(7/5/97 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
I recently stopped by a fast food restaurant and witnessed an interesting exchange between two young women lamenting the fact that they found their jobs boring and unchallenging. They talked about rude customers, long hours, low pay, and being given menial tasks to do like sweep the floor and take out garbage. While they were complaining, the customers were growing very impatient as they waited in a long line.
As I chuckled to myself, I was astounded by how cynical these young people had already become. I certainly understood and appreciated their frustrations. As a young person I had had my fair share of low paying jobs. However, I learned early in life that it is through doing what may be considered mundane that you learn consistency, proficiency, and develop a strong work ethic.
On Friday, July 11, Dr. Earl Richardson, the president of Morgan State University, and I hosted a reception for U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater. During the reception Secretary Slater shared the amazing story that his first job began when he was 6-years-old. He picked cotton with his mother in Marianna, Arkansas.
His young hands were often scratched and bloodied from the prickly cotton blossoms. He spoke of having to stop and rest from this hard job and watching in astonishment as his mother moved through the cotton rows with tireless, diligent ease, only stopping to wipe her brow and to encourage her son to continue.
Those same hands which at six were scratched and bloodied now sign documents to administer a $40 billion budget at the Transportation Department.
Dr. Charles R. Swindoll, a noted religious scholar and author said that learning to be faithful in the menial, insignificant, routine, regular, unexciting, uneventful, daily tasks of life prepares us to become strong men and women. He observes that it is when nobody else is around, when nobody else notices, and when nobody else cares that we truly learn who we are and what we are capable of.
Nobody knew that the six year old boy picking cotton at his mother’s side would someday become one of the most influential people in America. Picking cotton and learning the value of working hard to obtain your goals prepared Secretary Slater for his current role in history.
In his book, No Free Ride, Kweisi Mfume shares with us his journey from a life of street gangs, violence, and early fatherhood to educational excellence, community activism, and public office. He spoke of walking the streets of Baltimore and being ignored and looked down upon by people. It was this low feeling of self-worth which drove him to change the destructive coarse he had embarked upon.
Dr. Swindoll said that like David, many of this nation’s greatest leaders grew up in obscurity. He said men and women of God, servant-leaders in the making, are first unknown, unseen, unappreciated, and unapplauded. In the relentless demands of obscurity, character is built. Strange as it may seem, those who first accept the silence of obscurity are best qualified to handle the applause of popularity.
That is the case with Secretary Slater and Kweisi Mfume and it was true of my own life.
From the ages of eight to 14-years-old, I sold AFRO-American Newspapers. When I was 12-years-old my family moved to Edmondson Village from South Baltimore. Having developed a customer base in South Baltimore, I was forced to walk the six or seven miles from Southwest Baltimore to sell my papers and collect money from my customers.
There were times when my customers did not pay me and I had to walk back to Edmondson Village. I have vivid memories of walking in snow, freezing rain, and sub-zero temperatures. Many times it was so cold that the tears would come from my eyes and freeze on my face. I had made a commitment to myself and to the AFRO. I had no intention of giving up on that obligation.
Certainly during those years I could go into a grocery store and not be stopped 10 times by people wanting to talk about legislation or needing help from my office.
God knew exactly what he was doing when he placed Rodney Slater in that cotton field, Kweisi Mfume on a Baltimore street corner, and had me walking from Edmondson Village to South Baltimore. He knew that for us to tread humbly through the halls of power and notoriety, we had to learn to appreciate the loneliness and silence of obscurity.
In everything we do, we must do it to the best of our ability. It may not be the most glamorous job or work assignment, but we have been placed in that place at that moment in history for a reason. In time, that reason will become clear and we will be prepared to face the challenges and the successes if we have learned these valuable lessons in life when we were unknown, unseen, unappreciated, and unapplauded.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.