[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 36 (Thursday, March 26, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1557]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  VIOLENCE IS PERVASIVE IN OUR CULTURE

  (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 outrageous to me that the 
talking heads on the liberal news networks with all their expertise and 
social behavior have not figured out the cause of the Jonesboro, 
Arkansas, tragedy.
  To listen to the evening and morning news and their take on the 
story, that it is because of Southerners with their obsession with guns 
and their hunting culture; in other words, Southerners, in their 
opinion, are a bunch of gun-crazy rednecks.
  Mr. Speaker, being a Southerner, and along with many other 
Southerners that have felt the sadness of this tragedy and other 
tragedies, I am offended by that outrageous assumption. If we want to 
start placing blame for this and the other tragedies, why not start 
with the TV networks, where our children are exposed to assault, 
murder, rape, drug, sex, deviant lifestyles, cheating, stealing, and 
uncivilized gutter language.
  Mr. Speaker, the tragedy is that violence is not confined to any one 
region or community in this Nation; it is pervasive in a culture that 
is obsessed with violence, sex, and self-gratification. The truth is, 
what goes in our children eventually comes out.

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