Commentary

Baltimore’s first big cultural moment was arguably 209 years ago, when a local lawyer, trapped on a ship in the middle of a battle, wrote a poem about his relief at knowing the American flag still waved over Fort McHenry. It was similar to a lot of the artistic splashes the city would make in the next few centuries: dramatic, concerned with race, identity, and sense of place, and more than a little messy.

Oliver Stone’s Oscar-winning film, “Born on the Fourth of July,” about Vietnam veteran-turned-war-protestor Ron Kovic, appeared on Netflix last week. I hadn’t seen it since its release in 1989, when its star, Tom Cruise, was 27 years old, so I gave it another look. It’s a hard film to watch, but opens innocently enough: The 10-year-old Kovic and his buddies playing soldiers, armed with toy machine guns, in a wooded area of small-town Long Island in 1956.

Hear that? It’s the sound of credit crunching all across America.Okay, if not crunching, maybe squeezing. Or tightening. Or whatever euphemistic verb you might choose to communicate that, basically, it’s gotten more difficult to borrow lately. Lots of measures have shown that businesses and consumers have found it more challenging to obtain financing recently, particularly in the wake of major regional bank failures in March.

It was an emotional highlight of the 2023 General Assembly session. Men and women of all ages and races were in tears as historians and legal experts recounted the early career of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and some of his successful — and heartbreakingly unsuccessful — battles to desegregate Maryland.

Before adjourning, the General Assembly took a major step toward making Maryland a leader in the emerging offshore wind industry. By passing the Promoting Offshore Wind Energy Resources (POWER) Act, we quadrupled the state’s goal to generate offshore wind energy. The new goal, 8.5 gigawatts, will produce enough electricity to power approximately 3 million Maryland homes. The measure lays out a framework to proactively strengthen our power grid infrastructure and sets up a novel offshore wind procurement process to benefit ratepayers.

Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins is due in federal court on Wednesday to answer to an indictment accusing him of conspiring and making false statements to illegally acquire machine guns for a local gun range owner. Immediately after his initial appearance, the sheriff should turn over day-to-day operations to someone else in the sheriff’s office and take administrative leave until the case is resolved.

In deciding to set aside a proposal to ban the sale and use of gasoline powered leaf blowers, the Montgomery County Council is jeopardizing the health of its citizens and especially its lawn care workers, many of whom are people of color. The Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee voted for the proposal, but the full Council has tabled it, which means the proposal is on hold.

It is time for Baltimore to put one of its prime assets — vacant properties — in the bank. Yes, our vacant properties are an asset. They are land, which Malcolm X called the “basis of freedom, justice and equality.” A land bank authority for the city would accelerate the pace of community investment and move communities closer to the kind of progress Malcolm X had in mind.