December 12, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 199 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages H10236-H10237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            AND STILL I RISE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, with love of 
country at heart and my mnemonic notes in hand.
  I rise today, Mr. Speaker, remembering something from my childhood. 
My grandfather was a minister, and he reminded the grandchildren that 
there is no one so blind as he who chooses not to see. 20/20 vision, 
but the person who chooses not to see is the blindest of all. No one is 
so blind as those who choose not to see.
  I bring this to the attention of those who are listening for a 
specific reason. I cannot impose understanding. I cannot cause people 
to say that they understand that which they already understand but 
choose not to acknowledge.
  What I can do is this: I can encourage us to open our eyes and see 
what is happening to our country, the country that I assume we all 
love. I encourage us to see what is happening to public discourse, to 
pay attention to things that are happening in the public arena that are 
greatly different than the things we have been acclimated to.
  Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that we should have, in our public 
discourse, the Chief Executive Officer saying things that we don't want 
our children to repeat. The Chief Executive Officer is to be a leader 
in many ways.
  We tell our children: One day you can grow up and be the Chief 
Executive Officer. You can be the head of state. And we want people to 
look up to the Chief Executive Officer, to the head of state.

                              {time}  1600

  I don't think most of us would have our children go to a public rally 
and engage in some of the discourse that we have seen, some of the 
scatology, the profanity that seems to become a part of this discourse 
and is almost commonplace now from the Chief Executive Officer.
  My dear friends, there is something happening to us. While it may not 
occur all in 1 day, over a period of time, it can become commonplace.
  Have you not noticed how on the various talk shows people are using a 
level of discourse that we would find unacceptable, that I find 
unacceptable, that was not commonplace some years ago, not so very long 
ago? I am hearing more profanity being used.
  I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant. I am not a perfect 
person. I don't claim to be perfect. But I can say to you that I want 
to live in a country where children are proud to grow up and say they 
want to be like that person who happens to be the Chief Executive 
Officer.
  At some point, something has to say to us that something is going on 
here that is unacceptable. When you weaponize hate so that you can have 
an advantage, there is something wrong. We ought not weaponize hate and 
bigotry to gain an advantage. We ought not try to, with intentionality, 
create ashes on the dreams of others, turn them into ashes so that we 
can fulfill some desire. We ought not, with intentionality, say things 
that we know are not true that can be harmful to others.
  I am not a perfect servant, but I see something happening to my 
country, and I beg that we open our eyes and look at this for what it 
is. The level of hate is increasing. The level of harm being done to 
people by others that they don't know who will traverse great distances 
just to hurt them because they happen to be of a certain ancestry, who 
go into a certain neighborhood to hurt people because they happen to be 
of a certain religion, we are seeing more of this level of hate.
  I say to you that we must open our eyes and see what is happening to 
our country. There is a desire to believe that this is just something 
that we can laugh at, that it is just amusing. This discourse that we 
see when the Chief Executive Officer has throngs of people around him 
making light of things that at one time we would not tolerate.
  There is something wrong when you start to tolerate this. Those who 
tolerate hate perpetuate hate. We are going to be a part of the reason 
why this continues to grow, to propagate, to infect our society.
  We can do something about this. We should not allow this level of 
discourse to continue.
  By the way, the something that we can do about it is not allow it to 
be something that we accept. We don't have to do anything more, for 
some of us, than change the channel. Maybe that will send a message, 
when they don't get good ratings. Or don't attend events where these 
kinds of things are taking place. We don't have to make this something 
that is acceptable to any one of us.

