Our Destinies Are Tied

Floor Speech

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Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the traumatic loss of life around the world and to reaffirm a simple truth: Our destinies are tied.

Too often, in moments of crisis, we are bombarded with abstract numbers and detached headlines describing casualties and missiles, but behind every number is a name. Behind every headline is a story: a story of a little girl whispering prayers beneath her blanket hoping the night sky stays quiet or a story of a father digging through rubble, his hands bloodied, desperately searching for his wife and child.

Nations are not just governments and regimes. They are people. They are mothers, sons, teachers, taxi drivers, people whose stories echo our own because they are us. No matter where someone is born or what language they speak, our grief over losing a loved one is the same.

We are bound together by that shared humanity, so we must be relentless in our commitment to peace: peace rooted in diplomacy, peace that is sustained with dialogue, and peace that insists, without exception, that every single life matters.

From Boston to the Middle East, our destinies are tied, and everyone deserves to live free from fear and know peace.

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