Madam Speaker, Cary Ann Medlin, 8, Tennessee; Nicole Parker, 8, California; Chris Byers, 8, Arkansas; Sherrice Iverson, 7, Nevada; Amanda Brown, 7, Florida; Christina Long, 13, Connecticut; Michelle Vick, 14, Washington; Samantha Runnion,…
Madam Speaker, Cary Ann Medlin, 8, Tennessee; Nicole Parker, 8, California; Chris Byers, 8, Arkansas; Sherrice Iverson, 7, Nevada; Amanda Brown, 7, Florida; Christina Long, 13,
Connecticut; Michelle Vick, 14, Washington; Samantha Runnion, 5, California; Maryann Measles, 13, Connecticut; Polly Klaas, 12, California; Amber Hagerman, 9, Texas; Adam Walsh, 6, Florida; Megan Kanka, 7, New Jersey; JonBenet Ramsey, 6, Colorado; Sarah Lundy, 13, Florida; Danielle Van Dam, 7, California.
Carlie Brucia, 11, Florida; Jessica Lunsford, 9, Florida; Dylan Groene, 9, Idaho.
Madam Speaker, unfortunately, this list of abducted and ultimately murdered children goes on and on and on. And if the sadness of their stolen lives is not enough, many of these precious young people were also brutally raped and sexually assaulted before they were murdered. Madam Speaker, these are some of their stories.
Dru Sjoden: Dru was a happy, happy child. Her cheerful personality was evident from the day she entered this world. As a child, she was dedicated to being a good student. She was active in gymnastics, swimming, track and skiing. She was artistic from a very young age, and art was her number one love. Through her creativity, her passion for art, she was always creating handmade cards and crafts for her friends and sent them to members of her family. She enjoyed the outdoors and fishing. She constantly thought of other people. She was nominated and won Homecoming Queen during her senior year at high school. She attended college at the University of North Dakota and was just as popular among her college friends as she was among her high school friends.
Madam Speaker, this is a photograph of Dru shortly before this 22- year-old University of North Dakota student was murdered. She left her job at the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks, North Dakota, at 4 p.m. on November 22, 2003, and she was never seen alive again. Her body was found in April of 2004, thrown in a ravine in Minnesota.
She was talking with her boyfriend on her cell phone when he heard her say, ``Oh, my God.'' Then her phone went dead. Chris Lang, her boyfriend, received another call from Drew's phone a few hours later, but there was only static on the other end of the line.
On December 1, 2003, although her body had yet to be found, Alfonzo Rodriguez, Jr., a registered sex offender from Minnesota who had recently completed a 23-year prison term, was charged with abducting Dru Sjoden. After Drew's body was discovered on April 17, 2004, near where Rodriguez lived, a Federal Grand Jury charged Rodriguez with kidnapping and murder.
Because the victim was transported from North Dakota to Minnesota, it was a Federal crime under the old Lindburgh baby kidnapping case. The defendant will be tried in Fargo, North Dakota, next March. Madam Speaker, the indictment alleges that the murder was done ``in an especially cruel and harmful and depraved manner, including torture and constant abuse.'' The defendant, two previous convictions in Minnesota for sexual assault and rape, once at knife point, has also another conviction after he left the penitentiary for kidnapping.
Dru was 22 when she was murdered. Dru is the same age as my youngest daughter, Kellee Lyn. You know, daughters are special to fathers, and to lose a child by any means, especially violence, is a tragedy to any family. The government in this case is seeking the death penalty against the offender, and rightfully so.
Dru Sojun, 22.
Carlie Brucia is remembered best by some of the things her grandmother said about her. ``She has been described as blond and bubbly. Carlie was affectionate, a great hugger, and when she was in New York, she loved to go to the movies with her dad, go shopping and go out for ice cream, things little kids like to do. Her favorite ice cream was mint chocolate chip. Her grandmother says, I always had that in the House for her when she visited me.
``When she came to our house, we would shoot baskets in the driveway. She would shoot those with Aunt Jeannie; play softball in the back yard with her other Aunt Katelyn, and the rest of the family. We would have barbecues, and she loved to roast marshmallows. It's a beautiful memory thinking about Carlie with her sticky fingers and marshmallows all around her mouth. What a cutey.
``She liked music. She especially liked Jennifer Lopez; knew all the words to every song, and would sing on the radio when Jennifer Lopez would come on.
