Kendrick Meek: “It was once said that all that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. We had some very good…”

“It was once said that all that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. We had some very good people doing something on this: the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ney), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the Congressional Black Caucus, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) and the entire lot, they wanted to do something, not just say nothing could be done because of the problems. The problems were faced. We do not have a perfect bill, but we have the very best we could get, and it could not have been done without the people that I just mentioned. So I am glad that I lived to see this bill happen, and we all are very emotional about it because of the fact this, to us, is an emancipation of some of the problems we have had with voting in this country, and I want to thank the writers of this bill and the people who participated in it. For once, we will go forward to do something better for this country and so that everybody can be created equal. Mr. Speaker, this Conference Report is an important milestone for democracy in America.”