[[Page H10237]]

  I mention all of these things because I know that this level of ugly 
discourse is going to be something that we are going to have to live 
with for a lot longer than we choose, unless we choose to do something 
about it.
  I ask of you just to pay attention to what is happening to our 
society. Pay attention to the words that are being said and the way 
people are being demeaned by the Chief Executive Officer, who sets the 
standard, who is a standard-bearer. Pay attention to what is going on.
  I beg that, please, let's open our eyes and see how a single person 
is corrupting the discourse, not only, by the way, at rallies and among 
those who are on talk shows but also here in the Congress of the United 
States of America.
  I arrived here in 2005. Since then, the discourse in Congress has 
changed to the extent that people are saying things that I thought we 
would never hear in the Congress in terms of scatology, profanity, 
demeaning commentary.
  Now, I am not saying don't speak truth. Speak truth. But what I am 
saying is what we are saying to hurt people just to be harmful, to let 
people somehow be demeaned just to demean people, I find that 
unacceptable.
  I just beg that we would not be so blind as those who choose not to 
see. I think that society is not lost overnight, but the genesis of the 
loss is discourse, public discourse that degenerates to the extent that 
the humanity of every person is lessened, where people at some point 
conclude: Those people, they don't belong. Those people, they don't 
count.
  Every human being means something and counts. We ought not allow 
ourselves to allow things to happen to babies in cages. We ought not 
allow ourselves to conclude that certain religions are unacceptable. 
What can happen to one religion can happen to any religion. Every child 
is precious. We ought to respect the humanity of every person and 
accord a certain amount of decency to all people. I cannot believe some 
of the things that we are now tolerating.
  There was a time in this country when we would not tolerate having a 
person acknowledge that, among racists and bigots, there were some very 
fine people or nice people. There was a time when we wouldn't tolerate 
that, but we do now. There was a time when certain tropes that are 
being used and propagated, we wouldn't tolerate it, but we do now.
  My comment to America, to our country, and to the people who care is, 
at some point, this level of hate is going to become a bigger problem 
than we care to deal with, unless we deal with it now. We should. We 
should deal with it. We cannot allow it to become something that future 
generations will have to contend with. It is easy to believe that this 
is a temporary condition until it is no longer a temporary condition.
  ``Irreparable harm'' is a term that we use in law. At some point, 
this becomes irreparable harm. At some point, there are some people who 
will suffer to the extent that they can't recover.
  I know of people in the Latino community who live with a great degree 
of apprehension. People born in this country, Americans, live with a 
great degree of apprehension because of what happened in El Paso.

  I know of people who are of a certain faith, citizens of this 
country, who live with apprehension because of what happened in 
Charlottesville.
  We ought not allow the discourse, this incitive discourse, to create 
circumstances where people are harmed. We are seeing it happen, but I 
think that some of us choose not to see the harmful impact that it is 
having on our society.
  My message is very simple today. I beg, let's take a look, just open 
our eyes and let's look at what is happening to our country. If we can 
do this, we can change this.
  This ought not be the case in the greatest country in the world. 
There is no one so blind as he who chooses not to see. I hope that 
understanding will prevail and that we will decide that we will not 
tolerate the level of hateful discourse that we are suffering and that 
many people suffer from because there are other persons who hurt them 
after being exposed to this incitive discourse, this incendiary 
language, this weaponization of hate. People are hurting.
  I don't say these things because I want to make sure I personally am 
protected. I come to this podium to bring these words and this message 
because I know of the suffering in various communities.
  Those who are suffering from anti-Semitism, I know about it. Those 
who are suffering from racism, I know. Those who are suffering from the 
various insidious forms of hate related to who you happen to be, I know 
about it. The homophobia, the Islamophobia, the xenophobia, all of the 
various phobias that are harmful to people, I know.
  I have constituents, and I know that they expect me to do this. They 
expect someone to say that people are quietly suffering. They expect us 
to do this. They send us to Congress to do this. We ought not tolerate 
this level of hate because we perpetuate it, and we ought to do 
something about it.
  In the beginning was the word. This is the word. I am talking about 
it now. But there is much more that we can do, and I pray that we will 
become, each of us, a committee of one to do something about the hate 
that is being perpetrated among people in this country that is causing 
harm to other people in this country.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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