Celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the First Use of the Name "America"

Floor Speech

CELEBRATING THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST USE OF THE NAME "AMERICA''

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the first use of the name America, to describe areas in the Western Hemisphere. These areas are named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian Explorer on a quest to find new lands. He is one of many from that era who craved the exploration of new worlds and ideas. Although Vespucci's intention was to conquer land for Italy, he ultimately helped to create a place that today is one of the most diverse places on earth. Vespucci took a bold step, defying previous thinking that the land we live on was part of India.

Today we recognize the anniversary of Amerigo's discovery as a reminder of how important it is to challenge preconceived notions, and how critical it is that we keep exploring new ideas and sciences.

We are a people who live and breathe discovery. Our history holds many examples of our desire to explore. This country has gone to the Moon and intertwined computers into our everyday lives. We have created vaccines to help eradicate polio and other life threatening diseases. We use our ambition to explore, and as a means to be competitive in the world we live in.

Today we must continue to honor our historical drive for exploration. Unlike Vespucci's quest which was to only benefit a small subset of people, today we must give anyone the opportunity to be involved with the exploration and to partake in the benefits of our successes. Only about 6 percent of practicing physicians are Latino, African American and Native American today, and according to an analysis by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, the percentage of African Americans receiving bachelor's degrees in engineering is only 4.7 percent of all engineering graduates. Minorities and women are often left out of these fields. There is no reason for these discriminations. We should push all young people to discover science and mathematics and to understand there are jobs that interact with those fields. We especially need to push minorities and women who have not gotten those opportunities to achieve in those fields.

We have made progress since the last election in helping every young person to become involved with math and science. The house recently passed The 21st Century Competitiveness Act of 2007, which establishes, revises, and extends specified science, mathematics, education, engineering, technology, research, and training programs, however; we need to keep improving math and science education for young people. We should increase computer interaction in poverty stricken areas and increase young minority student's interactions with math and science at a younger age.

In the celebration of America and Amerigo Vespucci, let us pledge to continue our quest for exploration and discovery. Let us continue to take bold steps as he once did to move in a direction where we can use new technology and discoveries to improve the lives of millions not just those in positions of power, but for even the most underprivileged in our society.

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