and refused to return to Iraq. Click

here for more info.

Declaration of Peace! We urge you to sign The Declaration

of Peace, a pledge to take action against the war during

September 21-28 if a peace plan is not established by that

time. Declaration signers will take part in nonviolent

action, marches, rallies, demonstrations, interfaith

services, candlelight vigils and other creative ways to

declare peace at the US Capitol and in cities across the US.

Click here to sign the Declaration and learn more.

Mothers Declare Peace on Mother's Day! CODEPINK's 24-hour

Mother's Day peace vigil was an amazing soulful, painful and

joyful gathering. Cindy Sheehan, Susan Sarandon, Patch Adams,

Dick Gregory, and Iraqi and Iranian mothers joined with

mothers and others from all over the country to create a

magical pink presence at the White House. Click here to see

the media coverage & video, read our blogs and see the most

beautiful photos imaginable! And click here to see reports

from solidarity events that happened around the country.

CODEPINK Takes Out Ads in Iraqi papers! On Monday, May 15,

CODEPINK placed ads in 8 Iraqi newspapers calling for

Americans and Iraqis to work together, in a non-violent

fashion, to end the occupation and bloodshed in Iraq. People

in 99 cities generously funded this ad campaign. The Iraqi

response has been tremendous, with hundreds of Iraqis calling

the newspapers saying how excited they are to see this ad and

how it gives them great hope. Click here to see the ad. Click

here to see the Arabic website Esteklal (which means

independence). To see the press release about this ad, click

here.

Stop Nuclear War With Iran! We weren't able to stop the

last war, but we must stop the next one . . . NOW! The United

Nations, which is mandated to uphold international law, must

speak out against the Bush Administration's plans. Let's send

a collective letter to Secretary General Kofi Annan imploring

him to denounce this threat and call for a diplomatic

solution. Click here to sign on and/or send your own, and

pass it to friends and family around the world. Let's let the

Bush administration and Kofi Annan know that the world is

demanding an end to this madness!

Support Iraqi Women: The US invasion of Iraq has moved Iraq

from a secular to a more religious--and violent--society

where women's rights are being curtailed. Read our report

Iraqi Women Under Siege and recent articles about women in

Iraq. Click here to see the blogs, photos and media articles

of the Iraqi Women's Tour to the US. Donate to our efforts to

support Iraqi women.

Women--& Male Allies--Say NO To War! Sign here to join

women and men from around the world who are coming together

to SAY NO TO WAR. We are creating a massive movement crossing

generations, races, ethnicities, religions, and borders to

pressure our governments, the United Nations, the Arab

League, and other international leaders to negotiate a

political settlement to the war in Iraq.

Bring Our Guard Home Now! With over 70 000 National Guard

troops deployed to Iraq, our homefront has been left

vulnerable in the face of natural disasters like Hurricane

Katrina. In response, CODEPINK is working with a coalition of

peace groups to seek the immediate withdrawal of all National

Guard troops from Iraq. At least twelve states are

petitioning their governors to bring home our Guard! Click

here to find out how you can join this effort and start a

working group in your state!

Hurricane Katrina CODEPINK is now in New Orleans, working

with the Common Ground Collective, the People's Institute for

Survival & Beyond, various grassroots organizations and local

neighborhood groups. We are part of an active movement to

rebuild and revision the city, standing in solidarity with

residents to strengthen their communities and take their

cities back! We invite you to come down to participate in

this massive and historic effort to rebuild this beautiful

city from the bottom up and the inside out. Click here for

more info, join our upcoming work brigade this summer and

read Dana Balicki's blogs from New Orleans!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce into the Congressional Record a letter that I received from the United Church of Christ which I believe is worth our contemplation because of its sincere efforts to generate greater awareness and understanding in the international and domestic communities disproportionately affected by current environmental problems.

The earth's climate has changed over the last century. This change has had deleterious effects on the world community, but more so on poor communities who have high concentrations of people of color. Communities of color are burdened with poor air quality and are twice as likely to be uninsured than whites. Yet these communities will become even more vulnerable to climate-change related respiratory ailments, heat-related illness and death, and illness from insect- carried diseases. A study conducted by the Congressional Black Caucus substantiated his claim by pointing out that in every single one of the 44 major metropolitan areas in the U.S., Blacks are more likely than Whites to be exposed to higher air toxic concentrations.

Although people of color are less responsible for climate change, ironically they will be made to suffer the most from it. We should not avoid the issue of race, class and gender when it comes to serious discussions about the environment. The inclusion of race, class and gender doesn't take us away from the issue, but helps make the issue more comprehensive and complete.

The impact of climate change has not been addressed or assessed specifically for people of color. As we continue to seek solutions to this ever growing and changing problem, we must seek to ensure that the rights of all peoples are met regardless of race, class or gender. I enter into the Record this letter written

by the United Church of Christ on this important issue. As we continue to strive or a cleaner world and environment, we must also strive to protect those most vulnerable to hurt.

[From Witness for Justice #274, June 26, 2006]

Global Warming: Harmful to All, But Some More Than Others

(By C.J. Correa Bernier)

The international dimensions of environmental problems are

becoming the center of attention as they gain center-stage in

debates concerning the future of our planet. The range of

issues being discussed is extensive, but global warming seems

to be a common subject in most conversations. The coexistence

of environmentalism and economic development and the need for

cooperation, fairness and equity among countries seems to be

one of the major questions.

In the midst of our global environmental conversations we

must keep in mind that the activities of human society, on a

broad scale, are harmful to all, but to some more than

others. In the case of global warming, we suffer along with

the planet but for island nations that will disappear, or for

indigenous communities, it is not an ``environmental

problem,'' it is the literal destruction of their

environment, history, legacy and lives.

In the United States, communities of color are also

drastically affected. A recent report notes the

disproportionate corelation between African Americans in the

U.S. and climate change. The report argues that African

Americans are less responsible for climate change, but suffer

more from the health impacts.

In 1987 the existence of a nationwide pattern of

disproportionate environmental risk based on race was

demonstrated for the U.S. This evidence challenged the U.S.

environmental movement to recognize its tendency to ignore

issues of race, class and gender when setting agendas for

social action. Today the mainstream environmental community

is involved in serious discussions about how to frame the

eco-justice issues along with those dealing with environment

justice or environmental racism, but, to look at the issue of

global warming as one that is in opposition to those

confronted by the environmental justice movement will be a

mistake.

The global environmental justice movement compels us to

rethink our understanding of global environmental problems

and existing proposals to solve them. Justice is an essential

demand, in the aftermath of historic, systematic

discrimination and disproportionate environmental degradation

of those on the margins.

If we look at global warming as an issue of human rights

and environmental justice we will be able to see the

connection between the local and the global. Rising

temperatures are already affecting the lives of millions of

humans, particularly in people of color, low-income, and

indigenous communities. The health of many has been already

compromised, their financial reality has become a burden, and

their social and cultural lives have been disrupted. As we

dialogue, research and seek solutions to our climate and

energy problems we must seek to ensure the right of all

people to live, work, play, and pray in safe, healthy, and

clean environments. We must envision a transition to a future

that protects the most vulnerable from the impacts of

climate.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Sensenbrenner and John Conyers for working together and making all Members of this House so proud to show what we can do when we do work in a bipartisan way.

I also want to thank Chairman Watt for the work that he has done with the Congressional Black Caucus, and beyond, to make certain that the commitments that have been made by the leadership of this House were kept.

We all know that there are parts of the history of this great Republic, slavery, the stigma of slavery, prejudice, that we all abhor; but we also know that this great body not too long ago passed a Congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee Airmen, men who gave up their lives and put themselves at risk in order to make certain the world was safe for democracy. At the time, many of these people could not vote and their mothers could not vote and their families could not vote.

So there comes a time where certain people have the courage to stand up for it, and John Lewis was one. I think we all should get together and say that we could not march with them, but we could reaffirm the commitment that they made.

Mr. Speaker, I rise again to address the importance of the renewal of the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Our Nation's growing Hispanic population is gradually becoming important in the political arena with the increased involvement of second and third generation Latinos. The number of naturalized citizens has also increased over the years. All these Americans, whether native- born or naturalized have an equal right to vote. English-only policies are subtle mechanisms that deny American citizens their constitutional right to vote. America is supposed to be a country of freedom, of democracy.

Naturalized non-English speaking citizens must endure long waiting periods to enroll in English as a Second Language (ESL) literacy centers, whose numbers are scarce due to lack of funding. In New York State, the wait lists were so long, the State decided to establish a lottery system instead. How can we ask for English-only policies when we do not have the requisite infrastructure in place to teach English to our citizens, let alone enable them to comprehend the complex ballots? Why shouldn't we make voting easier for our citizens? Why should we obstruct their ability to exercise their right to vote?

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are forgetting that English is not an easy language to learn. The Republican Party is alienating a large voting population and running the risk of aligning ethnic politics for years to come against them. President Bush has always urged his party to engage Hispanic voters to keep Democrats in the minority. He is advocating for inclusionary politics. But his efforts are being severely undermined by the hard-line politics of an overwhelming number of conservative Republicans.

I emphasize again the importance of the language issues in H.R. 9 which must be resolved in favor of greater inclusion and assistance for language minorities in the extension of the Voting Rights Act.

Mr. Speaker, I request that the article titled ``House May Chill Bush's Wooing of Latino Voters,'' by Charles Babington, published on June 30, 2006 in the Washington Post, be entered into the Congressional Record.

