Commentary

The history of organized labor in the United States is one of struggle against seemingly hopeless odds, with victories often decades in the making. It’s a history in which Baltimore plays a proud part. In fact, the city can lay some claim as the birthplace of the national organized labor movement, more than 150 years ago. We recount the tale each year, our own Labor Day tradition. In the 1860s, local trades unions were common throughout the United States, but they were far from a unified force in national politics.

News organizations are supposed to cover events, not create them. We’re not supposed to manufacture controversies and issues while pretending they arise naturally from the communities we cover. In the last two weeks, The Sun has directly linked the conservative ownership of Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of nearly 200 television stations, including Fox 45 in Baltimore, to three local political efforts — to get Thiru Vignarajah elected Baltimore State’s Attorney; to give city voters the power to recall the mayor, and to place term limits on the mayor, the comptroller and members of the Baltimore City Council.

The first Monday in September is associated with a number of traditions including, of course, a celebration of the achievements of American workers and the labor movement. For many people, it’s a milestone date on the calendar — the traditional end of summer and the start of the school year — that’s also done double duty as a kind of chore reminder. Labor Day is often cited as one of two times of the year to replace the batteries in household smoke detectors. But, as it happens, Labor Day is also an excellent time for Maryland residents to check on something else that too often gets neglected: property tax credits.

It’s widely understood that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. evolved significantly on the issue of reparations during his short lifetime. Toward the start of his career, he was a moralist in his thinking, rather than the radical economic thinker he later became. In 2018, I befriended Dr. King’s former barber, Nelson Malden, now in his late 80s, and wrote a book with him titled “The Colored Waiting Room” about Nelson’s life and the American civil rights movement.

On the morning of Sept. 5, 1972, I was 15-years-old and days away from the start of school. When coming downstairs to breakfast, my mother informed me that Israeli athletes and coaches had been taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Summer Olympics. For the rest of the morning, until I left to go to JV soccer practice, I periodically checked the television news, which in 1972 meant ABC and Maryland’s Jim McKay anchoring the coverage.

The coattail effect in politics is the theory that the popularity of a candidate at the top of the ticket redounds to the benefit of those in the same party down ballot. You vote Democratic for president, then you might vote Democratic for senator or mayor. But what do we call it when the person from whom the benefit flows is not actually on the ballot? What if the person isn’t even personally that popular?

There was widespread disappointment when the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) was lost as Build Back Better eventually became the Inflation Reduction Act. Included in last year’s American Rescue Plan, the expanded CTC, now expired, raised the maximum value of the credit, increased the number of families that were eligible and provided payments on a monthly basis. It made a real difference, particularly for lower-income families, who reported spending much of the money on their children as well as using it to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.