2007 house journal index of days - Maryland General Assembly

Jan. 15, 2007 Maryland House of Delegates 39
human rights. Coretta Scott King was the custodian of her family’s faith and our nation’s
spirit. She endured wiretaps, death threats, innuendo, and hardship to service justice. Mrs.
King once said: “When you are willing to make sacrifices for a great cause, you will
never be alone.” It gives us comfort on this day to know she and Martin are together
again, casting their hopeful eyes upon us.
As I prepared my text for this occasion, I pondered a question that left me feeling
as if I tugged upon an unraveling thread in the otherwise glorious fabric of the King
Holiday. As I struggled to find the proper balance between reverence and observation,
this question nagged me, like a pebble nestled in the arch of my shoe. So, please indulge
me, for I must raise it: How would Dr. King feel about our gathering today? More
specifically, how would he feel about those that have gathered to honor him and the way
we’ve chosen to do so?
I raise the question not as a contrarian or recalcitrant, though some might use such
words to describe my passion for advocacy. I raise the question because I am struck by a
peculiar paradox. Many will gather in Maryland and across the nation to speak Dr. King’s
words and recall his deeds, while working overtime to counter his philosophy, dismantle
his progress, and alienate his progeny. I hope I don’t need to call names.
If you must know of whom I speak, look no further than the state of our public
schools. Look no further than our inner city neighborhoods, the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, or the misguided policy, which has our young men and women dying on foreign
soil.
If you still don’t know of whom I speak, think of those whose strategy for gaining
power depended upon the suppression and marginalization of the vote of people of color
in Florida and Ohio, the very people Dr. King represented at the signing of the Voting
Rights Act.
And, if you still don’t know of whom I speak, stroll through Baltimore. Watch as
shining towers of steel, concrete, and glass rise in the Inner Harbor and downtown, while
those that live in the forgotten areas of our city serve life sentences in substandard
housing, substandard schools, and travail neighborhoods of boards, bricks, broken glass,
and broken spirits.
Talk, as I have, to those that have turned a cynical ear to the promises of
politicians, the prayers of preachers, the lessons taught by frustrated teachers, the
admonishments of demoralized police officers, and the echoes of their childhood dreams.
Yet, there are people honoring Dr. King today, who travel the country pushing
ballot initiatives, which seek to deny access to students struggling to overcome the legacy
of systemic discrimination. Even here, in the great state of Maryland, in her largest city of
Baltimore, we put more black boys in the penal system than we graduate from high