``Carlie liked to help her dad out at home, especially when her dad had the family over for dinner. She pitched right in, helped him with all the chores, serving, and cleaning up after supper. I can picture her loading up the dishwasher,'' says her grandmother. She was a good student. Voted most popular, best math whiz at McIntosh Middle School.
Carlie Brucia, 11: She was a real person, Madam Speaker, like all of the people I will be talking about tonight. This is who she was, before life was stolen from her by an offender, a sexual predator.
Carlie Brucia, 11, disappeared on February 1, 2004. She was walking home from a friend's house in Sarasota, Florida. A surveillance camera behind a car wash taped Carlie's abduction by a man. This sixth grader may have walked through the car wash parking lot as a shortcut to go home.
Friends described her as a beautiful girl who loved watching Jennifer Lopez. She liked to go the mall, greet friends with a warm hug, and she was headed home from a slumber party when she was abducted. Carlie's remains were discovered 5 days later, a few miles from the car wash where a surveillance camera captured the image of her abduction.
The defendant, Joseph Smith: The Sarasota police questioned Joseph Smith who had been in their custody since the day after Carlie was abducted on an unrelated parole violation. A woman who said that she lived with Smith was one of the tipsters who contacted the police. Of course, the defendant refused to admit anything and refused to admit his involvement with Carlie Brucia's disappearance until February 5, when he finally told investigators where he had dumped her body.
On February 6, it was announced that Carlie Brucia's body had been found. She had been murdered and left in a church parking lot just miles from her home. Joseph Smith, 37-year-old car mechanic, father of three, had been arrested 13 times in Florida since 1993, had been charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, and he is the main suspect, of course, in this brutal murder.
On February 20, Smith was indicted on first degree murder and separate charges of kidnapping, capital sexual battery and other charges. He has been to the courthouse before, Madam Speaker. Aggravated battery, carrying a knife, possession of heroin with intent to sell, possession of blank prescriptions, possession of drugs without a prescription, intent to obtain controlled substances by fraud, possession of cocaine. All of those resulted in convictions of this sexual predator.
November 7th of this year the defendant will see his day in court, where the State of Florida has charged him with capital murder.
Carlie Brucia, 11.
Madam Speaker, Jessica Lunsford was born in Gastonia, North Carolina. She came to Florida a year ago. She was her grandma's girl. Grandma called her ``my daughter'' from the time she was one. Jessica's mother and dad split up about that time. She and Grandma Ruth loved to go shopping together. They would go to JCPenney's. They would go to the mall, and Jessica Lunsford especially liked Wal-Mart.
Jessica wanted to be an Olympic swimmer; a fashion designer. She would cut up old dress-up clothes and make clothes for her dolls. She and her grandma collected dolls together and would make clothes for them. She loved the Disney Channel, and she had a collection of Disney videos. She especially loved, The Princess Diaries.
Church was a big part of Jessica's short life, and she was a big part of the Faith Baptist Church in Homosassa, Florida. She attended what is called the King's Kids Wednesday night program. There were 35 kids in this bible school class, and she was one of six who recently memorized the names of all the books of the New Testament. She even had a favorite verse memorized, Philippians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
She was daddy's girl, and she would call her father, Mark Lunsford, as soon
as she got home from school each day. She would visit him at work and she liked to play in a sand pile.
Just before she disappeared, she had been to the State fair, where Mark had gone with her and bought that now famous pink hat that she has on in a photograph. Jessica did not like hearing about people being harmed and hurt, and she never liked to see anybody cry.
Madam Speaker, Jessica Lunsford was a real person. She was a little girl. She was daddy's girl. She is shown in this photograph with that hat she had on that Mark had given her. Nine years old, life stolen from her because of a sexual predator.
That person, John Couey, was a convicted sex offender. He was staying down the street in a mobile home, even though he did not use this as his registered address, as he was required by law to do. Where he was staying was near the Lunsford home. And unbeknownst to the Lunsfords, he was on watch of their activities. Here is what he said he did.
He said he snuck into Jessica Lunsford's house through an unlocked door at about 3 o'clock in the morning, February 24. He kidnapped Jessica and took her to his place, his bedroom. With Jessica in his custody, Couey said that he watched the sheriff's command center pull up in front of the Lunsford home. He put Jessica in his closet, where he kept her till he was ready to abuse her.
He said, after he was through with her, he decided he would bury her after he learned that the Citrus County Sheriff's Department was looking for him. So the weekend after Jessica's disappearance, in rainy weather and fog, he decided to do his dastardly deed of murdering this little girl.
