Commentary

Rents are soaring across the country, including locally, and while not all increases are so dramatic, some are rising by double-digit percentages, 16, 17, 25, even as high as 50%, forcing tenants to choose between a squeezed budget and a relocation that is hardly cost-free itself. Solutions to this issue remain complicated and contentious. Allowing more housing would indeed help. Providing more competition from more homes lessens the leverage landlords have over prospective tenants, and thus, their ability to increase rents as dramatically as we see now.

If you look back over the political chaos of the last half-dozen years or so, many Americans of all political stripes — though surely not all — would place the lion’s share of blame at the feet of former President Donald Trump. Trump, after all, has been all about shattering consequential norms on an infinite variety of levels, thriving on the disorder.

Over the years of my practice as a psychoanalyst, teens and adults have come to see me for troubled relationships, parenting difficulties, depression, social anxiety and the many other challenges of everyday life. Until just recently, though, no one had ever called with the chief complaint that they were grieving for our country and, so, for their future here. This month, however, a bright graduate student began her session with this memorable phrase: “Well, I figured it out: I have Democracy Anxiety Disorder.”

Before the 2020 elections, conventional wisdom, including among Maryland candidates, was that “Asian Americans do not vote.” In fact, half of Asian American registered voters polled nationally in September 2020 reported that neither major political party contacted them. What a mistake. In 2020, the Asian American vote surged because we took our own communities to the ballot box. From individual efforts like award-winning author R.O. Kwon’s nationwide phone banking events to concerted voter drives by newer organizations like Georgia’s Asian American Advocacy Fund, Asian and Pacific Islander voters increased by over 47% compared to 2016’s turnout. It’s a significant jump compared to all other voters, whose turnout increased by 12%. And this jump in voters was beyond the margin of victory in key races.

The Supreme Court in Dobbs held there is no constitutional right to abortion. From now on, federal courts will apply a deferential level of review and uphold most state bans or restrictions. What does this mean for people in Maryland? While much has been said about Maryland’s abortion-protective laws, more needs to be done to ensure long-lasting protection. Many states have banned or are poised to ban abortion with severely limited exceptions. Anti-abortion groups are drafting proposed state laws to preclude residents from accessing abortion care in other states.

In the aftermath of devastating massacres in New York and Texas, officials have scrambled to determine what warning signs were overlooked. While multiple factors may drive individuals to become mass shooters, one common denominator has emerged from both cases: a history of animal cruelty. Alleged Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron boasted he had decapitated a cat with a hatchet, after stabbing it and smashing its head. Similarly, suspected Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos tortured cats and displayed videos of the torture on social media. The link between animal cruelty and human violence is common knowledge.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 landmark ruling allowing citizens to carry a firearm in public for self-defense creates a tipping point in Maryland that not only threatens to accelerate gun sales, but put them in the hands of a public woefully unprepared to make life and death decisions. The case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, reversed New York regulations that required anyone who wanted to carry a firearm to demonstrate a “proper cause” as to why they should be allowed to.

For 15 years, Baltimore County has been satisfied with their self-proclaimed tough-on-crime prosecutor, State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger. But a former public defender believes the county is ready to embrace the progressive approach toward crime and punishment seen elsewhere in the country and has launched the first primary challenge against the Democratic incumbent since he was first elected in 2006.