Rededicating Ourselves to Our Nation's Unfinished Work

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, 7 score and 12 years ago, another gentleman
from Illinois went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to dedicate the 4-
month-old, still unfinished Union cemetery at the site of one of the
bloodiest battles in American history. There he would give one of our
Nation's defining speeches. Amazingly, President Lincoln's address was
not even the main event of that day. Edward Everett, the former
president of Harvard, was the event's main speaker, spending 2 hours
lecturing about ancient Greece and how that society honored their
fallen soldiers.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

In the over 150 years since the Gettysburg Address, we have had our
struggles, but we have also had our successes.

We have suffered the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson,
but we also experienced the redemption of Brown v. Board of Education.
We allowed the women of this Nation to remain disenfranchised for more
than a century, but we also passed the 19th Amendment, which affirmed
women's right to vote.

We lived through the travesties of Jim Crow, but we also celebrated
the passage of the Civil Rights Act. We watched Truman's executive
action desegregate our military. We passed Don't Ask, Don't Tell--and
repealed it--and DOMA, but we also have witnessed the legalization of
same-sex marriage in 37 States and the District of Columbia.

All of these examples serve as reminders of the difficulties in
ensuring equality for all, but they also demonstrate a nation that has
responded to challenge and has been reborn. Each time, we have come a
little closer to living up to the ideal that all of us are created
equal.

To paraphrase Dr. King, the moral arc of our Nation may be long, but
as history shows us, it bends towards justice, equality, and freedom.

In times of dissonance, inequality, and injustice, great leaders like
Lincoln have reminded us of our Nation's true purpose: equality.

On Lincoln's birthday, let's rededicate ourselves to our Nation's
unfinished work. Let's ensure that women get equal pay for equal work.
Let's recognize all love as equal and extend marriage rights to all of
our citizens once and for all. Let's strengthen the Voting Rights Act
to guarantee that no one is disenfranchised and all Americans have
access to this fundamental right.

Let's finish the work the Senate started and pass a comprehensive
immigration reform bill. Let's pass the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act so that no American can be fired simply because of who they love or
who they are. Let's allow our neighbors and friends who put in a full
day's work, whether in the mailroom or the boardroom, to provide their
families with a living wage.

Lincoln modestly believed that ``no one would long remember'' his
address that day at Gettysburg, but we do remember and strive to honor
all those who have sacrificed and struggled--and continue to struggle--
for equality because we believe, as Dr. King spoke of on the steps of
Lincoln's own sacred memorial, ``that one day this Nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal.''

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source