Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD)
Hispanic National Bar Association Annual Convention
Washington, DC
September 11, 2014

[Remarks as delivered]

Introduction 

Well thank you very, very much.

It’s wonderful to be with all of you.

And thank you to so many of you who have traveled from far, far away to be here with us.

Juan Sempertegui , thank you for that. Take the day off.

Juan thank you for your kind introduction. And also congratulations on your selection, and your recent increase in responsibilities.

Also, I see Oscar Ramirez there. Oscar, thank you for being here, our vice-chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.

And Miss Martinez, thank you for being here – the chair of our Hispanic Commission in Maryland.

Today’s theme, “Unidos en Washington: Our Struggle, Our Progress,” is of course particularly poignant, given that today is 9/11 – and I think it’s poignant for all of us who remember that day.

I was in the area, in fact, I was on the New Jersey turnpike on my way to New York and it was a cool, crisp September day. It’s hard to experience a cool, crisp September Day now without a part of your heart and a part of your mind going back to that time.

So our thoughts and prayers are most definitely with all the families who were so personally affected that day.

And we are also reminded of the way Americans of every ethnic background, of every race, were united by the events of that day.

And while most of America will always associate 9/11 with those attacks, in Baltimore, 9/11 also happened to be the date two hundred years ago that the British army and navy, after having burned Washington to the ground, showed up in the Port of Baltimore, to burn Baltimore to the ground.

But the people of Baltimore rallied. And this weekend we will be celebrating Defenders’ Weekend, which is that weekend when people – black and white, fifty percent of them immigrants, or the sons and daughters of immigrants – rather than running away from the challenge and the shock and awe force of its day, came together.

In fact, the Star-Spangled Banner itself, that giant 32 by 40 foot banner, which they had commissioned as part of the defense so the British could see it from far away, was actually sewn together by a Baltimore seamstress, Mary Pickersgill, and her daughters.

But also in her household was a black servant girl named Grace Wisher.

And I think that’s a poignant and also important story to remember; that the stars and stripes of our banner were sewn together by black hands and white hands. And the thread that held those colors together then is the same thread that unites all of us here this morning. It is the thread of human dignity; the dignity of neighbor helping neighbor; the dignity of neighbors being willing to put their lives on the line for their neighbors, in the here and now, and for generations they might never meet.

Beginning from Zero

Our ancestors, all of our ancestors unless we are Native American, took great personal risks in order to come here from other places.

The Chilean- American novelist, Isabel Allende wrote: “when you emigrate, you lose the crutches that have been your support. You must begin from zero, because the past is erased with a single stroke and no one cares where you’re from or what you did before.”

That was certainly true of my great-grandparents. My immigrant great-grandfather, whose name was Martin O’Malley, came to this country from Ireland at some considerable personal risk.

And his native tongue, I know from having found the census records from 1904, his native tongue was not English, it was Irish, but the hopes and dreams he had for his children and his children’s children were purely American.

He began from zero. And new Americans begin from zero.

The New Americans he worked beside risked their lives in the mines of southwest Arizona to feed their families, and to give their children a better future.

The new Americans today have that same experience and they are possessed of the same drive, and the same spirit, and the same greatness that builds our country up, one person, one family at a time.

It’s a spirit that has always fueled our nation’s prosperity and made us the envy of the free world.

More, Not Less

And that’s why we believe in Maryland that our diversity is our greatest strength.

That we’re all in this together.

And we all do better, when we’re all doing better.

My friend, Paul Hawken, puts it in scientific terms when writes that, “Ecologists and biologists know that systems achieve stability and health through diversity, not uniformity. Ideologues take the opposite view.”

In Maryland, we know that it’s good for our state when more than half of our population growth – 55% – is actually due to our growing immigrant communities, growing and diverse immigrant communities.

This compares to 30 percent nationally.

But we also recognize reality. We recognize that there are always those in every generation and every time of our history’s evolution, there are people who don’t always welcome new immigrants with open arms.

Scapegoating is not something new, especially in times of economic austerity or downturn.

That is why, one reason why, I have always kept in my office, as a city councilperson, as Mayor, and as Governor, an old sign from the late 1880s that reads simply, but very clearly, “No Irish Need Apply.”

And I keep it right on my desk.

It’s a reminder that we were all once strangers in a strange land. And it’s a reminder that we must be diligent about doing all that we can to ensure that we respect, appreciate, and revere the dignity of every individual, and never lose sight of the fact, that in fact, “E Pluribus Unum” is not some slogan from yesterday. It is the energy that fuels this great nation’s future.

Maryland Immigration Record

In Maryland, we strongly support comprehensive immigration reform and it is long overdue.

But we have not waited for the federal government to act, in order for us to act as the compassionate and generous Americans that we are.

That’s why in 2011 in Maryland, we passed the DREAM Act, so that our 36,000 Dreamers could have access to affordable higher education.

Sí se puede.

We expanded access to driver’s licenses, because we want people to be able to get to work safely, and to be able to play by the rules, and obtain insurance while they’re moving to and from work to take care of their families.

