[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7047]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  NATIONAL DISCUSSION CALLED FOR CONCERNING CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS FOR 
                     VIOLENCE AMONG NATION'S YOUTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, everyone was horrified by these terrible 
shootings in Littleton, Colorado yesterday. This is one of the worst 
tragedies that has ever occurred in this Nation. There is nothing worse 
that can happen to parents than to outlive one of their children, and 
certainly, the sympathies of all of us go out to the families who lost 
loved ones in Colorado yesterday.
  Many years ago I taught American government and journalism at T.C. 
Williams High School here in Alexandria, Virginia. I go to 75 or 80 
schools each year and have 15 or 20 school groups visit me here in 
Washington, as well as speaking to many, many youth groups through the 
year. I am around thousands of teenagers each year. So this tragedy has 
really been on my mind last night and today.
  I remember several months ago, after one of these other school 
shootings, I was driving to the airport here in Washington to go home 
to Tennessee. The national head of the YMCA was on the CBS national 
radio news. He said something that I have never forgotten. He said that 
our children are being neglected today in this country as never before 
in our history.
  I am a father too. In our quest to get ahead, almost all of us in our 
quest to get ahead and to make more money and really to feel better 
about ourselves, we are not spending nearly enough time with our 
children.
  No one can ever fully explain these shootings that occurred 
yesterday. I am sure there are many reasons for these horrible events. 
There is far too much violence on television and in the movies. There 
is too much warped, weird stuff on the Internet. I know we are supposed 
to worship the computer today, but much of what is on the Internet is 
harmful, especially to children, and parents should realize that.
  But probably the thing that concerns me the most is the trend toward 
mega schools, bigger and bigger schools. I read not long ago that the 
largest high school in New York City had 3,500 students, and then they 
broke it up or divided it up into 5 different high schools and most of 
the drug and discipline problems became much, much better. When 
students have to go to huge high schools such as the one in Littleton 
yesterday, most young people are not able to make a sports team or be a 
cheerleader or be president of a group. Most students are just numbers 
and feel anonymous. Most can handle this okay, but some unfortunately 
resort to weird, warped or at times even criminal behavior to get 
noticed or a desperate cry for attention. Young people who feel good 
about themselves would never do anything even remotely close to the 
horrible events that occurred in Littleton yesterday.
  I think another thing that has caused many serious problems is the 
breakup of the family. Before coming to Congress, I spent 7\1/2\ years 
as a criminal court judge in Tennessee, trying felony criminal cases. I 
have always remembered that the first day I was judge they told me that 
98 percent of the defendants in felony cases came from broken homes. I 
know that many, many wonderful people, many successful people have come 
from broken homes. But I read thousands of reports over those years 
which said, the defendant's father left home when defendant was two and 
never returned; defendant's father left home to get pack of cigarettes 
and never came back.
  Then, after I came to Congress, I remember reading in one of the 
Washington papers a few years ago that two leading criminologists have 
studied 11,000 felony cases from across the country and they found that 
the biggest single factor in serious crime, bar none, nothing else was 
even close, was father-absent households.
  So I rise today to make a plea for fathers to stay with their 
children. This is so very important, and there are so many young people 
growing up in this country today without the love or the discipline or 
the encouragement or the support or the combination of all of those 
things that they really need. If the families keep breaking up at such 
a tremendous rate in this country, we are going to see problems 
continue to grow and grow and horrible events such as we saw in 
Littleton yesterday.
  Yet, there is a government role, because in 1950 the government at 
all levels, the Federal Government took about 4 percent of the income 
of the average family, the State and local governments took another 4 
percent, and many mothers had the privilege of staying home with their 
children. And now, government at all levels takes about 40 percent of 
the income of the average family and regulatory costs take another 10 
percent, and so many, as Fred Thompson said one time, Senator Fred 
Thompson said, one spouse works to support the family while the other 
spouse works to support the government. Many mothers who would like to 
stay home with their children do not have that choice or that option. 
So if we could decrease the cost and size of our government, it would 
help more families stay together because most families break up in 
arguments over finances.
  When we put all of this together, it is hard to explain, but we need 
to have a national discussion, Mr. Speaker, about the causes of events 
such as what happened in Littleton yesterday, and we need to do 
everything we possibly can to see that nothing like that ever happens 
again in this country.

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