Commentary

Nick Mireles died in June, one of three people shot to death amid a neighborhood dispute that forced Annapolis to cope once again with a mass shooting. Unlike the 2018 murders of my five friends at Capital Gazette, the deaths of Mireles, his stepson Mario Mireles, and family friend Christian Segovia barely registered on the national consciousness. It wasn’t an attack on a free press. It was just one more entry in the growing list of more than 500 mass shootings this year.

The man accused of killing Pava LaPere, the young tech entrepreneur and CEO of EcoMap Technologies, got out of prison last year despite the view of the Maryland Parole Commission that he should remain behind the walls. How did that happen? Don’t we have a parole commission to make all the decisions about releasing violent offenders back into society?

Let’s start with the indisputable facts. Frederick County has a tsunami of new housing and new residents coming, and many will bring children with them. The Frederick County school system is not prepared to absorb all of those children. The good news is that local leaders from the county, the school system and the city of Frederick recognize the problem and are working on it. But we have little time to waste.

As we navigate the intricacies of the 21st century, the traditional paradigms of society are being reshaped, reimagined and revolutionized to meet the diverse needs and aspirations of people everywhere. More specifically, in the ever-changing terrain of education, a dynamic shift is on the horizon, fueled by an ever-growing appetite for personalized and more effective learning encounters.

A Brookings report this year ranked the Washington region within the top ten metro areas for wellbeing for all racial groups–except for Latinx populations. The report outlines several ways in which Latinx populations’ material needs aren’t being met, such as affordable housing, healthy and nutritious food, transportation, and quality health care.

Pava LaPere was a vibrant and accomplished thought leader in Baltimore. She spent every moment in her adopted city trying to find ways to give, to improve opportunity and to innovate. The man arrested for her murder spent those very same years taking, destroying and hurting, according to police. If you are surprised by the horrific history and details that police say led to this tragic crime, you shouldn’t be. We’ve been here before. Baltimore has a crime problem. So why do we continue to let these guys walk our streets?