Congressional Black Caucus
"The Conscience of Congress since 1969"
www.congressionalblackcaucus.net

(Washington, D.C.) - Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) will deliver the weekly CBC “Message to America” radio address this Saturday, February 25, 2006.  Congressman Cleaver discusses the need for the Bush administration to make Hurricane Katrina relief efforts a top priority and not a fleeting thought.
 
The CBC “Message to America” is distributed nationwide to the American Urban Radio Network’s (AURN) affiliate stations.
 
            WHO:           Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
            WHEN:         Saturday, February 25, 2006; 12:06 p.m. EST
            WHERE:       American Urban Radio Network Affiliate Stations
 
Congressman Cleaver is expected to deliver the following remarks:

“Hello.  This is Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri and I am happy to deliver the Message to America to you today on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“It has been five months since President George Bush said, ‘Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.’

“For five months we have heard every elected or appointed official from Washington to the Gulf Coast blame every other elected or appointed official from Washington to the Gulf Coast.  Yet, New Orleans is still a mess.  Two-thirds of the pre-Katrina population no longer resides in the Big Easy.  The majority of the homes are beyond repair with more than a million people displaced from their primary residences.  Large parts of the city smell of rot, the devil’s breath couldn’t be worse.

“We better hope that terrorists don’t learn how to make hurricanes.  The anemic response by the U.S. was so poor that we certainly attracted the attention of those who would like to injure us.  We demonstrated that we couldn’t handle a major disaster.

“This was the greatest disaster on U.S. soil in the history of this nation.  There are 1,325 confirmed deaths and more than 3,000 individuals still missing. 

“President George Bush’s 5,361 word 2006 State of the Union Address contained only 161 words devoted to the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.  It is obvious, at least to me, that this issue no longer holds a place of importance with this administration and this Congress.  This confirms my long held belief that our leaders in Washington suffer from ADD - attention deficit disorder.  We have moved from the flood to the flu.

“Members of the CBC are very disturbed by what was missing in the President’s State of the Union Address and his budget request for next year. We need more resources, not less, to rebuild the Gulf and restore the lives of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and we need your help to pass the CBC’s comprehensive Katrina Relief Bill, H.R. 4197.  Please urge your representatives to support this important legislation.

“On top of the devastation from the natural disaster, several well known clergy found it necessary to arrogantly announce that the flood was an act of punishment from God because gays march in the Mardi Gras parade.  The God I have come to know is not a mean spirit.

“The Christian crusaders of the 15th century found Biblical support to slay Muslims who would not convert. Today’s Muslims are using the Koran to exonerate terrorists who slaughter the innocent.  The Bible was skillfully used to justify brutality enslaving the ‘wild and heathenish’ Africans and nearly exterminating the Native Americans.

“It is not difficult to notice the mean people who profess Christianity and find meanness in the word of God. Conservatives clearly see in the Bible words to support less government.  The politically progressives read the word of God as a fiat to feed the poor or a prescription for peace.

“It is amazing, though predictable, that we discover in the Holy Bible the exact thing that we already believe.  We search the Holy Writ for God’s words and ways to confirm our selfish and sinful sentiments.  Rarely do we open our Bibles for discernment and instruction. My friends, let us look for a little less hate and a little more instruction from the Bible. Thank you and God Bless.”

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