[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S7113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CHARACTER COUNTS WEEK

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, one thing I want to draw people's 
attention to is that in the third week of October, there is going to be 
a ``Character Counts'' week taking place. That may be a while off and 
is not necessary for us to focus on now, but I think it is time that 
while we look at economic activity being strong and culturally we are 
having all these problems, let's focus on these things.
  The Senator from New Mexico, Senator Domenici, has been a major 
champion of character counts, and that is where people step up and say, 
``We need to look at ourselves and our own character.'' Good character 
doesn't come about by accident, it is a practice of virtue. It is one 
thing that each and every one of us as Americans can step forward with.
  I would like to, as we close today, give one example of a person who 
stepped up on character, and it is a gentleman in Wichita, KS, in my 
home State, by the name of Leo Mendoza. Leo is a man who knows that 
character counts, because he hasn't always had it.
  Leo is a survivor of sexual abuse, alcohol abuse, drug abuse and 
crime. For 17 years, he was in and out of jail, on and off drugs and in 
and out of marriages.
  But today, after years of soul-searching and counseling, he is, once 
again, a solid citizen. He is an elder at his church, and he and his 
wife are trying to adopt a child.
  What changed Leo? Was it Government rehabilitation programs? Was it a 
Government social program? Or was it actually something deeper, 
something that the Government could neither teach nor instill?
  Leo actually never relied on a Government assistance program, partly 
out of pride, partly out of independence. He never even sought help 
from others. It was his friends who sought him.
  In 1987, a friend of his introduced him to Alcoholics Anonymous and a 
local church.
  Slowly, he began to form the rudiments of character, promising 
himself that he would confront the daily struggles of life with the 
firmness that a life of true character is built not on one heroic act, 
but rather is the consequence of a thousand little struggles. Leo, 
together with his family, friends, and church, began to rehabilitate. 
He had the courage to say no, the patience to endure the temptations 
and the humility to ask God for help when weakness was about to 
overcome him.
  By struggling with his past, Leo learned virtue, and by learning 
virtue, he built character.
  Those struggles teach us about our own character and about what true 
character is made of.
  I give that little vignette as we close today because in attacking 
the cultural decline and difficulties in this society, this is not 
something you legislate with massive Government programs or is not 
something we can sit in a conference room to decide what we are going 
to do and impose that will upon the country. But rather it is the 
little individual struggles that each and every one of us has everyday. 
It is each and every struggle that 250 million-plus Americans deal 
with. That is how you make a great Nation, people struggling to build 
character, by building that virtue and struggling to build it one at a 
time.

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