After having his way with this 9-year-old for as many times as he wished, keeping her locked up in the closet, he decided it was time to get rid of her. So he took this 9-year-old girl, he tied her hands and feet with stereo wire. He wrapped her inside two large plastic garbage bags. He dug a hole, and he buried her alive.
She suffocated to death. Jessica Lunsford, when she was found, was still clutching the tiny blue stuffed dolphin she had taken from her bedroom when she was stolen in the middle of the night by John Couey. The police found where she had poked her fingers through the plastic bag seeking air to breathe. That is the way that Jessica Lunsford died.
John Couey. Well, who is he? He is a convicted sex offender with a criminal history a mile long. It includes 24 arrests and goes back over 30 years. Two of the arrests were allegations of home invasions, where he had molested little girls.
Madam Speaker, I have talked to Mark Lunsford at length. He is a good guy. He loved his daughter, as all fathers do. Girls are special to those of us who are fathers, and he says he will never get over the fact that he lost his daughter and the way that she was murdered. Of course, he will not get over it. And hopefully, none of us in this United States will get over it.
Jessica Lunsford, 9, State of Florida.
Madam Speaker, Dylan and Shasta Groene were declared missing May 16 this year after police found the beaten and bound bodies of their mother, their older brother, and their mother's boyfriend. Shasta was discovered on July 2, just a couple of weeks ago, in a local restaurant with Joseph Edward Duncan, III, of course, a registered sex offender who had fled Fargo, North Dakota.
Human remains were discovered at a remote western Montana campsite later, and they were identified on July 10, a few days ago, of those of Dylan Groene, 9 years of age.
Investigators have not revealed what they believe happened to Dylan or how long they believe the boy was alive after the children's mother, 13-year-old brother, and their mother's boyfriend were beaten to death. Sheriff Rocky Watson has said he believes the motive for the killings was to acquire these two children for sex. Watson also said authorities believe the family was chosen at random, but the attack was carefully planned and executed by the criminal.
The police have interviewed Shasta, the daughter, a couple of times, and the details are agonizing and slow in being revealed, but she has provided helpful information. Sheriff Watson does not go into all the facts and say what he believes happened to the girl and to Dylan, but those actions are not good.
Dylan, he was 9. Like the others that I have mentioned, he was a real person. He wanted to live like all kids, but he never made it to his 10th birthday because of the criminal, this individual by the name of Duncan.
Duncan: By the time he was 16, he had committed 13 rapes. In 1980, Duncan was arrested for breaking into a neighbor's house, stealing guns and then accosting a 14-year-old boy and raping him at gun point. He was convicted of rape and sentenced to the maximum of 20 years in the penitentiary. However, in lieu of prison, somebody sent Duncan to the Sex Offender Treatment Center at Western State Hospital.
In 1980, an evaluation at Western State Mental Hospital found that Duncan, who was only 17, met the definition of a sexual psychopath. Western State Hospital had given up on Duncan. He was 19, and he announced that he wanted to leave treatment and serve the rest of the time in prison. So he served 14 years for the rape and three more for parole violations. When he got out of the penitentiary, he moved to Fargo, North Dakota.
Duncan, after leaving the penitentiary, he decided to create a blog on the Internet, and many of the entries appear to focus on his own sexual abuse crimes; he seems to be proud of it; and his rage over how sex offenders are treated in our community.
Brenda Groene and her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie, and 13-year-old Slade Groene were killed in their home some time on May 15 by Joseph Edward Duncan, III. They were beaten to death. Duncan, after kidnapping Shasta, he told her what he did to these other three before he murdered them. He said he had watched the house and specifically had watched her for 2 or 3 days. At night, he would peer inside the home, and he said it was simple. He said he used a night vision goggle set to learn about the family's layout before breaking into the home.
Duncan was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in the bludgeoning deaths of this family. He bragged to Shasta about killing her family with a hammer and even taunted her with the hammer after he had kidnapped her.
McKenzie, Brenda Groene's boyfriend, took the kids fishing to Wolf Lodge Creek to catch crawdads. The last time Dylan's father, Steve, saw Dylan and Slade alive was about 3 weeks before the murders. They spent the weekend with him. Dylan and Slade liked to play games on PlayStation. Dylan, 4 feet, 60 pounds, blond crewcut, blue eyes, and 9 years of age when he was murdered.