House May Chill Bush's Wooing of Latino Voters

(By Charles Babington)

By pushing English-only policies and tough measures against

illegal immigrants, House conservatives are endangering

President Bush's goal of drawing millions of Latino voters to

the Republican Party and helping realign ethnic politics for

years to come, according to an array of analysts and

officials.

The latest blow to Bush's efforts to woo Hispanics came

last week, when a band of House Republicans unexpectedly

balked at renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, partly because

of a 30-year-old requirement that many local governments

provide bilingual ballots. The revolt, which forced House GOP

leaders to abruptly postpone a vote, came as House

Republicans are stiffening their resistance to Bush's bid to

allow pathways to legal status for millions of illegal

immigrants while also strengthening borders and deportation

efforts.

``It's sort of a double whammy,'' said Sen. Mel Martinez

(R-Fla.), a Cuban native who is among the GOP's most visible

Hispanic leaders. Under Bush's leadership, he said in an

interview, ``our party has shown a very welcoming approach to

the emerging Hispanic vote.'' However, he said, ``there

obviously are those who feel that's not important. . . . I

think there could be great political risks to becoming the

party of exclusion and not a party of inclusion.''

While the stalemate over immigration legislation will be

difficult to break, House leaders predict they eventually

will quell the conservative rebellion over the Voting Rights

Act and reauthorize the law for 25 years.

But the depth of House GOP support for English-only

policies was demonstrated Wednesday night, when an

overwhelming majority of Republicans voted to end funding for

the bilingual ballots provision. The effort, led by Rep.

Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), failed only because 192 Democrats

joined 61 Republicans to vote against it.

The actions have embarrassed the White House and inflamed

many Latinos.

``It's offensive and insulting,'' said Cecilia Munoz, vice

president for policy for the National Council of La Raza, the

nation's largest Latino civil rights and advocacy group. She

said the national Republican Party is running ``a real risk''

of replicating the blunder that began unraveling the

California GOP in 1994.

That's when then-Gov. Pete Wilson (R) backed a ballot

initiative barring illegal immigrants from attending public

schools or receiving social services. The ensuing uproar

drove hundreds of thousands of Latino voters into

Democrats' arms. The state has backed Democratic

presidential and senatorial nominees ever since.

``That is exactly the danger that is facing Republicans

today,'' Munoz said. She praised Bush, Republican National

Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and others who ``know that

immigrant-bashing is disastrous to the future of their

party--and they're right.''

Peter Zamora, legislative attorney for the Mexican American

Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he believes that

House leaders will manage to salvage the Voting Rights Act

renewal. However, he said, ``it will be a political challenge

to explain tabling the Voting Rights Act to the Latino

community if action isn't taken very soon.''

Both parties are energetically courting the nation's

burgeoning Hispanic population, which will become

increasingly important as more second- and third-generation

Latinos get involved in politics, and as more immigrants

attain citizenship and the right to vote.

Most Latino voters lean Democratic, but Republicans have

long felt they can chip away at that advantage. Bush--who has

advocated social services and pathways to legal status for

illegal immigrants since he was governor of Texas--took 40

percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004 after winning 34 percent

in 2000, according to exit polls. In league with Mehlman,

political adviser Karl Rove and others, Bush has urged his

party to pursue Latino voters in numbers that could help keep

Democrats in the minority for decades.

But some GOP activists say the drive is being undermined by

the Republican-controlled House's tough stance on immigration

and the flap over voting rights.

Many Southern House Republicans have long objected to the

Voting Rights Act's requirement that their states obtain

Justice Department approval for an array of voting

activities. Last week, in a closed GOP caucus meeting, they

were joined by colleagues from throughout the country who

object to a measure added in 1975 that requires ballots or

interpreters to be available in a number of foreign languages

in places where census reports found a need for language

help.

``Multilingual ballots divide our country, increase the

risk of voter error and fraud, and burden local taxpayers,''

said a letter signed by nearly 80 House Republicans and

authored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).

The 2000 Census found that nearly 41 percent of all

Hispanic persons 5 years and older spoke English less than

``very well,'' and those eligible to vote needed language

assistance.

John Bueno, a Republican from Michigan, is president of the

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed

Officials, which was meeting in Dallas last week when news of

the voting rights flap broke. ``My first reaction was, 'My

God, here we are, it's 2006, and we're still dealing with

this issue,' `` Bueno said. ``Mainstream Republicans are

frustrated right now with what's going on in Congress.''

Latino Democrats, meanwhile, can hardly believe how Bush's

overtures are being thwarted by his own party. By stressing

English-only policies and stumbling on the immigration and

Voting Rights Act issues, congressional Republicans ``either

made the best case for switching the Congress from Republican

to Democratic control, or they made the best case for their

own incompetence,'' said Pedro Colon, a Wisconsin legislator

who attended the Dallas convention. ``As a Democrat, I'm

really optimistic about our opportunities.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend Dennis Walcott, New York City's Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development for enthusiastically joining the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and envoys from Grenada, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago in celebrating the Caribbean Week.

I was a co-sponsor of the recent bill (H. Con. Res. 51) that declared the month of June as the Caribbean Heritage Month in order to recognize and applaud the contributions of the Caribbean-American communities to the United States. I have participated in celebratory activities in the said communities, including those in my district, such as parades, carnivals and festivals to commemorate this month and present an opportunity to explore the diversity within the Islands.

Mr. Walcott has joined me in this celebration. A celebrity cricket match, a Caribbean Gospelfest, Town Hall meetings featuring Ministers of tourism from the region, a Caribbean Fair at South Street Seaport, and cooking demonstrations by some of the region's top chefs has taken the city by storm. Mr. Walcott, who traces his origin to the islands of Barbados and St. Croix, envisions a win-win tourism relationship between the Islands and New York City, as well as the Nation.

Mr. Speaker I wish to enter into the Record, the article from the June 27,2006 edition of The New York Carib News, titled Deputy Mayor Walcott Embraces Caribbean Week.

Deputy Mayor Walcott Embraces Caribbean Week

New York.--According to Dennis Walcott, New York City's

Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development, the

recent Caribbean Week in New York, staged by the Caribbean

Tourism Organization (CTO), is deeply important to the City

of New York and people and nations of the Caribbean.

Walcott underscored the importance of the Diaspora to the

City, and said Caribbean Week is a reinforcement of his

personal roots as well as a reminder of the importance of the

Caribbean here. Walcott, who traces his roots to the islands

of Barbados and St. Croix, said Caribbean-Americans are key

players in the running of New York City.

Caribbean Week presents an opportunity for people to

understand the diversity of the Caribbean, and according to

Walcott appreciate the various countries that are part of the

Diaspora of the Caribbean. The Deputy Mayor envisions a win-

win tourism relationship between the City of New York and CTO

member nations.

A celebrity cricket match, a Caribbean Gospelfest, Town

Hall meetings featuring Ministers of Tourism from the region,

a Caribbean Fair at the South Street Seaport, the popular

Media Marketplace and cooking demonstrations with some of the

region's top chefs, were some of the exciting events that

took the City by storm during Caribbean Week in New York.

Addressing a town hall meeting at Medgar Evers College in

the borough of Brooklyn, Ministers of Tourism from Grenada,

Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago told the audience about the

importance of tourism to their respective economies, and

updated nationals on crime fighting strategies in their

territories.

Minister Brenda Hood unveiled plans to work with the VFR

(Visiting Friends and Relatives) market, and pledged her

commitment to review proposals from the Diaspora media and

communications community to promote Grenada, Carriacou and

Petite Martinique in the marketplace.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article titled Moving On Up: In Harlem, A Renaissance in Food by Cynthia Kilian into the Record. The article, published in the June 28, 2006 edition of the New York Post, celebrates the variety of restaurants and dining experiences available in Harlem.

Harlem is one of the foci of diversity in New York City. One only has to walk down the streets of Harlem to see this celebration of diversity. Nowhere else it is more evident than in the dining scene of Harlem.

Dinosaur Barbeque, the ribs joint on 131st St., West Harlem has been a big hit from the moment it opened on December 1, 2004. If we walk down a little farther, we arrive at Pier 2110 Seafood Restaurant, the new seafood place with a raw bar and lounge with ginseng drinks, that just opened next to the Harlem Lanes bowling alley. A little to the east on 121st St. and Frederick Douglass Boulevard lies Harlem Vintage, the sleek wine shop on 2235 Frederick Douglass Blvd., where a $10 bottle of sauvignon blanc is as easy to come by as a $90 bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, caters to a variety of tastes.

Native at 118th St. and Lenox Ave. offers BLT salad to Moroccan fried chicken with collard greens and walnut sauce. Right around the corner is Ginger, known for its ``organic'' Chinese food. Harlem Tea Room, on 118th and Madison, is a perfect spot to enjoy poetry readings, music events and seminars while sipping one of their 22 kinds of tea with the eclectic menu of sandwiches and cakes. Further to the east, on 118th St. and 3rd Ave., is Creole, where alligator gumbo and crawfish etouffe is accompanied by nightly jazz from a changing roll call of artists.

The ``New Harlem'' with its assorted collection of bars and eateries is fast becoming the destination for the sophisticated palate and fine dining, along with maintaining the popularity of the neighborhood's stalwart Patsy's pizza, Copland's gospel brunch and Senegalese thiebou diene (fish stew).

My colleagues and I invite you to go on a gastronomic adventure in Harlem. And I am sure that I need not remind you that our immigrant communities take the credit for enriching the American culture by adding a variety of spices to the ``melting pot.''

