BLACK LIVES MATTER; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 100
(House of Representatives - May 28, 2020)

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[Page H2325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BLACK LIVES MATTER

  (Mr. KENNEDY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain 
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness.''
  Tell me, where was the right to life for Breonna Taylor, who was 
killed in her own bed by police and her boyfriend arrested for trying 
to protect her?
  Where is the liberty for Ahmaud Arbery, killed for going for a jog, 
or Eric Garner, killed while begging for his breath, or George Floyd, 
killed while under the knee of an officer uttering those same words, 
``I can't breathe''?
  Where is the pursuit of happiness for Christian Cooper, who couldn't 
go bird watching without having the cops called on him?
  Where is the equality in a nation where we proclaim that Black lives 
matter, yet we see our own neighbors' humanity stolen and still fail to 
provide justice?
  250 years after our Nation wrote those words, those rights are not 
unalienable. If you are Black in America today, they do not exist.
  All of us, any of us--with power and privilege--are accountable. We 
owe them better.

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