Kendrick Meek: “Thank you so very much, Mr. Speaker. It's an honor to come before the House once again. I can share with you, as…”

“Thank you so very much, Mr. Speaker. It's an honor to come before the House once again. I can share with you, as Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee just finished speaking about, the wonderful ceremony that we had today, but sad ceremony, reflecting on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King some 40 years later. To see Democrats and Republicans standing side by side, to have reflection from those that worked beside Dr. King, like our very own John Lewis and Majority Whip Clyburn, who talked about his experience and first meeting that he met with him in 1960 in Morehouse University, to Majority Leader Reid reflecting on, the Senate reflecting on how he worked here in the Capitol at that time as a part of the crowd outside; and others that shared stories of their time when Dr. King walked the Earth; his son, Martin Luther King, III, who reflected on his father's death and his memory and charged the House and the Senate to carry out efforts against poverty, also to deal with the issue of war and conflict, and also looking at the very issue of making sure that we stand up for the least of these, as many of us are very, very familiar with. Mr. Speaker, I also believe that it's important in that light to have Americans, and as leaders of this great country of ours, have Americans remember the past, but look forward in a forward leaning way to the future.”