Learn more about how the book came to be written, and the formative moments in Mr. Cummings’ lifetime that helped to shape his dedication to public service. Dr. Cummings will reconstruct the congressman’s final days and reflect on how he would have reacted to recent events. This discussion will be followed by a Q&A session with questions pulled from the meeting room’s chat function.

Part memoir, part call to action, We’re Better Than This, by Congressman Elijah Cummings, is the story of our modern-day democracy and the threats that we all must face together…as well as a retrospective on the life, life lessons, and career of one of our country’s most inspirational politicians. Cummings and his collaborator, James Dale, offer us a revealing chronicle the formative moments in Elijah’s life that enabled a child of sharecroppers and preachers to rise to the uppermost levels of government, and to eventually take on the daunting task of holding the Trump administration to account. Detailing this moment of unprecedented obstructionism by both the president and his stalwarts, examining the danger posed to democracy itself, if the executive branch were allowed to operate above public scrutiny. In the book’s final chapter, written by Elijah Cummings’ wife, Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, we are taken through his final days and final messages to us, which turned out to be both painful and vital as we face our greatest test as a nation since the Civil War. We’re Better Than This reminds people that in this country we don’t elect kings, and that our vote is the most powerful weapon we have.

Copies of this book are always available on Overdrive.

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