[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 55 (Thursday, May 1, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3895-S3896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE CULTURAL DECLINE IN AMERICA

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I would like to make a few remarks in 
morning business. Today, as most people recognize, is a national day 
for prayer. We have also been talking about a very important thing 
regarding families and a bill that has been put forward to try to help 
families be able to do their job better.
  What I would like to speak about a little bit today is building off 
of that statement and also off the National Day of Prayer to talk 
about, overall, the culture of America and what has happened to our 
Nation, what has happened in our culture. I think it probably would 
come as no surprise, unfortunately, to most people that our culture is 
in difficulty and has been having a great deal of problems lately.
  I have been looking at and studying this issue for some period of 
time. Plus, as I travel across my State, as I travel across Kansas, I 
hear more and more people mentioning how much difficulty they think the 
culture is in, how much they feel like they are fighting culture just 
to raise their kids and raise their families. I would like to take the 
Senate's time for just a few minutes to describe where are we today in 
this culture. Why do we need things like flexibility for families to be 
able to be families again? Why do we need to do those things?
  Let us look at some of these charts. I apologize ahead of time for 
how discouraging they are, because they are. As you look at these 
things--look at this. This is child abuse and neglect reports in 
America. We are talking, in 1976, about 500,000 of them, which was a 
lot at that point in time. But consider where we are today: 3 million 
in 1995 reported, of child abuse and neglect cases reported on an 
annual basis, 3 million. That is a high percentage of our children 
being recorded in this. This is a terrible situation and, 
unfortunately, an indictment of the culture.
  Let us look at out-of-wedlock births. This is something that has 
received a lot of attention overall in our society. Consider where we 
were in 1960--about 5 percent. And you can go back earlier in time and 
it stays at about this 3 to 5 percent level. Consider where we are 
today--30 percent. About one in every three children born in America 
today is born to a single mom. That is a tough situation. In our inner 
cities--in the District of Columbia we have here, that figure gets up 
to nearly 60 to 70 percent.
  My wife and I have three children. It is tough enough for two of us 
to raise them, let alone without flexible time to be able to get off 
from work, and let alone without being born into a situation where you 
start out with one parent just at the very outset.
  The next chart, violent crimes taking place in our society. 
Unfortunately, I think everybody knows the situation here, but look at 
the staggering numbers--staggering numbers. In 1960, we are talking 
about violent crime offenses--rape per 100,000, we had about between 
100 to 200 per 100,000 citizens in the country in 1960. Look at where 
we are today. We are up at nearly 800 per 100,000 people. Look at that 
period of time, 1960 to 1993, 33 years, and we go up nearly sevenfold 
in violent crimes, sevenfold.
  My own staff here in Washington, DC, and I have only been here now 4 
months, three of them have been burglarized, my own staff here in 
Washington, DC. This is across the country what is taking place. This 
is just a horrendous number, if you look at that.
  Take a look at this. This one is sad, about the hopelessness of some 
of our kids in this society. Just think about the concept even of a 
teenager, somebody who is just looking at getting into life and into 
what should be the flowering, the spring of his or her life, committing 
suicide; having, actually, the mental thought that I should end this 
life. To me that is just--it is almost unthinkable, anyway; abhorrent. 
What has happened in our culture? These are again per 100,000. We used 
to have about 3 in 1960. We are up to nearly 12; quadrupled in a 35-
year time period, of teens being hopeless. How much more do they 
reflect the rest of teenagers who have thought about this and decide, 
well, I am not willing to quite take that step? It has quadrupled in 35 
years, in the state of our society.

  What about marriages ending in divorce? Do not hear me to say I am 
perfect or my family is perfect. We have had divorces in our family, 
too, just like every family in America. But look at the numbers, 
because they are staggering; they really are. In 1920, about 10 or 11 
percent of marriages ended in divorce. Where are we today? Nearly 50 
percent; nearly 50 percent. And it affects all families everywhere. It 
affects my family, too. Look at that.

[[Page S3896]]

  What does it lead to overall? This is a chart of a Fordham University 
study on the culture. They have tracked the culture in America since 
1970, and they use a whole set of different factors, some of which I 
would not consider; in others, I would add additional factors. But they 
overall said the culture, in their objective assessment, has declined 
from, in 1970, a 73 percent objective number to a 38 percent objective 
number--in half, the cultural decline in America, in a period--look at 
the time period we are talking about here--25 years. Is this 
incredible?
  I think on our National Day of Prayer we ought to be praying about 
the culture. And we ought to be thinking about what we can do ourselves 
and what we can do corporately in this society.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska is recognized.

                          ____________________