And we limited our state’s participation in the Secure Communities program. We want to keep families together. Keeping families together keeps America together and makes America stronger.

So we took steps to ensure that Secure Communities only targets violent criminals.

It’s not enough to just make sure Maryland is a welcoming place for new Americans. We also want our new American families to help us in the effort we share to create a more diverse and more upwardly mobile middle class. That is why we not only put forward the New Americans Commission to highlight the skills that are coming to our state that new Americans offer us for our economy.

We also became the first state in the nation to pass a living wage.

And we also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, not once, but twice.

And this last legislative session, we raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

We have done more to hold down the cost of college tuition than any other state in America. By chance? No. By Choice. By making the investment together, so that more of our people could receive and attain higher levels of education. Because the more a person learns, the more a person earns, and the better our whole economy does.

We’ve invested a record amount, also, in small and minority and women-owned businesses across our state.

And get this, for those of you that like performance measurement, we’ve worked to award more state contracts to Hispanic-owned businesses. We have increased those awards since 2007, by 191%.

Results

And the results speak for themselves:

For three years in a row, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is hardly a mouthpiece for the Maryland Democratic Party, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, named Maryland the #1 state in America for innovation and entrepreneurship.

We’ve built, for the first time, a level of excellence in our public schools to earn the award from Education Week Magazine, for 5 years in a row the #1 public schools in America.

And from 2006 to 2012, Hispanic students increased the number of associate degrees they earned, by 159% and bachelor’s degrees by 64%.

And our unemployment rate in Maryland among Hispanic neighbors is the lowest in the nation at 5.1%.

We all do better when we’re all doing better.

The progress we’ve worked to achieve for all Marylanders is something that we have done intentionally.

It is something we have done consciously.

It is something we have also done mindful of the values that unite us.

And we’re stronger for it.

We have created more opportunity, rather than less.

Participation is Good

The happy fact of our American democracy, as Congressman Gutiérrez knows and believes and fights for every day, Luis, good to see you, my friend, and thank you for your courageous and clear voice every single day about full participation in America.

Congressman Gutiérrez knows, you know, we know that full participation is what America’s all about.

The happy fact of our democracy is that the more fully an individual participates in the economic, in the social, and in the civic life of our Nation, the stronger that makes our country.

When all can fully participate, then every individual has a chance to advance and expand the common good that all of us share.

Father David Hollenbach of Boston College writes that,

“Achieving this good calls for a common life in which freedom is more fully shared, for a society in which all people more fully participate in the common goods that can be achieved in their social, political, and economic activity together.”

So it is for our own good, it is for our families’ own good, it is for our country’s own good that we want more people to participate.

For our children’s good, we want all of our children to achieve at higher and better levels. We want all of our children who can, to be able to achieve a higher education.

And when unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central America arrive on our doorstep, it is not only for their good, but for our good, and the good of the nation that our children will share with them, that we should act hospitably, and revere the human dignity and the courage that those children possess and have demonstrated in risking great dangers to come here.

Already in the State of Maryland, we are caring for more children, more refugee children from Central America, per capita than any other state in the union.

And they’re being cared for in family settings, which is the best way to care for children.

We’ve worked together with faith leaders, non-profits, and other community activists to provide support services.

And earlier this week, the Chief Judge of Maryland, the highest court in the land, my fellow lawyers, sent out a letter to 30 bar organizations across our state to recruit volunteer lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation to these children as their due process unfolds, so that they can properly make their case.

And now I’m also calling on all of you.

I’m calling on the members of the Hispanic Bar Association to be a part of this effort of helping these refugee children.

To help them navigate the legal process, and make sure that their voice, and their dignity is properly represented in this, the land of the free and the home of the brave

I know that many of you are probably already working on this issue, and for that you have my gratitude.

Our role in this world is to bring light into matter, and your profession does matter in this fight.

So if you want to volunteer – visit Maryland.gov, click on the link, right on the front there as Maria makes sure it’s displayed: “Central American Children Seeking Refuge Program.”

Conclusion

So let me conclude with these final thoughts and you all have been very, very generous to invite me to be with you today.

Hospitality to strangers is a deep and timeless value, and it is a value that is found in the parables, teachings, and stories of every faith tradition –

The three strangers who visited Sarah and Abraham, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Haditha story of the Prophet and the feeding of the strangers. “And God smiled.”

Hospitality to strangers and full participation in the life of our Democracy are indispensable parts of the genius of this opportunity-expanding experiment that we love and call, The United States of America.

And this is the truth of E Pluribus Unum—from the participation of many individuals comes the strength of one strong and living Republic.

A republic that is strong enough to bring forth 200 years more of creative service, to give our children a future of more, to create opportunities for more.

Every person is needed; each of us must try, for there is no such thing in our country as a spare American.

So, thank you for your work.

Keep fighting for that better tomorrow that all of us carry in our hearts.

And keep speaking up and giving your voice to the voiceless.

For as that great Marylander Frederick Douglass said, “We are one, our cause is one, and we must help each other, if we are to succeed.”

Adelante no atras.

Thank you.