Reply #45: Letters From Constituents Concerning Iraq

[Algorem]

Letters From Constituents Concerning Iraq
House of Representatives - September 16, 2003


The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kline). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 165 years ago the U.S. House of Representatives passed a rule to ban discussion, debate, printing of any information or discussion of the issue of slavery. As a result, former President John Quincy Adams, who was elected to the House of Representatives after he was President, came to the House floor night after night, week after week, hoping to change the minds of people and debate the issue of slavery.

Adams, one of the Nation's leading abolitionists, one of the Nation's strongest believers in giant social justice, as a result, because he was prohibited from talking about slavery, came to the floor and read letters that he received from constituents in Massachusetts and constituents around the country. He believed that Congress should discuss slavery and debate slavery, so he allowed citizens to speak through him as the microphone, citizens through using these letters to speak directly to Congress, directly to the American people.

In a similar way, many in this Congress are unhappy that we are failing to investigate what our role in Iraq was. My friend from Texas (Mr. Paul), Republican from Texas, has joined with many of us in questioning and asking for an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, saying that we need to know more in order to deal with the problems at hand more, and as a result, I would like to read letters from petitioners from Ohio, from my District most of them, from all of Ohio, received from Ohio literally thousands of letters questioning, asking that Congress investigate, questioning what we are actually doing in Iraq...

http://sherrod.house.gov/issuesfairaqletters20030916.ht...