On the recordJuly 11, 2000
Mr. Speaker, I have a deep respect for the power of young people. Forty-three years ago, I was but a child myself when I first met Martin Luther King, Jr., and joined the nonviolent struggle for justice in America. So I know, Mr. Speaker, that young people can change the world. That is why the idea of using children as soldiers so disturbs me. As the last remaining superpower, the United States is morally bound to use our strength to protect those who are weak and exposed. Yet, as we stand here, thousands by thousands of children in Colombia, in Sierra Leone, and countless other countries around the world have been forced to kill at one moment and used as cannon fodder the next.
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