Making the point that public infrastructure is more than just physical structures:
“Our decisions about transportation determine much more than where roads or bridges or tunnels or rail lines will be built. They determine the connections and barriers that people will encounter in their daily lives – and thus how hard or easy it will be for people to get where they need and want to go,”
On standing up for rule of law:
“When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked, in 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing?”
WATCH: House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) delivers closing remarks at the Michael Cohen hearing. #MTPDaily@RepCummings: “You know I’ve sat here and I’ve listened to all this, and it’s very painful. It’s very painful… As a country, we are so much better than this.” pic.twitter.com/G5tlZcWnly
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 27, 2019
On Trump and his administration:
“The Trump administration’s actions at the southern border are grotesque and dehumanizing, there seems to be open contempt for the rule of law and for basic human decency.”
“Our Republican colleagues are so busy trying to defend the Trump administration, even when there are 25 violations of federal law, that we are basically giving away our power.”
“We can not have people disobeying the law, the President is not above the law. And neither is Ms. Conway above the law.”
“The Trump Administration has demonstrated repeatedly that it is willing to disregard the Constitution, defy decades of clear precedent, and invent frivolous new arguments to delay and obstruct Congress’ oversight authority, and Attorney General( William) Barr and Secretary( Wilbur) Ross are complicit in this cover-up, both Secretary Ross and Attorney Attorney General -LRB- William -RRB- Barr are refusing to comply with duly authorized subpoenas from Congress.”
On his parents:
“My mom and dad, although they may not have had a lot of formal education, they were two of the most brilliant people that I know,” Cummings said in the interview of his parents, who were taken out of school in the fourth grade to work the fields. “They were always looking for teaching opportunities.”
What his grandmother said to him:
“She says, ‘Your daddy, he been waiting and waiting and waiting for a better day,'” Cummings told 60 Minutes. “She said, ‘He’s going to wait, and he’s going to die.’ She said, ‘Don’t you wait.'”
To a special-education students:
“I was in special ed, but I felt like I was a caged bird. I felt like I could do better … I made sure I mastered my special-ed lessons. I made sure I listened to my teacher. I made sure I did my homework.”
He wanted to be a lawyer when he was 11 and his guidance counselor said to him: “Who do you think you are?” On that Cummings said:
“They are words that pain me to this day. I’m now almost 62, and I still feel the pain from these words.’
“When I became a lawyer, no one asked me if I had spent some time in special-ed. All they wanted was a good lawyer.”
On civil rights and inequities:
“It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.”
“Americans of our own time – minority and majority Americans alike – need the continued guidance that the Voting Rights Act provides. We have come a long way, but more needs to be done.”
On bullies and education:
“The same little boys that bullied me, the same ones that beat me up, they became my clients.”
On racial nature of the economic disparities in America and Baltimore:
“Many of these Americans who are struggling to survive are Americans of color, .. Their cries for assistance confront America with a test of our moral compass as a nation,”
There are two Baltimores. There are clearly two Baltimores.”
“You have to understand – I come from a neighborhood where ‘The Wire’ was filmed.”
“However, it is clear that it is not beneath President Trump. The president should be ashamed, we know that Baltimorians and other individuals across the country live in housing that is sub-standard and that if President Trump and President Trump [ Housing and Urban Development ] director… got serious about making that agency work for the benefit of Baltimorians and people in cities like Baltimore instead of trying to cut the budget for that agency every year, the change that could be made.”
On starting and running a law firm:
“Most of my problems stem from trying to pursue my dream of starting and maintaining my law firm,” Cummings, then 48, said of his money troubles. “When you own a business, when you begin [slipping] financially, it can become like going down a mountain of ice.”
Cummings explained that he had pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer and found time for his secondary aspiration, politics, but that a combination of forces had made it financially challenging.
“It just got worse and worse and worse, and we did everything we could to pay our bills … Being in business for yourself when you’re poor and black is extremely difficult. You’re not going to get the credit from the banks the others will get.”
On neglecting paying federal taxes to meet payroll:
“When you have limited resources, what you try to do is stretch those resources .. We always made sure our employees were paid.”
“Most of my problems stem from trying to pursue my dream of starting and maintaining my law firm,” Cummings, then 48, said of his money troubles. “When you own a business, when you begin [slipping] financially, it can become like going down a mountain of ice.”
Cummings explained that he had pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer and found time for his secondary aspiration, politics, but that a combination of forces had made it financially challenging.
“Being in business for yourself when you’re poor and black is extremely difficult. You’re not going to get the credit from the banks the others will get.”
“When you have limited resources, what you try to do is stretch those resources. We always made sure our employees were paid.”
On perseverance:
“Whatever it is that you believe is stopping you from being all you can be, you need to change that right now.”
“You must have confidence in your competence … Most people who are hating on you, they are not worried about where you are. They’re worried about where you’re going.”
“Every time something bad happens to me, I don’t ask the question, ‘Why did it happen to me? The question I ask is, ‘Why did it happen for me?
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Edited by Jesus Democrats
