[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17828-17829]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           WHAT CAN YOU SAY?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry) is 
recognized for 40 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
  Before my colleague Dan Burton leaves the Chamber, I just want to say 
thank you. Thank you for your thoughtful reflections here.
  I should tell the Speaker, as well as everyone who might be watching, 
that we were teasing you a moment ago because you said you were only 
going to speak for 10 minutes, and I said, Dan Burton, you've never 
spoken for 10 minutes in your life. You're going to go a lot longer 
than that.
  You held it to about 10, and your words were not only precise but 
deeply thoughtful and meaningful, and I think they're an outstanding 
tribute to you in leaving this body. I want to thank you for your 
personal friendship to me and for your words of admonition to the rest 
of us to try to be a little bit kinder, a little bit gentler.
  I think it's important for people to know--and you alluded to it--
that, over a decade ago, your own wife died. The caregiver for your 
wife, as she had cancer, was Samia, who became your friend and who 
became a friend of your family's, and your own children encouraged you 
to, perhaps, pursue a relationship with her, and now she is your lovely 
wife. It has been a pleasure to see you so happy in these last years of 
public service, but we really appreciate your dedication and passion to 
serving this Nation. So thank you so much.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to turn to another topic now. I sat in my 
office last night, looking at the pictures of the precious little 
children who were killed in Connecticut last Friday. What can you say? 
My heart breaks for them and their parents and for the people of 
Newtown. I looked at the picture of little Caroline Previdi, one of the 
6-year-old children who died. I'm sure she was a happy child, full of 
life's potential just like my own little Caroline, who just turned 7 a 
few days ago. What can you say? It's unthinkable that a person would 
kill innocent little children with such cravenness and violence. These 
children's Christmas presents are still under the tree. Their moms and 
dads are still looking at them.
  In this town where we pride ourselves on rhetorical flourish, 
precision of thought, and volume of words, what can you say? What can 
you do other than stand in solidarity, in spirit, with the grieving 
families, and perhaps--just perhaps--hug those you love a little bit 
tighter?
  Now the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy is sparking a national 
debate about how and why this happened and about how it might have been 
prevented. That debate is understandable and needs to happen. In the 
coming weeks, Congress will be called on to react. Questions have 
already arisen about guns and school safety and emergency preparedness. 
But these concerns and debates may bypass altogether some of the 
deeper, more difficult issues involved, like what we grappled with 
after the tragic shootings of the young people at Columbine High School 
and on the Virginia Tech campus.
  What we must do is be honest. Yes, there were guns involved. Yes, 
there are issues of school safety. Yes, there was a collapse of mental 
health intervention. But I have not heard a significant discussion of 
the broader cultural context in which this and other tragedies have 
happened.
  All of these tragedies happened against a backdrop of a culture that 
increasingly devalues and degrades human life. Graphic acts of violence 
and inhumanitypervade popular culture, entertainment, and other venues 
that vie for our attention. In flipping through the channels recently, 
I saw on a ``Law and Order'' show, ironically, a man shot in an 
elevator and the blood splashing on his attorney. Seconds later, we 
move on to the next scene or to the next commercial without 
consequence.
  We are supposedly entertained by this, and of course the producer 
gets the profit, but who really pays? Society grows increasingly numb 
to the increasing levels of wanton brutality, cruelty, and indignity, 
all celebrated for profit. Perhaps most of us can shake it off or just 
turn it off, but what happens when a person of limited stability sees 
these images over and over again? We preach tolerance for one another, 
but we fill our culture with grotesque and inhuman depictions and 
expect that there will not be consequences.

[[Page 17829]]

  Madam Speaker, I am sure there are any number of Ph.D.s out there who 
will somehow refute that there is a correlation between this aggressive 
assault of images constantly before us and the recurring violence that 
is all around us. Instead, we want simple answers and quick fixes, and 
then we'll just move on.
  I suggest that we look inward to regain a deeper understanding of 
what it means to be in community, in a common bond with neighbors, 
where persons are not in isolation, where check mechanisms are so 
ordinary that persons are not simply roaming around, disconnected from 
communities of concern, family life, mental health treatment, or swift 
enforcement action, whatever is needed. A single and simple policy 
response from Washington cannot fix this. We all want to have a more 
caring and supportive society, but the fragmentation of family, civic, 
and our Nation's community life lends itself to isolation, anger and, 
for some, even despair.
  Let's be clear: this tragedy is the result of a deeply disturbed 
person who committed unspeakable crimes. That is where the blame rests. 
But perhaps an outcome deserving of these children who died is that we 
all take some responsibility for the degradation of culture--what we 
think about, the way we conduct ourselves--and perhaps strive for that 
which is noble, for that which is good, and for that which is just.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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