Westside survivor has her say
By PATRICK HOWE
This article was published July 1, 1999 at 4:53 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Adding her voice to the nation's continuing dialogue on youth violence, one of the victims of the shooting at Westside Middle School, 12-year-old Whitney Irving, came to Congress this week to share her story.
"I know first-hand how it feels to be the victim of violence, and I have ideas on how to stop it," said Whitney, who was shot in the back by her classmate, Andrew Golden. "So far, no one's asked me to share them."
Whitney's best friend, Britthney Varner, was killed in the March 24, 1998, attack at the school near Jonesboro, Ark.
After the shooting, Whitney said she was afraid in school and everywhere she went. "I was afraid in my own home, even though I had lived there all my life. I kept the blinds pulled, and I was afraid of the woods around my house. I was afraid of many noises, even noises I was used to."
On Tuesday, she appeared at a press conference with Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who has been pushing to get more money for school counseling to help emotionally disturbed students.
"We've got to talk to our kids. Some may say that children are the problem; I say they must be part of the solution," Lincoln said.
Congress has been grappling with ways to address youth violence, but the debate has become embroiled in dueling arguments over gun control and violence in the entertainment industry.
Members of Congress are planning how they'll spend next week, when Congress will be on a recess.
Republican Reps. Asa Hutchinson and Jay Dickey are planning to go on a bus tour to promote the building of proposed Interstate 49, which eventually would reach from Missouri to Louisiana. Dickey and Hutchinson will travel along U.S. 71, the proposed route for the new interstate. The trip will begin in Fort Smith, Hutchinson's hometown, and end in Texarkana, in Dickey's district.
Rep. Marion Berry, who has two bills aimed at lowering prescription-drug prices, will hold meetings on the issue Wednesday and July 8.
Along with a representative from the American Association of Retired Persons, Berry will hold meetings in Jonesboro and Blytheville on Wednesday and in Brinkley and Batesville on July 8.
Berry, a licensed pharmacist, has two plans, both of which the pharmaceutical lobby has been fighting.
One plan would allow pharmacists to buy and import U.S.-made drugs sold in Mexico and Canada.
The drugs are cheaper in those countries, but Americans can only buy and import a small supply for their own use. His other plan would make the companies sell drugs to pharmacists at the same bulk-rate price they charge the U.S. government, presumably passing the savings on to consumers.
It beats mowing lawns. Blake Rutherford, 20, son of presidential friend and library planner Skip Rutherford, is spending the summer before his senior year at Middlebury College in Vermont helping Vice President Gore's presidential campaign map its strategy in the South.
Despite his age, Rutherford already has ample political experience. He worked on the Clinton/Gore 1996 campaign, helped plan the 1997 inauguration and has done internships at the White House and the office of former Democratic Sen. David Pryor.
Rutherford was one of the campaign's first hires, but he insists it's just for the summer.
With such a good job, why go back? "This way I can kind of move on, get this year of college behind me and then, hopefully, if another opportunity presents itself, I'll be in a position to take advantage of it."
Sen. Tim Hutchinson has introduced a bill that would make the military pay veterans any disability payments they are owed in addition to their retirement pay.
Currently, a disabled veteran has to waive a portion of his military pension in order to receive disability compensation.
Veterans with pensions from other federal employers or the private sector face no such cut. There is a similar bill gathering support in the House.
Military and veterans' groups support the bill but federal budget officials oppose the change, which would affect more than 400,000 veterans.
Officials say it would be too costly.
"We should be rewarding, not penalizing people, for choosing a career in the military," Hutchinson said.
Copyright © 2007, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
