Congratulating Ivy Tech Community College

  Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Ivy Tech
Community College, which recently won three third-place awards in the
U.S. Department of Energy's Battery Workforce Challenge.
  This challenge is a 3-year collegiate engineering competition where
teams build an advanced battery pack for the commercial Ram ProMaster
EV program.
  All the students who competed progressed through technical milestones
that reflect the same trials that the energy industry faces. Throughout
the program, the students met demanding engineering standards without
compromising safety.
  I am so proud of these students at Ivy Tech who succeeded throughout
the competition and provided real results from their work.
  Our Nation needs innovative minds. The challenges we face are
difficult and complicated, and I am glad we have young Hoosiers who are
ready to tackle these issues head-on and showcase the incredible talent
we have in Indiana.
  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Ivy Tech on these well-deserved awards.

    CELEBRATING AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY: CONTRADICTION AND HOPE

  (Mr. Jackson of Illinois was recognized to address the House for 5
minutes.)
  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, my reflections on the Nation's
250th anniversary:
  Happy birthday, America.
  Mr. Speaker, 250 years ago, a remarkable experiment was launched upon
this continent. It announced to the world that liberty was a universal
birthright, that governments derived their authority from the consent
of the governed, and that human dignity deserved political expression.
It was a dream of uncommon brilliance.
  Yet on that very same day, another story marched beside it--a
nightmare of uncommon cruelty. Freedom and slavery entered history
together in an unholy matrimony.
  The Declaration proclaimed equality while hundreds of thousands
remained in chains. The promise was magnificent. The practice was
monstrous. The vision soared toward Heaven while the reality remained
anchored in human bondage.
  This is not merely the paradox of America's founding. It is the
permanent tension within the American story.
  Our Republic has always contained both contradiction and conviction,
hypocrisy and hope, exclusion and expansion, injustice and aspiration.
  Yet history teaches us something very profound. The greatness of
America has never been that it was born perfect. Its greatness has
rested upon its capacity to become better. Every generation has been
asked a single question: Will you enlarge the promise, or will you
shrink it?
  That question confronts us today, for what a nation chooses to
remember becomes its operating system. What it chooses to forget
becomes its character. Memory is not nostalgia. Memory is
infrastructure. It determines how a people think, how they govern, how
they educate their children, and how they understand their obligations
to one another.
  When a nation tells the whole truth about itself, it becomes
stronger. When

it edits its past for comfort, it weakens its future. History is not an
accusation. History is instructional. History is not about assigning
perpetual guilt. History is about cultivating perpetual wisdom. That is
why institutions devoted to preserving our collective memory matter so
profoundly.
  The National Museum of African American History and Culture is not
merely a building of bronze and stone. It is one of America's greatest
classrooms. It reminds us that the story of African Americans is not a
chapter added to America's history. It is one of the central texts from
which American history is written. African Americans in history make
American history whole.
  The labor of enslaved people helped build this Nation's wealth. They
built this building. The courage of abolitionists challenged its
conscience. The sacrifices of Black soldiers defended its flag. The
determination of teachers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, clergy,
laborers, and ordinary citizens expanded the meaning of democracy
itself. To diminish those stories is not simply to diminish African
Americans. It is to diminish America itself.
  Throughout our history, there have been recurring efforts to narrow
the Nation's memory. Certain voices have always argued that some
stories are too uncomfortable, some documents too inconvenient, and
some truths too disruptive.
  That pattern is not new. It appeared after Reconstruction. It
appeared during the long struggle against segregation. It also has
appeared whenever honest history threatened comfortable myths.
  When debates arise over museums, classrooms, archives, monuments,
historical interpretations, and books that are being banned in schools,
we should recognize them as part of a much longer American conversation
about who belongs within the Nation's narrative.
  The stakes extend far beyond any single institution. They concern
whether future generations inherit a history expansive enough to
include all who helped build this Republic. The answer should never be
fewer stories. The answer should always be fuller stories to tell the
whole truth, for memory is not a scarce resource. Truth is not
diminished by inclusion.
  Indeed, the opposite is true. Every time America has widened its
understanding of itself, it has become more faithful to its founding
ideals.
  Consider the long procession of those who enlarged the American
promise: those who challenged slavery, those who defended the Union,
those who fought for women's right to vote, those who demanded women's
suffrage, those who organized workers, those who secured civil rights,
those who expanded voting rights, those who insisted that democracy
belongs to every citizen rather than a privileged few.
  Each generation inherited an imperfect Nation. Each generation left
behind a better one. That is the true American tradition: not
perfection but progress, not complacency but correction, not silence
but an honest conversation, not fear but an abiding faith.
  At 250 years, America does not celebrate because every promise has
been fulfilled. America celebrates because generation after generation
refused to surrender those promises. The American story has always
advanced because citizens possessed enough patriotism to criticize
injustice and enough hope to repair it.
  Love of country has never required blindness. It has required
courage. It has required the truth to confront those things that are
uncomfortable, the courage to confess, the courage to correct, and the
courage to continue.
  Mr. Speaker, a happy 250th anniversary to our country. May God bless
the United States.

          HONORING THE LIVES OF JACOB HULL AND ROBERT JOHNSON

  (Mr. Gallagher of California was recognized to address the House for
5 minutes.)
  Mr. GALLAGHER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to two of my
constituents who tragically lost their lives in a senseless act of gun
violence at a public library in Chico, in the heart of my district.
  Libraries are places of learning and community, spaces where
families, children, and neighbors come together. Last week, that sense
of safety was shattered by unimaginable violence.
  I take this time to honor Jacob Hull and Robert Johnson and offer my
deepest condolences to the families, friends, and community who are
devastated and forever changed by this tragedy.
  Jacob, or ``Cody'' as he was known, had taken someone he cared for
deeply, a close friend's 8-year-old daughter, with him for a visit to
the library. He gave his life that day to protect hers by shielding her
from the attacker in an act of extraordinary courage and selflessness.
Because of his actions, she was able to escape, flee to safety, and
reunite with her family.
  Jacob Hull is a hero.
  Robert spent 30 years as a resident of Orland, California, where he
spent a career in the ag industry before retiring. He was beloved by
his family, who fondly referred to him as Uncle Robert.
  Robert found great joy in spending time at that Chico library, which
his family described as his favorite place in the world. It was a place
of comfort, of learning, and peace, where he could indulge in his
passion for reading. Reading was the passion that remained with him
throughout his life.
  Robert was a quiet strength.
  Both Robert and Jacob were beloved members of the greater Chico and
Butte County community, whose absence will be deeply felt, and it
leaves a void that cannot be replaced.
  Members of the Chico community have already banded together to raise
money in support of the devastated families of both victims. Two
memorial funds for Cody and Robert have been started by the North
Valley Community Foundation, and donations can be made on the North
Valley Community Foundation's website at www.nvcf.org.
 I also extend my gratitude to the librarians, the bystanders, and the
first responders who selflessly rushed to the scene to provide aid
during this horrific crime.