Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Proudly Representing Maryland's 7th District

Joining Together to Create a Community of Learning

June 1, 1999
Remarks of Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (MD-07)
Keynote Speaker, Farewell Assembly
Walbrook Uniformed Services Academy

Baltimore, Maryland
10:00AM

I am honored to join you this morning as you celebrate your accomplishments and plan your future lives.

As I was driving to be with you, I thought about my daughter, Jennifer, who also is graduating this year. I am very, very proud of Jennifer, just as the parents of Walbrook's graduates are proud.

You have every right to be proud of what you have accomplished in preparing yourselves for the future. And you have given the entire nation something else for which you can take pride.

Dr. Bundley, this nation still mourns the young students who recently were destroyed by violence.

At the same time, Walbrook (an urban high school in the center of Baltimore) has come together as a community of learning.

WALBROOK HAS CHALLENGED THE IDEA THAT SECURITY DEMANDS A NEGATIVE MIND-SET.

HERE AT WALBROOK, YOU HAVE REJECTED LIFE IN A PROTECTIVE CAGE.

YOU HAVE TAKEN THE METAL DETECTORS DOWN. AND YOU HAVE REPLACED THEM WITH A MORE EFFECTIVE SET OF TOOLS: YOUR OWN CHARACTER & COMMITMENT.

Here at Walbrook, you have learned the lesson I teach my own children every day: EDUCATION IS LEARNING HOW TO MAKE THE CHOICES WHICH ARE RIGHT FOR YOU.

< YOU MADE A CHOICE TO SEEK EXCELLENCE.

< YOU DECIDED TO WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE A COMMUNITY OF LEARNING. AND -

< YOU CHOSE TO BASE YOUR COMMUNITY ON DISCIPLINE AND MUTUAL RESPECT.

I am very proud of all of you; and I am proud that WALBROOK is located here in our neighborhood, in our City of Baltimore, in our 7th Congressional District of Maryland.

At a time when this country is deeply concerned about violence in suburban schools, I want America to know about Walbrook.

< I want America to know that an urban high school in Baltimore has taken its metal detectors down and replaced them with character.

< I want America to learn from Walbrook's ethic of academic achievement, discipline and mutual respect.

< I want America to know about the unique techniques you have used to restore the discipline of non-violence in this school.

That is why I decided to do something to HONOR YOU - THE STUDENTS, TEACHERS, FAMILIES and PRINCIPAL who turned this school around.

Today, I am naming WALBROOK HIGH SCHOOL UNIFORM SERVICES ACADEMY the recipient of the 1st Elijah E. Cummings U-TURN Award --

I honor and acknowledge all of you for your Unique Techniques Used to Restore Nonviolence.

[PLAQUE PRESENTED TO DR. BUNDLEY]

Dr. Bundley, you - and the entire Walbrook community - worked together to realize your new vision for this school. By dismantling the metal detectors, you decided that things would be different.

This U-TURN Award symbolizes that change in direction.

< The "U" reminds us of the shape of a magnet .

< The "U" is the attractive force of everyone here pulling together.

Each of you have made a decision to contribute the force of your own character to repel the violence which threatened your school.

That is why I am honored to present this award to you.

I am confident that other students and teachers at other schools will learn from Walbrook's decision to create, rather than to destroy.

I hope that some of you who are here today will join me in honoring those other schools, just as Walbrook is being honored today.

I am determined that every school in Baltimore will receive its own U-TURN award. And when they do, you will know that YOU WERE THE 1ST.

Walbrook's graduating seniors came to this school to learn.... And you graduate as teachers.

This school can teach America a better way to learn and live.

Just as Walbrook's older students will teach next year's 9th graders the non-violent discipline of life -

The same path to learning taught by Jesus & Gandhi & Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you all for giving tangible meaning to Dr. King's words when he accepted the nobel peace prize in 1964.

"WE ARE LIVING IN THE CREATIVE TURMOIL OF A GENUINE CIVILIZATION STRUGGLING TO BE BORN."

That's what Dr. King said back when I was young in 1964.

YOU - ALL OF YOU - ARE LEADERS IN OUR STRUGGLE TO CREATE A SAFE COMMUNITY IN WHICH YOUNG PEOPLE CAN LEARN.

AND FOR THAT LEADERSHIP, I THANK YOU.