Commentary

No, we definitely were not on Zoom anymore. The ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore packed more than 500 of Baltimore’s business and civic leaders — Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski and M&T Bank local head Augie Chiasera among them — for the standing-room-only Downtown Partnership of Baltimore annual meeting on Monday.

Dear Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Thomas: As you’ll no doubt agree, Roe v. Wade was an ill-judged decision when it was handed down Jan. 22, 1973. It stood on the legal principle of a right to privacy found, at the time, mainly in the penumbras of the Constitution. It arrogated to the least democratic branch of government the power to settle a question that would have been better decided by Congress or state legislatures.

Most of the “late-breaking news” on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” the “breaking news” announced during the new fourth hour of “Morning Joe,” and the opinions expressed on Fox News have a familiar ring to them. Even the guests and conversations on the network morning shows and the evening news sound like reruns of shows shown the day or the week before. That is true even if occasionally some new fact is injected into the coverage. The reason is that so much of what is labeled as “news” is really nothing more than political theater, presented to the public watching and listening by insecure politicians in order to gain their attention or even affection when they feel the need to feel their love.

So THIS time Democrats are vowing to mobilize their voters around the issue of abortion and the Supreme Court. Isn’t it a little too late for those declarations, now that we’re at the precipice of a public health catastrophe? Yes, the leak of the draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will change the narrative about this year’s election and reorder some of the parties’ strategic priorities. But will it transform the overall political dynamic for the 2022 elections all that much?

I am writing to support the significance of engaging poor residents for low-income housing accessibility. Fully 77,000 households — more than 20% of households — in Montgomery County, earn less than $50,000 per year; many are living in crowded and unsafe conditions in order to afford rent. All Montgomery residents, including low-wealth citizens and non-citizens as newcomers who are poor, deserve to live in beautiful, safe, healthy dwellings and neighborhoods, but we face many barriers, including language barriers. Montgomery County’s decisions about housing and land use policy affect poor people profoundly.

Seven years ago, John Angelos drew considerable attention for his defense of the public demonstrations, at least the nonviolent variety, that arose in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Not only did the son of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos support free speech, but he acknowledged many of the social ills that have plagued the city as the “American political elite,” he tweeted, “shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore.”

Who in this world has never needed a second chance in life? There is a group of people that need it more than most: the formerly incarcerated. Hundreds of laws and regulations make it difficult for people with criminal convictions to access resources and opportunities, including housing and employment, which helps explain high recidivism rates. The business community can play a significant role in reducing recidivism by hiring qualified returning citizens to fill vacant positions.