Ithaca 37
New member
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) today delivered the following statement on the floor of the
United States Senate addressing several social issues facing the country:
"The Old Testament prophet Amos was a sheep herder who lived back in the Judean hills, away from the larger
cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Compared to the intellectual urbanites like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he
was just an unsophisticated country hick.
"But Amos had a unique grasp of political and social issues and his poetic literary skill was among the
best of all the prophets. That familiar quote of Martin Luther King, Jr. about 'Justice will rush down
like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream are Amos's words.
"Amos was the first to propose the concept of a universal God and not just some tribal deity. He also
wrote that God demanded moral purity, not rituals and sacrifices. This blunt speaking moral conscience of
his time warns in Chapter 8, verse 11 of The Book of Amos, as if he were speaking to us today:
That 'the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. 'And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the
north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.'
'A famine in the land'. Has anyone more accurately described the situation we face in America today? 'A
famine of hearing the words of the Lord.' "But some will say, Amos was just an Old Testament
prophet - a minor one at that - who lived 700 years before Christ. That is true, so how about one of the
most influential historians of modern times?
"Arnold Toynbee who wrote the acclaimed 12 volume A Study of History, once declared, 'Of the 22
civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the moral state
America is in today.'
"Toynbee died in 1975, before seeing the worst that was yet to come. Yes, Arnold Toynbee saw the famine.
The 'famine of hearing the words of the Lord.' Whether it is removing a display of the Ten Commandments from
a Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a city square. Whether it is eliminating prayer in schools or
eliminating 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. Whether it is making a mockery of the sacred
institution of marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the world made-in-the-USA
filth masquerading as entertainment.
"The Culture of Far Left America was displayed in a startling way during the Super Bowl's now infamous
half-time show. A show brought to us courtesy of Value-Les Moonves and the pagan temple of
Viacom-Babylon.
"I asked the question yesterday, how many of you have ever run over a skunk with your car? I have many times
and I can tell you, the stink stays around for a long time. You can take the car through a car wash and it's
still there. So the scent of this event will long linger in the nostrils of America.
"I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it. Really no one should
have been too surprised at that. Wouldn't one expect a bumping, humping, trashy routine entitled 'I'm going
to get you naked' to end that way.
"Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap? I'd quote you some of it, but the
Sergeant of Arms would throw me out of here, as well he should. And then there was that prancing, dancing,
strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because he kept yelling and grabbing his crotch.
But then, maybe there's a crotch grabbing culture I've unaware of.
"But as bad as all this was, the thing that yanked my chain the hardest was seeing that ignoramus with his
pointed head stuck up through a hole he had cut in the flag of the United States of America, screaming about
having 'a bottle of scotch and watching lots of crotch.' Think about that.
"This is the same flag that we pledge allegiance to. This is the flag that is draped over coffins of dead
young uniformed warriors killed while protecting Kid Crock's bony butt. He should be tarred and feathered,
and ridden out of this country on a rail. Talk about a good reality show, there's one for you.
"The desire and will of this Congress to meaningfully do anything about any of these so-called social issues
is non existent and embarrassingly disgraceful. The American people are waiting and growing impatient with
us. They want something done.
"I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along with Senator Allard and others, proposing an amendment
to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage. And S.1558, the Liberties Restoration Act,
which declares religious liberty rights in several ways, including the Pledge of Allegiance and the
display of the Ten Commandments. And today I join Senator Shelby and others with the Constitution
Restoration Act of 2004 that limits the jurisdiction of federal courts in certain ways.
"In doing so, I stand shoulder to shoulder not only with my Senate co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore
of Alabama but, more importantly, with our Founding Fathers in the conception of religious liberty and the
terribly wrong direction our modern judiciary has taken us in.
"Everyone today seems to think that the U.S. Constitution expressly provides for separation of
church and state. Ask any ten people if that's not so. And I'll bet you most of them will say 'Well, sure.'
