[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 38 (Tuesday, April 12, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     TRIBUTE TO STEVEN L. HILL, JR.

                                 ______


                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 12, 1994

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I wish to recognize an outstanding 
Missourian, Steven L. Hill, Jr., who was sworn in March 18, 1994 as 
U.S. attorney western district of Missouri. Mr. Hill was sworn in by 
Judge Joseph Stevens. His comments that day reflect the type of service 
we can expect from his tenure. I enter Mr. Hill's remarks on the 
occasion of his oath of office:
       May it please the court.
       Judge Stevens, let me begin by thanking you and the members 
     of the court for making these facilities available today. My 
     family--Marianne, Mattie, Taylor and I--want to thank each of 
     you for coming and joining us on this special day. Ike and 
     David, your overly kind words remind me of Adali Stevenson's 
     admonition about praise--he said praise is like perfume--all 
     right to smell as long as you don't swallow it.
       Among various friends here today, let me recognize those 
     from the law firm of Smith Gill Fisher and Butts and the men 
     and women of the U.S. Attorneys Office. I have found both of 
     these groups to personify the very best of qualities in the 
     legal profession.
       A special thank you to the Skeltons; Susie and Ike. Long 
     before Ike befriended me, Susie and my mother were friends at 
     college. As for Ike, I know I would not be here today as your 
     U.S. Attorney without him speaking up on my behalf. I also 
     know that I would not have made it through the days following 
     my father's and younger brother's deaths without Ike's 
     friendship and support.
       Two other friends from that summer, local lawyer Matt 
     Keenan and a New Yorker named Jimmy O'Connor, are also here 
     today and have always been there for me. They join numerous 
     friends from law school by whom I have been most blessed.
       Let me say thank you to my friend and former partner David 
     Oliver for his generous introduction. So many people have 
     asked what has been the most difficult aspect of my shift 
     from private practice to the Department of Justice. For a 
     while I could not put my finger on it, but I now realize I 
     miss very much wandering down the hallway and talking with 
     David about a case or issue of mutual interest. He is a 
     lawyer's lawyer who long ago made the commitment to public 
     service and is a role model for all of us.
       You must know this is a special day for my family. My 
     mother, brother and I are so proud to be back in the 
     Department of Justice family.
       We gather today to observe a formal change of leadership in 
     the United States Attorney's Office and a renewal of our 
     commitment to the prinicples of justice. Some 60 years ago, 
     Justice Sutherland summed up the terms of that commitment 
     when he wrote the United States Attorney's interest in a 
     criminal prosecution is not that the United States win the 
     case, but that justice shall be done.
       That role, and our commitment to a higher purpose, faces 
     perhaps its greatest challenges in times of violence. At 
     another violent time in our history Abraham Lincoln warned 
     that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Lincoln 
     knew firsthand the challenge facing a nation whose citizens 
     had rejected anything short of violence to resolve their 
     differences. Lincoln's response was to challenge the country 
     to find a higher purpose that one day might unite its people.
       Today, our house--our nation--once again stands divided 
     over crime. And once again, it is incumbent upon us to find a 
     higher purpose in answering this challenge.
       Fortunately, some still believe that our country, our 
     neighborhoods, our schools and our people live in a nation of 
     laws.
       Unfortunately, an ever-growing number of people have come 
     to believe and to act as though ours is a nation of 
     individuals, of men and women free to live outside the law 
     without consequence.
       There are countless tragic examples of our society's 
     rejection of its laws, but the most troubling aspect to me--
     and what I hope is the most troubling to all of you--is the 
     combination of guns and young people. Growing numbers of 
     children--boys and girls too young to drive--carry firearms 
     because they believe they can only be safe with them.
       Countless studies demonstrate we are not simply presented 
     with the problem that our society encourages young people 
     that guns and violence are acceptable. No instead it is far 
     worse. Young people are regularly presented with the notion 
     that it is acceptable to use that gun they are carrying. This 
     willingness to use guns has had the most unfortunate 
     consequences. Today, persons under 18 are 244 percent more 
     likely to be killed by guns than they were in 1986.
       A review of last year's crime statistics for this city 
     alone, particularly the numbers reflecting violent crime, 
     demonstrates that if you are young, African American and 
     male, you stand a disproportionate chance of being the victim 
     of a violent crime.
       Across this district, from its major cities to its small 
     rural towns, our violent crime problem is multiplied each day 
     by individual tragedies. This problem will only get worse 
     until all of us choose to accept the premise that childhood 
     violence is a real problem that is everyone's responsibility. 
     It is tempting, but it would be wrong to trace all of the 
     problems of our youth to one individual, one policy or one 
     administration. Our challenge is deeper and broader.
       Although the government cannot raise every child, it should 
     be our commitment here and now that we as a people will do 
     anything necessary to protect our children. Before we are 
     able to honestly confront violence in our streets and homes, 
     we must acknowledge that no person in our society is safe if 
     we cannot protect our children, the most innocent among us.
       Ask yourself: If the numbers show that you were more likely 
     than anyone around you to become a victim of a violent crime, 
     perhaps even a murder, would there be any reason for you to 
     believe ours is a nation of laws? It is this basic agreement 
     to honor and respect the laws that ends up being rejected 
     because the laws are seen as having failed their fundamental 
     purpose: to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
       It is not plausible, much less believable to suggest these 
     young people believe ours is a nation of laws. We can do 
     better, and we must do better, for our young.
       If we sense that our ability to protect our children is 
     hopelessly slipping away, we will eventually come to question 
     the very usefulness of our laws and the value of those of us 
