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House Journal: Page 1886: Tuesday, April 25, 1995

So while I would defend to the death anyone's right to the
broadest freedom of speech, I think we should all remember that
words have consequences. And freedom should be exercised with
responsibility. And when we think that others are exercising
their freedom in an irresponsible way, it is our job to stand up
and say that is wrong. We disagree. This is not a matter of
partisan politics. It is not a matter of political philosophy.
If we see the freedom of expression and speech abused in this
country, whether it comes from the right or the left, from the
media or from people just speaking on their own, we should stand
up and say no, we don't believe in preaching violence; we don't
believe in preaching hatred; we don't believe in preaching
discord. Words have consequences.
If words did not have consequences, we wouldn't be here today.
We're here today because Patrick Henry's words had consequences,
because Thomas Jefferson's words had consequences, because
Abraham Lincoln's words had consequences. And these words we
hear today have consequences - the good ones and the bad ones,
the ones that bring us together, and the ones that drive a wedge
through our heart.
We never know in this society today who is out there dealing
with all kinds of inner turmoil, vulnerable to being pushed over
the edge if all they hear is a relentless clamor of hatred and
division. So let us preserve free speech, but let those of us
who want to fight to preserve free speech forever in America
say, we must be responsible and we will be.
My fellow Americans, I come here tonight, as I went recently to
the state legislature in Florida, to discuss the condition of
our country, where we're going in the future, and your role in
that. We know we are in a new and different world - the end of
the Cold War, a new and less organized world we're living in,
but one still not free of threats. We know we have come to the
end of an industrial age and we're in an information age, which
is less bureaucratic, more open, more dependent on technology,
more full of opportunity but still full of its own problems,
than the age that most of us were raised in.
We know that we no longer need the same sort of bureaucratic,
top-down, service-delivering, rule-making, centralized
government in Washington that served us so well during the
industrial age, because times have changed. We know that with
all the problems we have and all the opportunities we have, we
have to think anew about what the responsibilities of our
government in Washington should be, what your responsibility
should be here at the state level, and through you to the local
level, and what should be done more by private citizens on their
own with no involvement from the government.
We know now what the central challenge of this time is, and you
can see it in Iowa. You could see it today with the testimony we
heard at the Rural Conference. We are at a 25-year low in the
combined rates of unemployment and inflation. Our economy has
produced over 6 million new jobs. But paradoxically, even in
Iowa where the unemployment rate has dropped under 3.5 percent,
most Americans are working harder today for the same or lower
incomes that they were making 10 years ago. And many Americans
feel less job security even as the recovery continues.
That is largely a function of the global economic competition,
the fact that technology raises productivity at an almost
unbelievable rate so fewer and fewer people can do more and more
work, and that depresses wages. The fact that unless we raise it
in Washington next year the minimum wage will reach a 40-year
low.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: House Journal (76th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1995 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.

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URL: /DOCS/GA/76GA/Session.1/HJournal/01800/01886.html
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