[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22691]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR MURDER VICTIMS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, this day, we honor the memory of 
those whose lives are suddenly violently taken by homicide. Everything 
a person was or ever will be--stolen by the assassin's hands.
  Most of us will never lose a loved one to a violent crime. Most of us 
never even think about murder. Victims don't wake up in the morning 
knowing they'll be murdered that day, and for their families, it's the 
most painful and traumatic thing they can ever imagine. Suddenly, their 
loved one is gone. What takes their place are images of that violent 
death and of things left unsaid.
  Then comes the police investigation--learning more than any layman 
wants to know about murder--then the trial if the police capture 
someone, then crime scene photographs; sitting in the courtroom day by 
day with the one who stole their loved one's life; the uncertainty, the 
strain, the verdict. It's not just the one killed who is the victim of 
murder.
  Today, we honor the families who live through the horror of homicide. 
Families never get over the murder of a loved one. They think about it 
every day--forever.
  And that's just the way it is.

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