Moving on Up: In Harlem, a Renaissance in Food

(By Cynthia Kilian)

June 28, 2006.--No one can accuse 125th Street of subtlety.

To walk across the Harlem thoroughfare is to submit to a

barrage of music-blaring shops, barking street vendors and

crowds. But head south on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and a

much different climate quickly emerges.

There's Harlem Vintage, a sleek wine shop filled with a

large, of-the-moment international selection of bottles. A

few more blocks down, patrons sip cocktails in the cool,

woody comfort of Melba's, while just across the street, latte

lovers tap on their laptops in an airy coffee-cum-eatery

that--surprise--is not Starbucks.

Sure, we'd heard about Harlem's luxury condo market and

coveted brownstones, and even a new crop of trendy clothing

shops. But caviar bars and organic wines?

North of Central Park--and above 96th Street to the east--

soul kitchens are being sidled up to by everything from

organic Chinese food to moules frites that a waitress at a

restaurant named Food says even Belgians seek out.

Not that the neighborhood's popular chicken and waffles and

Senegalese thiebou diene (fish stew) are going anywhere.

Neither are stalwarts Patsy's pizza and Copeland's gospel

brunch. They're just getting some company.

The latest buzz on one-two-five is Pier 2110 Seafood

Restaurant, which just opened nearby last week. From the

management of Manna's of Harlem and Brooklyn, it sports a

snazzy lounge, raw bar and ginseng drinks.

As for ViVa--a k a Viaduct Valley--that's real-estate speak

for the West Harlem area reportedly poised to spawn its own

restaurant scene in the coming year near Dinosaur Bar-B-Que,

Fairway Market and the new Citarella. ``New Harlem'' is fast

becoming the next destination for fine dining.

Served uptown

1. Food, 1569 Lexington, between 100 and 101st streets;

(212) 348-0200.

The no-nonsense moniker belies the jazzed-up classics in

this new incarnation of the former DinerBar, where fish-

centric chef Scott Geller (who's worked at Nobu) turns

out luscious escolar and moules frites in Dijon white wine

broth in a friendly neighborhood spot.

2. Itzocan Bistro, 1575 Lexington Ave., at 101st Street;

(212) 423-0255.

Mexican with French flourishes--such as seafood posole--has

been making East Harlem residents happy at this offshoot of

an East Village original.

3. Creole, 2167 Third Ave., at 118th Street; (212) 876-

8838, creolenyc.com.

Creole and Cajun bites--alligator gumbo and crawfish

etouffee from the kitchen--and nightly jazz from a changing

roll call of artists.

4. Harlem Tea Room, 1793A Madison Ave., at 118th Street;

(212) 348-3471, harlemtearoom.com.

Twenty-two kinds of tea including fruit blends and organics

at this comfy spot for nibbling cakes and sandwiches or

taking in poetry readings, music events and seminars.

5. Ginger, 1400 Fifth Ave., at 116th St.; (212) 423-1111,

gingerexpress.com.

Healthy Chinese food? That's the word at this sleek,

colorful space located in a ``green'' building. Organic and

antibiotic-free ingredients light on the frying result in a

baked egg roll (skip it) and sweet, fall-off-the-bone BBQ

beef ribs.

6. Native, 101 W. l18th St., at Lenox Avenue; (212) 665-

2525, harlemnative.com.

Ample outdoor seating makes this bright-colored, 5-year-old

eatery a fair-weather find for eclectic fare from a BLT salad

to Moroccan fried chicken with collard greens and walnut

sauce.

7. Settepani, 196 Lenox Ave., at 120th Street; (917) 492-

4806.

This 5-year-old offshoot of a Westchester bakery chainlet

has become an epicenter for pastries, sandwiches, salads and

pasta, especially when a jazz band riffs outside.

8. Emperor's Roe, 200 Lenox Ave., at 120th St.; (212) 866-

3700, emperorsroe.com.

Caviar and Harlem together as never before at this mail-

order shop which has just added a shiny new tasting bar and

dining area for fish eggs, smoked salmon and bubbly.

9. Society Coffee & Juice, 2104 Frederick Douglass Blvd.,

between 113th & 114th; (212) 222-3323, societycoffee.com.

Airy, laptop-friendly lounge for java, wine, and ``passion

and cream'' smoothies to wash down waffles, fondue and thin-

crust pizza.

10. Melba's, 300 W. 114th, at Frederick Douglass Blvd.;

(212) 864-7777, melbasrestaurant.com.

This welcoming, woody bistro gives comfort food a tweak by

filling spring rolls with yellow rice, black-eyed peas and

collards.

11. Harlem Vintage, 2235 Frederick Douglass Blvd., at 121st

Street; (212) 866-9463, harlemvintage.com.

A $10 bottle of sauvignon blanc is just as easy to come by

as a $90 Brunello di Montalcino from their ``winemaker of

color'' selection at this chic shop.

12. Pier 2110 Seafood Restaurant, 2110 Adam Clayton Powell

Jr. Blvd., between 125th and 126th streets; (212) 280-4737,

pier2110.com.

This spanking-new seafood place with a raw bar and lounge

just opened next to the new

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate former Congressman and Mayor-Elect Ron Dellums as he makes a political comeback at age 70 in winning the mayoral election in the city of Oakland, California. I submit to the Record an article written by Dan Rasmussen from the June 20, 2006 edition of Roll Call Politics entitled ``Dellums: Comeback ``Kid'' is 70.''

While this article references the effort mounted by 8000 people who signed a ``Draft Ron Dellums'' petition to convince him to run for mayor, it also highlights Mr. Dellums' stellar 27-year Congressional career. Ron Dellums' celebrity as a powerful representative has not waned as evidenced during a recent speech at a local celebration when the crowd spontaneously started chanting, ``Run Ron, Run.'' Their actions spoke volumes of the sentiment felt by the group who voted Ron Dellums into office and back into the political arena.

Dellums, the first black elected to Congress from Northern California, has continued a perfect electoral streak: He has not lost an election since he first won a seat on the Berkeley City Council in 1967.

Ron Dellums has a plan to make Oakland, California the 21st Century Model City. He is committed to working with the citizens and local organizations to solve the city's problems as they transform Oakland into a great municipality. I am sure that much will be accomplished through his leadership.

I enter the article ``Dellums: Comeback ``Kid'' is 70'' into the Record in recognition of Ron Dellums' strength, fortitude, longevity, and commitment to fairness and positive change. I congratulate Ron Dellums on his election to mayor of Oakland, California and wish him much success in the future.

[From Roll Call, June 20, 2006]

Dellums: Comeback `Kid' Is 70

(By Dan Rasmussen)

At 70 years old, Ron Dellums is making a political

comeback. Seven years after he abruptly ended his 27-year

Congressional career, Dellums, after almost two weeks of

uncertainty, has won election as the new mayor of Oakland,

Calif.

Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente,

Dellums' closest opponent in the June 6 nonpartisan election,

conceded defeat on Saturday. The announcement came after two

tense weeks as the Alameda County Registrar of Voters

finished counting paper ballots and found that Dellums had

won the majority of the vote, avoiding a runoff by a mere 155

votes.

It continued Dellums' perfect electoral streak: He hasn't

lost an election since he first won a seat on the Berkeley

City Council in 1967.

Dellums is now slated to take office on Jan. 1, 2007. He'll

replace another veteran political warrior, former California

Gov. Jerry Brown, who, at age 69, is waging a battle to

become the Golden State's next attorney general.

Over nearly three decades in the House, Dellums championed

many liberal causes--opposing the Vietnam War, U.S. nuclear

proliferation and President Ronald Reagan's foreign policy--

while leading the fight in Congress against South African

apartheid.

His liberal views earned him a place on former President

Richard Nixon's ``enemies list.'' But he briefly served as

chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, losing the

gavel after Democrats lost control of the House in 1994.

Generations of California political activists, as well as

several prominent black leaders, rallied behind Dellums'

mayoral campaign.

``The election of former Congressman Ron Dellums as

Oakland's mayor marks the revival of a black-progressive-

labor coalition that many thought was on its last legs,''

wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnists Philip Matier and

Andrew Ross, declaring the election a ``sea of change in

Oakland politics.''

Dellums, the first black elected to Congress from Northern

California, was not planning to run for mayor. But he changed

his mind after 8,000 people signed a ``Draft Ron Dellums''

petition to convince him to run. The key moment, his friends

and supporters say, was when he was giving a speech at a

local urban renewal celebration and the crowd spontaneously

started chanting, ``Run, Ron, run.''

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), an 11-year staff member and

former intern for Dellums, said she was in the airport

listening to the speech on her mobile phone and realized at

that moment that Dellums would run.

``He was like a jazz musician, going in and out and you

didn't know where he was going to go,'' she said. ``Then

there was a moment when there was a crescendo in the musical,

and I thought, `He's going to do it.' ''

Now, Dellums is hoping he can help Oakland make a comeback

similar to his own--the city in recent years has been plagued

with crime and violence.

``The other candidates were touting their experience with

the nuts and bolts of a city, but not moving things

forward,'' said Dellums spokesman Mike Healy. ``Ron is

blending the nuts and bolts with a vision of a model city.''

Dellums, who during his years in Congress earned a

reputation as a deal maker despite his far-left ideology,

wants to make Oakland a model for urban renewal: combating

crime with community policing, providing alternatives for

young people, working to improve health care and encouraging

corporations to use green technologies.

