I've a hard time connecting MTV's Superbowl half-time lyrics and audiovisual aids with anything on this blog. And I did swear off blogging politics, but this is an exception well worth the read.
It's about time someone (in this case a Democrat senator from Georgia) said something, in no uncertain terms, about the DEFICIT OF DECENCY in America.
"So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at warp speed - and with my
time running out in this Senate and on this earth, I feel compelled to
speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is not
golden. It is yellow."
You can also download the video version.
Read on, if you can't access the links above. ...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Miller Delivers Floor Speech on 'Deficit of Decency' in America
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) today delivered the following statement on the floor of the United States Senate addressing several social issues facing the country:
"The Old Testament prophet Amos was a sheep herder who lived back in the
Judean hills, away from the larger cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Compared to the intellectual urbanites like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he was
just an unsophisticated country hick.
"But Amos had a unique grasp of political and social issues and his poetic
literary skill was among the best of all the prophets. That familiar
quote of Martin Luther King, Jr. about 'Justice will rush down like
waters and righteousness like a mighty stream' are Amos's words.
"Amos was the first to propose the concept of a universal God and not just
some tribal deity. He also wrote that God demanded moral purity, not
rituals and sacrifices. This blunt speaking moral conscience of his time
warns in Chapter 8, verse 11 of The Book of Amos, as if he were speaking
to us today:
That 'the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine
in the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the word of the Lord. 'And they shall wander from sea to sea,
and from the north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek
the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.'
'A famine in the land'. Has anyone more accurately described the situation
we face in America today? 'A famine of hearing the words of the Lord.'
"But some will say, Amos was just an Old Testament prophet - a minor one
at that - who lived 700 years before Christ. That is true, so how about
one of the most influential historians of modern times?
"Arnold Toynbee who wrote the acclaimed 12 volume A Study of History, once
declared, 'Of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of
them collapsed when they reached the moral state America is in today.'
"Toynbee died in 1975, before seeing the worst that was yet to come. Yes,
Arnold Toynbee saw the famine. The 'famine of hearing the words of the
Lord.' Whether it is removing a display of the Ten Commandments from a
Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a city square. Whether it is
eliminating prayer in schools or eliminating 'under God' in the Pledge of
Allegiance. Whether it is making a mockery of the sacred institution of
marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the world
made-in-the-USA filth masquerading as entertainment.
"The Culture of Far Left America was displayed in a startling way during
the Super Bowl's now infamous half-time show. A show brought to us
courtesy of Value-Les Moonves and the pagan temple of Viacom-Babylon.
"I asked the question yesterday, how many of you have ever run over a
skunk with your car? I have many times and I can tell you, the stink
stays around for a long time. You can take the car through a car wash and
it's still there. So the scent of this event will long linger in the nostrils of
America.
"I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab
attached to it. Really no one should have been too surprised at that.
Wouldn't one expect a bumping, humping, trashy routine entitled 'I'm
going to get you naked' to end that way.
"Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap?
I'd quote you some of it, but the Sergeant of Arms would throw me out of
here, as well he should. And then there was that prancing, dancing,
strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because he kept
yelling and grabbing his crotch. But then, maybe there's a crotch-
grabbing culture I'm unaware of.
"But as bad as all this was, the thing that yanked my chain the hardest
was seeing that ignoramus with his pointed head stuck up through a hole
he had cut in the flag of the United States of America, screaming about
having 'a bottle of scotch and watching lots of crotch.' Think about
that.
"This is the same flag that we pledge allegiance to. This is the flag that
is draped over coffins of dead young uniformed warriors killed while
protecting Kid Crock's bony butt. He should be tarred and feathered, and
ridden out of this country on a rail. Talk about a good reality show,
there's one for you.
"The desire and will of this Congress to meaningfully do anything about
any of these so-called social issues is non existent and embarrassingly
disgraceful. The American people are waiting and growing impatient with
us. They want something done.
"I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along with Senator Allard
and others, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United
States relating to marriage. And S.1558, the Liberties Restoration Act,
which declares religious liberty rights in several ways, including the
Pledge of Allegiance and the display of the Ten Commandments.
And today I join Senator Shelby and others with the Constitution
Restoration Act of 2004 that limits the jurisdiction of federal courts
in certain ways.
"In doing so, I stand shoulder to shoulder not only with my Senate
co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore of Alabama but, more importantly,
with our Founding Fathers in the conception of religious liberty and the
terribly wrong direction our modern judiciary has taken us in.
"Everyone today seems to think that the U.S. Constitution expressly
provides for separation of church and state. Ask any ten people if that's
not so. And I'll bet you most of them will say 'Well, sure.' And some
will point out, 'it's in the First Amendment.'
"Wrong! Read it! It says, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Where
is the word 'separate'? Where are the words 'church' or 'state.'
"They are not there. Never have been. Never intended to be. Read the
Congressional Records during that four-month period in 1789 when the
amendment was being framed in Congress. Clearly their intent was to
prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was
Anglican or Catholic or some other.
"I highly recommend a great book entitled Original Intent by David Barton.
It really gets into how the actual members of Congress, who drafted the
First Amendment, expected basic Biblical principles and values to be
present throughout public life and society, not separate from it.
"It was Alexander Hamilton who pointed out that 'judges should be bound
down by strict rules and precedents, which serve to define and point out
their duty' Bound down! That is exactly what is needed to be done. There
was not a single precedent cited when school prayer was struck down in
1962.
"These judges who legislate instead of adjudicate, do it without being
responsible to one single solitary voter for their actions. Among the
signers of the Declaration of Independence was a brilliant young
physician from Pennsylvania named Benjamin Rush.
"When Rush was elected to that First Continental Congress, his close
friend Benjamin Franklin told him 'We need you. . . we have a great task
before us, assigned to us by Providence.' Today, 228 years later there is
still a great task before us assigned to us by Providence. Our Founding
Fathers did not shirk their duty and we can do no less.
"By the way, Benjamin Rush was once asked a question that has long
interested this Senator from Georgia in particular. Dr. Rush was asked,
are you a democrat or an aristocrat? And the good doctor answered, 'I am
neither'. 'I am a Christocrat. I believe He, alone, who created and
redeemed man is qualified to govern him.' That reply of Benjamin Rush is
just as true today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was in the year of
our Lord 1776.
"So, if I am asked why - with all the pressing problems this nation faces
today - why am I pushing these social issues and taking the Senate's
valuable time? I will answer: Because, it is of the highest importance.
Yes, there's a deficit to be concerned about in this country, a deficit
of decency.
"So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at warp speed - and with my
time running out in this Senate and on this earth, I feel compelled to
speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is not
golden. It is yellow."
-----------------------------------------------
Senator Zell Miller
257 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3643
Fax: (202) 228-2090