Joel Hefley: “this past weekend I attended with the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) the memorial service for the students and…”

“this past weekend I attended with the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) the memorial service for the students and the teacher who died, and, as I looked over the sea of 70,000 grieving faces, I realized that the media has touched the utter devastation Coloradans and, indeed, most Americans feel in the wake of this brutal attack. In shopping malls, grocery stores, public parks, churches and other venues across Colorado, people are grieving. They are moving slowly, they are talking in subdued voices, they are weeping at a moment's notice. There is unpalatable grief overwhelming the State of Colorado as we mourn the death of our children and friends and our neighbors. In the days following the attack, many have tried to assign blame or to identify a reason for the tragedy. Unfortunately, one cannot find a reason for something so senseless. There have been calls to judgment and proposed quick-fix solutions to the problems that appear to plague some of our Nation's youth.”