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This is Our Watch
Author: Raine    Date: 10/17/2019 13:07:49

Now more than ever, this is our watch. Waking up to the news that Representative Cummings has left the earth is heartbreaking. Representative Adam Schiff stated on social media:

"Elijah Cummings was the heart and soul of our caucus, a dignified leader with a voice that could move mountains.

He was our moral and ethical North Star. Now we will be guided by his powerful memory and incomparable legacy.

Rest In Peace, my friend."


The Washington Post informs us:
Born to a family of Southern sharecroppers and Baptist preachers, Mr. Cummings grew up in the racially fractured Baltimore of the 1950s and 1960s. At 11, he helped integrate a local swimming pool while being attacked with bottles and rocks. “Perry Mason,” the popular TV series about a fictional defense lawyer, inspired him to enter the legal profession."

He's been called the conscience of Congress. He also deeply believed in his community, Md District 7, that he represented. After the Death of Freddie Gray, he attended his funeral.
Speaking at the funeral, Mr. Cummings, who lived near where Gray was arrested, bemoaned the presence of media to chronicle Gray’s death without celebrating his life.

“Did you see him? Did you see him?” Mr. Cummings asked in his booming baritone. The church exploded with applause, and civil rights activist Jesse L. Jackson sat, rapt, behind him. “Did you see him?”

“I’ve often said, our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see,” he said, his voice rising. “But now our children are sending us to a future they will never see! There’s something wrong with that picture!”

When looting began, hours after the funeral, Mr. Cummings rushed, bullhorn in hand, to a troubled West Baltimore neighborhood, where he worked to restore order and to assure residents that authorities were taking the case seriously. (Six officers would be charged in Gray’s death, although prosecutors failed to secure a conviction against any of them.)

Amid the unrest, he and a dozen other residents marched, arm in arm, through the streets, singing “This Little Light of Mine.”
In one of his last public appearances on the hill, he begged us all of us to pay attention to what was happening to our country. He warned our future was at stake. It was by far not the first time he spoke with such moral clarity, with passion and with a thirst for others to do the right things, but it was one of his last. He will be sorely missed. I and sending light and love to his friends, family and everyone who his life has touched and made better.

Rest in Power, Sir. We will continue the watch.





and

Raine

 
 
 

27 comments (Latest Comment: 10/17/2019 21:52:37 by BobR)
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Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:18:07




Comment by wickedpam on 10/17/2019 13:18:34
Morning

Comment by Scoopster on 10/17/2019 13:22:09
Mornin' everyone...

I'm just beside myself today. Losing Elijah is heartbreaking.

Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:41:39
Quote by Scoopster:
Mornin' everyone...

I'm just beside myself today. Losing Elijah is heartbreaking.

cosigned.

Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:46:54
I was arting yesterday and was able to make the chaos kinda white noise yesterday.
His mind is gone.


Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:51:01
Love Pelosi.





Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:51:41
Quote by Raine:
Love Pelosi.




For context:





Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:55:30
This had me in tears when it happened, and tears again today. What a good and decent human being.





Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:56:48






Comment by Scoopster on 10/17/2019 13:57:01
Ambassador Gordon's Sondland's introductory remarks to the House today (PDF)

NPR had a story on Sondland's background and career today. It described him as a decent, driven person who was dedicated to public service and achieving his goal of becoming an ambassador at any cost. Apparently those last three words were his downfall once he reached that goal.. "at any cost". He was so afraid of losing what he had worked so hard for over decades that he made bad decisions at the behest of a porcine tyrant.

Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 13:57:29
Today is gonna be interesting, hopefully earthshattering.





Comment by Scoopster on 10/17/2019 13:58:38
PLEASE tell me C-Span (or ANYONE) is broadcasting Sondland's testimony....

Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 14:02:17
Quote by Scoopster:
PLEASE tell me C-Span (or ANYONE) is broadcasting Sondland's testimony....

WaPo usually airs the hearings.


Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 14:02:55
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Scoopster:
PLEASE tell me C-Span (or ANYONE) is broadcasting Sondland's testimony....

WaPo usually airs the hearings.

If they are public, I should add -- I think this one is behind closed doors.

Comment by Scoopster on 10/17/2019 14:08:44
This opening statement is damning. If House Oversight somehow manages to get Rick Perry and Kurt Volker to corroborate this stuff, Trump is DONE.

Comment by BobR on 10/17/2019 14:36:02
I woke up to the news of Representative Cummings' death. What a miserable start to the day. It can only get better from here, right?....

right?....

*sigh*....

Comment by TriSec on 10/17/2019 14:36:03
I was rather shocked by this news this morning. Having traumatically lost my own Senator Kennedy some years ago now - I know what Baltimore must be experiencing.

I am already cringing at what President Fucktard might say or do today.



Comment by trojanrabbit on 10/17/2019 14:44:22
Out of deep respect for the Congressman, a far far better and more forgiving man than I could ever hope to be, I’m going to hold my tongue as best I can today.

Comment by trojanrabbit on 10/17/2019 15:19:26
Didn’t realize that Cummings married Joe & Mika.

Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 15:44:41
Watch Elijah Cummings’ First Congressional Floor Speech: ‘I Only Have a Minute… But Eternity is In It’

Comment by BobR on 10/17/2019 16:21:06
From tRump's twitter (re: Elijah Cummings): "I got to see first hand the strength, passion and wisdom of this highly respected political leader. His work and voice on so many fronts will be very hard, if not impossible, to replace!"

Obviously not written by him.

Comment by livingonli on 10/17/2019 16:32:03
I am too devastated today.

Comment by Scoopster on 10/17/2019 16:43:33
Well, I'm back from viewing one of the apartments right next door to my workplace. It was friggin' awesome, and damn expensive (possibly out of my range without a cosigner or roommate, but I applied anyways).

On the walk back, I saw a car in the parking lot of the rental office with a Trump 2020 sticker. I had to resist the urge to throw my complimentary can of lemon seltzer.

Comment by BobR on 10/17/2019 18:16:08
Quote by Scoopster:
Well, I'm back from viewing one of the apartments right next door to my workplace. It was friggin' awesome, and damn expensive (possibly out of my range without a cosigner or roommate, but I applied anyways).

On the walk back, I saw a car in the parking lot of the rental office with a Trump 2020 sticker. I had to resist the urge to throw my complimentary can of lemon seltzer.

Could end up being a neighbor... or the landlord.

Comment by livingonli on 10/17/2019 18:37:13
So the next G-7 summit will be at the Doral. I'm rooting for the bedbugs.

Comment by Raine on 10/17/2019 18:44:51




Comment by BobR on 10/17/2019 21:52:37
Quote by Raine:



By "terrorists", of course, they mean the Kurds (not ISIS)