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This Is Our Watch….

By Dominique Warren
The Truth Contributor

This year I had the pleasure of serving as one of a few black legislative directors for the 116th Congress in the Office of Representative Rashida Tlaib. It became all the more important when we were assigned to serve on the Committee on Oversight and Reform chaired by Elijah Cummings of Baltimore, Maryland.
 

Elijah Cummings

I had met Chairman Cummings years before while living in West Baltimore during the uprisings after the murder of Freddie Gray. With a booming voice and stated determination to fight for justice, truth and for black liberation, he was truly inspiring, living up to his reputation as a giant among men.

I would later live a few blocks from there when I raised my daughter Lois and would often see him in the community because he was firmly rooted in Baltimore and its residents. He had a youth program that served thousands and he worked feverishly to ensure that Baltimore youth were able to reach their full potential.

He said that “our children are the living messages we send to a future that we will never see” and his service compelled him to ensure that the future was better for them.

He was a stalwart of justice, pursuer of truth. When we were asked to be on the Oversight Committee, I was overjoyed because I knew the work that we would undertake would be central to ensuring our nation and democracy was strengthened and we were defending people who could not defend themselves.

Our first hearing was on the exploding prices of prescription drugs and how Big Pharma has been profiting on the market while people were suffering without medication, dying, and going bankrupt to stay alive. He knew that the role of Congress was to serve people, not shareholders and without action, people will die due to the lack of access to life-saving medications.

My last hearing with Chairman Cummings was about the abuses of immigrant children at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security in detention facilities. Like dozens of times before, Chairman Cummings commanded the room and demanded accountability saying that it’s not just about the deeds that we do to children, but the memories of these traumatic experiences committed by the government that will remain.

He was a defender of democracy. The Committee on Oversight and Reform had a tremendous responsibility for investigating interference in the 2016 election as well as oversight of the conduct of President Trump and his administration in whether they purposely acted in ways that undermined the rule of law and democracy. This responsibility weighed heavy on the Chairman and on all of us as we were charged to pursue the truth and where that may lead us. The Chairman and his team were the best there are on the Hill and we found numerous laws broken and institutions weakened to interfere with federal elections, accountability and to inflict suffering on citizens.

He passed major legislation out of the Committee to protect elections, root out corruption and self-dealing in the federal government, and to hold elected and confirmed officials to the highest ethical and moral standards. He was the North Star for Democrats in the House and never lost legitimacy in the truths and facts that he told to the American people. 

He was a fighter for Black Liberation.  He had what King said was the fierce urgency of now. Chairman Cummings “realized that with African American people where we’ve been blocked from being all that God meant for us to be, I don’t have time to be patient.”

A colleague of mine and I reached out to the chairman on the day of the Christchurch terrorist attack by a white supremacist, asking for a hearing on white supremacy and its threat to our way of life. He didn’t just grant us one hearing, but three, that confronted white supremacy on the consequences of inaction, the lack of federal response, and on transnational white supremacy. Allowing young senior staffers to lead on issues such as this was the norm for him. He also focused lately on the effects of childhood trauma and what it means for our future, particularly for children of color. I will be forever grateful to him for embracing our fight for a better nation.

This was his watch. “I’m begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on. Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children’s children, and generations yet unborn we've got to guard this moment… this is our watch.” said Chairman Cummings.

As our most sacred rights, such as voting rights, have been attacked and weakened the chairman was adamant about preserving those rights. He admitted that despite being in the last leg of his amazing life, that current events increased the need for him to work day and night to preserve and strengthen this democracy for not just African Americans, but all Americans.

His life was a call to action for us to work harder for a country that we own and for a future that we deserve. As Chairman Cummings exhaled his last breath and ended his watch on this earthly domain, we must step forward because this is our watch.

Dominique “Domo” Warren is an educator, coach, writer, staffer in the United States Senate, and political strategist as well as a native of Toledo, Ohio. He can be reached at domowarren.com and on facebook/twitter/Instagram @domowarren.

 
 

 

   
   


Copyright © 2019 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 10/31/19 09:22:30 -0400.


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