     who are given the awesome responsibility of enforcing them.
       Your friends and neighbors, fearful of the stranger and the 
     darkness, do not believe ours is a nation of laws.
       This lawlessness, of course, is not limited to violent 
     crime. Growing numbers of individuals and companies pollute 
     the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil we call 
     our own. Most often victimized are the areas we call our 
     poorest because they figure they are safe to violate those 
     areas.
       More and more, these polluters are heard to say, ``Well, if 
     we get caught, it's just a cost of doing business, and we'll 
     pay.'' Those who live in our poorest neighborhoods, the 
     neighborhoods where polluters feel free to dump whatever they 
     please, do not believe ours is a nation of laws. We can do 
     better.
       Nothing has robbed the public of its faith in the system so 
     completely as the notion that there is a different standard 
     for public officials and those with access to tax dollars. We 
     will prosecute those who violate these sacred trusts.
       Having set out these challenges we face, it is clear the 
     primary duty of the United States Attorney is to foster the 
     public's confidence in its justice system. As we carry out 
     our duties, we should ask ourselves what we must to do to 
     restore the belief of every person that the justice system is 
     accessible, fair and just.
       First and foremost we have set out cardinal tenets from 
     which we never depart, regardless of circumstances. Our first 
     tenet is that we approach every matter--whether it is an 
     investigation, indictment or sentencing--by asking ourselves: 
     What is the right thing to do?
       A second tenet is that we must do what is necessary to 
     bring justice to society; and not simply what brings 
     attention to ourselves.
       In setting forth what we will do in the Department of 
     Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office, we must also ask the 
     question: Why does it have to be this way?
       Why is it acceptable that our young people feel their world 
     is so unsafe that they must carry guns and plan their 
     funerals?
       We will provide leadership that specifically addresses 
     violent crime, particularly those acts involving our youngest 
     citizens. We will provide leadership in aggressively 
     prosecuting those who pollute our environment and defraud our 
     health care system.
       Why is it acceptable that our most disadvantaged neighbors 
     are most often the ones victimized by pollution and health 
     care fraud? We will not turn our heads and accept these 
     conditions simply because things were this way before our 
     turn came to lead.
       That these problems are hard is not an acceptable reason to 
     ignore them. To the contrary, that these problems are hard 
     gives us every reason to start here, now, today, to address 
     them.
       Some words of recent history still have use for us today; 
     clearly Robert Kennedy's words still do. At a speech to South 
     African college students in 1966, Kennedy said: ``Each time a 
     man stands up for an ideal or sets to improve the lot of 
     others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a 
     ripple of hope.''
       Kennedy's words are appropriate for each of us, 
     particularly if we remember that so very many of our 
     contemporary problems can be overcome one child at a time, 
     one family at a time, one block at a time, one city at a 
     time.
       It is not enough to say we will aggressively prosecute 
     without calling for increased investment in children's 
     futures. We can do better. We don't accept a 50 percent 
     success rate from our restaurants and there is no reason to 
     accept the same rate of failure in our schools.
       At a recent gathering of area young people, one of the 
     recurring themes was the need for after-school activities in 
     a safe and secure location. We have started in the right 
     direction with the Justice Department's Safe Haven Program. 
     Combining a myriad of services and activities, including 
     conflict resolution education, we will give our young people 
     a safer alternative to the troubled streets.
       Our communities must increase their support for the proven 
     successes of such local/federal partnerships as the gang task 
     force, the fugitive task force, and southwest Missouri's 
     COMET Drug Task Force and Jasper County Drug Task Force.
       These joint efforts, and others like them, are making a 
     difference and we need to continue our support for them.
       We need to build on the successful components of these 
     partnerships and encourage the coordination of early 
     education programs like Head Start, Parents As First Teachers 
     and conflict resolution programs for our young people.
       We will continue our efforts at the U.S. Attorney's Office 
     to build teams of local and federal law enforcement officers 
     attacking health care fraud and environmental crimes.
       We will not accept crime in even our cities' poorest 
     neighborhoods. We will give public housing residents the 
     opportunity to organize themselves to eliminate guns and 
     drugs and reclaim their neighborhoods from gangs. Our Weed 
     and Seed program will take a new step by offering individual 
     neighborhoods the opportunity to chart their own courses by 
     participating in grant programs.
       In determining the success of our efforts, we will not look 
     to the news headlines as our barometer of progress. The 
     proper judgment of success was provided by John Kennedy, 
     months before he took office as President. Kennedy set out 
     the following standards, which I paraphrase here only 
     slightly:
       First, were we truly people of courage--with the courage to 
     stand up to one's enemies--and the courage to stand up, when 
     necessary, to one's own associates--the courage to resist 
     public pressure as well as private greed?
       Secondly, were we truly people of judgment--with perceptive 
     judgment of the future as well as the past--of our own 
     mistakes as well as the mistakes of others--with enough 
     wisdom to know what we did not know, and enough candor to 
     admit it?
       Third, were we truly people of integrity--people who never 
     ran out on either the principles in which we believed or the 
     people who believed in us--people whom neither financial gain 
     nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment 
     of our sacred trust?
       Finally, were we truly people of dedication--with an honor 
     mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised 
     by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to 
     serving the public good and the national interest?
       By these standards--courage, judgment, integrity and 
     dedication--we will work to restore the faith of all people 
     in their justice system, so help me God.

                          ____________________