It helps to meet with the people affected by your bill before the public hearing.

That way, you can learn about their concerns and, if they’re reasonable, address them with an amendment.

That’s far better than their testifying against your bill before the committee.

The public hearing for two of my election law bills is next Tuesday.

I met today with an official from the State Board of Elections and with Del. Alonzo Washington, chair of the Election Law Subcommittee.

Amendments and another meeting with an affected party are in the works.

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Del. Cheryl Glenn, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, invited me to join her at the rostrum to celebrate Black History Month.

This is what I said.

On July 4, 1963, 283 people were arrested and charged with trespassing outside Gwynn Oak Park during a protest by those outraged over its refusal to admit African-Americans.

Baltimore Hebrew Congregation’s Rabbi Morris Lieberman was one of the many clergy arrested at the protest.
Rabbi Abraham Shusterman shed tears at a 1966 City Council meeting when Cardinal Lawrence Shehan was jeered for supporting a fair housing bill.

Rabbi Shusterman said it was “not only tears of sadness, but tears of pride that I could follow Cardinal Shehan as a speaker and identify myself with his views and his great dignity.”

Rabbi Shusterman officiated at my Bar Mitzvah.