I Rise with A Heavy Heart

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. And still I rise, Madam Speaker. I rise today with a heavy heart, and I say this because of the topic that I will share with persons based on a personal experience that I had.

I often say I rise in the spirit of Maya Angelou. I rise with the notion that I bring the gifts our ancestors gave on the dream and the hope of the slave. That doesn't apply to me personally, but generally speaking it applies to people of my ethnicity, my race.

I rise today with this heavy heart because of something that has haunted me since I saw it some many weeks ago, something that haunted me to the extent that I returned to my office after having seen it and called it to the attention of my staff.

I have had a good deal of consternation in terms of how to respond and react to what I saw, so permit me to share this vignette with you and a bit of commentary thereafter.

While visiting a local facility, a store in the area--I will not announce the name of the business. I can if I have to, but I choose not to today. While I was there for business purposes, I saw children come in. These children, I am going to guesstimate, 5 to 10. They came in the main entrance, they proceeded to move over to my left, their right, as they came in, and they had bags. They went up and down each aisle in the store collecting things.

They proceeded to do this all the way through the store, traversing the entirety of the store. When they arrived at the very last aisle in the store, they walked out.

There was a peace officer, or what appeared to be a peace officer, an officer in uniform, standing there as they passed. They did not go to the cashier, the cash register, the person, the clerk who was collecting funds for items that were being purchased. They did not go there. They didn't go over to the self-check area. They merely walked out of the store with bags of goods that they collected while in the store.

Now, let me pause for a moment and say something that is important. I will come back to the story, the vignette. There are things that happen that cause me to pray that the person who did this was not a person of color. When I hear of these dastardly deeds, there is something within me that says, God, I hope that is not a person of color.

I don't want to have it be any person. I don't want to see dastardly deeds done. Because of the history of people of African ancestry in the country and how there was a time when there was a constant drumbeat to style them as persons who were doing dastardly deeds, I relate, and I just don't want to see that done. I always pray that it is not a person of color. I don't want it to be any person at all.

In this case, I happened to witness it, and I have to tell you, these were all children of color. Now, an Anglo person saying this would probably be called a racist by somebody. I want you to know that I saw this, I am saying this, and I believe that they were children of African ancestry.

They walked out of that store--continuing with the vignette--and they did it slowly. They casually strolled through the door, not having paid for the goods that they collected as they walked up and down each aisle in that store.

My mother would call that theft. The constabulary would call that theft. I call that theft. I saw the crime committed.

I went over to the officer myself, and I spoke to the officer: Did you see that? The officer responded truthfully. He said he did. I made an inquiry as to why the officer did not act. The officer was very candid. He explained to me that there had been an encounter wherein an officer or someone did act, and that person was harmed, the person who tried to stop this behavior, and that they had been told that this was not something that they would make an attempt to prohibit or prevent.

I was shocked. I have heard about these things. I have seen things on television where large groups of people run into stores and take things, smash and grab and leave. It is different when you actually see it yourself.

The story doesn't end here. After what I saw, I moved over to pay for what I had. Then two other children came in. This time there was a child that may have been 9 or 10 years old, maybe 12. It is hard to guess. There was another child that was probably about a foot or more higher than my walking cane, probably, in my opinion, 6 or 7 years old. This child had a bag and collected things. In my opinion, I would say a baby, a child.

When this child reached the exit near the officer--and I am standing there and saw it--this child looked at the officer, and the officer looked at the child. I thought for a moment that the officer would react. This child turned to that officer and stared. He just stared at the officer. As we would say in my neck of the woods, he stared the officer down--a baby. Then he walked out the door with goods that he had not paid for.

Friends, it doesn't matter your color. At some point, we have to take a stand. This cannot be tolerated.

Does anybody really think that these children are going to stop after that one incident? Does anybody really believe that they won't do things at some point in the future that will exceed petty theft?

I am only speculating, but my guess is that this can be the genesis of bad things to come. It has to be dealt with.

We cannot allow people to take things that belong to other people with impunity. It doesn't matter their age. As a matter of fact, the younger the age gives me more concern than perhaps the older because this is a point where children should be taught how to respect others and the property of others. Now we allow them to, with impunity, commit crimes.

I am calling this to our attention because I know what happens when people get hurt in the process of taking things. I know what happens. I know that there is going to be an allegation made if an officer should hurt somebody in the process. I am not saying that officers should, but at some point, we have to stop it. You don't stop it by allowing it to continue.

People cannot assume that they can just walk out of the store with the goods and not pay for them, especially children.

I have heard many stories about how, ``My son is a good boy.'' I was a judge in a small claims court before I came to Congress, and I have heard the stories about how, ``My son is a good boy. He was with bad company.'' Well, that may be true, but good company or bad company, we have to teach our children to respect the property of others and to respect others.

