[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 17, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1240-E1241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




STATEMENTS BY TISON CAMPBELL AND JONATHAN LAFARGE REGARDING THE U.S. IN 
                            THE 21ST CENTURY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 17, 1997

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record these statements by high school 
students from Vermont, who were speaking at my recent town meeting on 
issues facing young people.

       Mr. Campbell. In the next three years the United States 
     will enter the 21st Century. We will fined ourselves faced 
     with many challenges that will be difficult but not 
     impossible to overcome. These challenges are overcoming the 
     national debt, dealing with fossil fuel shortages, threats to 
     national security and the future of the global community.
       As we near the beginning of the next century, we face a 
     growing national debt. This debt is consuming more and more 
     government money. We must act before this debt gets so large 
     that it causes the downfall of our economy.
       In order to solve this problem, the government must raise 
     more money. The most practical way to do this is to raise 
     taxes or to implement a national sales tax. The added income 
     from the tax increase or sales tax would greatly aid in the 
     eradication of this debt.
       We will also face the problem of fossil fuel shortages. As 
     we consume more and more of these non renewable resources, we 
     will find it necessary to convert to alternate energy 
     sources. We can utilize the energy from the sun to generate 
     electricity. The most efficient way to accomplish this is to 
     place satellites fitted with solar panels in orbit and then 
     to have the energy beamed back to collecting stations on the 
     earth. This would give us an unlimited supply of cheap 
     electricity thus allowing us to gradually phase out fossil 
     fuels.
       There will be many threats to national security in the next 
     century. These threats will be both physical and mental, 
     domestic and international. The mental threat to our society 
     is the public distrust of the government. The members of our 
     government must act to change this image so that people will 
     once again realize that the government is there to make their 
     lives better, not to destroy them. This could be accomplished 
     through a series of speeches or an advertising campaign in 
     which the representatives for a certain district or a state 
     would answer questions from the people about the state of a 
     government.
       Another threat to our society is that of terrorism. As the 
     countries of the world grow more peaceful, violent people 
     will have to shift to terrorism in order to get their goals 
     accomplished. In order to combat this threat, we must devise 
     better security measures to scan people entering the country. 
     We can also work with the nations of the world to track down 
     terrorist organizations before they can cause any real 
     damage.
       To combat terrorism originating in our country, we must 
     pass strong anti-terrorist laws that call for strict 
     punishment of terrorists. By taking a strong stand on this 
     issue, we can convince potential terrorists that if they want 
     to reform the system, it needs to be done from within with 
     the consent of the majority of the people.
       With the invention of the airplane, it became possible to 
     travel long distances in short periods of time. This brought 
     the world together and caused the formation of the global 
     community. As this community expands, alliances will be 
     formed. We are already seeing examples of this with the 
     formation of the European Union and the United Nations. As 
     the world continues to evolve, the people will eventually 
     realize that it will be beneficial to form a world 
     government. This government would be an expansion of the 
     United Nations that would operate under a constitution based 
     on that of the United States. This constitution would 
     guarantee that all people will have the right to life, 
     liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
       The creation of this government would all but abolish war. 
     The armies of the world would be combined to form a large 
     world army with each country keeping a smaller force to act 
     as our National Guard does today. This would ensure that the 
     rights of each independent country would not be abused and 
     that, if necessary, the country would be able to defend 
     itself.
       The world government would also eliminate the need for 
     atomic weapons. This would allow us to destroy the weapons 
     and to shift our scientific resources to things more 
     beneficial than the creation of weapons.
       The world government would allow us to achieve peace on 
     earth and it would ensure the rights of every man, woman and 
     child on the planet.
       Mr. Lafarge. This government would be formed by an 
     expansion of the power of the United Nations. It would be the 
     job of this government to carry out the solutions to the 
     problems listed above.
       First, all countries would need to form into a council 
     modeled after the United States Senate with each country 
     having two members. This council would need to choose a chief 
     executive. The Executive Branch would be headed by the chief 
     executive with a cabinet of seven officials. The seven 
     departments would be Justice, Defense, Treasury, Space 
     Exploration, Interior, World Health and International 
     Transportation. The Judicial branch would be headed by an 
     international Supreme Court. There would be a branch of the 
     international court in every country. Then, once established, 
     the government would gradually need to form a world currency. 
     This would ease transaction and aid in the forming of a world 
     stock market. This would also allow businesses around the 
     world to merge and further unify the world.
       With the constant advances in technology, this government 
     would need to play an active role in the development of these 
     technologies. Space exploration and medicine are the most 
     prominent areas of study. There could be whole space stations 
     dedicated to one field or disease. Dangerous biohazards could 
     be contained and controlled. The unique properties of a low G 
     environment would enable us to do things that we cannot do on 
     earth. Scientists could create more resilient strains of 
     plants and then clone these to solve world food problems. 
     Scientists could use accelerated cellular reproduction to 
     grow food faster and allow for faster distribution.
       Through the implementation of these programs, we can bring 
     humanity into a golden age where all men live under a fair, 
     just government based upon principles in the Constitution of 
     the United States.
       Mr. Campbell. I haven't seen much progress with just what 
     I've witnessed from Congress. There have been attempts to 
     balance the budget, and that's a good start; but even with a 
     balanced budget, we won't generate enough capital to quickly 
     pay off this debt before it can really start to affect our 
     economy. I believe that eventually we're going to be forced 
     to increase taxes in order to pay for this.

[[Page E1241]]

       There was the suggestion of cutting different programs, but 
     the way that I see it is that we're already cutting so many 
     programs as it is that if we end up cutting more programs, 
     some of them are going to eventually have to be dropped and 
     it may be unfortunate, but I believe that if we drop any 
     programs, it will end up being stuff like education or 
     entitlement programs and that would greatly harm a lot of 
     people. We could cut back on defense a bit. I think we're 
     spending a little too much on that. Other than that, I don't 
     really see any that we can really make huge cuts in.
       A lot of people might fear that with the formation of a 
     world government we could end up having a dictatorship or an 
     oligarchy where only a few people would really have power. We 
     would have to ensure that this would not happen through 
     different actions before it was even implemented. The people 
     of the world would have to evolve to such a point where they 
     can actually deal with this and where we would be prepared to 
     set this government up without having these dangers. We have 
     to combat that now. If we can get people to trust the 
     government of the United States if we decide to form a world 
     government, we could encourage that--we could show people 
     that the government would be there to benefit them and to 
     help them, not to take over just for the sake of power.
       Mr. Lafarge. People might fear about the formation of a 
     world government is the loss of culture and the individualism 
     of everyone and that people like Africans maybe might start 
     to lose their history or people just might feel that by 
     moving in this step that they will become kind of like 
     everybody else, and that's sort of a fear.