``Ron is going to make Oakland a shining light in a sea of

real desperation,'' Lee said. ``I'm excited for the city of

Oakland. Ron's involved young people and gotten them to care

about the city's future.''

Despite his age, Lee said Dellums really has connected with

Oakland's youths.

``You should see him with the young people. It's a young

people's campaign run by young people with Ron at the head,''

she said. ``He's an eager, energetic, healthy, wise man.''

In taking office, Dellums will be working with a few

familiar faces from his old Congressional staff. Not only is

Lee filling his old spot in Congress, but Sandre Swanson,

Dellums' district director and senior policy adviser for 25

years, won the Democratic primary this month for California's

16th Assembly district, and Keith Carson, another former

aide, is now the president of the Alameda County Board of

Supervisors.

``There's a quiet storm taking place,'' Lee said.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the Record, an article by Anthony Ramirez, titled ``A Gift Shop in Harlem Finds Customers for Memorabilia of Racist America,'' published in the July 5, 2006 edition of the New York Times. Ramirez interviewed Mrs. Mary Taylor and Ms. Glenda Taylor, owners of a Harlem shop that sells collectibles from the Jim Crow era. While some (Black) residents find it offensive to see the display of the white robe of the Ku Klux Klan, others are as driven to collect these reminders out of a `lest-we- forget' impulse.

Ms. Taylor said that the main reason that blacks collect objectionable objects is that they love and hate the item at the same time. They are a symbol of dehumanization of the African Americans through caricature that justified their political, social and economic oppression. This stereotyping of African-Americans perpetuated the belief that Blacks were unfit to be first-class citizens. At the same time, these ``contemptible collectibles'' are emblems of the civil rights movement and evidence of how much change has occurred and the positive changes that we take great pride in.

The Taylors liken their shop to a time machine. Older black customers, prompted by the

memorabilia, like to reminisce about the times gone by. As the elder Ms. Taylor said, if there is a shop like this, it should be in Harlem. I concur. These objects represent a painful period of our history. But they also symbolize the period when we rose up to claim our fundamental rights as human beings. I acknowledge that it is an ugly part of our heritage, but it should not be hidden away. It serves as a reminder of the era of Jim Crow and a warning that we should never forget the negative consequences of racism.

David Pilgrim, who is Black, argues that these ``contemptible collectibles'' either belong in a museum or in a garbage can, and not in stores. He runs a temporary museum with 5,000 racist objects and is trying to raise funds to establish a permanent Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. The Taylors would like to establish a museum as well, but they too lack the funding.

Mr. Speaker, I bring this effort to preserve this history to the attention of my colleagues and to nongovernmental organization who might be interested in the creation of a museum display the momentos of the Jim Crow era and to serve as a concrete reminder to the Congress of the perils of exclusionary politics.

A Gift Shop in Harlem Finds Customers for the Memorabilia of Racist

America

(By Anthony Ramirez)

The day Glenda Taylor placed the white hood and white robe

of the Ku Klux Klan in the window of her Harlem shop was one

to remember.

At the foot of the Klan gown was an 1868 issue of Harper's

Weekly depicting a dead black man, with the caption ``One

Vote Less.'' Passers-by of all races stopped, stunned, in

front of her memorabilia shop, Aunt Meriam's, on West 125th

Street, Ms. Taylor said.

One black woman dispatched her 10-year-old daughter into

the shop to confront Ms. Taylor, 50, who is black. The girl,

Ms. Taylor recalled, said something like, ``How could you?''

Ms. Taylor and her mother, Mary Taylor, sell all manner of

black memorabilia, including advertisements for the Cotton

Club and playbills for a Broadway musical starring Sammy

Davis, Jr.

But the Taylors and dealers like them also sell

collectibles from the Jim Crow era--cookie jars, coin banks,

matchbook covers, fruit-box labels, ashtrays, postcards,

sheet music, just to name a few items--that portray blacks in

grotesquely racist ways. Little boys eat watermelon. Men

steal chickens. Women happily scrub and clean.

While selling such items in the heart of America's most

famous black neighborhood might seem offensive, dealers say

that blacks rather than whites tend to be the ones collecting

the most repellent objects.

``Why do some Jews collect Holocaust material?'' asked

Wyatt Houston Day of the Swann Galleries in Manhattan, who

organizes an annual auction of African-Americana. ``Any

people who endure a Holocaust tend to collect, out of a lest-

we-forget impulse. It is very much akin to what happened to

blacks, and the objects are just as vile.''

With the civil rights movement, many whites became ashamed

to keep their own racially caricatured bric-a-brac, or that

of their parents and grandparents. The rise of the Internet

caused prices to fall as attics and cupboards emptied and

glutted the market on eBay and Yahoo auction sites. An

especially prized type of cookie jar--the McCoy mammy jar--

once sold for as much as $600; it now sells for as little as

$50.

``The main reason that black people collect'' objectionable

objects, Glenda Taylor said, is ``that they love that item

and hate that item at the same time.''

She added, ``It's like the `n' word. African-Americans are

very good at turning a painful thing into something else.''

For David Pilgrim, a sociology professor at Ferris State

University in Big Rapids, Mich., however, the issue is

starker. ``This is the ugly intersection of money and race,''

he said.

Mr. Pilgrim, who is black, runs a temporary museum, with

5,000 racist objects. Stores, he argued, are not the proper

surroundings for a thoughtful discussion of what he calls

``contemptible collectibles.''

He is trying to raise money to establish a permanent Jim

Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia (www.ferris.edu/jimcrow).

``To me,'' said Mr. Pilgrim, whose own collection makes up

nearly half of the temporary museum's inventory, ``this stuff

is garbage. It belongs either in a museum or a garbage can.''

Most historians date the Jim Crow era from 1877, when the

federal occupation of the South ended, to 1965, when the

Civil Rights Act guaranteeing basic rights for black

Americans was passed. Jim Crow was an 1820's musical routine

performed by white men in blackface, and the term became a

synonym for discrimination and segregation. Jim Crow laws

passed by Southern legislatures were a way for whites to roll

back black gains after the Civil War.

But Mr. Day of the Swann Galleries said that derogatory

objects were made in every state, including New York. ``It is

very much blacks through white eyes, not a region's eyes,''

he said.

Mary Taylor, 68, remembers growing up with mammy dolls and

other racially stereotyped objects in Hallandale, Fla., near

Fort Lauderdale. ``We resented this stuff,'' said Ms. Taylor,

a former administrator at Medgar Evers College. ``It depicted

us as ugly.''

She added that blacks now looked at it differently. ``We

look at ourselves differently. A lot of black people don't

have that inferiority complex anymore.''

The Taylors scour garage sales, lawn sales, auctions, flea

markets and estate sales in upstate New York, Pennsylvania

and Florida for items. ``The smaller the town, the better,''

because they tend to have more of the smaller auctions and

estate sales, where prices are still low, the elder Ms.

Taylor said.

Glenda Taylor, a former administrator for nonprofit

education groups, said she got the 1920's Klan robe from ``a

white collector who got it from an estate sale from someone's

attic,'' she said. The Taylors later sold the hood and robe

for $1,500 to a collector in Washington State.

The younger Ms. Taylor likens her shop, named after a

favorite aunt, to a time machine. Older black customers,

prompted by the memorabilia, like to reminisce, she said.

A black man in his 60's, looking at a ``For Colored Only''

reproduction in the shop, remembered the time when as a

college student he had lunch in a Louisiana coffee shop. As

he left, the white owner broke every dish he had used.

The next day, the black man, a drum major at nearby

Grambling State University, brought the entire football

team--all blacks--for lunch. They watched in satisfaction as

the shaken white owner broke dozens of his dishes.

``If any type of shop like this should be, it should be

here in Harlem,'' the elder Ms. Taylor said. ``There should

be a black museum. I would prefer that, if we had the

money.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a crucial challenge that our generation will face. In the June 27, 2006 edition of the Washington Post, an opinion editorial titled, ``Open the Door to Curing Alzheimer's'' by Robert Essner describes the urgency that exists in declaring research on Alzheimer's disease as a top priority for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the meantime, Alzheimer's has been accepted as an inevitable phase of aging. However, this needn't be the case because with enough research, more successful treatment can be discovered, and this research can easily deliver a cure.

However, it is not only the mere personal and emotional burden caused by this degenerative disease that should be of concern to all of us as legislators. This disease will also cause a serious economic drain on our funds. With the baby-boomer generation quickly approaching as a risk group for Alzheimer's, it is estimated that this disease will claim 1 in every 10 people of this sizeable population; that is, about 14 million baby-boomer elders will have Alzheimer's. Essner estimates that with such an immense population of Alzheimer's patients, the costs of care for this disease will ``drain--if not bankrupt'' the federal and state health care budgets.

Given these approximations, a vast majority of us are at risk for either becoming Alzheimer's patients, caring for one in our immediate family, or at least know a patient in our extended family. The article emphasizes how costly Alzheimer's truly is. Today, a whopping one third of all of Medicare funds are directed towards care for Alzheimer's patients. Last year alone, $91 billion in Medicare dollars was spent on those suffering from this disease. Furthermore, Alzheimer's incurs $19,000 a year in ``out-of-pocket'' costs for the families of patients.

Therefore, it is crucial that entities from the science, regulatory, and industry fields join forces to work as quickly as possible to thwart this disease and the imminent epidemic that Alzheimer's is bound to cause. If not enough financial support is provided for research and a cure for this possibly avoidable illness, we will continue to risk delaying the discovery of an effective treatment for Alzheimer's and this will potentially adversely impact on millions and millions of people. Essner says it best when he asserts, ``we could make my generation the last to dread Alzheimer's,'' and I believe this is a matter of obligation, not option.

