[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 20, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E78]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF CHRISTINA WILLIAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 19, 1999

  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart 
and profound sadness. I am overcome by the emotions I feel as both a 
father and a Member of Congress.
  On June 12, 1998, Christina Williams disappeared from her California 
neighborhood. Now seven months of waiting and worry have come to a sad 
end. This weekend we will bury Christina.
  Our community knows now that what should have been a perfectly 
innocent, completely safe activity for a 13-year-old--walking the 
family dog--turned into something so horrible, so unimaginable, that we 
tremble to think of the fate that Christina met.
  The coming weeks and continuing investigation will provide some 
answers. But we must ask greater ones.
  Each and every one of us must ask what we can do to make this world a 
safer place for children. As an elected official, I know there are 
limits to what the law can do and the tragedies it can prevent. But I 
vow before you today that I will do all I can as a Congressman, a 
citizen and as a parent.
  One of my first tasks is to thank the countless volunteers who have 
come to the aid of Christina's family during this tremendously painful 
ordeal. My heart is with the friends, relatives, community members and 
law enforcement officials who now face this tragedy after such 
dedication.
  Yet our greater responsibility remains. We must join Christina's 
parents, Alice and Michael, and the Williams family in the great 
challenge that lies before them. Those who loved Christina have vowed 
to make her memory a call to action. To turn their anger and pain into 
a mission to make our country a safe place to raise loved, secure 
children.
  My fellow Members of Congress, you must pledge that our federal 
government will do everything in its legislative and fiscal powers to 
bring a halt to crimes against children, especially those whose 
whereabouts are still unknown. Only then will every parent and every 
child live in a world made safer by Christina's ordeal.
  To all watching us today, I ask for your continued prayers for the 
Williamses and the extended family that is the Central Coast of 
California. And I ask you to join us, when it is time to move from the 
mourning and grief, in the challenge that lies before us.

                          ____________________