Commentary

In the years following World War II, with a growing economy and the vast expansion of automobile ownership, there was broad support for investment in highways that would knit the country together. While there was already 1944 legislation envisioning a 40,000-mile system of highways on the books, it took the leadership of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to bring about the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, Ike’s signature domestic legislation, with an initial authorization of $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of roadway, was the largest public works program in American history through that time. But the president did not understand all the details of the bill he had signed.

Almost everyone agrees that our country should give special treatment to the men and women who have served in our armed forces, whether in aid for education, preference in federal hiring or generous pensions. If you put yourself in harm’s way to protect and defend your country, you have gone above and beyond the role of the ordinary citizen and deserve special treatment. That still holds true for any veteran whose life has gone off the rails and who ends up in the justice system. If they are arrested for a nonviolent crime, their actions cannot be excused, but they need and deserve as much help as the community can give. That is the reasoning behind the creation of veterans’ courts, where they can get the help they need. Veteran advocates and the local United Way are laying the groundwork for such a court here.

Taylor Swift was quite the romantic when she burst on the scene in 2006. She sang about the ecstasies of young love and the heartbreak of it. But her mood has hardened as her star has risen. Her excellent new album, “Midnights,” plays upon a string of negative emotions — anxiety, restlessness, exhaustion and occasionally anger. “I don’t dress for women,” she sings at one point, “I don’t dress for men/ Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge.” It turns out Swift is part of a larger trend. Researchers Charlotte Brand, Alberto Acerbi and Alex Mesoudi analyzed more than 150,000 pop songs released between 1965 and 2015. Over that time, the appearance of the word “love” in top-100 hits roughly halved. Meanwhile, the number of times such songs contained negative emotion words, like “hate” rose sharply.

For decades, the stretch of roadway known as the Highway to Nowhere has split West Baltimore in half. Its origins date back to the 1950s, when the Federal-Aid Highway Act incentivized towns and cities across America to build out the growing interstate highway system. With federal highway funds nearly guaranteed, and later secured, Baltimore officials moved forward with a plan to link Interstate 70 and Interstate 95 with a crosstown expressway. Project leaders broke ground on the west side of the city and bulldozed through Black neighborhoods to make room for the new highway — razing 971 homes, destroying 62 businesses, and displacing 1,500 residents.

Early voting has begun in Maryland. As Marylanders head to the polls to exercise their fundamental right to choose their elected leaders, they can be confident in the integrity of our elections. A recent nonpartisan report found that Maryland ranks second in the nation in election integrity. Despite weeks of headlines, campaign rhetoric and lawsuits surrounding the process, our elections remain free and fair. When the results are counted — whether we like them or not — we must accept them.

My family moved during my teenage years to the neighborhood of single-family and semi-detached homes known as Ednor Gardens-Lakeside, which sits at the foot of where Memorial Stadium once stood. My mother was always proud to mention that the developer of Ednor Gardens-Lakeside was also the developer of the Guilford neighborhood, with its stately homes and beautifully-landscaped yards.

As a holiday of contrasts, Halloween celebrates sweetness and superstition — trick or treat. Traditions range from pumpkin carving and candy eating to the personification of werewolves and ghosts. Yet as adults seek thrills in haunted houses and horror movies, one common and disturbing motif is the “gorification” of the seriously mentally ill. Haunted houses across the country leverage settings, actors and props around the theme of mental illness.