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REMARKS TO MARYLAND DIVISION, AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN, SILVER SPRING

May 5, 1967

When I first received your gracious invitation for this evening, I
must admit my reaction combined pleasure with amusement. Of
course, I was appreciative and honored to have this opportunity to ex-
pound on my concepts for Maryland's future before such a captivating
as well as captive audience. But as I contemplated the proposed topic
to structure my remarks "Bridges to Maryland's Future" — I could not
help but wonder if your program chairman, Mrs. Pickrell, did not
possess a bit of puckish humor. Or to translate this into the vernacular
of my teenage daughter, Susan — I wondered if the Maryland Division
of the American Association of University Women was "putting me
on"?

In the sense of speculating upon the conceptual spans to reach
Maryland's bright and broad horizons this topic is certainly valid and
meaningful. However in that same day's mail, I must have received at
least a dozen letters pertaining to those less abstract bridges, whose
construction is so vital to Maryland's future. And these letters — to
put it euphemistically — were not characterized by the same optimistic
tone or constructive content.

However, it did not require a tremendously discerning mind to
recognize that if your intent was to discuss the more tangible crossings
you would have sought out the State's self-appointed demolition ex-
pert, Congressman Clarence Long, who obviously believes the best way
to traverse the Chesapeake Bay is by flutter board. The Baltimore
County bridge breaker seems interested in one bridge alone — the one
that leads from a seat in the House of Representatives to one in the
Senate of the United States, but that is a topic for another day and
another time. It is bridges to Maryland's future and not Mr. Long's
that we must consider today, for our State has come to the edge of a
shore and must decide now whether to proceed or turn back.

As the second fastest growing State in the Eastern half of our na-
tion, we have been virtually compelled to choose the way of com-
placency and stagnation or to discard many of the obsolete political
and economic forms and archaic prejudices which would have ham-
pered our path to progress. At no time was this decision revealed
with more stark, dramatic clarity than during the general election of