Commentary

Fifty years ago, June 24, 1973, is a date that should be marked on every civic leader’s calendar as a cautionary tale for decision-making gone awry. That is the day that the infamous Highway to Nowhere went under construction, despite the 100% known risk that the Franklin-Mulberry segment might never meet up with the other 2,115 miles of Interstate 70.

“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.

“The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.” That’s what Hal Holbrook, who portrays the shadowy informant Deep Throat in “All The President’s Men,” says about the botched burglary and subsequent coverup that culminated in Richard Nixon’s resignation. Fast-forward 50 years, and the same could be said of the hide-and-seek hijinks of former President Donald Trump and his “body man” Walt Natua as they scrambled, Benny Hill style, to stay one step ahead of the federal agents searching for the alleged national security secrets stashed willy-nilly around Mar-a-Lago.

In the coming decade, Frederick County will need to replace one aging high school and add a new high school, as well as build more elementary and middle schools as the system copes with the exploding numbers of students. Many millions of dollars will go into new construction for the school system. Then we will have to hire staff members for all of those new schools — administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, coaches, secretaries and janitors. That means many, many millions more every year for education, just to stay in place.

Romy Pittman’s last day at Annapolis High School was Wednesday. She packed up after four years of teaching U.S. history and headed for the door one final time. While teaching at one of Maryland’s most diverse, complicated schools, Pittman proved herself a mentor for teachers and students. But that last drive from the school parking lot onto Riva Road wasn’t the end of her 30 years in education.

With the official start of Maryland’s summer beach season — the Fourth of July — within view, you can bet that weekend traffic backups along U.S. 50 at Sandy Point and Kent Island are not far off. It’s a tradition as old as the first two-lane Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which opened in 1952, and has kept right up through the addition of the three-lane parallel crossing in 1973 (especially Saturday morning eastbound and Sunday afternoon headed west).

In politics, money talks. And no one knows this better than the politicians running for elected office. It takes a lot of cash to pay for all those campaign ads, from TV commercials to pop-ups on social media, and the fastest way to raise the needed funds is to ask those who have a major stake in decision-making — from big business and labor unions to government contractors — to write the checks.