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Articles > On air commentary SMITH Saying Thank You It is time, once again, to count our blessings, to be consciously thankful and say out loud how grateful we are for the life we have.
I would begin with a thank you to Nick Ziolkowski, a Marine killed in Fallujah. He told his mother, Tracy Miller, he thought it was important to defend his country. Ms. Miller, who does not support the war, will honor her son's commitment to country by running for the Maryland House of Delegates.
I am thankful for the Baltimore Sun, my former employer, for reporting the courage and challenges before the homeless students in Baltimore public schools. Who would tell us this story without The Sun and its professional reporters, in this case Liz Bowie.
In that regard I am grateful also to Jean Packard and Paul McCardell and others in the Sun library who can find any fact in a short period of time and find it almost before you can say thank you. We must never take the information gatherers for granted.
I wish also to thank Dawn and Adrian and George and Sharon and Dr. Carnel Cooper who work in the University of Maryland's Violence Prevention Program. They are, as Sharon says, on a mission - trying mightily to show young people alternatives to the life of drugs and violence. Thank you also to Milton Bates, master of the home improvement arts - winder man to the world, raconteur, sage of the city, lover of Baltimore and teacher of language. Zeit Gezunt my friend.
We are, all of us, thankful for children - for Nick and for all the other young men and women who are so committed to their community. More and more of them are volunteering for programs like Teach for America and Habitat for Humanity. Political leaders like William Donald Schaefer and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend insisted on volunteer programs - over the objections of people who thought forced-volunteerism was a contradiction in terms. Turns out Schaefer and Townsend were right.
Thanks are offered as well for the blessing of grandchildren in general, Hannah, Ryan and Zoe in particular. Finally, it is important to remember - every year -- the mother of all Thanksgivings in Baltimore, Bea Gaddy. Blessed were we. By
Authority of the Team for Tracy Miller, Gary Rosecrans, Chairperson, and
Lamont Steedle, Treasurer, |
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