[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2531-2533]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           OPERATION RESPECT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, today is a different subject than I 
usually discuss in the course of these Special Order hours. Normally we 
come down here and we talk about how we are going to create jobs, how 
we are going to make better opportunities for people through education. 
We talk about making it in America, rebuilding our infrastructure, 
manufacturing, and the like. Yet, today, there is something else on my 
mind, and it happens to be an issue that I first came across in 
elementary school.
  On the school grounds at Mokelumne Hill Elementary School--a three-
room school that was built in the late 1800s--there were not many kids, 
but there was always one kid who seemed to be picked on. I am not 
exactly sure why that young boy was the one to be picked on, but he was 
bullied.
  As the years go by, I suspect we forget about those things, but we 
know that the children are always listening. They are listening to each 
other on the school grounds and they are likely to join in this 
bullying and in picking on some kid on the grounds. That happened at 
Mokelumne Hill Elementary School many, many years ago.
  As our own kids were growing up, my wife would always say, ``Remember 
the children are listening. They are listening to what you have to say 
and they are going to copy what you say.''
  In the year 2000, I was with my wife at a concert here in the 
Washington area, and Peter, Paul and Mary were performing that night. 
Towards the end of the performance, Peter Yarrow said, ``I have a new 
song, and I would like you to pay careful attention to this song. This 
song is really important to me.''
  I suppose his other songs dealing with wars and peace were equally 
important, but he highlighted this particular song. The song was 
``Don't Laugh At Me.'' Don't call me names. Don't make fun of me 
because I am short or tall or wear glasses.
  After the performance was over, we were invited to go out to dinner 
with Peter that night.
  He asked, ``What did you think of the song?''
  I said, ``It reminded me of my school,'' because people were laughing 
at that kid.
  He said, ``I want you to do something.'' He said, ``I want you to 
take this song and make it into a national movement against bullying so 
as to try to teach our young children to stop bullying.''
  I told him I didn't have time for that, as we were returning to 
California after the 2000 election. He said that doesn't make any sense 
because California has the same problem.
  I learned right away you don't say no to Peter Yarrow, so I began to 
work with him on a program that became known as Operation Respect. I 
worked with him for about 3 to 4 years, and then I moved on and 
Operation Respect moved on.
  It is now found in 22,000 schools across the United States. It is a 
simple program. You can find it online. It is Operation Respect. You 
can download the song. You can download the text. It is there. There 
are 22,000 schools across the United States that are trying to help our 
young children understand what bullying means.
  Bullying means that 160,000 American children do not go to school 
each day because they are afraid. They are afraid to endure another day 
of bullying--verbal, sometimes physical--from their peers. Twenty-two 
percent of teenagers in a National Study of Adolescents reported that 
they had been bullied or victimized. The reasons for bullying are many. 
Usually it is about looks, as 55 percent say it is about looks; it is 
about body shape--too big, too tall, too fat, too slender--at 37 
percent; and race at 16 percent.
  Students who experience bullying are at an increased risk of 
experiencing poor adjustment at school, sleep difficulties, anxiety, 
depression. Also, students who engage in the bullying behavior are at 
risk of having academic

[[Page 2532]]

problems, substance abuse, and violent behavior later in their 
adolescence and adulthood.
  In surveys, approximately 30 percent of young people admit to 
bullying others, and 70 percent of young people say that they have seen 
bullying in their schools. I did when I was growing up. Seventy percent 
of schools' staffs say that they see it. Eighty-one percent of students 
who identify as LGBT were bullied last year based on their sexual 
orientation.
  What does it mean?
  It means that certain lives are seriously disrupted and that there is 
unhappiness and depression in those lives, but it also means violence.
  Do you remember Columbine?
  The perpetrators were frequently harassed by athletes and other 
students before coming to school, and then they came to school with 
firearms and explosives, killing 13 and injuring 21.
  Do you remember Virginia Tech?
  Seung-Hui Cho was picked on and bullied by his peers before he killed 
32 people in 2007.
  In Santa Barbara, California, the shooter wrote a 130-page manifesto 
about how he had been severely bullied in high school, and he killed 
six and injured 14.
  There are those who are violent to others and who are equally violent 
to themselves. 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick suffered from cyberbullying. 
She received messages over social media, and she killed herself. In 
Montana, an 18-year-old with learning disabilities committed suicide. 
Another shot himself in the chest after enduring bullying and hazing 
from the high school football team. He was pushed into lockers, punched 
in the head. He quit the football team after the first week, telling 
his dad, ``I am being picked on at school,'' in the suicide note he 
left that night. He shot himself. He blamed bullying.
  The children are listening. They listen to each other. They learn 
bullying and they carry it on. Operation Respect attempts to deal with 
this, as does Peter Yarrow's song from Peter, Paul and Mary, ``Don't 
Laugh At Me.'' Don't laugh at me because I am tall, short, Black, 
White, young, old, or because I wear glasses. Don't laugh at me. The 
children are listening.
  Across America, what are the children listening to today? What are 
they listening to today by our leaders, by the people who purport to 
lead the strongest nation in the world?