Open the Door to Curing Alzheimer's--Why This Research Must Become an

Urgent Priority

(By Robert Essner)

June 27, 2006.--America is getting serious about preparing

for the possibility of an outbreak of avian flu. Would that

it could muster the same sense of urgency for a disease that

is already here and is certain to become epidemic. The

disease is Alzheimer's. It will claim one in 10 baby boomers,

create a personal and fiscal nightmare for their families,

and drain--if not bankrupt--state and federal health-care

budgets. Medicare now pays one-third of all its health-care

funds for some 4.5 million Alzheimer's patients. Are we ready

for three times that number?

Alzheimer's doesn't have to be an inevitable part of aging.

It is a disease for which research can find a cure, or at

least a more effective treatment. In that way, it could be

like HIV-AIDS--a disease that, for most sufferers, went from

a lethal diagnosis to a treatable chronic condition within

six years of its discovery. One breakthrough AIDS drug

rapidly led to another, because we mobilized pandemic-

strength muscle against it. In addition, the Food and Drug

Administration created review and approval processes that

helped new therapies for AIDS reach people who needed them

years ahead of what would have otherwise been possible.

The FDA now needs to give the same priority status to drugs

for Alzheimer's as it has for AIDS and cancer treatments.

And, the federal government needs to designate Alzheimer's as

a No. 1 research priority.

If we don't do these things, the projections are

staggering. Within the next five years, nearly a half-million

new Alzheimer's cases will be diagnosed annually, as 78

million baby boomers reach age 65. Given those numbers, most

of us will either become an Alzheimer's patient, care for one

in our home or know a patient in our extended family. By

robbing victims of memory, Alzheimer's strips away

individuality, dignity and independence.

Alzheimer's is expensive. It requires $19,000 a year in

out-of-pocket costs for each caregiver family. Last year

Medicare spent $91 billion for Alzheimer's. That figure will

nearly double in just four years--and keep soaring as 14

million cases are diagnosed in boomers' lifetimes.

Within the pharmaceutical industry, there are 28

Alzheimer's compounds in development. But progress on all

fronts is unconscionably slow considering the looming shadow

of this epidemic. And, given the complexity of the disease,

no single research organization has the resources to research

all its facets as quickly as we must.

At Wyeth alone, we've committed hundreds of millions of

dollars to this research. We are moving in a promising

direction by testing eight innovative approaches. Right now

no one can say that any one of them will work. But we believe

that, through taking multiple ``shots on goal'' in our

research labs, a treatment can be found.

In October 2001 Wyeth started its Alzheimer's research

program with a vaccine approach designed to stimulate the

body to stop the buildup of beta-amyloid plaque in the

brain--thought to be a critical part of the disease process.

While that initial effort proved unsuccessful, it did not

deter us from moving ahead with another vaccine approach.

This new vaccine program is in the clinic. Furthest along in

development at Wyeth is a pill--a potent serotonin receptor

antagonist that may enhance cognition in moderate cases and

significantly enhance the quality of life. Another promising

approach is an antibody directed against beta-amyloid. By

removing these plaques, we hope to stop the disease from

progressing.

But it is imperative for industry, scientists and

regulators to work together to help us reach our goal even

faster. We need a sense of urgency, a commitment to

collaboration that will lead to a concerted, focused effort

to prevent this impending epidemic.

A TV journalist who cares for a husband diagnosed with the

disease wrote in a recent issue of the scientific journal

Alzheimer's & Dementia: ``Right now the majority of

Alzheimer's victims and their caregivers are our parents.

Their plight is our future. . . . We are desperately in need

of access to new therapies instead of being left with only

agonizing decisions.''

For every month we hesitate, we will find ourselves

spending down the nation's health-care budget to care for the

demise of millions of people. We should be preparing to cure

them. We could make my generation the last to dread

Alzheimer's. It is time to accelerate the pace of our efforts

and take the battle to a level on par with our hope.

Mr. Speaker, with the disappointing ending of the quest for the World Cup through a loss to Ghana last week, I find it appropriate to bring to the attention of Congress an article written by David Brooks, a columnist with the New York Times, entitled ``Our World Cup Edge.'' The article discusses our country's apparent disadvantage in skill and experience in this worldwide soccer competition, but touts the American university system, which produces most of the players on the U.S. team, as being the best.

While the U.S. team unfortunately was eliminated in the first round of the competition, our team can boast having the most college graduates. American athletes go to college to foster their athletic abilities, whereas Europeans are removed from school at a young age and placed in specialized training programs.

The article maintains that the higher level of education American athletes receive helps to boost our economy. American universities greatly contribute to a sense of community. Such a phenomenon dates back to the founding of these schools as autonomous, devoid of government intervention. Such a lack of government involvement allows American universities to remain competitors in the ideas market. By contrast, the European university system is controlled by the government and is therefore not very competitive. European governments encourage equality amongst their universities.

American universities are at the top. As Mr. Brooks cites, not only have our schools fostered strong sports programs, but they also build camaraderie through extracurricular activities. American universities also lead to business and cultural centers, while the European system does not have nearly as large an effect. With globalization, American universities have become increasingly more desirable, further benefiting our society.

I commend Mr. Brooks' analysis of the importance and success of our American universities. However, I would like to push Congress even further in identifying the challenge presented by the need to produce more engineers and scientists in today's increasingly competitive technological age. Our country has done an admirable job in ensuring our universities are the best, but we must continue working to keep up with technology by educating our students in the scientific fields.

I thank Mr. Brooks for his thorough comparison of university systems. I therefore submit for the Record Mr. Brooks' column in the June 22nd issue of the New York Times.

[From the New York Times, June 22, 2006]

Our World Cup Edge

(By David Brooks)

Going into today's World Cup match against Ghana, no

American player has managed to put a ball into the back of

the net, but the U.S. team does lead the world in one vital

category: college degrees.

Most of the American players attended college. Eddie Pope

went to the University of North Carolina, Kasey Keller

attended the University of Portland and Marcus Hahnemann went

to Seattle Pacific.

Many of the elite players from the rest of the world, on

the other hand, were pulled from regular schools at early

ages and sent to professional training academies. Among those

sharp-elbowed, hypercompetitive Europeans, for example,

Zinedine Zidane was playing for A.S. Cannes by age 16, Luis

Figo was playing for Sporting Lisbon at 17, and David Beckham

attended Tottenham Hotspur's academy and signed with

Manchester United as a trainee at 16.

The difference in preparation is probably bad for America's

World Cup prospects, but it's good for America's economic and

political prospects. That's because the difference in soccer

training is part of a bigger phenomenon. American

universities play a much broader social role than do

universities elsewhere around the world. They not only serve

as the training grounds for professional athletes,

unthinkable in most other nations, they also contribute more

to the cultures and economies around them.

The American university system was born with expansionist

genes. As early Americans spread out across the frontier,

they created not only new religious sects, but new colleges,

too. The Dartmouth College case of 1819 restricted

government's efforts to interfere in higher education. As the

centuries rolled on, government did more to finance higher

education, starting with the Morrill Land Grant College Act

of 1862, but the basic autonomy of colleges and universities

was preserved. They remained, and remain, spirited

competitors in the marketplace of ideas, status, talent and

donations.

The European system, by contrast, is state-dominated and

uncompetitive. During the 19th century, governments in Spain,

France and Germany abolished the universities' medieval

privileges of independence. Governments took over funding

and control, and imposed radical egalitarian agendas.

Universities could not select students on merit, and

faculty members became civil servants.

The upshot is that the competitive American universities

not only became the best in the world--8 out of the top 10

universities are American--they also remained ambitious and

dynamic. They are much more responsive to community needs.

Not only have they created ambitious sports programs to

build character among students and a sense of solidarity

across the community, they also offer a range of

extracurricular activities and student counseling services

unmatched anywhere else. While the arts and letters faculties

are sometimes politically cloistered, the rest of the

university programs are integrated into society, performing

an array of social functions.

They serve as business incubation centers (go to Palo

Alto). With their cultural and arts programs, they serve as

retiree magnets (go to Charlottesville). With their football

teams, they bind communities and break down social

distinctions (people in Alabama are fiercely loyal to the

Crimson Tide, even though most have not actually attended the

university).

State-dominated European universities, by contrast, cast

much smaller shadows. A Centre for European Reform report

noted ``a drab uniformity'' across the systems. Talented

professors leave. Funding lags. Antibusiness snobbery limits

entrepreneurial activity. Research suffers. In the first half

of the 20th century, 73 percent of Nobel laureates were based

in Europe. Between 1995 and 2004, 19 percent were.

The two systems offer a textbook lesson in how to and how

not to use government. In one system, the state supports

local autonomy and private creativity. In the other, the

state tries to equalize, but merely ends up centralizing and

stultifying. This contrast might be worth dwelling upon as we

contemplate health care reform, K-12 education reform and

anything else government might touch.

The dynamic American university system is now undergoing

yet another revolution--globalization. More foreign students

are coming to the U.S., and more want to stay after they get

their degrees.

This is bound to be great for American society. It will

probably do almost nothing for our future World Cup

prospects.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a truly remarkable man, Mr. Louis B. Sohn passionate supporter of the United Nations, Mr. Sohn has made a significant mark on both our country and the world. On June 7 at his home in Falls Church, Virginia, we lost Mr. Sohn to complications of a stroke. He was 92 years old.

