Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Alaska State Senate yesterday passed a bill that would establish March 12, today, as Ashley Johnson- Barr Day to be held each year. Ashley Johnson-Barr was a 10-year-old beautiful little girl in Kotzebue, AK. Ashley was probably one of those happy kids who loved purple; thus, I have a purple scarf and purple jacket today. She was one of those beautiful young children growing up in Kotzebue who would have gone on to have a good, productive life in an Inupiat community in the northwestern part of the State. But Ashley Johnson-Barr is remembered now because, at the age of 10 years old, she was brutally raped and murdered. She was literally taken from the kids' playground there in Kotzebue and taken to a location not too many miles outside the community. Her death, the tragedy around the circumstance of how she left this world, is one that is an open and raw and hurtful and horrific scar on Alaska and on the communities. It is a reminder that in my State--a place of extraordinary beauty, with beautiful people--there is a darkness that is very, very difficult to talk about. That darkness is reflected in the statistics that we see when it comes to sexual assault, domestic violence, and more brutal acts of murder inflicted, unfortunately, in a disproportionate way on our Native women and our Native children. Yesterday in the Senate, we passed two measures that I have been working on for a period of time.…”