Betty Sutton

Ms. SUTTON

Ms. SUTTON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the City of Akron and the 22nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture which will be held at the Akron-Summit County Main Library. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Akron-Summit County Public Library and the Eta Tau Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Inc. Ozell Sutton will deliver the annual lecture. Civil rights and human rights are Sutton's passions. He served as an escort for the Little Rock Nine when they entered Central High School in Arizona in 1957. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in 1963 and in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. He was in Memphis when King was killed in 1968. Mr. Sutton has been cited four times by Ebony magazine as one of the ``100 Most Influential African-American Leaders.'' All Americans know of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s stature as a national hero and we all look up to Dr. King's ideals of freedom, justice and opportunity. From his celebrated ``Letter from Birmingham Jail'' to his organization of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dr. King demonstrated that eloquent words followed with significant action could affect social change without resorting to violence. His ``I Have a Dream'' speech movingly spelled out his dream of racial equality and propelled the issue to the forefront of national consciousness. The City of Akron, which has a very rich history, is the seat of Summit County in the State of Ohio. The city is located between Cleveland to the north and Canton to the south. It was founded in 1825 near the Ohio & Erie Canal and became a manufacturing center owing to its location at a staircase of locks. The locks were needed due to the higher elevation of the area, which gave rise to the name Summit County as well as Akron, which is a rough translation of ``summit'' into Greek. The city is home to the University of Akron, the Akron Aeros ``AA'' affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, and the Firestone Country Club, at which the PGA Tour's Bridgestone Invitational is annually played. Akron is often referred to as ``The Rubber City,'' being the home of both Goodyear and Firestone. The city is also home to the All-American Soap Box Derby which has been held at Akron's Derby Downs race track since 1935. In closing, I once again pay tribute to the City of Akron and the 22nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture.

Ms. SUTTON

Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the kind gentleman from California for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of raising the minimum wage to help our working families. In November, many Americans cast their votes for change because they were tired of the economic injustices working families have suffered over the last decade. Those who went to the polls want action on a clean bill from a Congress that has failed to raise the Federal minimum wage for nearly 10 years. Voters in Ohio and five other States who believed in our democracy passed minimum wage increases. This is not only about increasing wages, it is about changing the way we treat our working men and women. And it is about traditional American values of fairness and opportunity. It is about paying rent, putting food on the table and paying for our children to go to college. Mr. Speaker, the voters have given us a mandate. This is part of America's agenda. Today we act mindful of that mandate to help working families across this Nation by raising the minimum wage.

Ms. SUTTON

Ms. SUTTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman for yielding me this time. I rise in strong support of the rules package. Trust is a fragile thing. It is difficult to win, but easy to lose. It finds its hold on promises kept and honesty sustained and unquestionable integrity. As the representative of the 13th District of Ohio, I am honored to rise on this historic day to speak for the first time on the floor of the people's House. And in so rising, I am proud that I do so to keep the faith with the people who sent me here to serve. With our actions today, on this first day of the reform Congress, we begin to fulfill the awesome responsibility entrusted to us by the American people. We have heard the call for change and it shall be heeded. Today, we sever the links between those who would buy influence on Capitol Hill and those who would willingly sell it. We act to clean up the corruption which has eroded the public trust and resulted in far too many policies that benefit the well connected and the privileged few, at the expense of the greater good. Title II of our rules package does just this. We end the K Street Project, which took peddling of access and influence to soaring new heights. We act to eradicate the cronyism and corruption. We cut off the gifts, the perks and travel wielded by special interests. We take the darkest inner workings of government and sanitize them with the light of day. We will work to adopt this set of anti-corruption reforms to dismantle the dark corridors and backrooms and avenues to abuse that have allowed corruption to grow and flourish. We will beat back the culture and abuses that have hurt the American people, both in policy and in spirit. Today, we heed the call to put a halt to the corruption that has tarnished this House. Trust is a fragile, sacred thing. And we, in the new 110th Congress, will protect it with all the power of our office.