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Congressman Elijah
E. Cummings |
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Congressman Elijah
E. Cummings |
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November 20, 2003
Statement of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, D-Maryland
on the Floor of the United States House of Representatives
U.S. House of Representatives
108th Congress
Washington, D.C
[Page H11629 of Con. Record, volume 149]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember and honor a teacher and mentor
and a friend, a dedicated husband and father from my hometown of
Baltimore who rose from modest beginnings to lift up the people of his community
and the State of Maryland.
Howard Peters Rawlings spent his earliest years in Baltimore's Poe Homes public housing project. However, when he finally succumbed to cancer on November 14 of this year, he had become one of the most influential and well-respected leaders of the great State of Maryland.
Pete Rawlings' life exemplified the character and integrity that all Americans should seek to achieve in their own lives.
That, Mr. Speaker, is why I ask that we pause in the work of this great House to reflect upon the character of this truly great man.
Despite the daily hardships of their lives, Pete Rawlings' parents, Howard Toussant and Beatrice Peters Rawlings, instilled in him the core values for which I rise to honor him today. Pete was born during the Great Depression, an age when few Americans expected a lifetime of exemplary achievement from any young African American. The young Howard Rawlings was not deterred, however. As a matter of fact, he was determined to be excellent at everything he did, and he was
[[Page H11630]]
successful at that. His dedication to excellence led Pete to academic success at Baltimore's Douglass High School and carried him onward until he earned his bachelor's degree at Morgan State University, his master's degree in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, and the experience that would make him a master teacher in more ways than one.
Yet, Pete Rawlings never forgot from whence he had come. He was called to public service and rose to chair one of the most powerful committees in the Maryland legislature.
The source of much of Pete's influence can be traced to his chairmanship of the appropriations committee in Maryland's House of Delegates, the legislative body where I served together with him for nearly 14 years. Pete was determined to make his lifelong fight for better schools, health care and housing the center of legislative debate, and he did succeed. He was a driving force behind the debates about reorganizing Maryland's school system, Maryland's higher education system, expanding financial support for our public schools, extending health care and creating safe and affordable housing for tens of thousands of additional families.
We who were privileged to know and work with Pete understood that his influence did not derive from his position of power alone.
As Dr. Steven Carter once observed, true leaders are defined by their integrity. Leaders of integrity have the capacity to discern right from wrong and they act upon what they know to be right even if that commitment places them in peril. Dr. Carter's insights about integrity are exemplified by Pete Rawlings' lifetime of service to the people of our community and State. In his commitment to the education of our children, health care for all and fair housing, Delegate Rawlings consistently followed his vision of what is right, both for the present and for decades to come. At times, he was rewarded for his dedication by harsh criticism. Yet Pete remained steadfast, knowing that the course that he followed was opening the doors of opportunity for many people to come. Otherwise, he knew they would be left on the outside looking in and left in a state of arrested development.
He did not seek celebrity or acclaim, but generations to come will remember him as a true and faithful servant who kept the faith of the people he served.
Mr. Speaker, all too often those of us in public life worry too much about the next election. A true statesman, however, worries about the next generation and children yet unborn. Pete Rawlings was such a man.
As I close, Mr. Speaker, I am moved to share with you that dying from cancer, my friend and colleague continued working from his hospital bed until his death. The people of Maryland have lost a great leader and I have lost a great friend and mentor. At this difficult moment for Pete's loving wife Nina and their wonderful family, I join all the people of the great State of Maryland in offering our prayers and our gratitude for a life well lived.
I thank God that he allowed Pete Rawlings' life to eclipse with my own.