Born March 1, 1914, right at the start of World War I, in Lwow, Poland, Louis showed tremendous passion right from the beginning. He earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from John Casimir University. A mere two weeks before the invasion of Poland during World War II, a Harvard law professor who had been impressed by Mr. Sohn's treatises, invited him to be a research fellow at Harvard School of Law. Soon after his arrival, he met Betty Mayo, who became his wife and is now his only survivor.

Serving as an assistant to Manley O. Hudson, a Harvard Law professor and a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague, Mr. Sohn traveled to San Francisco for the United Nations charter conference. With his help, the International Court of Justice was established. Then when Mr. Hudson retired as the Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard, Louis Sohn was awarded the honor.

Professor Sohn was well known for his book ``World Peace Through World Law,'' which he co-authored with Grenville Clark, a prominent Wall Street attorney. Their book delved into various proposals to transform the U.N. into a world government.

Throughout his 50 year career in the field of law, which culminated at the University of Georgia School of Law, Professor Sohn was a champion for disarmament and the creation of a permanent U.N. peace force. He hoped that through such a peace force, the U.N. could use their military budget alternatively to relieve poverty. Mr. Sohn commendably spent his life working hard for a more powerful United Nations.

I enter into the Record an article published in the New York Times on June 23, 2006 titled ``Louis B. Sohn, Passionate Supporter of the U.N., Dies at 92.'' The article provides a more in depth commentary of Professor Sohn's esteemed accomplishments. He is a truly remarkable man who has left an everlasting imprint on society. We must keep his legacy alive and continue to fight for disarmament and human rights.

[From the New York Times, June 23, 2006]

Louis B. Sohn, Passionate Supporter of the U.N., Dies at 92

(By Dennis Hevesi)

Louis B. Sohn, a professor of international law who helped

draft parts of the United Nations Charter in 1945 and was a

leader in subsequent efforts to turn the United Nations into

a true world government, died on June 7 at his home in Falls

Church, Va. He was 92.

The cause was complications of a stroke, said Paige Otwell,

a friend.

For nearly 50 years, while at the Harvard School of Law and

then the University of Georgia School of Law, Professor Sohn

served on commissions and organized conferences around the

world, championing disarmament, human rights and increased

powers for the United Nations.

He called for the creation of a permanent United Nations

peace force. He wanted nations with nuclear arsenals to hand

them over to the United Nations and use their military

budgets for relieving poverty. He campaigned to have the 1948

United Nations Declaration of Human Rights accepted as a

legally binding document, rather than a statement of

principles. In 1968, the General Assembly adopted that

premise.

Those proposals and others were seized upon by American

isolationists to attack the United Nations. Professor Sohn

called them ``the minimum requirements for peace, not a

utopian scheme for a perfect world community.''

Louis Bruno Sohn was born on March 1, 1914, in what was

then Lwow, now Lviv, then part of Poland but now in Ukraine.

He graduated from John Casimir University there and then

earned a law degree in 1939.

Professor Sohn's parents, Isaak and Fredericka Sohn, were

doctors. His father, taken to an internment camp after the

invasion of Poland, barely survived World War II. His mother

died of pneumonia that first winter.

Two weeks before the invasion, at the invitation of a

Harvard law professor who read one of his legal treatises,

Professor Sohn had boarded a ship to the United States to

become a research fellow. In 1941, he married Betty Mayo, a

Radcliffe student; she is his only survivor.

At Harvard, he became an assistant to Manley O. Hudson, a

judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice at the

Hague, which was established by the League of Nations but

suspended during the war. Judge Hudson was the Bemis

Professor of International Law at Harvard. Professor Sohn

succeeded to the Bemis chair in 1961 and held it until 1981.

In the summer of 1945, Judge Hudson and his assistant

traveled to San Francisco for the United Nations charter

conference. There, they helped draft the statute establishing

the International Court of Justice, or World Court, as the

successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice.

In an interview in 1977, Professor Sohn recalled how

Harvard had asked him to teach a course on the United Nations

after his return from the charter conference, ``because

nobody else would teach anything so crazy.''

In 1958, Professor Sohn was a co-author, with Grenville

Clark, of ``World Peace Through World Law'' (Harvard

University Press), which examined proposals to transform the

United Nations into a world government. The book envisioned a

time when the United Nations budget, then $55 million, would

surpass $35 billion, with $25 billion set aside to mitigate

``the worst economic disparities between nations.''

The authors also called for the elimination of all

armaments in 12 years and envisioned that the United Nations

would then have a monopoly on military force and would

maintain a peace force of 400,000 soldiers.

In 1967, Professor Sohn wrote a report for a committee of

international law experts, urging the United Nations to study

the threat to individual freedom posed by computers,

eavesdropping devices and genetic engineering. The report,

submitted to the United Nations as part of the 20th

anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

said the concept of national data banks ``raises the specter

of a government which knows all.''

``Arrangements have to be devised,'' it said, ``to control

the precious few who run the machines, and on whose wisdom

and impartiality the fate of mankind may depend.''

In 1977, Professor Sohn was a delegate to a United Nations-

sponsored conference that drafted the Convention on the Law

of the Sea, which the General Assembly adopted in 1982.

In 1981, after 35 years at Harvard, Professor Sohn accepted

an invitation from Dean Rusk, who had been secretary of state

under President John F. Kennedy, to join him in teaching

international law at the University of Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a truly outstanding woman, Ms. Norma Becker. A teacher, civil rights activist, and promoter of peace, Norma touched the lives of everyone who came in contact with her. On June 17, 2006, at the age of 76, we lost Ms. Becker to lung cancer.

Norma Becker started out her tremendous career as a schoolteacher in New York City. However, she soon moved to the South to teach, after hearing about Birmingham, AL, Sheriff ``Bull'' Connor's use of dogs against civil rights protesters. During that time, Norma could not help but feel the growing anti-Vietnam war sentiment that surrounded her. But instead of idly watching others, Ms. Becker took some of the biggest steps a single person could. She helped to start the Peace Parade Committee, a peace protesting movement in New York City.

Norma's efforts did not die with the Vietnam war, but rather her energy and intensity rose. In 1977, she helped create the Mobilization for Survival, which helped to bridge the broad antiwar movement with the intensifying anti-nuclear power sentiment.

However, Norma's favorite endeavor was the War Resisters League, of which she served as chairwoman from 1977 to 1983. Staff members of the league have praised Ms. Becker for her outstanding leadership. Others commended her always present energy. She had an innate ability to work well with everyone.

Peace activists across the country are devastated by this loss. But Norma's spirit remains with us and encourages us to continue the fight for peace. I enter into the Record with pleasure a piece by the War Resisters League as a reminder of the tremendous impact Norma Becker has had on our country. It is critical that we keep her memory alive so that many generations to come will know who Ms. Becker was as well as all the great things she accomplished. She set an example that we should all be proud to mimic.

Antiwar Leader Norma Becker Dies

Norma Becker, teacher, civil rights activist, and towering

figure of the peace movement during the Vietnam War, died of

lung cancer in her New York City home June 17. She was 76.

A founder of the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade

Committee, which drew tens of thousands to protest the

Vietnam War, and a founder of the Mobilization for Survival

coalition, she was crucial to the antiwar movement. She

served as chair of the pacifist War Resisters League from

1977 to 1983.

``One of the truly great has passed,'' said longtime War

Resisters League staffer David McReynolds on hearing of her

death. ``As much as any, and more than most, she provided

leadership in hard times and for the long and horrific years

of [the Vietnam] conflict.''

Becker was a New York City schoolteacher in 1963, when, as

she said later, she was ``recruited into the civil rights

movement by Sheriff `Bull' Connor of Birmingham [AL].''

Appalled by media accounts of Connor's use of dogs to

subdue civil rights demonstrators, Becker went South to

teach in the summer Freedom Schools.

Over the next couple of years, Becker--and the burgeoning

movement against the war in Vietnam--found that she was as

gifted an organizer as she was a teacher. In 1965, she helped

to start the Peace Parade Committee, which organized massive

antiwar protests in New York City. Wendy Schwartz, a younger

WRL activist who came to the antiwar movement during those

years, adds, ``It was Norma's energy, intelligence, and charm

that helped make those demonstrations so large and so

peaceful. She worked as well with the disparate peace

movement factions as she did with the police.''

In 1977, after the Vietnam War had ended, Becker helped

create the Mobilization for Survival, which linked the

emerging movement against nuclear power to opponents of

nuclear weapons and the wider antiwar movement.

But whatever other organizations she worked with, Becker

also remained involved with the War Resisters League. Only a

week

before she died, at the annual WRL dinner, the organization

paid tribute to Becker's profound influence on the struggle

for peace. WRL and peace activists across the country mourn

her loss and send condolences to her daughter and son-in-law,

Diane and Stephen Tosh, her daughter-in-law Anita Becker, and

her four grandchildren, Sarah, Nicholas, and Katrina Tosh and

Alicia Becker.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article titled Changing Face of Queens: From Small Asian Shops to High-End Stores from the June 28 edition of the New York Times. The article, by Alison Gregor, describes the economic development of Flushing and the large- scale mixed use condominiums that are being built in the area. It is evident that ethnic tradition and culture are the driving force behind these developments.

