(Hostess: Congressman Rohrabacker is a seventh term congressman from California. He is a member of the International Relations Committee, where he sits on the East Asian and Pacific sub committee, which handle issues of Chinese foreign policy. Please welcome Congressman Dana Rohrabacker.)

It's a pleasure for me to be here today and this is an important day because later on this afternoon we will be discussing permanent normal trade relations with Communist China on the floor of the House of Representatives. So this is an important day for you to be here to make your voices heard. But also to make sure that your spirit is felt.

You know the United States of America is a very special place in that there is not one religion that is the "American religion." There is not one race that's the "American race." We don't have one ethnic group or one location in the world where we all came from, but what American is all about and what the people who built this dome behind us and the first people who designed this flag that flies over our capital meant America to be, was a land where people could come from all over the world and not only just to seek a better life for themselves but to show the world that there is a better way, that there is a place where people can gather and stand for freedom and justice and liberty and treating people decently with kindness. That's what the American dream has been all about and today you are here to make sure that America stands true to that dream and I applaud you for your activism. Because it will take people like ourselves who are dedicated to that original dream and original foresight of our forefathers and mothers. It'll take us to be active in this generation to keep us true to those ideals. America's ideals have nothing to do with simply the freedom for a few billionaires to go overseas and use slave labor to make a quick buck. That's not what America is all about. America is about freedom and justice for all and standards of decency and honor that are for above countries like those that are controlled like the gangsters in Communist China now control that country.

We must send the word today, and together we can do that, that this America that we love so much still stands for justice and freedom. We can send that message, not just to the gangsters who run Mainland China, but also to the people of China who are our greatest allies in this struggle for democracy and freedom and we should never lose sight of that.

Thank you very much for making sure that America stands for those ideals that America is supposed to stand for. Together that spirit will give us strength to overwhelm the dictatorship of the world and overwhelm those people in our own country that claim that we can have normal trade relations and deal with tyrants just as we do with everyone else. Thank you very much. God bless you.

Posting date: 8/26/2001
Original article date: 8/25/2001
Category: Worldwide Support

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