Commentary

President Biden’s historic pardon of thousands of Americans convicted of a federal crime for simple marijuana possession is a long overdue correction in the overheated war on drugs — a failed effort that has disproportionately affected Black and Brown people and wreaked havoc in communities of color. It’s hard to overstate the elation (and in some cases amazement) among civil rights leaders. Derrick Johnson of the NAACP tweeted: “We applaud President Biden for pardoning those who have been convicted for the simple possession of marijuana. Correcting unequal treatment — including marijuana reform — has been a priority issue for the NAACP for decades.” And for scores of other groups as well.

Anne Arundel County endorsements for: executive, select county council races and a key ballot question.Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman is a difficult politician to pigeonhole. The 61-year-old Davidsonville horse farmer, a Democrat, has demonstrated himself to be socially progressive but also fiscally prudent. His choice to raise taxes in his first year of office may have given fodder to his Republican opponent, County Councilmember Jessica Haire of Edgewater, but it also set the county on a path toward balanced budgets and much-needed school- and public- infrastructure improvements these past four years.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) lawyer admitted on Oct. 6 that Maryland intends to start demolition on Oct. 13 of the Historic Nice Bridge crossing the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia. This is after Mr. Hogan first announced to fanfare that the new bridge under construction would have bicycle and pedestrian facilities, only to do an about-face when construction was set to begin. The new bridge design is unsafe for cyclists and prohibits the use by walkers and hikers even though it can connect the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail on both sides of the Potomac.

Maybe it’s because Halloween is lurking, but I am scared that something creepy is going on in our public schools. I’m referring to the mission creep that is occurring as teachers are asked more and more to add mental health and social-emotional learning to their already grueling workloads. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) recently identified school mental health as a priority in the wake of the pandemic. The U.S. surgeon general warns that “the challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate. And the effect these challenges have had on their mental health is devastating.” Students’ anxiety, depression and suicide symptoms doubled during the pandemic. The saving grace is the remarkable policy response.

A new study of commuting in this area revealed two conflicting trend lines — one encouraging and one distressing. The 2022 State of the Commute survey, done every three years by the Commuter Connections program of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, found that telecommuting exploded during the pandemic. The report stated that 66% of commuters in the Washington region telework occasionally, up from 35% in 2019, before COVID-19 transformed the world.  The survey also found that people telecommuted an average of 3.37 days per week in 2022, an increase from the 2019 average of 1.2 days per week.

In 2021, nearly eight Marylanders died each day from an overdose. In my city of Baltimore alone, our community lost more than 600 people last year –– a stunningly tragic situation that demands action. These preventable deaths are the consequences of systemic discrimination and suffering rooted in the war on drugs. Decades of police violence and generations of mass incarceration have pushed people who use drugs into the shadows. Our family members, our friends, and our neighbors are disappearing into social and emotional isolation, where they engage in risky behaviors that put their health and that of others at risk. But in Baltimore, we’re charting a new course toward proven solutions to address the overdose crisis and save lives.

They’re still not hearing her. And that infuriates Mildred Muhammad. Because as media reports of the 20th anniversary of her ex-husband’s shooting rampage, the terror and drama of an entire region ducking for cover in supermarket parking lots, of schools canceling outdoor recess, force her to relive her own personal nightmare, no one’s talking about how it all started. “It was a domestic violence and child custody issue,” said the woman who escaped becoming the final victim as that horrifying string of murders closed in, closer and closer to her. Most of the time, Mildred Muhammad and the decayed, violent marriage she escaped are forgotten in the retelling of how John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed 10 innocent people.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “if you want something done, ask a busy person,” to which comedian Lucille Ball later added “the more things you do, the more things you can do.” The point, of course, is that people who stay busy are more energetic, more organized and more motivated by nature. We observed the opposite over two years of monotony and incubation during the pandemic, which resulted in a jump in laziness and less desire for people to get out of their comfort zones. For the first several months of the pandemic, activities were limited, responsibilities at work lessened, and lives constricted. As energy levels declined, anxiety meters rose. In other words, the less you do, the less you do.