Ernest Istook: “This is long overdue, Mr. Speaker, that we recognize that all the problems in America are not solved by doing things…”

“This is long overdue, Mr. Speaker, that we recognize that all the problems in America are not solved by doing things with taxes or highways or national defense, that this Nation was founded by people who believed in God and believed that our rights came from God as they stated in the Declaration of Independence, and if we try to sever our freedom and our rights from He who gave our rights to us, and if we say that we have to isolate children while they are required to be at school, they have to be isolated from these references just because there may be some among them or among their parents who are so intolerant that they want to silence other people. Mr. Speaker, if my freedom of speech exists only when everybody around agrees with me, I do not have free speech. If my freedom of religion exists only when I am around people who believe the same things that I do, then I do not have freedom of religion.”