Contact:Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami, 202-226-7616
Washington, D.C. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among those delivering remarks at the Newseum grand opening dedication ceremony today. Below are her remarks:
"Thank you very much, Charles. Thank you to all the founders, the funders, the staff who made the Newseum possible. We all throughout the world are deeply in your debt. Thank you, Al Neuharth, for your vision.
"Of course, it is an honor to me to be here today as Speaker of the House, and personally as well. Raised in a political family, I read newspapers morning, Noon, and night, every edition. The bulldog edition starting the night before and then the one-star, the two-star, the three-star, so I can't wait to take the tour here. It's especially an honor to be here with my colleague, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and she and I are always honored to be any place John Lewis is. He is a great patriot who sacrificed more to ensure that our nation is true to its founding ideals than almost anyone. He was a friend and partner, as we saw, to the great leader Reverend Martin Luther King.
"I want to acknowledge Prime Minister Mulroney and Ambassador Wilson - remember when the Canadian embassy was opened here, what whoop-de-do that was? You started it all on Pennsylvania Avenue, I think.
"I don't know if any of you know, but in the 1950s, Reverend Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King traveled to India to study the Ghandian principles of non-violence, which my colleague Mr. Lewis referenced. And what is interesting, I think, is that in Sanskrit the word 'satyagraha' means non-violence and it also means insistence on the truth. Truth insistence.
"And in fact your profession is all about our deep belief and defense of the First Amendment's guarantee of a free speech and a free press. It is deeply rooted in that insistence on truth - is what we depend on you for.
"When the framers wrote our Constitution over 220 years ago, a message could only travel as fast as a horse could gallop or a ship could sail. And yet even with that gap in communication, our Founders knew that freedom of press was essential to what they were doing. Establishing this new country with all that optimism, and they said at the time, they called it a new order for the centuries, that this country would last for centuries because it was predicated on freedom. Not only freedom of speech, but they specifically spelled out, no abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. That is why it is in the Bill of Rights. It is so exciting to see, and to read, and to see that part of the architecture of this building, part of its aesthetic is the beautiful truth of that First Amendment.
"Today, communication travels in real time. In fact, I find in my meetings, and perhaps some of you do, that it has traveled even before we have left the meeting. The BlackBerries are at work, and that is why it is so important when we get an inkling of something, whether it is a protest in Tibet or wherever happens to be, that the most wholesome thing that can happen is that journalists are allowed in to insist on the truth. To find out what the truth is, whatever it may be.
"I was so pleased that others have referenced and that you had in the museum a journalists' memorial. Journalists everywhere risk their lives when they go in to these dangerous places to shine that bright light of truth. The journalists' memorial here in the museum pays tribute to their sacrifices, including the many who have died on the battlefield of Iraq. They lost their lives, so that we can find the truth. And many times when they are in battle it is not fair, because they are not armed, so they really are patriotic and courageous, alongside our men and women in uniform who make us the land of the free, and the home of the brave, and that partnership is one that we respect.
"Here at home, we can continue to strengthen our democracy by enacting a federal media shield law. I enlist your support in doing that; it is moving through Congress; we passed it in the House. Because I believe that as we protect and defend our nation, we must protect and defend the Constitution, and that shield law does protect the First Amendment, and the freedom of the press; that is what our Founders envisioned. Do I have your cooperation in that agenda?
I am going to associate myself, as we say in the Congress, but, before I go to that, let me say this: I was told when I came in, I was asked: 'Guess how many seats there are in the auditorium?' I looked around, and I said: '500?' 'No. 535.' The exact number of Members of Congress. What do you think? I think we should meet here, Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate, and no aisle between us.
"I am going to associate myself with Arthur Sulzberger's remarks in quoting Thomas Jefferson who said: 'Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.'
"I thank all of you who had made this museum possible, so that our freedom of the press is not limited or lost. It is a brave act of patriotism, establishing this museum, a great triumph to freedom."