Madam Speaker, Sarah Lunde was 13. She led a troubled life because she was abused as a child, so she sought peace with her church group. She was last seen on April 9, 2005, shortly after she returned home from a church trip and about the time a registered sex offender unexpectedly paid a visit to her home.
The teen was reported missing Monday when her mother learned she was not at a friend's home and reported that to the police. Investigators found Sarah Lunde's body abandoned in a fish pond on April 16, 2005.
Madam Speaker, Sarah Lunde, she was a real person as well, a child in our community of children.
David Onstott, he was a convicted sex offender, 35, and he has been arrested for the murder of Sarah Lunde. Onstott has been indicted for first-degree murder, sexual battery. He confessed to choking Sarah to death, dumping her partly clad body in a pond near her home in rural Hillsborough County, Florida. He has a lengthy history of violence against women, sexual deviance and failure to even pay child support. He once beat a man with a baseball bat, and later, he was accused of attacking another with a machete. He once stalked a former girlfriend and scared her so badly she moved to a different city. He was a heavy drinker, and he liked to use cocaine.
He was convicted in August 1995 of raping a 25-year-old woman in Florida. During the sentencing phase of that trial, his former wife and step-daughter testified against him. Onstott's ex-wife
testified he raped her repeatedly and even fondled the 16-year-old daughter. He was a registered sex offender. In November 1990, Onstott picked up the step-daughter from school, fondled her and even left marks on her chest.
In May, David Onstott, the convicted sex offender, was in jail and charged with the murder of Sarah Lunde. While in jail awaiting trial, he was caught trying to dig his way out of the jail. He had stolen some type of metal object and was digging into the concrete floor. He waits for his day in court.
Sarah Lunde, 13.
Madam Speaker, the assault on children continues. The last example I would like to discuss occurred in Houston, Texas. It happened this year. I want to read and paraphrase from different articles of the Houston Chronicle which relate the events better than I can. According to the Houston Chronicle, on February 4, 2005, a 6-month-old little girl showed up at Texas Children's Hospital severely abused, physically and sexually, and was put on life support by the hospital authorities. She was only able to breathe because she was on a respirator. This 6- month-old little girl had been penetrated and raped vaginally and anally. Her tongue had been severed almost completely off. The baby, mind you, six months of age, was in critical condition at the hospital. The baby's parents were arrested, put in police custody and charges have been filed against them.
According to the hospital authorities, one said, ``it is the worst case I have ever seen where a child has suffered such horrific types of injuries and is still alive . . . The pain that this baby girl must have suffered.''
Doctors have found other signs of abuse since the baby's admittance. The parents, who are not married, are in their early 20s. They took this child to Doctor's Parkway Hospital and told the staff she had some problems. The medical staff obviously became suspicious of abuse and transferred the 6-month-old baby and another child, a 15-month-old, the sister of the 6-month-old, to Texas Children's Hospital. Texas Children's Hospital examined both of the kids and noticed that the 15- month-old had an old broken rib and skull fractures. Children's protective services took official legal custody of both girls, and the 15-month-old is now in foster care.
When the 15-month-old was a month old, she suffered a fracture to her leg. She also had hemorrhaging in different parts of her body which was indicative of shaken baby syndrome, according to child protective services. They are not sure who did this, so the father was charged with injury of a child in December 2003, but for some reason, the case was dismissed in October. Once again, this is the 15-month-old daughter.
The mother had gone to some parenting classes and some therapy and told some officials that she had left the older child with the father and was living with her parents, but for some reason, the toddler was sent home to her mother. These children are vulnerable. They cannot tell anyone, and they do not have anyone to turn to.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the 6-month-old was still fighting for her life. She had been physically and sexually abused. She was covered with brutal injuries, according to the police. She has been partly blinded by the injuries, and now, the parents, Ivan Castaneda, 22, and Donna Marie Norman, 19, are each charged with injury to a child and being held without bond. If this 6-month-old dies, they would be charged with capital murder.
This little girl, however, is a remarkable person. Even though she had been admitted to the hospital in February, her kidneys ceased functioning, she was put on dialysis, she had skull fractures, injuries to her lungs, liver, kidneys and her eyes, she continues to live and continues to live to this day.
I have talked to Lieutenant Stanley of the Houston Police, and he said that the investigators investigating these cases are having difficulty handling the abuse that they personally saw. However, the 6- month-old has defied all odds. The reddish-haired infant, described as the miracle baby, has been released to a family that hopes to adopt her. The baby has been in hospital for some time, but according to a hospital spokesperson, it was a great day because this child survived the most brutal of all attacks. Physically and sexually abused, every part of her body bruised, but some way she survived. So they call her wonder baby, six months. She lived to the age of six months when she was physically and sexually abused, but today she is still alive.
