Commentary

“Americans don’t want to live in a nation where big government has the power to silence free speech.” These are the words of House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, who recently began an inquiry into tax-exempt philanthropic and advocacy organizations. I was surprised to see this effort from a Republican-led committee, since conservatives have often opposed government scrutiny of tax-exempt organizations and transparency in campaign finance systems.

Living in the land of plenty — as we are in the United States, in Maryland and here in Frederick County — it can be too easy to overlook those who do not share in the bounty. Our community is very lucky to have an organization like the United Way of Frederick County to remind us that too many of our neighbors are sometimes struggling just to get by. A lot of folks are working hard, trying to make their way, but are just one major repair bill away from economic trouble.

While crime among young people is a point of emphasis in mainstream media in Baltimore, homicides and non-fatal shootings are down. Community-based organizations like We Our Us and the Baltimore Peace Movement have been at the forefront of violence prevention efforts over the last several years, but the media does not do the work of exposing the community to the work these organizations do so we can build on their success.

As Gabriel Kahane wrote songs for his 2018 album “Book of Travelers,” he drew from his experiences on a train trip throughout the country. The trip included an hourslong conversation with a young Black man from Baltimore. During the conversation, the young man, who had gone out West to work as a national park trail crew leader, talked about his life and about why he needed to make a trip back home.

During the first week of December, lawyers representing Anne Arundel County are set to square off against their counterparts employed by the gun rights group, Maryland Shall Issue Inc., in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to argue over a matter that, frankly, boggles the mind. Early last year, Republicans and Democrats on the Anne Arundel County Council unanimously approved an ordinance requiring gun sellers to distribute, with each purchase, literature on suicide prevention and conflict resolution.

West Virginia University’s pending decision to slash formal language learning programs on its campus is harmful to the economy, culture, and people of the Mountain State. But the harm extends beyond West Virginia students, teachers, workers, and entrepreneurs. In the context of decreasing state funding and increasing state meddling in higher education, the proposed cuts send a signal that language learning — without which all learning, not to mention commercial and cultural communication — is expendable.

An editorial in The Baltimore Sun should be exactly the wrong place to pay tribute to John Samuel Waters Jr., the breaker of societal norms, the maker of cult films, the counter-culture icon. We are simply too square, too bound by convention, too bourgeois for the task. Much like Waters’ infamous 1968 16-millimeter comedy, “Eat Your Makeup,” (about a deranged nanny who forces young people to “model themselves to death”) you wouldn’t expect to see such things around here.