- DWASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA)
today delivered the following statement on the floor of the United States
Senate addressing several social issues facing the country:
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- "The Old Testament prophet Amos was a sheep herder
who lived back in the Judean hills, away from the larger cities of Bethlehem
and Jerusalem. Compared to the intellectual urbanites like Isaiah and Jeremiah,
he was just an unsophisticated country hick.
-
- "But Amos had a unique grasp of political and social
issues and his poetic literary skill was among the best of all the prophets.
That familiar quote of Martin Luther King, Jr. about 'Justice will rush
down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream' are Amos's words.
-
- "Amos was the first to propose the concept of a
universal God and not just some tribal deity. He also wrote that God demanded
moral purity, not rituals and sacrifices. This blunt speaking moral conscience
of his time warns in Chapter 8, verse 11 of The Book of Amos, as if he
were speaking to us today:
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- That 'the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I
will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for
water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. 'And they shall wander from
sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and
fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.'
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- 'A famine in the land'. Has anyone more accurately described
the situation we face in America today? 'A famine of hearing the words
of the Lord.'
-
- "But some will say, Amos was just an Old Testament
prophet - a minor one at that - who lived 700 years before Christ. That
is true, so how about one of the most influential historians of modern
times?
-
- "Arnold Toynbee who wrote the acclaimed 12 volume
A Study of History, once declared, 'Of the 22 civilizations that have appeared
in history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the moral state America
is in today.'
-
- "Toynbee died in 1975, before seeing the worst that
was yet to come. Yes, Arnold Toynbee saw the famine. The 'famine of hearing
the words of the Lord.' Whether it is removing a display of the Ten Commandments
from a Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a city square. Whether it
is eliminating prayer in schools or eliminating 'under God' in the Pledge
of Allegiance. Whether it is making a mockery of the sacred institution
of marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the world
made-in-the-USA filth masquerading as entertainment.
-
- "The Culture of Far Left America was displayed in
a startling way during the Super Bowl's now infamous half-time show. A
show brought to us courtesy of Value-Les Moonves and the pagan temple of
Viacom-Babylon.
-
- "I asked the question yesterday, how many of you
have ever run over a skunk with your car? I have many times and I can tell
you, the stink stays around for a long time. You can take the car through
a car wash and it's still there. So the scent of this event will long linger
in the nostrils of America.
-
- "I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland
with a pull-tab attached to it. Really no one should have been too surprised
at that. Wouldn't one expect a bumping, humping, trashy routine entitled
'I'm going to get you naked' to end that way.
-
- "Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words
of this rap-crap? I'd quote you some of it, but the Sergeant of Arms would
throw me out of here, as well he should. And then there was that prancing,
dancing, strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because
he kept yelling and grabbing his crotch. But then, maybe there's a crotch
grabbing culture I'm unaware of.
-
- "But as bad as all this was, the thing that yanked
my chain the hardest was seeing that ignoramus with his pointed head stuck
up through a hole he had cut in the flag of the United States of America,
screaming about having 'a bottle of scotch and watching lots of crotch.'
Think about that.
-
- "This is the same flag that we pledge allegiance
to. This is the flag that is draped over coffins of dead young uniformed
warriors killed while protecting Kid Crock's bony butt. He should be tarred
and feathered, and ridden out of this country on a rail. Talk about a good
reality show, there's one for you.
-
- "The desire and will of this Congress to meaningfully
do anything about any of these so-called social issues is non existent
and embarrassingly disgraceful. The American people are waiting and growing
impatient with us. They want something done.
-
- "I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26
along with Senator Allard and others, proposing an amendment to the Constitution
of the United States relating to marriage. And S.1558, the Liberties Restoration
Act, which declares religious liberty rights in several ways, including
the Pledge of Allegiance and the display of the Ten Commandments. And today
I join Senator Shelby and others with the Constitution Restoration Act
of 2004 that limits the jurisdiction of federal courts in certain ways.
-
- "In doing so, I stand shoulder to shoulder not only
with my Senate co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama but,
more importantly, with our Founding Fathers in the conception of religious
liberty and the terribly wrong direction our modern judiciary has taken
us in.
-
- "Everyone today seems to think that the U.S. Constitution
expressly provides for separation of church and state. Ask any ten people
if that's not so. And I'll bet you most of them will say 'Well, sure.'
And some will point out, 'it's in the First Amendment.'
-
- "Wrong! Read it! It says, 'Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.' Where is the word 'separate'? Where are the words 'church' or
'state.'
-
- "They are not there. Never have been. Never intended
to be. Read the Congressional Records during that four-month period in
1789 when the amendment was being framed in Congress. Clearly their intent
was to prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether
it was Anglican or Catholic or some other.
-
- "I highly recommend a great book entitled Original
Intent by David Barton. It really gets into how the actual members of Congress,
who drafted the First Amendment, expected basic Biblical principles and
values to be present throughout public life and society, not separate from
it.
-
- "It was Alexander Hamilton who pointed out that
'judges should be bound down by strict rules and precedents, which serve
to define and point out their duty' Bound down! That is exactly what is
needed to be done. There was not a single precedent cited when school prayer
was struck down in 1962.
-
- "These judges who legislate instead of adjudicate,
do it without being responsible to one single solitary voter for their
actions. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence was a brilliant
young physician from Pennsylvania named Benjamin Rush.
-
- "When Rush was elected to that First Continental
Congress, his close friend Benjamin Franklin told him 'We need you. . .
we have a great task before us, assigned to us by Providence.' Today, 228
years later there is still a great task before us assigned to us by Providence.
Our Founding Fathers did not shirk their duty and we can do no less.
-
- "By the way, Benjamin Rush was once asked a question
that has long interested this Senator from Georgia in particular. Dr. Rush
was asked, are you a democrat or an aristocrat? And the good doctor answered,
'I am neither'. 'I am a Christocrat. I believe He, alone, who created and
redeemed man is qualified to govern him.' That reply of Benjamin Rush is
just as true today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was in the year of
our Lord 1776.
-
- "So, if I am asked why - with all the pressing problems
this nation faces today - why am I pushing these social issues and taking
the Senate's valuable time? I will answer: Because, it is of the highest
importance. Yes, there's a deficit to be concerned about in this country,
a deficit of decency.
-
- "So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at
warp speed - and with my time running out in this Senate and on this earth,
I feel compelled to speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this,
silence is not golden. It is yellow."
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- If you would like to send the Senator a "thank you"
and let him know how much you appreciate his boldness in addressing this
important issue on the Senate floor - here are ways to contact him:
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- Senator Zell Miller 257 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
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- Phone: (202) 224-3643 Fax: (202) 228-2090
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- Web site miller.senate.gov To email, go to his web site
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