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Floor Speech
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Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I rise today to reflect on a dark day in Georgia. It was 2 years ago today that a hateful act of violence shook metropolitan Atlanta and reverberated across our State, our Nation, and the world.
In the span of a few hours, our sense of safety and sanctuary was ripped apart by bullets born out of hate and fear--an issue, Mr. President, you know very well and have engaged on many sad occasions.
Two years ago, in Georgia, eight people lost their lives--eight people loved by their families, their friends, by their children. They should never become numbers or statistics--eight souls, eight people, with their own successes and struggles, their hopes and dreams. We speak their names: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng.
My heart aches for these Georgians and for their families, for whom these wounds still fester. The comfort provided by a family is still not enough to fill the empty seat at the dinner table or those times when a family member, out of routine, picks up the phone to dial and remembers in the moment that there is nobody on the other end of that call.
As a pastor, I believe in the sacred worth of every human being. I believe that we are a mixture of dust and divinity, of sod and sky, beauty and possibility. That is why I ask now that everyone who is here will join me in a moment of silence. Let us remember these eight Georgians and pray for their families.
(Moment of silence.)
God, in Your mercy remember them and strengthen us to do the work. Amen.
Importantly, I must mention, this attack was meant to harm Georgia's Asian-American community, and especially women of Asian descent. Unfortunately, this awful act that happened in Georgia is not isolated but, rather, part of the same trend of growing hate and violence which has caused pain to so many of us, especially members of the AAPI community.
In recent years, anti-Asian hate crimes have increased significantly--more than 300 percent, according to media reports. And, at the same time, we have seen acts of hate rise against our Jewish brothers and sisters; against our Muslim friends and neighbors; yes, against the LGBTQ-plus community and our trans brothers and sisters; and against the sense of safety our students have felt at our historically Black colleges and universities.
So I think back to how Georgians charted a path forward for our Nation 2 years ago. Two years ago, we came together and reminded each other that the only way to face the future is to love one another, to be respectful of our different histories, while focused on our shared future.
Georgia's greatest son, that great American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said it best. He said:
We are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
That terrible act of violence we witnessed on March 16, 2021, ought to remind us that we all have a stake in each other's well-being, that it is our duty to stay committed to a peace that recognizes that we are in this together.
So I want to say to my AAPI sisters and brothers, I want to say to all of my neighbors that I see you, and I will continue to stand with you against hate and against violence.
So let us continue working together to stop Asian hate, to stop the scapegoating that often emerges, sadly, in political speech, and to create what Dr. King called the beloved community. It is a community where everybody, no matter their skin color, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, their religious background, or if they claim no religious tradition at all, can live a life of fulfillment and joy without the fear of facing hate and unspeakable violence.
Let's keep doing the work.
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