Press Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jennifer Kohl |
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Cummings and Allen Address Coast Guard Academy in Response to Racist Incidents
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New London, Ct.—Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, was joined by United States Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen in addressing the student body, faculty, and staff of the Coast Guard Academy in response to the placement of nooses in the bag of a student and the office of an officer conducting diversity training (text of speech below).
“These cadets are a group of extraordinary young men and women who represent the very best of the best,” Congressman Cummings said. “However, it is important for them to understand that a service as noble as the United States Coast Guard has no place for hatred and disrespect for others, and they will only be as strong as their weakest link.”
The trip to the Academy came following reports a noose was found in the bag of an African-American student in July, and that another was found in August in the office of a white female officer conducting diversity training in response to the first incident. Upon learning of the nooses last week, Congressman Cummings called upon Admiral Allen to initiate a full criminal investigation and to address the entire student body.
“Honor plays an extremely important role service-wide in the Coast Guard, and I wanted to make it clear that these racist, threatening acts were dishonorable. I also wanted these cadets to understand that they themselves should not tolerate one among them who will bring dishonor to the service,” Congressman Cummings said. “I knew this was a message that needed to come from the very top, so I called upon Admiral Allen, who reacted immediately—as I knew he would.”
Following his speech, Congressman Cummings will be touring the Academy as well as dining with cadets.
“The Coast Guard is a great service, best exemplified during Hurricane Katrina. When all other systems broke down and failed, the Coast Guard stood strong, and its members risked their lives to save everyone, not just those whose skin color matched their own,” Congressman Cummings said. “I am confident that our message today resonated with these students, and I have hope that they will ensure that this service remains the shield of freedom it has been for more than 200 years.”
The text of the Congressman’s Speech:
Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Remarks to the United States
Coast Guard Academy
October 4, 2007
___________
I. WELCOME
Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed an honor and a privilege to stand before you today.
On behalf of the United States Congress, I have come to express my gratitude – and the gratitude of our nation – for your service.
Since assuming the Chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation at the beginning of this year, I have had the privilege to observe, first-hand, the essential missions that the Coast Guard performs.
And I have seen how your commitment to service is translated into the courageous actions that protect our nation each day and save thousands of lives each year.
In fact, even before I became Chairman of the Coast Guard Subcommittee, I had the honor of witnessing one of the great acts of heroism in our nation’s history – and that was the rescue of the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The numbers still amaze me. During those terrible days in the late summer of 2005, the Coast Guard rescued more than 24,200 lives – and evacuated an additional 9,400 patients and medical personnel – from the Gulf Coast.
I am truly humbled by – and immensely proud of – the nearly 41,000 men and women who comprise our nation’s “shield of freedom.”
****
I. AN UNBROKEN CHAIN
The Coast Guard’s annals are filled with individual acts of heroism.
Yet, your training also stresses another essential truth: Of necessity, protecting America must be a team effort.
Each of you is an important link in a chain of defenders that stretches back to the formation of our Republic.
And as a Service, the Coast Guard has succeeded because you never forget that you must depend upon each other, trust each other and protect each other, even as you defend the rest of us.
Any attack upon any link in this chain of defenders that guards our nation has the potential to endanger us all.
And while it may seem unfair, organizations are judged by their weakest link.
The importance of these simple facts is the reason that I have traveled here from Washington to have this conversation with you today.
I firmly believe that America’s greatest strength derives not from our advanced weaponry – as awesome as those instruments of war are.
Our greatest strength as a free people is the respect we have for the dignity and value of every human being.
And it is this commitment, this fundamental principal upon which our nation was founded, that we are now once again fighting to uphold.
If we were to lose this essential aspect of our shared citizenship, we would in fact lose the essence on which our experiment in democracy rests.
When each of you chose to put on the uniform of the Coast Guard, you undertook the duty to defend and uphold this right of every person in our nation to live in freedom, security and respect.
And it is to this duty above all else that any one who wears our nation’s uniform must always – always – remain faithful.
****
II. THE THREAT TO OUR UNITY
Commandant Allen is a man of the highest honor and integrity – a true leader who upholds our nation’s commitment to human dignity everyday.
And I have seen this same expression of character, honor and commitment in the eyes of every member of the Coast Guard whom I have been privileged to meet.
You know all of this.
