On the recordFebruary 6, 2017
Mr. President, I know that we are in the middle of an important debate about a topic of education in our schools. One of the topics I hope young Americans will learn more about is the state of affairs across the world when it comes to human rights. We are a vibrant society engaged in a heated debate, as we often have been throughout our history, about items of political matters. If you look here today, there are people standing up to speak on different sides of an issue. You see that the Republican Party today controls the White House, the Senate, and the House, and yet you have people with the freedom in this country to be able to stand up and oppose that. We have seen that across the country with demonstrations and speeches and all sorts of other protected speech. We are very fortunate and blessed to live in a nation with those freedoms. That is not the case all over the world. I wanted to take this opportunity in the midst of all of this debate and discussion about an important topic, the nomination before the Senate, to remind people that despite our differences on these issues, we are truly blessed to be able to live in a country where opposing the party in power does not mean you go to jail. As I have been doing for some time now, I wanted to come this evening and highlight yet another example of human rights abuses that is taking place in a very important part of the world.…





