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This page comes from the images of the Congressional Record on page H4366, June 16, 1999. The file name is opr000EL.pdf
Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate
the gentleman from Florida
yielding me this time.
Mr. Chairman, I just think it is sort
of ironic that the very ones that wanted
us to come straight from the Senate
with a bill to the floor with no consideration
are now complaining because
there was not enough consideration.
Mr. Chairman, I just want to say that
the truth will make us free if we admit
what the truth is. Every once in a
while, I read something or hear something
that blows away all that smoke
that clouds a particular issue. A letter
written by a Mr. Addison Dawson to
the San Angelo Standard-Times is just
such a statement. In fact, after I make
this statement, I do not think anybody
else needs to speak. We just need to
vote.
The following is Mr. Dawson's letter,
which Paul Harvey read on his radio
show: ''For the life of me, I can't understand
what could have gone wrong
in Littleton, Colorado. If only the parents
had kept their children away from
the guns, we wouldn't have had such a
tragedy. Yeah, it must have been the
guns.
''It couldn't have been because half
our children are being raised in broken
homes. It couldn't have been because
our children get to spend an average of
30 seconds in meaningful conversation
with their parents each day.
''After all, we give our children quality
time. It couldn't have been because
we treat our children as pets and our
pets as children.
''It couldn't have been because we
place our children in day care centers
where they learn their socialization
skills among their peers under the law
of the jungle, while employees who
have no vested interest in the children
look on and make sure that no blood is
spilled.
It couldn't have been because we
allow our children to watch, on average,
7 hours of television a day filled
with the glorification of sex and violence
that isn't even fit for adult consumption.
''It couldn't have been because we
allow (or even encourage) our children
to enter into virtual worlds in which,
to win the game, one must kill as
many opponents as possible in the
most sadistic way possible.
''It couldn't have been because we
have sterilized and contracepted our
families down to sizes so small that the
children we do have are so spoiled with
material things that they come to
equate the receiving of the material
with love.
''It couldn't have been because our
children, who historically have been
seen as a blessing from God, are now
being viewed as either a mistake created
when contraception fails or inconveniences
that parents try to raise in
their spare time. It couldn't have been
because we give 2-year prison sentences
to teenagers who kill their newborns.
''It couldn't have been because our
school systems teach the children that
they are nothing but glorified apes who
have evolutionized out of some pri-mordial
soup of mud.
''It couldn't have been because we
teach our children that there are no
laws of morality that transcend us,
that everything is relative and that actions
do not have consequences. What
the heck, the President gets away with
it.
''Nah, it must have been the guns.''
Last updated: 11-Jul-2004 |
