Commentary

What do we do about PFAS? There seems little doubt that scientists will discover more of these “forever chemicals” during the testing of Maryland farmland and Chesapeake waters. What do we do when we find them? Can we destroy a “forever chemical”? The term is scary, suggesting a harmful substance so durable it can’t be washed away. PFAS are chemical compounds found in our homes, in the land where cows graze and where farmers grow our food, in the waterways where we harvest fish. PFAS are “biopersistent” and “bioaccumulative,” meaning they hang out and build up over time.

Recently, The Baltimore Banner and other local news outlets have reported extensively about speculators purchasing both vacant and occupied properties in Baltimore’s disinvested neighborhoods. The speculators failed to deliver on promises and plans to rehab the properties that could have helped to revitalize those neighborhoods. The condition of such properties was also at the center of reports about the deaths of three firefighters in a vacant house.

We live in stressful times that can lead to serious medical problems. Despite being a top spender on health care, the U.S. is an outlier on life expectancy, sitting in the bottom half of dozens of high-income nations. Alarmingly, the last two years saw the biggest U.S. life expectancy drop in a century, sinking to 76 years for Americans born in 2021 — the lowest life expectancy since 1996 and a drop from 79 years in 2019. This despite a global trend in increasing life expectancies.

In 2022, Maryland was determined to have the longest Emergency Room wait time in all 50 states. Maryland has sustained this low ranking since 2015 — years before the COVID pandemic began. According to recent data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Maryland patients spend an average (median) time of 228 minutes waiting in the ER. In fact, we are the only state with an average wait time greater than 200 minutes.

WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, arguably the highest-profile American hostage ever, is finally free. In a swap negotiated by President Biden’s administration, Russia has released Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout, ending the basketball player’s nearly 300 days in captivity. But this is just the first step back toward normalcy for Griner — and the first step toward ending state hostage-taking, an issue Biden earlier this year declared a “national emergency.”

There’s an explosive, tender feeling queer folks experience when we sight a young queer in the wild. It happened to me a few years ago while watching a parade, when I caught sight of a teenager in a spangly uniform cut just for him, dancing in a sea of ponytailed drill team girls. He was beaming, nailing his moves and sporting a hint of blush and lip gloss. With a flourish, he tossed his baton; it glimmered and fell back down to his outreached hands. I told the person I’d recently started dating about it.

Across Maryland, this has been a big week for turning over new leaves in local government as newly elected (and reelected) officials were sworn into local office from Oakland to Snow Hill. Normally, this moment offers a time for post-election healing, some bipartisan camaraderie and perhaps a little high-minded purpose. Families gather for the ceremonies. Speeches are made. Everyone is congratulated, and lots of photographs are taken. But not so much in Harford County.