[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 120 (Thursday, September 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1521]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO CALEB RICHTER-TATE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BILL BARRETT

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 5, 1996

  Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I have received the following 
script by Caleb Richter-Tate, a fine young Nebraskan. Caleb is the 
Nebraska winner for the Voice of Democracy broadcast script-writing 
contest, conducted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Ladies 
Auxiliary. I believe his statement serves as a challenge to all 
Americans.

                        Answering America's Call

                        (By Caleb Richter-Tate)

       ``Good morning. This is your wake-up call.''
       When I'm on vacation, it is very enjoyable for me to be 
     awakened by a pleasant-voiced individual on the other end of 
     the phone. If I choose to answer my wake-up call, I'm alerted 
     to the beginning of a new day and I'm awake to see what it 
     has to offer.
       Throughout the day our lives are filled with a variety of 
     calls--people call us to breakfast, bells call us to classes, 
     sirens call our attention to misfortune or danger, and 
     telephones call us to relaxation or to business concerns. If 
     we are fortunate, we are able to answer these varied calls. 
     But like the person on vacation, we can only respond to the 
     demands of our various calls if we have first answered our 
     wake-up call.
       In a similar manner, every day America sends all of us a 
     wake-up call. If we choose to answer it, we are awake to the 
     demands and challenges of local, state, and national 
     concerns. If we ignore the call, we sleep through events and 
     situations that we are never able to influence simply because 
     we weren't even aware of them.
       Early in our nation's history, Americans chose to answer 
     our country's wake-up call. For George Washington, Patrick 
     Henry, and Thomas Jefferson, that call awakened them to the 
     challenges of American independence. Almost a century later, 
     William Tecumsah Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and Abraham 
     Lincoln answered the call that summoned them to preserve 
     Americans' unity. And early in the 20th century, Andrew 
     Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford heard and 
     answered the call to industrialize America.
       As long as there is an America, she will be issuing wake-up 
     calls to her citizens so that we may answer and rise to the 
     challenges of the day.
       As we step toward the 21st century, we need to shake off 
     our sleepy complacency and answer America's present-day 
     call--the call is to educate ourselves, the call is to 
     improve our society, and the call is to reestablish our 
     national morality.
       Just as the wake-up call received by a vacationer enables 
     him to begin a day of sightseeing and adventure, we must 
     answer the call from America that alerts us to the fact that 
     an educated citizenry is crucial for us to remain a world-
     power in the 21st century.
       We must focus efforts on keeping students in school, on 
     providing advanced educational opportunities for those who 
     are qualified, and on harnessing the advances in technology 
     toward the benefit rather than toward the destruction of 
     mankind.
       Secondly, we need to answer the call from America reminding 
     us that our society still has problems to be solved. We 
     cannot drift back to sleep and close our eyes to the issues 
     of drug abuse, homelessness, and prejudice. Only if we are 
     wide awake to these problems will we ever have a chance to 
     solving them.
       Finally, perhaps the most important wake-up call we can 
     answer is the call from America asking us to reevaluate the 
     condition of our own national morality. Have we become a 
     country of people who care more about the amount of money in 
     our bank accounts than we do about the welfare of our 
     neighbors? Have we become a country of people who spend more 
     money on recreation than we do on charity? And have we become 
     a country of people who credit our successes and stature to 
     ourselves rather than to the God who has given them to us?
       For over 200 years citizens of our country have answered 
     America's call to wake-up and respond to whatever challenge 
     has faced us. Again, America calls us. She asks us to waken 
     to the challenges of education, of improving our society, and 
     of reestablishing our national morality.
       As a person on vacation choosing to answer or not to answer 
     your wake-up call, you make a decision that affects only you 
     and your plans for the day. But as an American, choosing to 
     answer your country's wake-up call affects all of your fellow 
     citizens not only for today, but perhaps for a lifetime, or 
     perhaps even into that hopeful future we wish to create.
       When you receive America's wake-up call, answer it.

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