And that is why I know that there were very many people who, like me, were not only outraged but also deeply saddened when it was revealed that nooses had been placed among the effects of an African American cadet – and in the office of an officer conducting diversity training.
Now, I hope that you will remember what I was saying to you a few moments ago about the unity that is so essential to the defense of our country – and about the strength that arises from our mutual respect for each other and that comprises the chain of liberty and freedom of which each of you is an essential link.
Any attack upon any link in this chain of our nation’s defenders weakens and endangers us all.
The placement of a noose – like the burning of a cross – is an act of hatred intended to threaten and intimidate.
In a very real sense, it is an act of terrorism – an action intended to deprive a fellow human being of his or her own sense of the personal freedom and security that we, as Americans, hold to be every person’s right.
It is a heinous attack calculated to make it far more difficult for you – as a Service – to achieve the strength of unity that your essential mission for the people of our country requires.
This is why we all must respond to these incidents with determination and clarity.
We must speak with one mind and one voice to declare that there is no place for such terror in the Coast Guard or anywhere in our nation.
****
III. THE STRENGTH TO FIGHT DIVISION
Ladies and gentlemen, 950 individuals – representing all 50 states in our union together with Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia – attend our Coast Guard Academy. Sixteen international students also attend this institution.
Approximately 14.5 percent of the student body is comprised of ethnic minorities and just over 27 percent of students are female.
This student body – and our future officer corps – represents the great diversity of our nation.
I suggest to you that this diversity is not a “problem” or a “challenge” that must be “managed.”
Diversity – and our mutual respect for each other – are our greatest strengths as a nation.
Diversity is a promise that exists in every single individual – a promise that can only be cultivated and fully realized through our collective commitment to assure fair treatment to everyone.
In my own life, I have learned through personal experience more about the devastating impact of racial hatred than anyone should learn.
And this is what I know. Racism is an evil that seeks to destroy the possibility that exists in every human being.
Racial hatred and intolerance can damage our service academies – and indeed our nation’s armed forces – more severely than any wound our enemies could inflict.
And those forces that can weaken and divide us leave us vulnerable to defeat.
The United States Coast Guard is rightfully celebrated as our “shield of freedom.”
Protection of that right begins here with each one of you through your treatment of those who, like you, have committed themselves to our nation’s service.
And the day will come when each of you will be an officer in the United States Coast Guard, and it will be your duty to cultivate the promise that exists in each of the individuals whom you will be called to lead.
If you cannot accept this responsibility, you must question whether you are truly prepared to lead.
And that brings me to another critical point. Those who stand against injustice, intolerance or even incompetence are not disloyal to the Coast Guard or to their brothers and sisters in arms.
Our Coast Guard must never allow an atmosphere to exist that condones complicity in a conspiracy of silence about actions that are wrong.
There is no loyalty, no honor, and no dignity in silence.
And so I call upon you to cooperate in the investigation of the incidents that occurred here – and to commit yourselves to always speak the truth – even to power.
In short, I ask you to synchronize your conduct with your conscience.
Those men and women of the Coast Guard who rescued more than 33,600 individuals from the rising flood waters of the Gulf Coast did not ask whether the person to be saved was black or white, Asian or Hispanic.
They simply saw Americans suffering – and without hesitation, and at risk of their own lives – they reached their hands to lift their fellow human beings from harm’s way.
The example of these Coast Guardsmen and women speaks louder than any words I can say today.
****
CLOSING
Ladies and gentlemen, when I look at you, I see the promise of our nation.
I can see your commitment to the vital mission of defending our country.
Let nothing stand between you and the fulfillment of that duty.
Each of you is a member of a Service that is as old as America.
You carry on your shoulders the proud legacy of a Coast Guard that has saved more than one million lives.
In so many ways, you embody the best of America.
And we must work together to assure that this Academy and this proud Service always fulfills this destiny.
Only in so doing can you truly fulfill the Coast Guard’s core values for which you must stand: Honor, Respect, and Devotion to Duty.
There is no place in any of these values for the degradation of any human being.
Remember this, ladies and gentlemen, and the Coast Guard will always be strong, always be unified.
And it will always be a place where every individual is free to fulfill the promise of their God given potential.
Stand up for the values that called you to serve your country.
Semper Paratus. Always Ready.
As I close, I want to leave you with the thoughts of Marianne Williamson, who has given voice to the duty that you all have to be true to your own values and your own potential.
# # # #
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
-Marianne Williamson, 1992
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