[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 68 (Wednesday, April 26, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S5695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CONDOLENCES TO CITIZENS OF OKLAHOMA CITY

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I wanted to add my voice, on behalf of the 
people of California, my voice that is going to say today that we send 
our love, our condolences, and our sympathies to our friends in 
Oklahoma.
  A couple of California residents happened to be in that building at 
the time of the blast so we certainly share in this tragedy. I send my 
words of thanks to the incredible people who have shown up from all 
parts of this country to help the people of Oklahoma City cope with 
this tragedy.
  I have a lot of thoughts and feelings, but rather than say them 
today, I will be writing them down because I do not want to misspeak or 
in any way say anything that could be misconstrued.
  Today I just wanted to say that I am very fearful that what occurred 
in Oklahoma City could be a signal that America is losing something 
very special that we have always had, which is an ability to take our 
dissent and take it right to the ballot box.
  If we lose that, and if we all do not guard against violence, we will 
lose the very essence of our Government, the Government of, by, and for 
the people. When we attack people who work for the Government, we are 
attacking our neighbors and friends, and indeed we are attacking 
ourselves.
  One of the things that has concerned me for a long time is the 
dropoff in voter participation that I have seen. There are many people 
that are disgruntled and discontented with laws that are passed, the 
debates that we have here.
  I encourage them to participate, to take that frustration and those 
feelings and organize politically and get your candidates here to the 
U.S. Senate, to the House of Representatives--whatever a person's 
philosophy, be it on the left, right, in the center, it matters not.
  The beauty of what we have in America is this incredible democracy 
where everyone has a chance to get here. Certainly I got here very 
unexpectedly myself, a first-generation American--my mother never even 
graduated from high school--and I got to the U.S. Senate.
  This is an open country and there is no need to harbor bad feelings 
toward one another. Here in this Senate we debate many times and we 
sometimes get angry at each other because we disagree with each other. 
However, it is done with respect. I only hope in the years that I am 
here it will continue to be done with respect.

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