Tom Lantos: “I view American history as a long process of closing the hypocrisy gap. When we first heard the words ``all men are…”

“I view American history as a long process of closing the hypocrisy gap. When we first heard the words ``all men are created equal,'' they certainly were not equal, and women were not even mentioned. And many of the people in that great generation of the Founding Fathers themselves owned slaves. This long and painful process of closing the hypocrisy gap has been closed to a large extent because of the courage, the determination, the perseverance of giants like the one we are honoring today. Rosa Parks is a national treasure. She has reeducated all of us in the value that we, in fact, are all created equal, men and women, people of all faiths, people of all pigmentation. This is a message that needs to be sent over and over again, and I am proud that this House this evening again reminds all of us that the hypocrisy gap is not yet fully closed. We still have some distance to go. But Rosa Parks is among those giants who closed that gap in large measure, and for that we are eternally grateful.”