Orrin Hatch: “last year, I stated on the Senate floor that ``our country stands at a crossroads on the path it travels in relations…”

“last year, I stated on the Senate floor that ``our country stands at a crossroads on the path it travels in relations among the different races and ethnic groups that make up the American people. Down one path is the way of mutual understanding and goodwill; the way of equal opportunity for individuals; the way of seriously and persistently addressing our various social problems as America's problems. * * * Down the other path is the way of mutual suspicion, fear, ill will, and indifference; the way of group rights and group preferences.'' I am proud to stand today with my colleagues in the House and the Senate, and others who have worked so hard for the cause of equal opportunity, to announce the introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1997. The act represents our best efforts to recommit the Nation to the ideal of equal opportunity for every American--to emphasize that we must resist the temptation to define the Nation's problems in narrow racial terms, and rather must roll up our sleeves and begin the hard work of dealing with our problems as Americans, and as fellow human beings.”