Commentary

As right-wing censors in several states wage their foolish war against teaching the full scope of American history — racism and all — here comes “To Kill A Mockingbird,” the Aaron Sorkin play based on the Harper Lee novel that people have tried (and mostly failed) to ban from public schools since the book’s publication in 1960.

“I think the most upsetting thing to me was The Baltimore Sun calling me a racist because I said this came from a Wuhan lab.” Those words came out of the mouth of Dr. Robert Redfield, the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, toward the end of a three-hour hearing conducted Wednesday morning by the select House subcommittee investigating the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

Maryland, for years, has been at the forefront of environmental stewardship. That is the direct result of engaged stakeholders from every industry and the product of thoughtful, measured approaches to the state’s energy policies. Recently, however, some groups are pushing very hard towards a sole source energy policy — electricity.

An unfortunate mind-set has grown among our nation’s leaders. It is that the United States can overspend by more than $1 trillion a year indefinitely. Lawmakers assured the country that spending increases — for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then for economic support during the Great Recession and the pandemic — would be temporary. But, with few exceptions, the fatter budget items stuck around.

Rarely does a day go by when there is not another heartbreaking reminder that Baltimore remains among the nation’s most dangerous cities for gun violence, particularly for young Black men and boys. On Monday, it was the tragic news of a 16-year-old Patterson High School student found fatally shot in the head not far from the East Baltimore campus. He was the fifth city teenager under 17 killed this year.

As a mother of a 3 1/2 year old, I have spent hours upon hours reading product reviews and trying to find the best, safest products for my family. Even before our son was born, I was researching what car seat had the best ratings, and as he grew older that research continued late into the night to determine whether sippy cups really destroy his oral development. From numerous conversations with friends and fellow parents, I know I am not alone in this almost compulsive level of research.

I don’t know what it’s like to grow up in Baltimore. To have lived my entire life in one city and be unwelcome in many of its neighborhoods. To have known the nightmare of gun violence since childhood. To lose family and friends to violence, incarceration, both. To attend schools that everyone openly condemns, only to be told that something is wrong with me if I don’t succeed academically.

I no longer look at the killings of my fellow human beings in Baltimore as a Baltimore problem. On Monday, when police reported the fatal shooting of another teenage boy — this time in a park near Patterson High School — I didn’t look to blame the mayor or the police commissioner or the city schools or the parents or any of the other usual suspects.