[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                             {time}   1120
 
                      RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Danner). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of February 11, 1994, the gentleman from California [Mr. Tucker] 
is recognized during morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mr. TUCKER. Madam Speaker, this week on the House floor has been 
dubbed ``The Crime Bill Week,'' and, indeed, all week and in late 
sessions tonight, we will be debating and discussing how we, the 
Representatives in the House, can come up with a crime bill, a national 
crime bill that would hopefully ease some of the tension and some of 
the fear and some of the frustration out in our streets, not only in 
the inner cities in America but certainly all across America, even in 
the rural and in the heartland of America.
  Madam Speaker, last week I had a very interesting experience. I had 
the occasion to whip the entire House of Representatives on a kind of 
tangential piece of what I call anticrime legislation; and, that is, a 
House resolution that I have submitted for the House's consideration 
today, asking for Random Acts of Kindness Week to be instituted and 
celebrated in the year 1995 on the week of Valentine's week.
  Madam Speaker, ``random acts of kindness,'' that is an interesting 
saying and an interesting phrase, indeed, because all we hear about are 
random acts of violence. In fact, you cannot turn on your television 
set any day and not hear a report about another random act of violence. 
We have gotten so conditioned to it, we have gotten unfortunately to 
some degree desensitized to it. And, Madam Speaker, when I heard about 
this campaign, actually inspired by Dr. Chuck Wall, a professor out in 
Bakersfield, CA, I knew then and my staff knew then that it was my 
mission to get the requisite 218 signatures in order to have a House 
resolution commemorating random acts of kindness.
  Madam Speaker, as I went throughout this floor and I lobbied and 
whipped my colleagues and I asked them to support me in the Random Acts 
of Kindness Week, I got many responses. First of all, people looked at 
me and they smiled. I guess nervous energy made them beam and wonder if 
this was a pun, a joke. But as they began to commiserate with me and 
understood that I was serious in my quest to get their support, I found 
out quite refreshingly, Madam Speaker, that this House restored my 
faith in their integrity to restore some type of kindness back to 
America.
  Indeed, as I was on this quest to get these 218 signatures, calls 
came into my office, more and more, from all parts of the country 
indicating to me, ``Representative Tucker, you must continue in this 
quest to get the Random Acts of Kindness Week.''
  Madam Speaker, I am happy to say today that I not only got the 218 
signatures, but as of today I have gotten 255 signatures and I am very 
happy to say today that those signatures were not just from one side of 
the aisle, meaning just the Democratic Party, but they were from both 
sides of the aisle, a bipartisan effort, and so in this crime week and 
on this initiative to overcome crime, I am happy to say that the House 
of Representatives has restored my faith that we are trying to be more 
kind in this country and we are trying to encourage more people to do 
what they can, not only to fight crime but to be proactive and promote 
kindness and good samaritanship in America.

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