Recognizing Amy Good
Floor Speech
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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I love recognizing our community mothers in Detroit.
Amy Good founded Alternatives for Girls, a nationally recognized organization serving at-risk youth women in southeast Michigan. For the past 37 years, Amy Good has led Alternatives for Girls with integrity and commitment to the organization's mission to ensure a better quality of life and future for girls and young women who have survived homelessness, violence, and trauma.
With their support, many young girls can go on to succeed in school, graduate, and become leaders in our communities by providing shelter, housing, mentorship programs, skills training, and much more.
With Amy's partnership, I am so proud to announce that our office was able to secure $1.1 million for the Alternatives for Girls to construct the Dr. Maya Angelou Village that will create 45 units of affordable, integrated permanent supportive housing for at-risk families.
Mr. Speaker, please join me in thanking Amy Good for her outstanding service to our residents in southeast Michigan as we wish her well in her next endeavor. Mother Parks Federal Building
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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, Congress passed legislation to celebrate the mother of the civil rights movement and a beloved resident of our community, Mother Rosa Parks.
I thank Senator Debbie Stabenow, the McCauley Parks family, and everyone who supported this legislation. It was a privilege to lead this effort in the House to rename our Federal building downtown at 985 Michigan Avenue in Detroit the Rosa Parks Federal Building.
We honor Mother Rosa Parks today and every day for her bravery and unwavering commitment to justice. The Montgomery bus boycott showed the world the power of nonviolent resistance and collective action. Her strength resonated to millions across our Nation, inspiring a wave of protests, boycotts, and marches. Her protest challenged the status quo and paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to outlaw racial segregation in our Nation.
As we reflect on Rosa Parks' legacy, let us not only remember her incredible courage but also recognize the work that still lies before us. Let us honor her memory by continuing to challenge inequality, by speaking out against injustice, and by standing up for what is right, even in the face of adversity. Starvation in Gaza
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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, over 1.5 million Palestinians are now displaced in Rafah without food, clean water, or medicine.
More than 13,000 children have already been killed by the Israeli Government. Another child is killed in Gaza every 15 minutes.
Many have witnessed family members literally dismembered before their eyes. They have witnessed their loved ones buried under the rubble while they were holding each other.
The trauma has led to children as young as 5, Mr. Speaker, saying that they would prefer to die.
Additionally, as if the threat from the bullets and bombs wasn't enough, Palestinians are now dying of starvation across Gaza. At least 27 children and 3 adults have already starved to death. They have been forced to eat grass and animal feed just to survive.
Let's be clear, this isn't a tragic accident. What we are witnessing, all of us across this world, is the Israeli Government using starvation as a weapon of war. The starvation is a result of the total siege on Gaza and the intentional targeting of local food production, infrastructure, and obstruction of aid convoys.
Recently, at least 112 Palestinians were killed after Israeli Government forces opened fire on hundreds waiting to collect flour. The Israeli Government has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people, families. These are some of the most horrific crimes against humanity committed in this century. To target starving people seeking food is beyond belief.
Now, my colleagues are pushing legislation to send more American tax dollars to the apartheid government of Israel and stop funding UNRWA, the major organization that provides desperately needed food and humanitarian assistance to starving Palestinians.
Now, Members here, all of them, are going to be contributing to the starvation of Palestinian families.
This is Yazan. He was only 10 years old when he died due to severe malnutrition and lack of proper healthcare caused by the siege and blockade in Gaza. His family, originally from the north, was displaced several times and wanted to make it to Rafah in hopes of finding food and medicine for Yazan, who needed it to survive, but there was nothing they could do to help him.
This has to stop. What has happened to our shared humanity? Palestinians deserve to live. Palestinian children aren't disposable. They deserve to grow old.
Netanyahu has said he will move forward with an invasion of Rafah with or without a temporary cease-fire. He said it.
Let's be clear, though. A temporary cease-fire is not enough. There is nothing humanitarian about feeding starving children for 6 weeks before the bombing and killing resumes. A lasting, permanent cease-fire is what we need.
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