Publius elsker Robert Byrd!
Robert Byrd fra West Virginia er helt klart vores yndlingssenator her på Publius-redaktionen. Han er legemliggørelsen af alt hvad de Forenede Staters Senat står for. Byrd har tjent sammen med mere end 400 af de 1.895 mennesker der nogensinde har siddet i Senatet. Senator Byrd minder os om Senatets særlige rolle i de Forenede Staters politik og hvordan amerikanernes skæbne er uadskillelig fra Senatets skæbne, ligesom med romerne og deres senat. Han skriver fx på sin hjemmeside at
As long as there is a forum in which questions can be asked by men and women who do not stand in awe of a chief executive and one can speak as long as one's feet will allow one to stand, the liberties of the American people will be secure.
Eller
The Senate is larger than the sum total of its 100 members. When the duly elected Representatives of the people gather in the Senate chamber, they become much more than the combined intellects, talents, and idiosyncracies of 100 individuals. They become the living, breathing manifestation of the vision of the Framers — the guardians of the spirit and the soul of the sovereign people of this nation.
Fantastisk. I mandags, da resten af Senatet debatterede hvordan man skulle afholde debatten om den såkaldte “surge resolution” om Irak-krigen, var Byrd selvfølgelig nødt til at holde en timelang tale om kulminer. Fordi kulminearbejderen, næst efter Senatorer af de Forenede Stater, repræsenterer alt hvad USA står for. Og kulminernes skæbne er ligeså sammenviklet med USA's skæbne som Senatets.
The coal miner is proud—yes, you better believe it—of his profession. He is patriotic in that he mines the coal that fuels the American economy. You see those lights up there that are lighting this beautiful, wonderful Chamber of the Senate, the only Chamber of its kind in the world, the Senate, yes. The miner fuels those electric lights that surround this Chamber.
…
I have been in the mines. I was not a coal miner, but I was in there with my dad—not my father, but my dad. I have been in those mines. I heard the timbers, the tree trunks holding up the tons and tons and tons of earth and rock overhead to keep those rocks from crashing to the Earth and killing the miners. I could hear those timbers cracking. When I was in there I heard the timbers—these trees, as they were.
…As a son of the coal fields, the Appalachian coal fields, as the son of a coal miner, I am determined, yes, determined to be the “captain of a mighty host demanding the rights to which free men”—free men—coal miners—“free men are entitled.”
Hvorfor bliver John L. Lewis aldrig citeret i den danske folketingssal?
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