U.S. Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, can talk. He can talk about trouble, for one thing.
At considerable length.
His recent speech on the Senate floor lasted from March 31 until April 1. 25 hours and 5 minutes straight.
It was the longest speech ever delivered on the Senate floor, surpassing the 24-hours-18-minutes speech by Strom Thurmond — U.S. Senator from South Carolina — back in 1957, when Thurmond trying in vain to block some early civil rights legislation.
I’ve noticed that people from New Jersey often know how to talk. But not many of them would try to speak for 25 hours and 5 minutes. Standing up the whole time.
That’s the rule in the U.S. Senate. Once you get the floor, you can talk as long as you want and no one can stop you, as long as you remain standing. You may not sit down, not even for a moment.
The effort is most likely to succeed if you haven’t been drinking beer before you start. Or any liquids, for that matter. And it might also help if you are a vegetarian, like Cory Booker.
(I don’t think Strom Thurmond was a vegetarian, so maybe it doesn’t make any difference.)
Here’s a video that includes the final 11 minutes of Senator Booker’s speech, in case you missed watching the entire 25-hour effort on CSPAN.
We can note the final words of his speech.
“We the People. Let’s get back to the ideals other people are threatening. Let’s get back to our founding documents.
“Those perfect geniuses had some very special words at the end of the Declaration of Independence. It was one of the greatest — in all humanity — Declaration of ‘Interdependence’, when our founders said, ‘We must mutually pledge — pledge to each other — our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.’
“We need that now. From all Americans. This is a moral moment. It’s not Left or Right. It’s Right or Wrong.
“Let’s get into good trouble.
“My friend Madam President, I yield the floor.”
Finally.
The rest of the people in the Senate Chambers broke out in applause. Mostly fellow Democrats, I assume. And maybe a few Republicans who were expressing their approval that the speech was finally over.
Senator Booker was making reference to a famous statement from late Representative John Lewis, spoken on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 during a civil rights march to Montgomery, Alabama.
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
I’m not sure about getting into trouble. That generally hasn’t worked out well for me in the past. And as far as pledging my life, and fortune, and sacred honor, I don’t have much of a fortune to pledge. About $500 in my bank account, at the moment. That’s about it.
I could pledge it. But maybe I wouldn’t actually give it?
Of course, the people who wrote the Declaration of Independence had fortunes to pledge — being a bunch of wealth landowners and businessmen — and apparently, they also had sacred honor. I’m not sure what ‘sacred honor’ even is, but I bet my ex-wife would say I don’t have any.
I did a little bit of research into the science of speaking for 25 hours. (Yes, scientists have been studying that kind of thing, but maybe their funding has now been cut.) You’re supposed to drink a lot of water to keep your vocal cords hydrated. But you’re also not supposed to drink a lot of water, if you’re planning to stand on the Senate floor for 25 hours.
Senator Booker chose the second option, and my hat is off to him for that. Scientists will probably have a field day theorizing about how he managed.
Scientists have also been studying ear lobes.
A little bit of research on the Internet can lead you to interesting off-topic information. Like an article I found about why some people hate hearing their own voice. Presumably, Senator Booker doesn’t hate his own voice, but a lot of people do. (Yours truly, for example.) And how your voice sounds to you, depends on your ears, according to this article in Popular Science. And right in the middle of that article about people hating their own voice, Popular Science had inserted a link to a different science article — about ear lobes, and why humans evolved to have ear lobes, when the lobes have no obvious evolutionary purpose.
This has nothing to do with Senator Booker’s speech, of course, although we will note that the Senator has normal-sized ear lobes.
But I want to say, the fact that we have evolved ear lobes, when they serve no evolutionary purpose, is a great argument against the whole theory of evolution.
Journalists who openly question evolution, however, generally find themselves in trouble. And it’s not good trouble.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.