[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 94 (Friday, July 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6706-S6707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DO THE WRITE THING CHALLENGE 2002

 Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, Do the Write Thing Challenge, 
sponsored by the National Campaign to Stop Violence, is a national 
writing contest in which students express their concerns about subjects 
such as domestic violence, easy access to guns, and gang activity. DtWT 
currently operates in 14 cities, including Detroit, MI. In 2002, more 
than 75,000 students from more than 550 schools participated in the 
DtWT program. This week 38 Do the Write Thing national finalists came 
to Washington, DC, to talk to lawmakers about the impact of and 
solutions to the epidemic of youth violence in our Nation.
  The national student finalists, along with their teachers and family 
members, also attended a ceremony at the Library of Congress on Monday. 
Representatives of the Secretary of Education and the Library of 
Congress placed the students' writings in the Library of Congress. The 
writings, ranging from poems to essays to stories, describe the impact 
of youth violence on the lives of children. Two students from Michigan, 
Chastity Stewart and Justin Mozader, were honored by the National 
Campaign to Stop Violence for their writings on youth violence.

[[Page S6707]]

Justin's poem offers excellent advice on dealing with feelings of anger 
and aggression.

     What can I do about the problem at hand?
     It can't be solved by one man
     To begin, I must look inside myself
     And put my violence on the shelf

  One of the top priorities of the Do the Write Thing Challenge is to 
address youth violence by drawing attention to the problem of easy 
access to guns. This is a laudable and important goal. One step the 
Senate can take to prevent easy access to guns is to pass the 
Children's Access Prevention Act, which Senator Durbin introduced. 
Under this bill, adults who fail to lock up a loaded firearm or an 
unloaded firearm with ammunition would be held criminally liable if a 
child uses the weapon to kill or injure him or herself or another 
person. The bill also increases the penalties for selling a gun to a 
juvenile and creates a gun safety education program that includes 
parent-teacher organizations, local law enforcement, and community 
organizations. This bill is similar to a bill President Bush signed 
into law during his tenure as the Governor of Texas. I support this 
bill and hope the Senate will act on it during this Congress.
  In addition to preventing our youth from having unsupervised access 
to deadly weapons, we should encourage schools to conduct violence 
prevention programs. We need to provide funding to allow schools to 
partner with local law enforcement in crime prevention, creative onsite 
school violence prevention programs, and alcohol and drug counseling.
  I know my colleagues will want to join me in congratulating Chastity 
and Justin for their writings and efforts to combat youth violence, and 
I urge my colleagues to join me in pushing for the passage of sensible 
gun safety legislation like Senator Durbin's bill.

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