[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7888-7889]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TRAGEDY AT COLORADO HIGH SCHOOL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, as a Congress and as a 
Nation we are mourning the brave students and teachers whose lives were 
cut short in the senseless tragedy at Columbine High School.
  An overwhelming sense of sadness and grief has spread throughout our 
Nation as we wonder out loud what led our country to this point. How 
could two of our children, our Nation's future, who harbored so much 
anger and resentment, turn to violence before they turned for help? 
What frightens me even more than the event itself is that it is 
symptomatic of a Nation rapidly losing sight of the very values this 
country was built upon: faith, family and freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, in the past year and a half, at least 29 people have 
been killed as a result of school violence. In today's era of virtual 
reality games and the Internet, children witness gruesome acts of 
violence on a daily basis and can access pornography on the Internet 
with ease. And now our Nation's children are a simple click away from 
directions to build the same pipe bombs that two troubled young men 
used to wreak devastation on a small Colorado community.
  The events of the last week have reminded me of an old Chinese 
proverb that says, ``If we do not change our direction, we are likely 
to end up where we are headed.''
  Mr. Speaker, we are headed down a dangerous path. Some blame violence 
in the media, music, the Internet, access to guns and parental neglect. 
While they all influence our children, the problem is even greater.
  In response to the tragedy, President Clinton has proposed more gun 
control laws. Mr. Speaker, we already have a number of gun control laws 
on the book. New laws are not the answer. It is not what is in our 
children's hands, it is what is in their hearts.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the students who died last week was killed after 
proclaiming her belief in God. This young girl herself once struggled 
with some of the same issues her killers did. She even subscribed to 
witchcraft until she chose to embrace God and turn her life around. For 
this, for her beliefs, she was killed.
  Sadly, in the news coverage over the past week, the media has focused 
on a small group of students who isolated themselves from others 
because they felt alienated. But we can see by this tragedy at 
Columbine that when circumstances were dire, students and teachers cast 
aside their differences and worked together.
  As a man of Christian faith, I cannot help but be proud of the number 
of students recounting stories of being trapped in the school and 
surrounded by death who found solace in prayer. Yet how ironic that on 
any other day, our Nation's children cannot pray in school. In fact, 
children have been barred from bowing their heads in private prayer, 
from expressing their religious beliefs in school newspapers and even 
bringing the Bible to school.
  Mr. Speaker, can anyone today say that our children are better off 
than they were 30 years ago when prayer was accepted in our schools? 
Thirty years ago, teachers were concerned with students smoking in 
school, skipping class and an occasional fistfight. Today teachers are 
being asked to deal with teen pregnancy, drug abuse and the physical 
safety of their students.
  Mr. Speaker, let Littleton, Colorado be our wakeup call. Faith is 
exactly what this country needs. The children in Littleton turned 
toward God during their time of crisis. We should not force them to 
turn away from God during their daily lives.
  Mr. Speaker, today our Nation is faced with two choices: We can 
continue down the path we have created for ourselves or we can look to 
a time in our history when children felt safe in school, and we can 
learn from our mistakes. This country was founded on Judeo-Christian 
principles. Yet we have become an America in which children reach for a 
gun before they reach for their Bible, or turn to violence instead of 
their parents or their church.
  Mr. Speaker, I have the great honor of representing the citizens of 
eastern North Carolina. What makes me so proud of my constituents is 
that they, like so many Americans across this Nation, have a great 
respect for the Bible and the Constitution. They live their lives for 
God and country and they nurture these beliefs in the lives of their

[[Page 7889]]

children. These are the values that this country needs.
  As Mother Theresa once said, ``If you become a burning light of 
justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what 
the founders of this country stood for. This is to love one another as 
God loves each one of us. And where does his love begin? In our home. 
How does it begin? By praying together.''
  Mr. Speaker, how did we ever imagine to lose sight of our founders' 
intentions? The students and teachers of Columbine High School have 
shown us that we must join together to return an America that gives 
families the freedom to raise their children in an environment that is 
safe, where children are free to live and to learn.
  In the words of George Washington, ``The smiles of heaven can never 
be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and 
right, which heaven itself has ordained.''
  Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the community of Littleton, 
Colorado as they begin their healing process.
  As a tribute to the families and friends who lost loved ones, let us 
turn this tragedy into an opportunity.
  We took prayer out of school and we have seen the results.
  Let us now change course and return to the values on which this 
nation was founded.
  Please do not allow those who died in Littleton to have died in vain.

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