Neil Abercrombie: “I yield to no one in this House in my respect for the gentleman from California [Mr. Lantos] and his strong support for…”

“I yield to no one in this House in my respect for the gentleman from California [Mr. Lantos] and his strong support for human rights. The record is well known. We are colleagues in the Human Rights caucus. I find myself, unfortunately, in a position of rising to disagree on this issue. This is a question of free speech. We are acting in an institutional capacity here today, and I urge all of you who are listening, all of you who are observing today and are going to vote on this, we are being asked to do this as an institution. The first amendment says that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. The universal declaration of human rights, which I also subscribe to, and we are members of the United Nations, everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. When one stands up and says it is not free speech, it is. Free speech means driving bad speech out with good speech. It means taking the responsibility in meeting the obligation of resisting tyranny and intolerance everywhere we find it, and we do have the right to do that, the obligation to do that as Members of Congress.”