On Monday at 7pm, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker began his speech for the senate. He took to the floor with the purpose of addressing the threat the Trump administration poses to the United States. His speech lasted for a total of twenty five hours and five minutes, marking it the longest speech in history. Senator Booker did not sit, take a break, or diminish his drive and passion the whole time.
For a bit of overview, Cory Booker is one of the two U.S. Senators of New Jersey and the first African American to take on that role for the state. From 1998 to 2002 he was a member of the Municipal Council of Newark, New Jersey and served as the mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013. He was appointed as Senator of New Jersey in 2013 and was reelected in 2014 for a six year term and elected again in 2020.
Within his speech, he described his discontent with the actions of the current administration, and how those actions have had detrimental effects on everyone living in the U.S. Specifically, he mentioned his concerns for Social Security and Medicare, the Department of Education, immigration, foreign policy, affordable housing and more. As you can tell, this is a LOT to talk about. However, these are some of the biggest issues America is facing right now that are worth discussion and Senator Booker made it his responsibility to address them.
Something viewers of his speech have debated over is whether his speech qualifies as a filibuster. A filibuster is a political procedure where one or more members of the legislative branch, specifically the Senate in this case, prolong debate to prevent a bill, act, or any type of legal decision. As Senator Booker’s speech had no connection to a specific legislation, his speech is technically not a filibuster. The record was previously held by Senator Strom Thurmond who had a twenty four hour and eighteen minute filibuster in opposition to the Civil rights Act of 1957. While Thurmond’s filibuster was against progress and inclusion, Booker’s was to advocate for action and hope during trying times.
Some of the biggest moments from his speech are when he was vulnerable on the floor of the Senate. Towards the end of his speech, he paid tribute to a man who changed his life multiple times: John Lewis. John Lewis was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights movement as he co founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC in the 1960s. He also participated in famous protests and events such as the March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. In the last minutes of his speech he pleads for “good and necessary trouble”, as John Lewis used to put it.
He said: “This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right, it’s right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble… my friend Madam President, I yield the floor.”
This is a moral moment for us too. Everything that is going on in the world affects us, whether we can see it or not. Senator Cory Booker may have yielded the floor, but he has not yielded from fighting and neither should we. There is so much more that we as high school students can do. Stay informed, stay aware, and stay sensitive and supportive when discussing current events and politics, because you never know if someone near you is struggling during this time.
