Speech #1050040261

I will note that the power to protect the flag was used judiciously for the first 200 years of this Nations history. and there is no reason to suspect that it will be used any differently in the future. Mr. Speaker. over the last two centuries. and especially in recent years. immigrants from all over this world have flocked to America seeking what my colleagues and I enjoy. and that is freedom that is a decent safe way of life. and they knew little about America and about our culture and about our heritage. The face of America is changing. and these people when they come here. the one thing they did know: the American flag. I can recall a number of years ago when I led a delegation to a place called Hanoi in Vietnam. and we sat across from those Communists and we begged them to give us back the remains of fallen soldiers. and they refused to do it. And later on when we left there. we went to a place called Thailand where there was a refugee camp with 180.000 people out in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere. and to get there we had to fly first by plane and then by truck over a dirt road. and as we approached that refugee camp 10 miles away. there began to be people. a few people on either side of the road waving little American flags. And as we proceeded further. there were more and more people. children and old people. and they were all waving little American flags. And as we got near the camp. there was more than 10.000 people lining this dirt road.