Jack Kingston: “Mr. Chairman, I appreciate being recognized to speak in favor of the School of the Americas. Not everything is perfect.…”

“Mr. Chairman, I appreciate being recognized to speak in favor of the School of the Americas. Not everything is perfect. Unfortunately, the folks who support this amendment are correct in that in the past there have been graduates of this school who have abused human rights and caused all sorts of pain and suffering. That has been a very, very small minority of student participants, and the things that they did, they did not learn at the School of the Americas. They certainly were not trained with that intent by the School of the Americas. That was many, many years ago. Some debates, Mr. Speaker, are timely, and some debates are timeless. This debate seems to be timeless in that once the side who opposes the School of the Americas has got their point across and the changes have been made, it is time to stop. But, instead, we are continuing year after year, rehashing the same ground, regurgitating the same arguments over and over again. This debate, rather than being timeless, should be timely, and the time to debate it was properly in the early 1990's under Secretary Cheney. Under Secretary Cheney many, many changes were made that threw out some of the offensive materials which the supporters of this amendment keep referring to. It is not the case any more. What we are doing is we are debating Model T's in the era of 1997 automobiles.”