I want to share with you my opening and closing remarks at the League of Women Voters 41st District candidates forum last night.
At this event two elections ago, an audience member asked us if we could help a member of the Islam community obtain a funeral license.
Embalming is not permitted in the Muslim faith, but it is part of the required training under state law.
Working with my 41st District colleagues, I passed a bill that solved the problem.
A few years ago, I heard from the Sher family. They close their used car business on Saturday to observe the Jewish Sabbath.
Now that car titles and other transactions are submitted electronically, they can’t do this work on Sundays, when the Blue laws require used car dealerships in Baltimore City to be closed.
Working with my 41st District colleagues, I passed a bill that solved the problem.
We have worked together in all of the neighborhoods of the district for the past 12 years.
I began my closing statement by referring to an event I attended yesterday afternoon.
Orientation for the Governor’s Summer Interns Program was held at the Shriver Center at UMBC, named for R. Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
That prompted me to end my talk by quoting Robert Kennedy.
“Some people see things as they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were…”
Someone in the audience spoke out, “And ask why not.”
Like a Baptist church, I thought to myself.
Afterwards, that person introduced herself to me. She is a daughter of the late Rev. Vernon Dobson.
Rev. Dobson; Congressman Parren Mitchell, whom I worked for; and Walter P. Carter, whose daughter I proudly serve with, were the leading civil rights activists in Baltimore.
