Eva M. Clayton: “this is a new year and a new year of the 104th session, a brand-new opportunity for those of us in the House to begin to…”

“this is a new year and a new year of the 104th session, a brand-new opportunity for those of us in the House to begin to look backward and reflect and look forward hopefully to do a better job. One has been told that the month of January is represented by the mystical god that has two heads; one that looks backwards and one that looks forward. You and I know if we look backward too long we live in the past and no progress is made. If we look back at 1995, we see Democrats and Republicans yelling at each other. We see people who are willing to take their views to the extreme at the expense of America, yet they say they do it in the name of saving America. If we look back, we see people saying we made commitments to the American people that we would do these things. Hopefully, Mr. Speaker, we do not look back too long. If we look back long enough, we know that what we did in 1995 was not always honorable; was not always those actions that are worthy of those who represent the people and who say that we represent 'We the people.' Hopefully, we look back just long enough to say we will try to do better and try to be more responsible.”