[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 51 (Friday, April 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H3653-H3654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CYNICISM IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, this is the anniversary of the Oklahoma 
explosion, which made everybody stop in their tracks and ask very deep 
questions about the cynicism that is raging in America and about the 
cynicism that has been unleashed, I think most unfairly, on Government 
employees. They have been the scapegoats for so much of talk radio, so 
much of the hate that has been unleashed.
  A year ago today, we suddenly saw the faces of Federal employees, 
that they were like us, that they had families, they were hard-working, 
they were there, they were trying to live their lives and serve their 
country. Suddenly, many of their lives stopped or many of their lives 
will never be the same. I hope that we continue to fight very hard to 
come out of this big hole of cynicism that we have dug ourselves in.
  I remind people that the word ``cynic'' comes from the old Greek word 
about yapping dogs. Cynics really do not contribute anything positive, 
they just yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. And that type of thing ends up in 
destruction. It is very easy to destroy things. It is very difficult to 
rebuild. So if anyone has criticism, fine, but then tell us what you 
are going to do about it after your criticize.
  I must also say, as I rise today to talk about this year anniversary, 
how very proud I am of my congressional district. Denver, CO, has been 
selected as the place to have the trial for the outcome of this 
Oklahoma explosion. Obviously the citizens of Denver were not 
particularly thrilled about that for fear that it just painted a big 
bull's eye on them for all sorts of security problems at our own 
Federal building, which is where the Federal courthouse is near, and 
all the other issues that might come from this trial, which will 
clearly be a very high-profile trial.
  Yet, as we all know, as citizens, it is our part to make sure 
everybody gets a fair trial. It was determined a fair trial probably 
could not be held in Oklahoma City. So Denver, Colorado bit its lip and 
said OK, we have to do our part. I guess this goes on. This big media 
carnival will go on there, and we only hope justice comes out of the 
media carnival rather than something else. But in the interim, one of 
the very moving things that has happened that Coloradans have done has 
been their reaching out to the families of the Oklahoma victims. Many 
of the Oklahoma victims' families want to be present at these trials, 
want to come and want to see justice be done, want to sit in the 
courtrooms, want to participate in some way or another, to

[[Page H3654]]

make sure that this awful, awful tragedy does not go totally without 
anyone paying a price and they want to do that.
  Yet, for them to come to Colorado is expensive for them, to stay in 
Colorado is expensive. The amazing thing that has been happening in 
Colorado is, as we hear these stories, the number of people, churches, 
community centers and everyone that have said we will open our doors. 
People can stay here. We will try and help fund folks who want to come 
and be here to help them through this grieving period and to try and 
make sure that they can witness this system that we call justice and we 
hope ends up being that I think is very moving.
  So the saga of what Oklahoma City has done for Americans continues. 
It continues in my district by people continuing to reach out and try 
to help those who were struggling to deal with this as we are all 
struggling to deal in our own way with this. But I must say we also 
need to not only just tend to the wounds that came. Let us look at what 
caused those wounds to come, and it is the cynicism that has been 
unleashed in an unchecked manner in this country. Until we get that 
cynicism under control, there are no guarantees that this cannot happen 
again.
  So, yes, continue to reach out, but also I hope everybody starts 
looking into what they have been doing and have they been contributing 
to the cynicism or have they been really trying to get on to 
constructive criticism. There is a huge difference between those two 
things. Somehow I think in the 1990's we forgot that distinction. Let 
us revitalize it.

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