Ronald Dellums: “I understand where the majority of this body is going on a date certain; that is the easy political thing to do. But I…”

“I understand where the majority of this body is going on a date certain; that is the easy political thing to do. But I think we ought to be part of the educative process, and I choose to try to do that. First of all, to this notion, Mr. Chairman. To this notion, Mr. Chairman, this is important to the Europeans; let them do it. Does that mean we do not care about human life, Mr. Chairman? We had this debate this morning about China. We care about human life in China. A few years ago we were concerned about human life in South Africa. We had a discussion about that. What are we talking about it is only Europeans should be concerned about European life? If this had been in the context of Nazi Germany, would Members have gotten up and said let Europe do it? Mr. Chairman, we have a moral obligation to stand up and to care about human life. A quarter of a million people were being killed, raped, maimed and murdered; 13,000 of them were children. So we say let the Europeans do it, we have no responsibility? I heard speeches down here when we talked about the Preamble to the Constitution, and they said it was not just about America. Read the Record tomorrow. We said that on the floor just a couple of hours ago. This is about the whole planet. Now, when we talk about people dying in another place, let Europeans do it. I want my colleagues to recall history, Mr. Chairman. Europeans did try to solve this problem, and they died there. Historically they died.…”