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Miller Delivers Floor Speech on
‘Deficit of Decency’ in America
| 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.”
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