And some will point out, 'it's in the First Amendment.'
"Wrong! Read it! It says, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof.' Where is the word 'separate'? Where are the words 'church' or 'state.'
"They are not there. Never have been. Never intended to be. Read the Congressional Records during that
four-month period in 1789 when the amendment was being framed in Congress. Clearly their intent was to
prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was Anglican or Catholic or some
other.
"I highly recommend a great book entitled Original Intent by David Barton. It really gets into how the
actual members of Congress, who drafted the First Amendment, expected basic Biblical principles and
values to be present throughout public life and society, not separate from it.
"It was Alexander Hamilton who pointed out that 'judges should be bound down by strict rules and
precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty.' Bound down! That is exactly what is needed to
be done. There was not a single precedent cited when school prayer was struck down in 1962.
"These judges who legislate instead of adjudicate, do it without being responsible to one single solitary
voter for their actions. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence was a brilliant young
physician from Pennsylvania named Benjamin Rush.
"When Rush was elected to that First Continental Congress, his close friend Benjamin Franklin told him
'We need you. . . we have a great task before us, assigned to us by Providence.' Today, 228 years later
there is still a great task before us assigned to us by Providence. Our Founding Fathers did not shirk
their duty and we can do no less.
"By the way, Benjamin Rush was once asked a question that has long interested this Senator from Georgia in
particular. Dr. Rush was asked, are you a democrat or an aristocrat? And the good doctor answered, 'I am
neither'. 'I am a Christocrat. I believe He, alone, who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern
him.' That reply of Benjamin Rush is just as true today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was in the
year of our Lord 1776.
"So, if I am asked why - with all the pressing problems this nation faces today - why am I pushing
these social issues and taking the Senate's valuable time? I will answer: Because, it is of the highest
importance. Yes, there's a deficit to be concerned about in this country, a deficit of decency.
"So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at warp speed - and with my time running out in this Senate
and on this earth, I feel compelled to speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is
not golden. It is yellow."
United States Senate addressing several social issues facing the country:
"The Old Testament prophet Amos was a sheep herder who lived back in the Judean hills, away from the larger
cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Compared to the intellectual urbanites like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he
was just an unsophisticated country hick.
"But Amos had a unique grasp of political and social issues and his poetic literary skill was among the
best of all the prophets. That familiar quote of Martin Luther King, Jr. about 'Justice will rush down
like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream are Amos's words.
"Amos was the first to propose the concept of a universal God and not just some tribal deity. He also
wrote that God demanded moral purity, not rituals and sacrifices. This blunt speaking moral conscience of
his time warns in Chapter 8, verse 11 of The Book of Amos, as if he were speaking to us today:
That 'the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. 'And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the
north even to the east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.'
'A famine in the land'. Has anyone more accurately described the situation we face in America today? 'A
famine of hearing the words of the Lord.' "But some will say, Amos was just an Old Testament
prophet - a minor one at that - who lived 700 years before Christ. That is true, so how about one of the
most influential historians of modern times?
"Arnold Toynbee who wrote the acclaimed 12 volume A Study of History, once declared, 'Of the 22
civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the moral state
America is in today.'
"Toynbee died in 1975, before seeing the worst that was yet to come. Yes, Arnold Toynbee saw the famine.
The 'famine of hearing the words of the Lord.' Whether it is removing a display of the Ten Commandments from
a Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a city square. Whether it is eliminating prayer in schools or
eliminating 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. Whether it is making a mockery of the sacred
institution of marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the world made-in-the-USA
filth masquerading as entertainment.
"The Culture of Far Left America was displayed in a startling way during the Super Bowl's now infamous
half-time show. A show brought to us courtesy of Value-Les Moonves and the pagan temple of
Viacom-Babylon.
"I asked the question yesterday, how many of you have ever run over a skunk with your car? I have many times
and I can tell you, the stink stays around for a long time. You can take the car through a car wash and it's
still there. So the scent of this event will long linger in the nostrils of America.
