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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, tomorrow night, we will have the annual State of the Union Message from the President of the United States. Each year, Members of Congress are given a ticket to invite a guest to the State of the Union. I have invited several people over the years whom I will never forget. One of them, 15 years ago, was a woman in military uniform who came to see us from her hospital room. She had just been shot down in her helicopter over Iraq, and there she was a few weeks later as my guest at the State of the Union. Her name was Tammy Duckworth. Now she is my colleague in the U.S. Senate. So you never know what might happen when a Member of Congress offers an invitation to the State of the Union.
Tomorrow night, I am going to have a special guest and a special friend. I am hosting an extraordinary resident of my State, Dr. Zaher Sahloul. Dr. Sahloul is a critical care specialist at Advocate Christ Medical Center at Saint Anthony's Hospital.
He is an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago, but he is much, much more than that.
Dr. Sahloul has a long history of leading timely and often dangerous medical missions to some of the most desperate parts of the world, including recently a trip to Gaza. You see, Dr. Sahloul is the president of MedGlobal, a nonprofit that provides critical medical services in areas of crisis all over the world. His work was recently featured on ``60 Minutes.''
Before that, he led the Syrian American Medical Society, which led similar lifesaving missions. Through these efforts, he and other volunteer doctors have provided urgent care to desperate populations, including in Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and Bangladesh. In fact, in 2017, when the Burmese military was attacking that country's Rohingya population with unspeakable cruelty, Dr. Sahloul and his colleagues helped the war-weary refugees who were fleeing into Bangladesh.
I had a chance to visit him and witness those efforts firsthand at one such camp in the Bangladeshi city of Cox's Bazar. I will never forget walking through that sea of humanity, desperate humanity, and seeing what Dr. Sahloul and his colleagues were doing to bring basic dignity and basic medical care to this traumatized population. It was truly heroic.
And what he and his colleagues similarly have done in Syria, with barrel bombs falling from the sky, or in Ukraine or in Gaza, has been equally moving. It is no wonder he has been awarded the Gandhi Award for Peace, the Heartland Alliance Kovler Center Dr. Robert Kirschner's Award for Global Activism, and UNICEF Chicago's Shine a Light on Global Refugee Crisis annual humanitarian award.
I believe that Dr. Sahloul epitomizes humanity's goodness during times of conflict and trauma. And it is my honor to have him as my guest tomorrow night. His most recent work in Gaza is a stark reminder of the dire humanitarian needs facing us in the unfolding crisis that started with the horrific October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
He shared with me and several of my colleagues deeply troubling stories of innocent people caught in this conflict who are in desperate need of basic medical attention and supplies. Operations and amputations occurring using vinegar as an antiseptic or Tylenol for anesthesia in the amputation of children's limbs, expectant mothers without safe medical facilities to give birth.
The United States has started airdropping emergency supplies into Gaza. It is a relatively small step, but it is a step in the right direction, although not a long-term solution to the conflict. I have long called for a cease-fire by all sides that includes the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. That seems to be the direction negotiators are aiming for before the start of Ramadan. I hope that is the case, and I hope that any such pause can be used to reunite hostages with their families and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.
I continue to believe in the two-state solution, one with new leadership on all sides. I think it is the only viable long-term path forward. In tomorrow's State of the Union Address, President Biden will not only fulfill one of his most important constitutional obligations, he will also have the opportunity to highlight to America how his administration has been working with congressional Democrats to improve the lives of our Nation's working families.
In addition to the millions of Americans who will tune in to hear the address, there is no doubt that people across the world will be watching and hoping that he will say something that will lead us toward a more peaceful globe because, as we all know, America's influence extends way beyond our borders, and as Dr. Sahloul has proven, so, too, do our citizens.
I am honored to be joined by a guest who embodies the best of America--selflessness, a commitment to service, and a belief that a single individual has the ability to make the world a better place.
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