[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 61 (Monday, May 6, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E710]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                CIVILITY

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                      HON. BLANCHE LAMBERT LINCOLN

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 6, 1996

  Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased that Members of the House have 
taken some time to recognize the importance of civility. When people 
moved off their front porches into air conditioned homes, we didn't 
realize what we were losing. Less time on the porch in the cool 
evenings meant less time talking to our neighbors. Less time talking to 
our neighbors meant the loss of community and the loss of the security 
of knowing that if you're late getting home from work, one of your 
neighbors will make sure your children get off the school bus safely.
  My husband and I live in the country in Arkansas, but I have an 
apartment in Washington where I live when Congress is in session. Each 
morning I walk into the elevator and meet a sea of blank stares from 
strangers. Have you ever noticed how people never speak in elevators? 
Nationwide, hundreds of people get into their cars after work, drive up 
to the money machine on their way to the fast food stand, and then go 
home to eat alone in front of the television. One-fourth of Americans 
live alone--isolated from family and others who might care for them 
when they're sick or lift them up when they need a little support.
  We're losing the community spirit that built this Nation. But we can 
rejuvenate it and one way to start is by returning a little civility.
  No one could have sounded the alarm for a return to civility more 
brassily than the two gentlemen who got into a shouting match on the 
George Washington Parkway 2 weeks ago. Witnesses said the two men raced 
to cut one another off in the early morning commuter traffic, gesturing 
angrily toward one another. Minutes later, one witness rounded a bend 
in the road to see a gruesome four-car collision that left three people 
dead. One of the dead was a man who had just returned from 
Pennsylvania, where he had attended his father-in-law's funeral. His 
wife was still in Pennsylvania, coping with the loss of her father, 
when she got the news that her husband had been killed. Another 
innocent victim was a mother of three children. She had put a career on 
hold to raise three children and was driving to her third day back on 
the job when she was killed.
  We don't often see such visible results of our meaningless 
egotistical battles with other people. But each of us should look to 
that tragedy on the George Washington Parkway as a most grave reminder 
that we need a return of civility in our society. The innocent people 
who died in that accident--a mother and a father working hard for their 
families--should be heroic reminders that we have gone too far.
  As Members of Congress, we can't scratch our heads and wonder why our 
society has splintered when we belittle one another on the House floor. 
Returning civility to this country is a bigger challenge than either 
the Republican or the Democratic Party can accomplish. Edgar Guess once 
said, ``I'd rather see a lesson than hear one any day.'' I'm pleased 
that we have spent this time calling for a return to civility, but it's 
time that we also walked our talk.

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