Commentary

In my experience with community organizing, labor organizing and political campaigns, we often use a 1-5 ranking scale to assess people’s support for a cause. One equals strong support, 2 equals support, 3 equates with neutrality or unknown support, 4 means opposition and 5 equals strong or coordinated opposition.

Mississippi is far ahead of Maryland in initiatives to teach all children to read. We Marylanders should be aghast and ashamed. How come deep south Mississippi, with the highest child poverty rate in the country, ranks side by side with Maryland in the middle tier of states in fourth grade reading scores? More startling, how come between 2011 and 2022, Mississippi ranks first among states in gains in fourth grade reading while Maryland is tied for last?

The celebrations of summer have begun in Frederick County, and even the weather has chimed in with a brief preview this week of the sweltering days to come. A few hot days were hardly enough to diminish enthusiasm for the sunny and bright weeks coming our way. Days with high temperatures in the 90s are commonplace here. We have become adept at cooling off in pools, lakes, sprinklers and air conditioning.

Five years ago, the newsroom in Annapolis where I was editor was attacked. Five people were shot to death. In the aftermath, as I’ve recently been reminded, I started asking what we could do to prevent the next mass shooting. There were good answers. Mike Busch, then the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, told me he’d seek a ban on ghost guns. It passed three years after he died in 2019.

It is beyond disappointing to see that restrictions on the public display of flags — surely among the most foolish, undemocratic and anti-social policies to haunt public bodies in recent years — is back on the agenda in Anne Arundel County. It was just last year that the Anne Arundel County Council considered banning all flags other than the U.S. flag and those representing the state and county from government property, a measure that came under well-deserved fire and was eventually withdrawn by the councilman who submitted it, Nathan Volke.

“Get candy! Get candy! Get candy!” This is how Jerry Seinfeld described a child’s state of mind in one of his more famous comedy bits. When he recounts his own attitude toward candy as a kid, he quipped, “Family, friends, school — they’re just obstacles in the way of the candy.” After two decades of working in various health care centers with children, and several years of being an uncle to a young niece and nephew, I have found this to be entirely true.