                              {time}  1500

  What are they hearing?
  My daughter is a kindergarten teacher. Her kids come to class and are 
repeating what they hear on television. They are calling each other a 
desperate person. They are saying to each other: ``He's a desperate 
person,'' ``He's a sad person,'' ``He's a pathetic person.''
  Kids come to class and are repeating what they heard on television: 
``He doesn't even use his last name in his ads,'' ``He's a sad 
person,'' ``He's absolutely crazy,'' ``I mean, this guy is a nervous 
wreck.''
  I have never seen anything like it. They repeat what they have heard 
on television. So what are our kids learning? What are they learning 
from people who want to be our national leader?
  Well, they are probably learning that you can say things like: ``He's 
the least talented. . . .'', ``He's done poorly,'' ``He goes away like 
a little sheep.''
  Maybe our kids are talking to each other and they are repeating what 
they have heard on television: ``You could see the blood coming out of 
her eyes,'' ``She's a bimbo,'' ``Look at that face,'' ``Would anyone 
vote for that?'', ``Can you imagine that face on the next president?'', 
``I mean, she's a woman and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but 
really, folks, come on. Are we serious?''
  The kids are listening, folks. The kids are listening to the national 
debate. For years, we have known bullying is a problem. We know it. We 
see it in the classrooms.
  We see the result of violence. We see the fact of disrespect. We know 
it leads to shootings. We know it leads to school shootings. We know it 
leads to suicides.
  Yet, on our national television every night people that want to lead 
this Nation are bullying each other. They are saying disrespectful 
things that are personal that don't have a thing to do with policy, 
just as though it was a kindergarten school ground: ``Now, I've watched 
a part of his little act and he's a desperate guy,'' ``He's not 
presidential material, I can tell you,'' ``He doesn't have the 
demeanor,'' ``He's a nervous Nellie,'' ``Putting on makeup with a 
trowel,'' ``He was so scared like a little puppy.''
  That is bullying. That is bullying. And if you were in kindergarten, 
you would be at the principal's office.
  Our kids are listening. So what is the message? That it is okay to 
bully? It is okay to demean people? What is the message? 16,000 kids 
stay home from school each day because of bullying. And on national 
television? They purport to lead this Nation.
  So what are we to do? I guess we are going to have to take programs 
like Operation Respect, Operation Trevor, and other programs that try 
to help our children understand the result of bullying, what actually 
happens, not just to the children that are being bullied, but also to 
those who engage in bullying.
  So what are we teaching? What are we teaching our children? What 
Pandora's box are we opening across this Nation when demeaning each 
other is the national discourse in how we select the next President of 
the United States? That it is okay to call your rival names?
  It is not about their policies, not about what we are going to do 
with our national security, but, rather, what makeup you might be 
wearing or the nature of one's face. Calling each other unhinged, 
unstable, a liar, is this what we have come to?
  That night Peter Yarrow sang that song for the first time in concert: 
``Don't laugh at me. Don't call me names. Don't make fun of me.''
  There are consequences. There are consequences. You tear a person 
down far enough and maybe you will win an election, but every child 
across this Nation is listening. They are listening.
  What are they going to do when they go to school the next day? Well, 
it is okay. We could call each other names. I can make fun at you. I 
could laugh at you. After all, it is on television: ``Had one of those 
sweet little mustaches,'' ``Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet,'' 
``Maybe he should sue whoever did that to his face.''
  Operation Respect. 22,000 schools across this Nation are trying to 
impart to our children that we all have value, that whether you are 
tall or short or fat, whether you are Black or White or whatever color, 
whatever you want to be in life, it is okay.
  It is okay. You are important. You have value. We are not going to 
demean each other. We are not going to bully each other. You are 
important. Whatever you are, whatever you may be, you are important. 
That is Operation Respect.
  Trying to teach the young children in 22,000 schools to respect each 
other, to respect the differences, to understand and to learn that we 
all share space on this planet and that each one of us, whatever we may 
be, whatever we may think about the solution to the world's problems, 
we have value.
  So tonight I will go from this Chamber. I will go back to my home and 
will turn the TV on. I will guarantee you that I will find a 
Presidential candidate bullying another candidate just as though it was 
a school ground.
  I know that the children are watching. I know that all that Operation 
Respect is trying to do and all of the other programs around this 
Nation that are trying to teach our children to respect each other, to 
not engage in bullying--I know that their work will be erased from the 
blackboard by tonight's television.
  After all, it is Super Tuesday. And leading up to Super Tuesday, you 
and I know what we have heard.
  Is our Nation better for it? I don't think so. Because I know that 
the children are watching, and I know somehow an awful message is going 
out across this Nation that it is okay to demean another person, it is 
okay to pick on somebody because of their makeup, because of the nature 
of their

[[Page 2533]]

face, because they happen to be a woman.
  I fear the result of all of this. I don't fear the policies. The 
policies come and go. We debate here on the floor more military, less 
military; more education, less education; the environment is good, 
climate change is real, climate change is not. That is legitimate. That 
is the way America ought to be.
  But to call a woman a bimbo or to say you peed your pants, what in 
the world is this all about? It is about our children. It is about our 
future and about telling us what it is okay to do.
  Well, it is not okay because the children are listening. Thank God we 
have organizations--Operation Respect and others--that are somehow 
trying to push back. They are not going to stop every violent act. At 
least some kid isn't going to pick up a gun and walk into the school 
and start blasting away because he has been bullied.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________