[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TIME FOR AMERICA TO CRY OUT AND PRAY FOR HER CHILDREN

  (Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, it is time for America to weep 
and mourn. It is time for America to cry out for her children. ``A 
voice was heard,'' as Jeremiah said in the Old Testament, ``in Ra'mah, 
lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children 
because they were no more.''
  Mr. Speaker, Jonesboro, Arkansas, is the third small community in 
recent months to experience a tragedy of wholesale slaughter where 
children are killing children. Yes, Mr. Speaker, it is time for America 
to cry out and pray for her children.
  Every day almost 3,000 teenage girls get pregnant, over 1,000 teenage 
girls have abortions, over 4,200 teenagers contract a sexually 
transmitted disease, 135,000 children carry guns or other weapons to 
school, 10 children are killed by guns, 6 teenagers commit suicide, and 
211 children are convicted of drug use, every single day.
  It is time for all of us who call ourselves Americans and love our 
children to be outraged, outraged at a morally corrupt culture that is 
alien to every tried and tested moral structure that traditionally has 
undergirded our Nation.

                          ____________________