"I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it. Really no one should
have been too surprised at that. Wouldn't one expect a bumping, humping, trashy routine entitled 'I'm going
to get you naked' to end that way.
"Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap? I'd quote you some of it, but the
Sergeant of Arms would throw me out of here, as well he should. And then there was that prancing, dancing,
strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because he kept yelling and grabbing his crotch.
But then, maybe there's a crotch grabbing culture I've unaware of.
"But as bad as all this was, the thing that yanked my chain the hardest was seeing that ignoramus with his
pointed head stuck up through a hole he had cut in the flag of the United States of America, screaming about
having 'a bottle of scotch and watching lots of crotch.' Think about that.
"This is the same flag that we pledge allegiance to. This is the flag that is draped over coffins of dead
young uniformed warriors killed while protecting Kid Crock's bony butt. He should be tarred and feathered,
and ridden out of this country on a rail. Talk about a good reality show, there's one for you.
"The desire and will of this Congress to meaningfully do anything about any of these so-called social issues
is non existent and embarrassingly disgraceful. The American people are waiting and growing impatient with
us. They want something done.
"I am pleased to be a co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along with Senator Allard and others, proposing an amendment
to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage. And S.1558, the Liberties Restoration Act,
which declares religious liberty rights in several ways, including the Pledge of Allegiance and the
display of the Ten Commandments. And today I join Senator Shelby and others with the Constitution
Restoration Act of 2004 that limits the jurisdiction of federal courts in certain ways.
"In doing so, I stand shoulder to shoulder not only with my Senate co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore
of Alabama but, more importantly, with our Founding Fathers in the conception of religious liberty and the
terribly wrong direction our modern judiciary has taken us in.
"Everyone today seems to think that the U.S. Constitution expressly provides for separation of
church and state. Ask any ten people if that's not so. And I'll bet you most of them will say 'Well, sure.'
And some will point out, 'it's in the First Amendment.'
"Wrong! Read it! It says, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof.' Where is the word 'separate'? Where are the words 'church' or 'state.'
"They are not there. Never have been. Never intended to be. Read the Congressional Records during that
four-month period in 1789 when the amendment was being framed in Congress. Clearly their intent was to
prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all others, whether it was Anglican or Catholic or some
other.
"I highly recommend a great book entitled Original Intent by David Barton. It really gets into how the
actual members of Congress, who drafted the First Amendment, expected basic Biblical principles and
values to be present throughout public life and society, not separate from it.
"It was Alexander Hamilton who pointed out that 'judges should be bound down by strict rules and
precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty.' Bound down! That is exactly what is needed to
be done. There was not a single precedent cited when school prayer was struck down in 1962.
"These judges who legislate instead of adjudicate, do it without being responsible to one single solitary
voter for their actions. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence was a brilliant young
physician from Pennsylvania named Benjamin Rush.
"When Rush was elected to that First Continental Congress, his close friend Benjamin Franklin told him
'We need you. . . we have a great task before us, assigned to us by Providence.' Today, 228 years later
there is still a great task before us assigned to us by Providence. Our Founding Fathers did not shirk
their duty and we can do no less.
"By the way, Benjamin Rush was once asked a question that has long interested this Senator from Georgia in
particular. Dr. Rush was asked, are you a democrat or an aristocrat? And the good doctor answered, 'I am
neither'. 'I am a Christocrat. I believe He, alone, who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern
him.' That reply of Benjamin Rush is just as true today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was in the
year of our Lord 1776.
"So, if I am asked why - with all the pressing problems this nation faces today - why am I pushing
these social issues and taking the Senate's valuable time? I will answer: Because, it is of the highest
importance. Yes, there's a deficit to be concerned about in this country, a deficit of decency.
"So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at warp speed - and with my time running out in this Senate
and on this earth, I feel compelled to speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is
not golden. It is yellow."
