--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Floor Statement of Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich: > The Supplemental for Hurricane Katrina > > > WASHINGTON - September 2 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) gave the > following speech today on the House floor during a special session to > provide relief money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina: ³This amount of > money is only a fraction of what is needed and everyone here knows it. Let > it go forward quickly with heart-felt thanks to those who are helping to > save lives with necessary food, water, shelter, medical care and security. > Congress must also demand accountability with the appropriations. Because > until there are basic changes in the direction of this government, this > tragedy will multiply to apocalyptic proportions. ³The Administration > yesterday said that no one anticipated the breach of the levees. Did the > Administration not see or care about the 2001 FEMA warning about the risk > of a devastating hurricane hitting the people of New Orleans? Did it not > know or care that civil and army engineers were warning for years about the > consequences of failure to strengthen the flood control system? Was it > aware or did it care that the very same Administration which decries the > plight of the people today, cut from the budget tens of millions needed for > Gulf-area flood control projects? ³Countless lives have been lost > throughout the South with a cost of hundreds of billions in ruined homes, > businesses, and the destruction of an entire physical and social > infrastructure. ³The President said an hour ago that the Gulf Coast looks > like it has been obliterated by a weapon. It has. Indifference is a weapon > of mass destruction. ³Our indifferent government is in a crisis of > legitimacy. If it continues to ignore its basic responsibility for the > health and welfare of the American people, will there ever be enough money > to clean up after their indifference? ³As our government continues to > squander human and monetary resources of this country on the war, people > are beginning to ask, ³Isn¹t it time we began to take care of our own > people here at home? Isn¹t it time we rescued our own citizens? Isn¹t it > time we fed our own people? Isn¹t it time we sheltered our own people? > Isn¹t it time we provided physical and economic security for our own > people?² And isn¹t it time we stopped the oil companies from profiting from > this tragedy? ³We have plenty of work to do here at home. It is time for > America to come home and take care of its own people who are drowning in > the streets, suffocating in attics, dying from exposure to the elements, > oppressed by poverty and illness, wracked with despair and hunger and > thirst. ³The time is NOW to bring back to the United States the 78,000 > National Guard troops currently deployed overseas into the Gulf Coast > region. ³The time is NOW to bring back to the US the equipment which will > be needed for search and rescue, for clean up and reclamation. ³The time > is NOW for federal resources, including closed Army bases, to be used for > temporary shelter for those who have been displaced by the hurricane. ³The > time is NOW to plan massive public works, with jobs going to the people of > the Gulf Coast states, to build new levees, new roads, bridges, libraries, > schools, colleges and universities and to rebuild all public institutions, > including hospitals. Medicare ought to be extended to everyone, so every > person can get the physical and mental health care they might need as a > result of the disaster. ³The time is NOW for the federal government to take > seriously the research of scientists who have warned for years about the > dangers of changes in the global climate, and to prepare other regions of > the country for other possible weather disasters until we change our > disastrous energy policies. ³The time is NOW for changes in our energy > policy, to end the domination of oil and fossil fuel and to invest heavily > in alternative energy, including wind and solar, geothermal and biofuels. > ³As bad as this catastrophe will prove to be, it is in fact only a warning. > Our government must change its direction, it must become involved in making > America a better place to live, a place where all may survive and thrive. > It must get off the path of war and seek the path of peace, peace with the > natural environment, peace with other nations, peace with a just economic > system.²
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