There is a huge Asian population in Flushing that has disposable income that is currently shopping in Manhattan or even in Manhasset on Long Island. The retail potential of the neighborhood has attracted commercial developers and big-name businesses. The presence of the thriving immigrant community is the lure that is drawing the developers and spurring the revival of the desolate West Flushing neighborhood.

In fact, Queens Crossing, a 12-story office condominium project, is being built by Mr. Michael Lee, president and CEO of TDC Development L.L.C. and a longstanding resident. With the added convenience that Flushing has to offer, Queens Crossing is going to be a destination for shopping, food, entertainment, education, medical and business services. Queens Crossing is only the first in the line of many development projects that are going on in Flushing. The Flushing Commons, under the direction of TDC Development and the Rockefeller Development Corporation, an even more ambitious project, is expected to be completed in about four years. Lastly there is the Flushing Town Center of the Muss Development Company, the largest mixed-use development project in New York City.

The United Nations has recently reported on the beneficial effects of the immigrant population to their newly adopted countries. The renewal of Flushing is a real example of such an effect, repeating what the immigrants are doing to all our New York City to improve our communities. We are experiencing a wonderful revitalization of New York City because of our traditional role as a welcoming city for the pursuit of the American dream.

I wish to draw the attentions of my colleagues to the redevelopment of Flushing neighborhoods and remember the positive aspects of immigration.

Changing Face of Queens: From Small Asian Shops to High-End Stores

(By Alison Gregor)

If you're looking for cafes serving bubble tea or

herbalists offering dried lotus blossoms or purveyors of

waving-cat trinkets, downtown Flushing, the city's second-

biggest Chinatown and the largest urban center in Queens, has

them in large quantity. But in the next few years, the area

may also welcome a host of more mainstream retailers.

Almost 1.3 million square feet of retail space is planned

in at least three major mixed-use developments--about the

same area as at the renowned Mall at Short Hills in New

Jersey--and a few hundred thousand feet of office space is

also being developed. The first new stores are to open by the

end of this year.

Flushing is already a pan-Asian enclave that is a first

stop for many immigrants from China, Korea and Malaysia,

among other countries.

Developers are hoping it will soon be a stop for American

shoppers. ``You have to make this area a destination,'' said

Michael Meyer, president of TDC Development L.L.C., which is

involved in two of the mixed-use projects.

Mr. Meyer is relatively new to the community. But the

chairman and chief executive of TDC, Michael Lee, an

immigrant from Taiwan, arrived in Flushing two decades ago

and has purchased a substantial portion of the area's

properties. TDC is a subsidiary of the F&T Group, a real

estate company.

Mr. Lee owns the Flushing Mall, a longstanding collection

of boutique shops and restaurants on 39th Avenue, where signs

are in Chinese and Korean. He also developed the nearby

Prince Center in 2003; it is a complex of ground-floor retail

space, now full of restaurants, and office condominiums that

netted about $500 a square foot.

Office condos are fairly unusual for New York City, but the

market is receptive in Flushing. ``What drives a lot of this

is the whole ethnic tradition and culture; the Chinese

mentality is very much an ownership mentality,'' Mr. Meyer

said.

Mr. Lee is building another office condominium project:

Queens Crossing, a 12-story building being framed at the

corner of Main Street, Flushing's main shopping artery, and

39th Avenue. It will have 190,000 square feet of office space

in about 80 office condominiums, and 86,000 square feet of

parking.

The building has a waiting list of more than 200

businesses, Mr. Meyer claimed. ``Queens Crossing sales, on a

net square footage basis, are now estimated at $750,'' he

said.

The development will also have about 110,000 square feet of

retail space, which has not yet been leased. It will open by

the end of this year. ``We're looking for mainstream

retailers like bookstores and health clubs and restaurants

and apparel stores,'' Mr. Meyer said.

But Queens Crossing would be dwarfed by another proposed

development a block away called Flushing Commons, which

envisions having a total of almost two million square feet.

Flushing Commons is expected to be completed in about four

years on the site of a municipal parking lot that now has

space for about 1,100 vehicles.

That development, with 500 residential units and about

350,000 square feet of retail space, will aim to attract more

upscale retailers than currently operate in Flushing. While

the city has given approval to the general concept of this

project, it is still going through public hearings.

Thus far, the developers of Flushing Commons--Mr. Lee and a

partner, the Rockefeller Development Corporation--envision

that much of the retail space will be used by a multiscreen

cinema, a national-chain bookstore and a supermarket like

Whole Foods, along with some smaller stores. Roughly 15,000

square feet of space dedicated to office condominiums is

being envisioned for professionals like doctors and lawyers.

Flushing Commons will also include a 200-room hotel, where

developers would like to see a Westin, Mr. Meyer said.

Alan L. Stein, a senior vice president at Rockefeller, said

the developers, which won a bid to develop the city-owned

property a year ago, had promised not to introduce any ``big

box'' stores into the complex.

Robin Abrams, an executive vice president of the Lansco

Corporation, a commercial real estate brokerage firm that

consulted on the project, said she envisioned retailers like

Scoop, Cole Haan and Sephora setting up shop in the

development.

Stores like those ``are all over Manhattan, but don't have

a presence in Flushing,'' Ms. Abrams said. ``Frankly, the

thought is there's a huge Asian population that has

disposable income that is currently shopping in Manhattan or

even in Manhasset'' on Long Island.

Mr. Meyer said that some retailers might be intimidated by

the ethnic nature of the market, but that the developers

believed they could convince them that they had nothing to

fear.

Also, retailers that already have outlets in Asia would be

comfortable in downtown Flushing, said Josh Segal, owner of

the Segal Realty Group, a commercial real estate firm that

also consulted on Flushing Commons. ``It's like Shanghai on

the Flushing River,'' he said.

Already going in alongside the Flushing River is one of the

largest mixed-use developments. The Muss Development Company

is building 1,000 residential units in several towers on a

l4-acre site. The $800 million project will also include an

800,000 square- foot shopping center anchored by national

retailers.

The first phase of the project will not be completed until

2008 at the earliest, said Jim Jarosik, a senior vice

president at Muss.

Flushing residents are watching the explosion of commercial

development closely. Real estate professionals say Home Depot

and Target are rumored to be anchor tenants at the Muss

project, which is called Flushing Town Center, although the

developer would not identify the stores it was negotiating

with.

Some Flushing residents say they believe that if retailers

of that sort go into the development, there may be traffic

backups along Roosevelt Avenue, said Chuck Apelian, vice

chairman of Community Board 7, which represents downtown

Flushing.

Downtown Flushing, a transportation hub that has 24 bus

lines and the terminus of the No. 7 subway, is an area that

is used by nearly 100,000 commuters daily, according to the

Downtown Flushing Transit Hub Business Improvement District,

and has become synonymous with traffic congestion. A group

called Save Our Flushing Community has formed to protest the

Flushing Commons project. Others maintain that additional

traffic snarls would not hurt business.

Even if retail rents head far north of the $100 a square

foot paid at certain locations on Main Street, the owner of

Pho Vietnamese on Prince Street, Tai Ma, who has lived and

worked in Flushing for 29 years, said he welcomed the new

commercial development. ``The rent here is going high

anyway,'' he said. ``If you want to develop Flushing, you

need something big.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Anne Forrester, a tireless advocate who gave her life so that others could understand and appreciate the freedoms we exercise daily in America. Ambassador Anne Forrester, who served our Nation as head of the office of Ambassador Andrew Young in the Department of State and then as Ambassador to Mali during the administration of Jimmy Carter, succumbed to pancreatic cancer on June 23, 2006 at her home in New York City. She was memorialized at a service at the National Cathedral in Washington on Saturday, July 8, 2006. A woman of sound moral character and grace, Anne Forrester lived for others and irreversibly changed everyone she met.

Born in Philadelphia in 1941, to a widowed social worker in a country very divided among race lines, Mrs. Forrester knew from experience what it felt to be denied, pushed aside and undervalued. She was a woman, a colored woman with an intellect and courage that extended beyond her small delicate frame. However, despite all of these challenges, she became a pioneer being among one of the first African American women appointed to serve as a United States Ambassador.

Mrs. Forrester is noted not only as one of the first African American women appointed to ambassadorship in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter to Mali but for her contributions to the great movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the struggle for the attainment of civil rights and the resistance to the folly of our engagement in Vietnam. She channeled her displeasure with America's domestic policies to produce change in government through direct action. Later in her career, Anne became the staff director of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa. Her desire to share the hard-won freedoms gained by blacks in America with those in Africa laid the groundwork for a career of service to the people of Africa which replicated her commitment to equality and justice for Blacks in the U.S.

Mrs. Forrester had a special relationship with the continent of Africa. As a young child, she vividly recalled various pleas from missionaries in her church describing a world and place she would later explain and describe in her own words and from her own personal experience. As a student in Bennington College in Vermont, Mrs. Forrester in 1962 made her first trip to Africa, traveling to Uganda with a summer cultural exchange program. She later earned her Masters Degree in African Studies from Howard University in 1968 and her Ph.D from the Union Institute & University in Cincinnati in 1975.

Ambassador Forrester served as a Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Her work for the U.N. was exemplary, exhibiting the true qualities of a humble yet determined civil servant. As an official observer for the U.N., Mrs. Forrester traveled abroad to a variety of locales. Also as a mother and advocate for reform and peace, Mrs. Forrester was a doer whose work in the U.N.'s regional bureau for Africa under Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, now President of Liberia and as a guest scholar at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars garnered a lot of praise and attention.

