Reasonable, even intelligent people can, and frequently do, disagree on how best to achieve peace in the Middle East, but, peace must be the goal of our foreign policy tools, whether they be by the stick or by the carrot.

A free people, free to believe as we wish, free to speak our minds, free to raise our children as we see fit, will, make no mistake about it, endure.

We all understand that compromise is part of the legislative process, yet at the same time, I would submit that wilderness is not for sale.

The spirit of Christmas is - and hopefully always will be - about goodwill and generosity to others and peace on earth.

Madam Speaker, I have spent more than half my life as a member of the Resources Committee. In that time I have supported numerous wilderness designations. In fact, I cannot recall ever opposing a wilderness bill.

Simply put, I believe we should not seek the lowest common denominator when it comes to wilderness and saddle a wilderness designation with exceptions, exclusions, and exemptions.

Wilderness designations should not be the result of a quid pro quo. They should rise or fall on their own merits.