Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Madam Chair, Ms. Foxx, very much for the time. Mr. Speaker, every 40 seconds in America a mother or father will experience the worst nightmare, a missing child. The reason can be as benign as a simple misunderstanding or a serious abduction by a stranger. In fact, nearly half a million children are reported missing every year, but astonishing as that number is, the real number could be much higher since many children are not reported missing. However, Mr. Speaker, it didn't always used to be this way. In the 1970s when I grew up--hard to believe that--but when I grew up in the 1970s, I remember that we had unfettered play activities outside as long as you are home before the streetlights came on. We were there for dinner. Unsupervised outdoor activity was a safe, integral part of adolescence and we lived in a high-trust society. Though, over time that image of society slowly faded away due to several high-profile child abductions, including the tragedy of Adam Walsh. Now, the world feels much less safe. Each year, threats to our children grow just as the avenues for reaching them are expanding. Predators are more sophisticated about how they gain access to children, their actions are more brazen, and those threats have found a way into our homes. The proliferation of the internet and smartphones have enabled child sex trafficking and other forms of child exploitation.…”