[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 58 (Thursday, May 12, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
             DAVID TOPLON, FIFTH DISTRICT RESPECTEEN WINNER

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB CLEMENT

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 12, 1994

  Mr. CLEMENT. Mr. Speaker, I want to extend my warmest congratulations 
to David Toplon, the Fifth District's RespecTeen ``Speak for Yourself'' 
winner.
  David, an eighth-grade student at Nashville's Martin Luther King, 
Jr., Magnet High School for Science and Engineering, wrote to me 
earlier this year on protecting the environment and the nonhuman 
organisms with which we share the Earth. This letter won in national 
competition and David will receive a U.S. savings bond to honor his 
achievement.
  The RespecTeen Program encourages seventh- and eighth-grade students 
to write to their U.S. Representatives and express their views and 
offer solutions to matters that affect them. I received quite a few 
letters from students in the Fifth District who participated in this 
valuable civic program. All of them are to be congratulated for raising 
important issues and offering solutions to them.
  I also want to commend David's teacher, Nancy Schwarz, and his 
parents, Jim and Ellen Toplon, who I know are an important source of 
encouragement and support. They, too, are proud of David's achievement.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my colleagues the text of 
David's award-winning letter.
                                  Nashville, TN, January 24, 1994.
     Hon. Bob Clement,
     Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Representative Clement: I am concerned about the way 
     this country goes about things. It puts money to be made 
     ahead of life. This doesn't make sense to me. If there is no 
     life, what good is money? Our attitude is self-destructive. 
     If we don't put Earth first in our priorities, all life will 
     end.
       We need laws to protect the inalienable rights of non-human 
     organisms. We need to predict how our plans will affect our 
     neighbors on the food chain before we carry them out. Just 
     because some organisms have little or no brain doesn't mean 
     we should use them as slaves, experiment on them, or kill 
     them. If we don't treat nature with more respect, everything 
     will die.
       We have polluted and killed too much, too long. Too many 
     plants and animals are, or will soon be, extinct because of 
     our race. The balance is being taken out of nature. Too many 
     herbivores go uneaten because of missing predators. The air 
     is unbreathable, the water undrinkable, and solar radiation 
     threatens more and more as our atmospheric shield disappears. 
     We have a chance to avoid the end of the world. The least we 
     can possibly afford to do is make laws that support a future, 
     rather than hinder the continuation of terran life.
           Sincerely,
     David Toplon.

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