“My life is based on pain, passion, and purpose.” “Most people who are hating on you, they are not worried about where you are. They're worried about where you're going.” “Our country is slowly but surely moving - and I've seen it over and over again in many instances in government - toward a culture of mediocrity.” ----Elijah Cummings (1951-2019)
To be honest, and sadly so, I did not know, this nation was lucky enough to enjoy the energy and involvement of Elijah Cummings! We both were living during the rocky decades of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, but he a man of color dealing with issues of racial hate, and me a white man living in the womb of a Jewish neighborhood, nurtured until my graduation from high school, were following different paths…not realizing our trajectory would indeed find us parallel in demanding freedom, equality and an expectation that America belonged to no ONE exact group, but should have could have and would have been a nation for all.
I marched against the conflict in Viet Nam (it was never considered a war…as was the situation in Korea), I fought against anti-Semitism, finally realizing that outside of my Jewish community, people hated me, The Juden! And secretly, perhaps for me the most insidious and emotional conflict one of my own identity, of being a Gay man, I fought for my piece of the Great American Pie. As I involved myself with the relevant matters of my survival, Representative Cummings, battled the bigots, the biased, and the bogus who decided that African Americans, were not equal to the “WHITE RACE,” and that slavery was an intentional action by a God, which, for some actually had written in a Bible stating the Black race was inferior and created to be slaves for the Caucasian! We all have the desire for hero’s, some emerge on the scene in a large way, others are quiet, but consistent, and continue to create change, face the consequences of change, but charge ahead, no matter the physical or emotional pain and punishment.
It wasn’t until a Russian Asset, an Ass Hat, a terrible person of poison and treason emerged, that I truly began to know and respect and appreciate Representative Elijah Cummings. I watched a tireless, true Patriot fight for the demands Democracy asks of Americans and witnessed a man who had fought the battles of being the OTHER, that my respect grew for Rep. Cummings, and I knew somewhere on Capitol Hill, I had an ally! My condolences to Elijah Cummings’ family and friends…his death, however, WILL NOT end the battle ALL Americans have to keep life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, under the guise of democracy ALIVE!
