[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 153 (Wednesday, November 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SALUTE TO WBLS DJ DR. BOB LEE: MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF 
                              YOUNG PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cooksey). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about Dr. Bob Lee of 
WBLS, a man that is really making a difference. When young people hear 
his name and when they come in contact with him, they get excited. He 
has been with WBLS for 20 years doing this. I think that the board of 
education and people that are in education should really take note of 
the fact that this man has the way to motivate young people, to get 
them to get up in the morning and go to school and, of course, he has 
been doing this and doing it so well.
  So being as he is doing it so well, it seems to me that educators 
some way or another should sit down with him, have a summit and talk 
about how he is able to get the young people involved in a positive 
kind of way. When I think about the things that he is doing, it bothers 
me that we do not highlight it enough, because when something negative 
is going on, we readily will talk about it. When something bad is going 
on, we will get it throughout the city, get it throughout the town in 
no time flat. But when something positive is going on, we have 
difficulty getting that message around.

  Dr. Bob Lee is doing something positive. Of course, when you have a 
high dropout rate, he is able to go into those areas, talk to the kids, 
motivate them and get them to return to school. When they are not doing 
well in school, he is able to sort of talk to them and sort of get them 
involved in a very positive kind of way, get them to know how important 
it is to do their homework. So if he is able to do this on such a small 
scale, it seems to me that we should be able to capitalize on his 
skills throughout this Nation.
  I am hoping that those that are in education are listening tonight, 
that will be able to go and to sit down with him and to find out how he 
is doing it and, of course, encourage him to do more. I think that one 
way to do that would be to expand it by funding the program of some 
sort and to be able to get the word out to people.
  I would like to say tonight, I salute Dr. Bob Lee for the outstanding 
work that he is doing. I have watched him on various talk shows when he 
has been on to talk about how he feels about working with young people 
and how important he thinks it is. Just recently, we had a toy gun 
turn-in drive and Dr. Bob Lee got involved in that. Of course, we were 
having trouble on getting the media, but when he got involved in it, of 
course, people began to respond, because they recognized the fact that 
it is a very serious issue. And toy guns, as you know, is something 
that we need to deal with, because many of our young people are getting 
killed because of toy guns.
  In my own district, we have had several youngsters to be killed 
because they had a toy gun. We have had youngsters to be shot. But Dr. 
Bob Lee has been working with us in terms of getting this message out 
to adults, letting them know that toy guns is something that you should 
not buy for your son or your daughter. I think that this is the kind of 
message that we have to send, because even the police department, they 
are saying that toy guns are very dangerous because they are saying 
that if it looks like a gun, as far as they are concerned, it is a gun. 
And I think that we do not expect them to stop and interview somebody 
as to whether or not the gun is real. If it looks like a gun, as far as 
the police department is concerned, it is a gun.
  I want to thank Dr. Bob Lee and all those people out there helping to 
make certain that we get the message across to people that toy guns are 
not something that our young people should have and that people should 
not purchase them for them. It is not the kind of toy that you want to 
give. Give an educational toy, give something that is going to bring 
about life, give something that is going to encourage people to be able 
to grow and to develop, not to give them something that they will 
probably get killed because they have it.
  I would like to salute him tonight and to say, Dr. Bob Lee, we 
applaud you for the outstanding job that you are doing on behalf of the 
young people in this Nation and we hope that you will be able to 
continue to expand it as well.

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