We all mourn the loss of such a true pioneer, who took positions and voiced her opinion at times when voices of opposition were not welcomed. What I hope people will gain from her life is that anything is truly possible and that you can aspire to achieve no matter how dire the situation or circumstances. Her selfless acts should be remembered and praised.

I enter into the Congressional Record to illustrate to my colleagues Anne's special qualities the obituary published in the Post on July 3, 2006 which provides an insight into Anne Forrester's humanitarian efforts and accomplishments. She has truly left her mark on our society and she will always be remembered for that. We must keep her memory alive in our hearts and minds so that generations after us will know who she was and what she did. One will not be able to speak about the progress made in the struggle of people of color during the 1960's and 1970's for civil rights and equality of opportunity in the U.S. and for self determination and freedom in Africa and the Caribbean without bringing up her name, for she has without a doubt made great contributions to both areas.

[From the Washington Post, July 3, 2006]

Anne Forrester, Ambassador to Mali

(By Patricia Sullivan)

Anne Forrester, 65, former ambassador to Mali who had an

abiding professional interest in Africa and the African

diaspora, died of pancreatic cancer June 23 at her home in

New York City.

Ms. Forrester was appointed to the ambassadorship in 1979

by President Jimmy Carter and was one of the first African

American women to hold the post. A scholar and activist in

the 1960s, she made the transition into a position of power

in government and diplomacy.

``What I represent is the generation that learned

traditional values in the 1950s, was

cast into turbulent changes in the 1960s, learned a new

vocabulary and had to integrate the changes,'' she told The

Washington Post in 1979.

Ms. Forrester served as ambassador until 1981, then

returned to Washington to work as staff director for the

House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, where she laid

the groundwork for the anti-apartheid bill that passed

Congress in 1986.

She helped Randall Robinson as he launched the TransAfrica

Forum, which lobbies on African issues. Ms. Forrester joined

the United Nations staff in 1985, a decade after working as

staff director for Andrew Young at the State Department, when

he was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

A small, delicate woman who joked about her reputation as a

forceful advocate, Ms. Forrester carried memories of

segregation and civil rights fights with her into the

rulebound world of diplomacy. Born in Philadelphia to a

widowed social worker, she attended public schools and

remembered sitting in Philadelphia's historic St. Thomas

Episcopal Church, listening to the pleas for missionaries in

Africa.

``Knowledge of Africa, from a positive and enriching

approach, was very evident in our home,'' she said.

She was bright and left home early to attend the majority-

white Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. She

also graduated from Bennington College in Vermont.

In 1962, she made her first trip to Africa, traveling to

Uganda with a summer cultural-exchange program, Operation

Crossroads Africa. She taught at her old prep school for a

few years, then, seeking an experience in a majority-black

environment, moved to Washington to work on a master's degree

in African studies at Howard University, which she received

in 1968.

She met and married Marvin Holloway, and they became

involved in Washington's Drum and Spear Bookstore and Press,

a center of black nationalist activism.

During this period, she directed the Black Student Fund;

worked part time for Young, then a Democratic member of the

House from Georgia; started her doctoral work that culminated

in a 1975 degree from Union Institute & University in

Cincinnati; was an official observer at a U.N. conference;

and traveled abroad a couple of times, all while her twin

girls were going through their ``terrible twos.''

She ran Young's State Department office when he was the

U.N. ambassador, successfully finding her way through the

labyrinths of Foggy Bottom diplomacy. After her

ambassadorship and work on Capitol Hill, she became a guest

scholar at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson

International Center for Scholars and an adjunct professor in

the African studies department at Georgetown University.

Her work for the U.N. Development Program took her to

Lesotho and Ghana and later to Barbados and the eastern

Caribbean. She worked in the U.N. regional bureau for Africa

under Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, now president of Liberia. Ms.

Forrester became a senior adviser to the administrator in

charge of launching the U.N. Foundation and in her first year

raised $20 million.

Ms. Forrester retired from the United Nations in October

2001 but continued to work as senior policy adviser on

Africa, Afghanistan and HIV-AIDS matters for Rep. Juanita

Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.) for a year. She returned to New

York and continued to work as an international consultant on

African and Caribbean development issues.

Her marriage ended in divorce.

Survivors include two daughters, Camara Holloway of New

York and Kandia Holloway of Charlotte, N.C.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to submit to the record an opinion editorial from the June 26, New York Times entitled ``Playing Politics with Iraq'' by Bob Herbert in which the columnist alleges by giving the public what it wants, an orderly withdrawal from Iraq, the Bush administration is seeking political advantage from the conflict in Iraq, making the war part of a campaign strategy.

The post-war occupation of Iraq has not gone smoothly. This has had considerable influence on the approval rating of President Bush and the popularity of his policies. As such, the Bush Administration and Republican Congressional leadership seeks to turn the debate over the Iraq War in their favor. Their plan is to possibly reduce the number of troops in Iraq before this fall's Congressional elections, with possibly even bigger cuts before the 2008 elections. Yet even while the Bush Administration appears to be executing a withdrawal of a significant number of U.S. troops in the coming month its Republican allies in the Congress are relentlessly claiming that anyone who proposes a withdrawal of troops to be proponents of a ``cut and run'' appeasement. Is the President and his administration to be accused of ``cut and run''?

The Bush White House and Republican Congressional leadership are playing politics with Iraq. More than 2,500 American troops who answered the call to wage war in Iraq have already perished and thousands more are struggling with coming to terms with the emotional trauma and anguish as a result of their sacrifice. They deserve better, and we owe it to them to do better. We need to move beyond partisan politics because they only serve to deviate us from our main goal--the establishment of a safe and democratic Iraq state.

As a War veteran, I know from experience how sound policy can lessen the damaging effect a war like Iraq can have on the individual. I do not think the Iraq War should be part of any party's campaign strategy. Mr. Speaker I call upon the Republican Congressional Leadership to end this divisive practice of using the Iraq war for political gain or advantage.

[From the New York Times, June 26, 2006]

Playing Politics With Iraq

(By Bob Herbert)

If hell didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. We'd need a

place to send the public officials who are playing politics

with the lives of the men and women sent off to fight George

W. Bush's calamitous war in Iraq.

The administration and its allies have been mercilessly

bashing Democrats who argued that the U.S. should begin

developing a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces.

Republicans stood up on the Senate floor last week, one after

another, to chant like cultists from the Karl Rove playbook:

We're tough. You're not. Cut-and-run. Nyah-nyah-nyah!

``Withdrawal is not an option,'' declared the Senate

majority leader, Bill Frist, who sounded like an actor trying

on personas that ranged from Barry Goldwater to General

Patton. ``Surrender,'' said the bellicose Mr. Frist, ``is not

a solution.''

Any talk about bringing home the troops, in the Senate

majority leader's view, was ``dangerous, reckless and

shameless.''

But then on Sunday we learned that the president's own

point man in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, had fashioned the very

thing that ol' blood-and-guts Frist and his C-Span brigade

had ranted against: a withdrawal plan.

Are Karl Rove and his liege lord, the bait-and-switch king,

trying to have it both ways? You bet. And that ought to be a

crime, because there are real lives at stake.

The first significant cut under General Casey's plan,

according to an article by Michael Gordon in yesterday's

Times, would occur in September. That, of course, would be

perfect timing for Republicans campaigning for reelection in

November. How's that for a coincidence?

As Mr. Gordon wrote: ``If executed, the plan could have

considerable political significance. The first reductions

would take place before this fall's Congressional elections,

while even bigger cuts might come before the 2008

presidential election.''

The general's proposal does not call for a complete

withdrawal of American troops, and it makes clear that

any withdrawals are contingent on progress in the war

(which is going horribly at the moment) and improvements

in the quality of the fledgling Iraqi government and its

security forces.

The one thing you can be sure of is that the administration

will milk as much political advantage as it can from this

vague and open-ended proposal. If the election is looking

ugly for the G.O.P., a certain number of troops will find

themselves waking up stateside instead of in the desert in

September and October.

I wonder whether Americans will ever become fed up with the

loathsome politicking, the fear-mongering, the dissembling

and the gruesome incompetence of this crowd. From the Bush-

Rove perspective, General Casey's plan is not a serious

strategic proposal. It's a straw in the political wind.

How many casualties will be enough? More than 2,500

American troops who dutifully answered President Bush's call

to wage war in Iraq have already perished, and thousands more

are struggling in agony with bodies that have been torn or

blown apart and psyches that have been permanently wounded.

Has the war been worth their sacrifice?

How many still have to die before we reach a consensus that

we've overpaid for Mr. Bush's mad adventure? Will 5,000

American deaths be enough? Ten thousand?

The killing continued unabated last week. Iraq is a

sinkhole of destruction, and if Americans could see it close

up, the way we saw New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of

Katrina, they would be stupefied.

Americans need to understand that Mr. Bush's invasion of

Iraq was a strategic blunder of the highest magnitude. It has

resulted in mind-boggling levels of bloodshed, chaos and

misery in Iraq, and it certainly hasn't made the U.S. any

safer.

We've had enough clownish debates on the Senate floor and

elsewhere. We've had enough muscle-flexing in the White House

and on Capitol Hill by guys who ran and hid when they were

young and their country was at war. And it's time to stop

using generals and their forces under fire in the field for

cheap partisan political purposes.

The question that needs to be answered, honestly and

urgently (and without regard to partisan politics), is how

best to extricate overstretched American troops--some of them

serving their third or fourth tours--from the flaming

quicksand of an unwinnable war.