I am bringing this to our attention because I have been told that this facility, this business place, may have to close its doors. That is a reason to call it to our attention. I am bringing it to our attention because I don't want to see anybody get hurt. That is a good reason to call it to our attention.

I am bringing it to our attention more so because I believe we have a moral imperative to help the generations that are to follow to understand how it is that they had the opportunity to walk into the front door of that establishment. It hasn't been that long ago, within my lifetime, that I had to go to the back door if they allowed me in at all--not that business, but a similar business. In my lifetime, I have had to go to the back door to get things that I ordered from within a business.

They have to understand that people have suffered so that they have these opportunities and privileges. There is equality under the law for them so that they are not treated as second-class citizens and prevented from going into business places, that they are not searched before they go into a business place, that they are not followed up and down the aisles of business places. I have been followed in places when I was much younger simply because of who I was.

They have to understand that Rosa Parks didn't go to jail so that they could steal from other people with impunity. Dr. King didn't have the March on Washington for this.

We have to get them to understand how it is that they have these opportunities, and we are failing to do it. We are failing to do it as long as there is one child who does what I saw. It doesn't take 10, just 1.

Every child is important, and we have to reach them all or at least make every effort that we can. We have a moral imperative to do this.

They have to understand this history. They have to understand that their foreparents suffered and their lives were sacrificed so that America could be the great country it is and so that there would be a 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th Amendment to end slavery, have the right to vote, and equality under the law. They have to understand.

If we are not going to do it in schools, we will have to do it in homes. I would prefer to see it done everywhere, to be quite honest, so that everybody understands the history and importance of knowing who you are and how it is that you have acquired this place in society that you currently hold.

We are not there yet. There is still more work to be done. We have Slavery Remembrance Day coming up on August 20. There will be other things associated with our history that we will do. We cannot allow our young generation--the youngest among us who can comprehend--to live a life without understanding the importance of knowing who they are.

I am going to ask persons to please become a committee of one. If you know of a child who is doing this, take it upon yourself to talk to that family or to that child. I know that strange things and odd things happen and people get hurt.

If you know the family, do what we had done when I was a much younger child. If you committed an offense, everybody told your mother about it. Nobody would watch a child commit a crime and not go home and call around and find out whose child it was and make sure that it was reported. We cannot do this and know that it is happening and simply go on about our business.

Madam Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart. I normally would be speaking about another topic. This was something that has haunted me since I saw it, and as a result, I had to say what I have said. I know that somebody has been offended. I am sorry if I did offend you, but this cannot go unnoticed and cannot go without a call for change.

Let's make sure that we alert the schools to let them know what is happening. We have to talk to the people in the schools. We have to talk to the teachers to get to the parents, the PTAs.

I am going to do as much as I can. I will be a committee of one, and I ask that you become a committee of one.

Before I close, there are persons of other ethnicities and races who do this, as well, and we don't want them doing it. They, too, have a history that they ought to understand. If they truly understood it, they wouldn't engage in this kind of behavior.

Let's not allow this to happen to any child. Let's become the responsible adults who will claim all children as children in need of adult supervision at all times. Let's make a difference in the lives of these children.

And still I rise in the spirit of Maya Angelou, ``Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.'' Recognizing Slavery Remembrance Day

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I am proud to announce that we are going to have our Slavery Remembrance Day event in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, August 19. I am proud to announce it because the Honorable Bishop William Barber will be the speaker.

Last year, President Biden recognized this event and, in so doing, issued a press release. I say he recognized the event. He actually recognized Slavery Remembrance Day. He remembered the enslaved by way of a press release. We had this event and had more than a thousand people show up.

We are telling folks as best we can that there is limited seating and only 1,000 will be allowed into the venue to hear this great message and to hear us explain the history of Africans in the United States of America, the significant role that they have played in the development of the country, and the role that they have played in helping this country become the economic powerhouse that it is today.

These are the foundational mothers and fathers. These are the persons of whom we will speak, persons of African ancestry who made great sacrifices and whose lives were sacrificed so that America could rest on the economic foundation where it resides.

Madam Speaker, I am proud of this event for a multiplicity of reasons.

One, we will have an opportunity to expose the history that many people are not aware of.

Two, we will have an opportunity to tell people that they should not allow themselves to revere the enslaver and revile the enslaved. It is important for people to understand that concept. We have to change the mindset.

Most importantly, we will do this because those lives, in the millions, that were sacrificed over some 240-plus years must be commemorated. We have a moral imperative to do this. This should be on everyone's conscience agenda: a moral imperative to commemorate the lives that were sacrificed to make America great.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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