Hughes-Simmons Endorsement: Remarks of Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele

August 24, 2006

What a night! Let me begin by saying what an honor it is to be here with you….

Welcome to the Frederick Douglas - Isaac Meyer Maritime Park.

I have to tell you that we did not arrive at this location by accident.

With this campaign, we are MAKING history.

Tonight, at this event, we are in the presence of history. I like to say that history teaches us respect for the trials and triumphs of THOSE WHO have come before us.

This place has seen its share of both.

On this spot – ONCE called Kennard’s Wharf -- Frederick Douglass first set foot in Baltimore….as a slave.

And on this spot, just a generation after mr. douglass….a man named Isaac Myers started what became the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company….one of the most successful black owned businesses in Baltimore.

I cannot think of two more appropriate symbols for this campaign and our message tonight.

Frederick Douglass and Isaac Myers--pioneers for of economic empowerment for all people.

I am also honored tonight to be joined by two of MY inspirations….Russell Simmons and Cathy Hughes…..

And it is without any hesitation that I lift up these two as pioneers and role models of what economic empowerment can do to create legacy wealth for our children and all children

Yesterday, there was Madame C. J. Walker and John H. Johnson. Today it is Cathy Hughes and Russell Simmons!

I remember first learning of Cathy Hughes when I was just a young whipper-snapper looking to find his place in life. She was at WHUR at the front edge of history. Her guts … her drive … her moxie … her intellect…is an inspiration to me and I am sure to hundreds of thousands of others.

Just by being herself, we learn how individual initiative can empower a generation.

And my man Russell Simmons…I can’t tell you folks anything about him you don’t already know.

A few years back a mutual friend of ours arranged FOR US TO MEET. Russell came, begrudgingly I think, to Baltimore and as a courtesy to our friend he said he’d give me an hour.

Two hours later we were well on our way to what I think has been a wonderful relationship of mutual respect and admiration.

Russell – a man who is no stranger to success – still spends an incredible amount of his own time, energy, effort and intellect trying to “Change the Game” to benefit all of those still climbing up from the bottom.

What Cathy and Russell have achieved and the way they share the success in their lives is a prime example of what this evening is all about.

As I travel across Maryland I talk about the idea that the greatest empowerment tool in the African American community and all communities is one thing: the creation of legacy wealth.

For me, legacy wealth is the definition of the 21st century civil rights movement. a generation after our elders fought for the right to sit at the lunch counter, we have been empowered and must empower others to own the diner.

To take ownership of our careers; To take ownership of our communities; To take ownership of our lives, requires us to change the game.

I recently read a description of the state of the black community which caused me to pause:

“THE African American BABY BORN IN AMERICA TODAY, REGARDLESS OF THE SECTION OF THE NATION IN WHICH HE IS BORN, HAS ABOUT ONE-HALF AS MUCH CHANCE OF COMPLETING HIGH SCHOOL AS A WHITE BABY BORN IN THE SAME PLACE ON THE SAME DAY; ONE THIRD AS MUCH CHANCE OF COMPLETING COLLEGE; ONE THIRD AS MUCH CHANCE OF BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL MAN (or woman); TWICE AS MUCH CHANCE OF BECOMING UNEMPLOYED; ABOUT ONE-SEVENTH AS MUCH CHANCE OF EARNING $10,000 A YEAR; A LIFE EXPECTANCY WHICH IS SEVEN YEARS SHORTER; AND THE PROSPECTS OF EARNING ONLY HALF AS MUCH during that lifetime.

By the way, that description was given by President John F. Kennedy on June 11, 1963.

Ladies and Gentlemen: it’s time to change the game.

So tonight, my friends I declare a new agenda for America; an anti-poverty agenda — an economic empowerment agenda that I will take with me to the United States Senate — because Empowerment creates opportunity that poverty will never let you see.

To tell you the truth, not enough people in either party are willing to even say the word “poverty”…much less do anything about it.

So, our Anti-Poverty Agenda will require us to get the attention and the support from people in both parties…..and to do that we are going to have to shake things up.

To begin, Unlike a lot of Republicans, I believe we need to raise the minimum wage.

The minimum wage should be a training wage to help place individuals on the path towards greater earning power. Increasing this training wage coupled with smart business incentives to benefit employers and employees only makes sense.

And unlike a lot of Democrats, I KNOW we are going to need to lower the taxes that kill so many small, minority and women owned businesses before they even get started.

Next, We have to strengthen and reform our public education system to focus not on feeding the BUREAUCRACY but on empowering teachers to teach and students to learn no matter their race, their zip code, or their parents’ income.

We can no longer allow either party to narrow the gate through which our students must go in order to achieve academic success. Congress must protect Perkins Loans, reinstate and increase Pell Grants and provide adequate resources for Work Study programs across our colleges and universities.

Moreover, The relationship between schools—not just colleges and high schools, but our elementary schools too—and employers should be strengthened. Our schools should be a predictive reflection of the skills and values that businesses will need - and adjust their curriculums accordingly.



Our competitiveness as a nation depends on how well students are prepared to translate their successes at school into success in the workplace.

And finally, we have to come to grips as a nation with the failure that was exposed one year ago by Hurricane Katrina ... a failure by our society to cope with systemic and generational poverty in our cities and rural communities.

So, tonight my friends, I am calling for a new Marshall Plan for the Gulf Coast.

Somebody asked me if I was referring to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe … and I SAID, “right idea, but wrong Marshall”… I’m talking about Thurgood Marshall … who stood for equality and opportunity for all.

Justice Marshall once SAID, “None of us has gotten where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody bent down and helped us.”

We DID NOT SURVIVE NOR SUCCEED to this point ON our OWN: somebody bent down and helped us—Frederick Douglass , Issac Myers, Cathy Hughes, Russell Simmons---Senator Steele!

FOUR YEARS AGO, GOV. EHRLICH AND I INHERITED A MESS. WE HAD A $2 BILLION DEFICIT; AN EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT WAS GROSSLY UNDER-FUNDED; MARYLAND WAS FOUND TO DISCRIMINATE IN ITS FUNDING OF OUR HBCUs; THE CHESAPEAKE BAY WAS IN SEVERE DECLINE.

BUT TODAY, THROUGH CONTINUED EFFORTS TO BEND DOWN AND CREATE TRUE EMPOWERMENT, WE ARE BETTER OFF THAN WE WERE FOUR YEARS AGO. I HAVE WORKED HARD TO PROVE MYSELF AS A LEADER FOR MARYLAND. WE SHOOK THINGS UP. NOW SEND ME TO WASHINGTON AS YOUR UNITED STATES SENATOR AND I’LL WORK TO SHAKE THINGS UP THERE TOO. ARE YOU READY FOR CHANGE? GET READY FOR STEELE!