[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 66 (Thursday, April 20, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1904-H1906] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-20
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. GREEN : and still I rise. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, with a departure from my message that I fully intended to give, one that I believe to be exceedingly important. I rise today to deviate from my message because of circumstances that occurred in the course of events here at the House of Representatives. Today, Mr. Speaker, we had a Holocaust remembrance take place. It is a memorial, if you will, a very special occasion that requires solemnity and commemoration; a commemoration for the victims of the Holocaust. We were fortunate enough to have this opportunity to hear from victims of the Holocaust; survivors, if you will. If you are a survivor, and a relative was lost, in my world, that makes you a victim too. Maybe all wouldn't agree with me. This event took place in the Capitol Visitor Center, right in the area where the Statue of Freedom is. An appropriate place for it, I might add. It was an event that I had been looking forward to because I had not attended this event in the years that have passed since I have been in Congress. I was looking forward to this for a multiplicity of reasons. I was there at the event. The event started with the usual things that events will start with; music, bringing in persons who are to be recognized and commemorated. The persons who are the survivors came in, a good many of them. The number I could not count because I came in as they were moving in, as well. There were Members of Congress present. I wasn't the only one. We were there. As the ceremony proceeded, we had a vote, and I had to leave. I am the grandson of a preacher. I was taught that there are some things that you don't do under certain circumstances. In my church, you could not move when we arrived at a special portion ofthe proceedings. When my grandfather was giving his message, there was no movement. So this is something that is a part of my DNA, to remain where you are. I had to make a decision. There was a vote on, and it was something of importance. All votes are important, by the way, all are, but this was something of importance to a good many of my constituents. I had to make a decision. Would I stay and honor the tradition that my grandfather instilled in me, or would I leave, walk out of the ceremony as it was taking place? I want to apologize to the persons who were hosting this event. I want to apologize to the survivors who were present because I did walk out, and I did come, and I did cast my vote. I would hope that ceremonies such as this would be recognized by us, we, the Members of this great body, the House of Representatives. I would hope that they would be recognized to the extent that we could organize our much needed, much appreciated by our constituents, those votes that we cast. I just believe that there is a way to have a Holocaust remembrance ceremony and not have votes at the very same time. I believe we can do it. I went back to the ceremony after my first vote. I want to explain why I think it is so important to do this because as I sat there and we went through the ceremony, we had one speaker to give us a recitation about the Holocaust itself.  The thing that stands out in my mind were the words silence being at the root cause of Nazi Germany being able to proceed. Silence when people knew, knew what was going on, intelligence was accorded to various countries, we knew, but the silence. Nobody stood up. The silence. Sometimes silence can be perceived as consent. The silence. I will forever remember the words silence being at the root. Here is what silence did. I made a note. I often take notes. The SS St. Louis was a ship with some 900 Jewish refugees; 900. They left Europe. They were fleeing Germany. They were headed to Cuba, assuming that 900 people, some 900, could find a place of safety. Women, children; this was not an army. These were people who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Cuba would not accept them; turned away. This is what silence does. When you know something is wrong, and you will sit, stand, continue with your daily lives knowing that an atrocity is taking place, and not only are you silent, but those that you could extend the hand of friendship, you reject. Some 900 people. They didn't stop there. The SS St. Louis, I am ashamed and embarrassed to say, took them to our coast. Rejected by us. Silence can lead to unspeakable atrocities. Silence when one can speak up and should speak up, when one can make a difference, can cause great harm to manifest itself, but it also does this. When you know and you are silent, and you have people who are reaching out and begging for help and you reject them, that in and of itself--that in and of itself is a means by which your silence and your failure to extend the hand of friendship becomes a part of the perpetuation of a problem, and this was more than a problem. They didn't stop here. They went on to Canada. Rejected. Now, these were innocent people, fleeing Nazi Germany, rejected by Cuba, turned away at the United States, not allowed to proceed to Canada, back across the ocean where hundreds died. This is what the Holocaust perpetrated upon humanity; a sense that if you just keep your mouth shut and stay in your place, things will go away eventually. I am not sure that is what people were thinking, but the optics would connote that this was possible. This was possibly what their thoughts were. So I sat there. By the way, I confess. I and persons next to me and behind me we were all sobbing as we listened to what was happening; their story. All of us, tears welling in our eyes, rolling down our faces, and then, of course, we had another vote. I came back to cast my vote because I represent people who expect me to be here to vote, so I came back to cast my vote. I don't have a perfect voting record. I have missed votes. I came back to cast my vote, and I went back. When I went back, we were shown pictures that were in the hands of Holocaust survivors, these persons who were there today to share their stories. I have pictures. They had in each of our seats pictures of people. These are some of the people that were given to us in some way associated with the Holocaust. Here is a baby. I assume that is his mother and father. The names are given here, but they don't indicate exactly who they are here. There is another young man. It looks like a family.  {time}  1230  Along with the pictures that were given to us, this survivor had pictures of relatives, and they told their stories. In one photograph, one person said: ``This is a picture of my mother and my father.'' Please forgive me if I don't get it entirely correct. I was there, but it was tough just being there. Mother, father, and she said: ``My brother was in the stroller.'' I am standing over here and each one told us how the family or some family member was taken away, how they suffered the ultimate horror of the Holocaust. I cannot tell you how moved I was because some things are inexplicable. There are no words. Someone would ask: Well, Al Green, are you a Jew? No, I am not. But I am a human being. I am a human being. The suffering of any one of us is suffering that every one of us ought to abhor. We ought not allow suffering to take place and not want to do something about it. We cannot be silent in the face of suffering. This is why I came to this floor just a few days ago to speak on the subject of young people, at least one of whom was killed under circumstances that make no sense. It makes no sense for a person to be killed who pulls into a driveway of another person's home or property. That makes no sense. It makes no sense for a person to ring a doorbell and be shot, miraculously surviving, but shot, not once but twice, ringing a doorbell at the wrong address in the wrong driveway. It makes no sense for cheerleaders, the innocence of youth, to simply get in the wrong car and someone ends up in the emergency room at the hospital. It makes no sense. Who among us can say that you have never made such a mistake? There may be some, but a good many of us have. When we made that mistake, we were able to walk away. I did. I have done similar things. I was able to walk away. These people were shot. One is no longer with us. Ringing a doorbell, getting shot; pulling up into the wrong driveway, mistakenly getting into the wrong vehicle, and shot. I ask this question quite regularly: What is wrong with us? What is wrong with us? We should be in mourning. The country should be in mourning, just for these folks. The unfortunate circumstance is, we know that it will happen again and again and again. As a result of our knowing, because we have seen the past and we have already prognosticated that what has happened would likely happen, so we believe it will happen later, and we now have normalized this kind of behavior, literally. It has become something that is anticipated. When we watch the news now, we are waiting for the next edition. What is wrong with us? We didn't learn the lessons of Nazi Germany and what silence does when wrong is being perpetrated? We saw what can happen when wrong is perpetrated and lives are lost senselessly and needlessly. Now, I am not comparing what happened here to what happened in Nazi Germany. It is totally different, but the silence isn't. The silence is not. The fact that this House, the place where we can make a difference, officially, we have done nothing to make that difference. Silence. I refuse to be silent. I refuse to be silent when these kinds of atrocities are taking place in this country. Yes, one of them was Black, but this is not about his color; it is about his life. Yes,there were females, but it is not about their sex; it is about their lives. There was one that was just eviscerated, all of their future gone. Who knows what she would have done had she had the opportunity? I won't be silent. I refuse to let the world believe that I, in any way, would stand for allowing the kind of lethality that we have across the length and breadth of this country to be there without some degree of regulations. What is wrong with us? Do we believe that this level of lethality is going to somehow cure itself? That seems to be the argument. The answer to people who shouldn't have guns, who are doing these ugly things, the answer is, let's everybody get a gun. That is not the answer. For fear that someone did not clearly understand what I just said, I will say it again: It is not the answer. More guns will not solve the problem of these people who have been hurt and some died. That is not the solution. Allowing the NRA to bring legislation forth, among others, which would grant the gun manufacturers immunity from prosecution, civil prosecution, can't be. The gun manufacturers can with impunity place this lethality in the public domain. Immune. The Congress of the United States of America granted immunity to the purveyors of this lethality. What is wrong with us? To say now that we are moving toward a world where you can buy a gun, all you need is money. That is where we are headed. If you can afford it, you will be able to buy it. That is where many would have us go. I am not one of them, obviously. They don't want a background check. As long as you got the money, you got a deal. There is no desire to get some sense of who this person is that will walk away with the lethality that can take a person's life in a second, instantly. Now, I am not saying that the persons who had those guns in all these other circumstances, I don't know how they acquired them, so this is not about them, specifically. It is about us and this House, and where are we going and why are we silent and why are we allowing this to happen, to be able to purchase lethality without a background check and to be able to purchase lethality that belongs in some distant war-- hopefully, never one here, hopefully never one any place. Never. I am antithetical to war. But this level of lethality for people who engage in mortal combat, we would allow this to be among the people without any kind of background check? What is wrong with us? I assure you--and I need not do so--but when I spoke on this initially on the floor a couple of days ago now, I believe it was, I said: ``It can happen to your child or you.'' It really can. None of us are safe. Yes, you can pack, you can carry your weapon, but you are not safe. If you think having a bigger weapon is going to cause you to be safe, you are just wrong because that means that this level of lethality is out there and in the hands of people without background checks, without red flag laws to signal that somebody shouldn't have something with this level of death and destruction associated with it. These are instrumentalities that produce deadly force. I will not be silent. I am not silent because I just realized that it doesn't end with one person. The siloing of this in our minds is a mistake. There is connectivity, so I won't be silent. I am always going to speak up. I am always going to speak out. I do so not because I am Black, and a Black person was shot. I do so not because I have Jewish friends and I am not Jewish. I do so because it is humanity that we have to protect, and we ought to live up to our Pledge of Allegiance: liberty and justice for all. There was no liberty and justice for all for those folks who were in that driveway; for those cheerleaders who were there when one of them got into the wrong car. No liberty and justice for all for that young man who rang the doorbell at the wrong house. Liberty and justice for all. That is our promise in the Pledge of Allegiance. I want us to live up to our promise and let us not be silent on the great issues of our time. Let's not schedule events that merit the degree of solemnity and commemoration that Holocaust Remembrance Day so richly deserves. Let's not schedule votes when these events are taking place.  {time}  1245  Let's not do that. Someone would say, well, you know, you are going to make people angry with you for coming to the floor with this. Friends, we all have to suffer slings and arrows when we are right. This is a righteous position, and sometimes you have to stand alone. I have found it is better to stand alone than not stand at all. I beg that next year, when we have Holocaust Remembrance, and it will happen again next year, that we respect the solemnity and the need to commemorate those lives that were lost by at least scheduling such that there is no conflict and there are no votes. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.