The Congressional Black Caucus Hour
Floor Speech
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Mr. ELLISON. Let me just say that I just want to tell a story. You know, I was home this weekend, and I was walking along one of the trails that we have in Minneapolis. You know, we've got a lot of parks in Minneapolis. It was cold, and I wanted to get my legs stretched from working so hard last week, so I was walking a long one of our many trails. And I decided to sit down at a park bench, and it looked like a pretty old-looking park bench. You could tell the rust was there.
And when I sat down I noticed that it was sturdy. And we sat there talking to a few friends. But when I got up to leave, I noticed that there was a little plaque about the size of this phone, and it said on it, WPA, 1934. For 75 years that park bench had been sitting there. For 75 years, that thing has been giving comfort to people who are just walking by. But 75 years ago we had a job crisis then. And our country, our Congress, responded to the needs of unemployed Americans.
We need to respond to the needs of Americans today as people are putting pressure on food shelves, as people don't have money for heat, for lights, as folks who had two and three jobs that were part time now have lost them; now they have no lifeline. We've got to respond to a generation of Americans looking for work today. And where there's extra hurt, there needs to be extra help.
And that means that the Congressional Black Caucus--and other caucuses as well--are focusing on a targeted-jobs bill calling for jobs now, calling attention to an appalling condition where people are unemployed at rates of 25, 30 percent in some communities.
I just want to ask the gentlelady--and I'll ask any of my colleagues. I like the dialogue. I'm not going to give a 20-minute speech.
I will ask the gentlelady, what have you heard as you were standing in the grocery store line? What have you heard when you were walking around your parks in places like Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Ohio, Cleveland? What have you heard? What have you gone through? And what are your folks telling you? Don't give me a bunch of stats. Tell me what your people are feeling. I'd like to know that.
I yield back to the gentlelady.
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