Hank Johnson: “Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I'm honored to join my friend and colleague, Representative John Lewis, himself a legendary…”

“Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I'm honored to join my friend and colleague, Representative John Lewis, himself a legendary civil rights leader, in strongly supporting H. Res. 134 and in carrying a message of hope to an upcoming trip to India. There is so much that we can learn from the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's principle of ``satyagraha,'' nonviolent resistance, inspired change for the better throughout the world and particularly in the United States. As Dr. King said in a radio address in India in 1959 on this trip, ``the spirit of Gandhi is so much stronger today than some people believe.'' That statement is even truer today. These two people changed their countries and the world for the better. And the world today would benefit from a new Dr. King or a new Gandhi. They taught us that violence begets violence. As Gandhi once said, ``An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'' No one doubts that there are serious problems in the world today, violence in the Middle East and many other places, the AIDS pandemic and extreme poverty where 1 billion people in the world live on less than a dollar a day. Missiles will not solve these crises. But people can, people of good will with courage and character, people like Dr.…”