Date: 2010-01-13
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. I thank the gentleman for the time and I thank him for bringing this bill to the floor. And I thank the gentlemen on the other side of the aisle for their support of this bill. Madam Speaker. I rise as one who was part of the bipartisan coalition who established in this Chamber the Martin Luther King holiday some two and a half decades ago. That was a glorious day here. and it was a day in which we acted for the right reasons. Martin Luther King. Jr. was born January 15. 1929. Perhaps it is fitting that Dr. King was born in that year. for while the great Crash of 1929 would shake the economic and financial fundamentals of our country and our society. Dr. Kings life and work would just as dramatically shake this Nation into reconfirming our commitments to our moral and constitutional foundations. Madam Speaker. in honor of Dr. King. we do not have the time to recount the entire complex history of civil rights in this country. but Dr. King knew and appreciated the shoulders upon which he stood. Slavery was our founding fault. and segregation our enduring national stain. Dr. King knew these truths in his soul. and knew many we could discuss today that fought their struggles for civil rights and laid the groundwork for Dr. Kings life work. The gentleman from Georgia is one of those people. We have individuals like Harriet Tubman. Frederick Douglas. the African Americans who so nobly. heroically. and tragically served in Congress after the Civil War. Booker T. Washington. the early founders of the NAACP. Emmett Till. Medgar Evers. the tirelessly persistent. transportationless souls in Montgomery. the brave individuals in Birmingham. Alabama and Philadelphia. Mississippi. those who tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. and many. many more. We think of those 180.000 African Americans who served and fought for this country during the Civil War. those who fought bravely against the suffering. the unspeakable lynchings. the violence. the de facto and de jure segregation and the enforced callousness and ruthlessness of being secondclass citizens in a Nation founded upon liberty. Many could have been bitter. Those who succeeded were not bitter. but they called us to our better spirits. Martin Luther King. Jr. stood on these precedents. rightly admonishing us to look to their example. and we should all take pride in their and his commitment to equality and to civil rights. Madam Speaker. Dr. Kings letter from a Birmingham jail is one of the finest articulations of the moral prerequisites of the rule of law and its fundamental necessity to our legal. political. and societal foundations ever written. When I talk to school children. oftentimes I tell them to take a look at that letter. When you realize that letter was written without any access to books at the time. that he wrote under very difficult circumstances in a sparse jail cell. you appreciate even more the wisdom and the grace of the language that Dr. King used. His articulation of natural rights guided by natural law. of just and unjust laws. and of the objective and nonarbitrary basis for the rule of law. just government. and moral order is. in my judgment. without comparison. So as we call. in this resolution. people of this Nation. particularly young people. to dedicate a portion of that day to service to their country. let us remember the vision of Dr. King as he understood the true basis for laws in this country. When asked by some of the other ministers in Birmingham why he would interfere. he basically answered that it was his obligation to stand up against injustice. He said that he was a man of the law. but we were called to follow just laws. not unjust laws. He answered the question as to the difference between the two. And he. in my judgment. made a very. very specific reference to natural law in which he said that there are those laws which violate the laws of God. that we know them to be unjust. and therefore we must work against them. I also remember in that letter he said to these ministers. who were similarly Christian ministers. when they accused him of being an outside agitator. and I can only paraphrase his words. but he said words to this effect: He said. What was Christ but an outside agitator for love? What was Christ but someone who attempted to seek justice? And are not we called upon to do the same thing? So as we. in this resolution. call upon young people and others of this country to commit some time in the service of others. let them understand that Dr. Kings appeal went deeper than just serving another. it was serving another for the right reason. it was for fighting for justice. not only in your community. but anywhere that you saw injustice. There are few heroes in any lifetime that you have. but certainly. for those of us old enough to have been alive during Dr. Kings lifetime. even though we may not have marched with him. we were honored to be part of a generation that saw his life and his commitment and his call to justice and truth and. fundamentally. to a full application of the Constitution of the United States and the foundations upon which this country is based. I thank you for the time.