She is the only person I will talk about tonight that survived these brutal attacks.
Madam Speaker, these are just a few stories of real people, real children in our communities that were preyed on by some sexual predator. There is some hope, however. Things are happening to protect children in the United States. Here in Washington, D.C., we have the National Children's Alliance. It was the idea of the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Cramer) who sits on the other side of the aisle, proof that child abuse, child protection, is a bipartisan issue. What this National Children's Alliance does is protect children that have been abused and sexually assaulted throughout the country. There are some 400 different centers where children who are assaulted sexually can go and be treated. Their medical and emotional needs can be met, and they can be interviewed so criminal prosecution can take place against the perpetrator.
We probably have the best one of these centers in Houston, Texas, called the Children's Assessment Center. The reason for these centers is this: It used to be, when I first started prosecuting cases and then when I was a criminal court judge, when a crime was committed against a child, especially a sexual assault crime, the system continued to sometimes commit crimes against the child. The justice system was not really justice for the kid. What I mean is, they would be interviewed by a police officer, then taken to a hospital and interviewed by medical personnel. They would sit in the emergency room with other people, sometimes for hours. Then they would go downtown and be interviewed by the police. And sometimes, the children would be on the elevator at the police station, and who else would be on the elevator? The perpetrator going to be interviewed for the criminal conduct.
They would be bounced around all over the city, interviewed by different prosecutors. But now, thankfully, because of the National Children's Alliance and the Children's Assessment Center in Houston, those days are over. When kids are sexually assaulted, they go to one center where all of their needs are met. They are interviewed. Their physical needs are met. When they are continuing to need more physical or mental therapy later, they go back to this same center. The people that are there are experts in child sexual assault cases and those people are available for trial when the perpetrator is caught and his day in court arrives. That is some good news. Unfortunately, we have to have these centers throughout the United States where children go who are sexually abused by the predators in our community.
Mr. Speaker, this year before the House and the Senate, it was learned that money that goes to protect victims of crime was being depleted and removed from the budget. Let me explain. In 1994, the President of the United States established what is called VOCA funding, Victims of Crime Act. What that allows is for a person who is convicted of a Federal crime, they contribute moneys into a fund and that money goes to victims of crime for their medical and physical needs. What a wonderful idea, make criminals pay for the system that they have created by establishing this VOCA fund.
Once again, this is not money that is obtained from taxpayers. It is obtained from criminals. This year there was about $1.6 billion in the VOCA funding, and there was an attempt and thought to remove this money and put it into the general fund. Thanks to the efforts of numerous victims groups throughout the United States and individuals on both sides of the aisle in not only the House but the Senate, that fund has been restored and victims organizations throughout the United States will be able to get that funding.
Where does it go? It goes to domestic violence shelters. It goes to child abuse sexual assault centers like the Children's Assessment Center and numerous organizations that receive funds
that criminals have contributed. That is some good news.
Mr. Speaker, we have also started this year the Victims Rights Caucus. I, along with the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa) from the other side of the aisle, have started the first-ever Victims Rights Caucus to raise the profile, the plight of victims throughout the United States. This is a good start.
It is important that judges throughout the United States be on the first line of defense of our children. What I mean by that is when individuals are caught sexually assaulting our children and they come to court and they have their day in court and they are convicted, judges need to understand they have a responsibility to punish those individuals. We need to lock them up. That is why we build prisons. It may be important to prosecute thieves and drug dealers and all those other types of criminals, but we build prisons to house and warehouse people who commit sex crimes against our children. That is why we build those institutions and judges have an obligation to send them there.
The cases that I recited earlier, many of them, they had gone to prison, but not for long enough because they got out and did it again. We know the fact that almost everybody who goes to prison gets out eventually. We also know this about sexual predators on our children, that the overwhelming number of them, when they leave the penitentiary, repeat that conduct.
So we have an obligation when they get out of the penitentiary to keep up with them, to track them, so they can no longer haunt our schools, our Boy Scouts, our churches and our neighborhoods.
That is why I introduced legislation called the Child Predator Act of 2005. This legislation requires registration of sex offenders throughout the United States. When they cross State lines, we lose them. They fall through the cracks. This legislation will require them to register when they move across State lines, they must notify the community; and by failure to notify, they have committed a Federal offense.
