Welcome, President-elect Barack Obama. Your visit is a day of victory for the city just as your inauguration will be a day of victory for our nation. You can infuse Baltimore with joy only attainment of justice delayed can bring.
But as Martin Luther King Jr. wrote from a Birmingham jail almost 50 years ago, “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God. …”
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You won through tireless work and brilliant campaigning. Likewise our nation, city and state will win not on hope alone, but through tireless work and brains. Baltimore and Maryland, like our nation, needs you to revive respect for the values that made us great: Small and transparent government, hard work, respect for law and tireless effort.
While your obligation is to mend America’s whole garment of destiny, please hear Maryland on our particular needs that serve the greater common good.
Look around. We are not at our best right now. You can see how high taxes and one-party rule turned this city into a shell of what it once was. Where businesses thrived, idle boys sell drugs. Our state squandered itself into a $2 billion mire. Where a mayor celebrated historic victory, she now faces indictment.
So we applaud your proposed $300 billion tax cut for Americans to invest. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and Gov. Martin O’Malley, fellow Democrats, must take note. Yes, it always is easier to impose fiscal responsibility during good times, but anytime is a good time to start. Join tax cuts with cuts in spending, and you give every local leader an example to follow.
In your pursuit of stimulus, we ask you to be prudent and use direct aid to the states for projects that truly make our nation stronger. We feel that stress acutely here because congestion from BRAC will impede national security without transportation improvements state taxpayers cannot now afford.
We know you can count on the entire Maryland delegation. Democrats Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin are smart, forceful senators, and among our able representatives is freshman Frank Kratovil, who appeals to Republicans and independents.
But in your spirit of bipartisanship please reach across for help from one among only a score of scientists in Congress, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. This Republican can help on energy independence. He gets it.
Another bold new beginning would be to back Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein for the crippled U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. He is widely respected, has won bipartisan support, and you would send a clear signal your administration is rising above partisan bickering.
We would also ask that you follow through on your promise to make government more transparent. You can restore trust in markets and our leaders, who should follow your lead, for example in our city where finding government contracts is intentionally impossible.
These actions are not inevitable, but they are needed. We in Maryland shall be your co-workers to get the job done. Thanks for coming, and for listening.
