I am grateful to the voters of Maryland's Seventh Congressional District for your strong vote of confidence on November 3rd. My gratitude, however, extends far beyond any sense of personal validation. I cannot fully express my pride in all of the people of Baltimore who voted for our community on election day.

This was your victory more than mine. I shall never forget the renewed encouragement about our future I gained from neighbors like Ms. Mary Mead and Ms. Shirley Robinson, senior citizens who weathered two wheelchair trips and a cold hour's wait because they were determined to vote their conscience at Mount Royal School.

Election Day was a day of conscience for all of Baltimore. In record numbers, citizens throughout the region stood in line at our new voting machines to choose between competing visions for our shared future as a community.

The people of Baltimore gave each other and our children a wonderful gift last week. We chose to express the better vision, the vision of one, united community in which the value of each person is recognized and supported.

We acknowledged that our diversity, when expressed in principled terms which value the contributions and potential of all of our people, enhances both our collective wisdom and our political strength. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa expressed well this principle of community when he declared that "we have a gift we can give to the world - "ubuntu," the essence of being human...."

"My humanity is caught up with your humanity," Archbishop Tutu explained. "A person is a person through other persons. We are made for family, for togetherness, for friendship, for harmony, for sharing, for generosity and hospitality."

In Baltimore, and throughout Maryland and America, more people voted for "ubuntu" and against the politics of division than ever before. As the Rev. Jesse Jackson observed during our election eve service at Union Baptist Church, more and more of us are learning that we must be "...on the right side of history."

We need to hold on to the shared sense of humanity most of us felt on election night because November 3rd was not the end of our struggle for a better community. It was a new beginning.

All of us must now go back to the work of transforming our new beginning into the building blocks for a better, more humane community. Making the inevitable promise of history a reality in our lifetime will require that each of us practices our principles, both in Washington and here in Baltimore.

I will continue to urge that the Congress provide more federal education funding for Head Start, more teachers, smaller classes and better schools. Locally, more and more of us must volunteer to help our teachers give every child the education they deserve.

I will continue to work in Washington to rebuild our local economy through prudent federal investment in our community. We must all work to prepare ourselves and our children for the jobs which will become available.

I will continue to argue for more federal support for a healthier America and a "Patient's Bill of Rights." Each of us can do our part locally by practicing the healthy diet and preventive health measures which will extend and improve our lives.

I will continue to demand an increased and better balanced federal response to the drugs which plague our community. We must all work together to exclude the drug dealers from our neighborhoods and schools.

Finally, I will continue to support our older citizens whose work and dedication built our America. We in the Congress will need your support if we are to "save" Social Security and improve Medicare before our next national election day arrives.