This act, this bill, has been incorporated in a larger bill sponsored by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), sponsors from both sides of the House, called the Child Safety Act. This bipartisan legislation, when hopefully passed this summer, is a measure that will protect the safety of children. It will allow for the Internet access of parents and law enforcement of those sexual predators that live in their communities. States will be required to notify each other when an individual who is a sex offender crosses State lines. There are numerous other provisions that protect children from sex offenders. But basically we will track these individuals when they leave the penitentiary, and we will track them for the rest of their lives. That is the price they pay when they choose to commit a crime against children.
We know this about child predators: they are slick; they are cunning; they are evil. And they continue to repeat their conduct. Most sexual predators that show up at the courthouse that have committed sex crimes against children, it is understood that they have committed several sex crimes against that one victim and that there are at least 10 other victims that they have committed sex crimes against.
There is a war on terror going on in this world, and we say it is somewhere else. We have a war on terror not only abroad but we have it at home. The terror here, they are child molesters. They are the bad guys. And they can no longer run and hide, because we are going to keep up with them. We know that they cannot be rehabilitated. All statistics show that. So if we do not keep them in prison, we need to track them when they leave the penitentiaries.
It is probably the hope of most of us when we leave this world, when we die, that we want to be surrounded with the most important people in our life, probably our kids. This week I had my third grandchild born 2 days ago, Elizabeth. I have four kids, three girls, a son, and now three grandkids. They are all very special to me. I hope that when I die, I am surrounded by those kids.
The worst thing I think that could ever happen to a parent is to lose a child and especially lose a child to a crime of violence. But none of these children that I talked about tonight left this world surrounded by the people that love them. They were found in holes in the ground, dumped on parking lots, thrown in rivers and lakes. Some of their bodies were burned. The last person they saw on Earth was not their mother, their father, their brother, their sister, but a sex offender. That is the last person they saw before they died.
We need to be sensitive as a people to our children, not just our own personal kids but the children down the street, our neighbors' kids. We need to watch for them and protect them. We have that obligation. We have that moral and legal obligation as a people. These kids, these children, they had the right to life. They had the right to grow up, play in their backyard, go to school, have a picnic, run through the fields, believe in Santa Claus, play sports, be in the school play, be in the high school prom, find a mate. All these things were stolen from all of the kids that I mentioned to you tonight, and they were stolen by a child predator.
We must hold these criminals accountable for their conduct. As a judge, I heard all types of excuses by these sexual predators about why they did what they did. Those comments by those individuals were nothing more than excuses. Some of them said they had a bad childhood. Their mom was not a nice person. They saw too much TV violence. They played video games. They watched the Internet. They continued to blame something or someone else for their own personal choices. Mr. Speaker, we now seem to live in the land of excusable conduct. All of us are responsible for the choices that we make. Every choice we make, we are personally responsible for that choice. We are accountable for making those choices, and those choices must result in consequences, regardless of what that crime is.
Our greatest resource in this country is not our oil, it is not the trees in the West, it is not other natural resources, it is not our wealth. The greatest resource we have in the United States is our children. We as a people must realize that. We are not judged by the way we treat the rich, the famous, the influential, the important people in our culture. We are judged by the way we treat the weak, the innocent, the children. Children are our greatest natural resource. We have a legal and moral obligation to protect them. The first duty of government is public safety and providing safety for children should be our primary concern and the duty of government.
Mr. Speaker, I close the way I began this comment, because I think the names of these people, these real people, these children, are names that we should not forget.
Dru Sjoden, 22, North Dakota.
Cary Ann Medlin, 8, Tennessee.
Nicole Parker, 8, California.
Chris Byers, 8, Arkansas.
Sherrice Iverson, 7, Nevada.
Amanda Brown, 7, Florida.
Christina Long, 13, Connecticut.
Michelle Vick, 14, Washington.
Samantha Runnion, 5, California.
Maryann Measles, 13, Connecticut.
Polly Klaas, 12, California.
Amber Hagerman, 9, Texas.
Adam Walsh, 6, Florida.
Megan Kanka 7, New Jersey.
JonBenet Ramsey 6, Colorado.
Sarah Lundy, 13, Florida.
Danielle Van Dam, 7, California.
Carlie Brucia, 11, Florida.
Jessica Lunsford, 9, Florida.
Dylan Groene, 9, Idaho.
Wonderbaby, 6 months, Houston, Texas.