On the recordApril 30, 2015
I thank my colleague from California, Congressman Barbara Lee, for her courtesy. I join today in standing with my chair, Congressman Butterfield of the Congressional Black Caucus. I, as well, am overwhelmed with the pain that we have seen not only in Baltimore, which we have seen most recently, but in cities like Ferguson, in North Charleston, in New York, where we have seen the convergence of poverty and the need for criminal justice reform converge. I too want to offer my sympathy to the family of Freddie Gray. We have watched them over the past couple of days. In the midst of their mourning to be able to stand up and call for peace, nonviolence, nonviolent protests, they should be honored. And to those in Baltimore, and particularly my colleague from Maryland--I will call him Congressman Cummings with the bullhorn politics, the bullhorn leadership--he should be commended for the stunning and outstanding engagement, that he touched the hearts and minds of his constituents, walked those streets, to be able to acknowledge the pain, the poverty, but that there is a better way, that there is a way toward the stars that we all want our children to have. And, yes, to Ms. Graham, who wanted better for her son Michael. I want him not to be embarrassed but to be proud that he had a mother with such deep love that she wanted to take him away from doing it wrongly--not against protests, not against the quiet marching of the spirit of Dr.…
