Commentary

It is no exaggeration to say that at this moment, education across the nation is in crisis. COVID-19 has further exposed the huge deficiencies and inequities in America’s K–12 education. Widespread teacher shortages, falling enrollments, learning losses in core curriculum areas and mental health challenges have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Baltimore, like all of the nation’s great cities, must face the challenge of re-imagining schooling now and into the future.

When I was young, my friends and I did chores at home such as cutting grass, raking leaves and shoveling snow. It wasn’t a big deal because that was the expectation. My brother and I were fortunate enough to have parents who paid an allowance, but that didn’t mean we had a choice to not do what was required of us. Our parents wanted to teach us the value of a dollar and the payoff that comes from hard work.

New revelations from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol come so quickly that Americans are numb to their findings. In normal times, any of these would be a major scandal. 1. For the first time in American history, a president of the United States tried to overturn an election he lost in order to stay in power for a second term. Think about that. 2. It appears that multiple members of Congress, as well as dozens of officials in Republican-controlled states, were willing to go along with his plan. Ultimately, 147 Republicans in Congress voted to reject the certification of Joe Biden’s election.

I panhandled on a street corner when I was a teenager. No squeegee. Just a bucket with a hastily scribbled sign asking for cash. I wasn’t alone — there was a group of teens, scattered among four medians at a busy intersection. We went from car to car, window to window, seeking money to fund our public school’s debate team trips. Most weekends, we did pretty well. I don’t remember any threats, any arguments or, frankly, any concern for 16-year-olds dancing and dashing through traffic on a busy Saturday morning. Did we have a permit? A license? Nope. Most of the time we didn’t even have adult supervision.

Prosperity is perplexing for the airline industry. And vexing for passengers. This summer, Americans have invaded airports like it was the evacuation of Saigon. Cancellations are getting an extra boost from climate change, and our frustrations are mounting. You might think this misery is tied to the industry’s return to normal levels of indifferent service. But we aren’t sustaining pre-pandemic flight levels. Domestic airlines are on track to be 150 million “enplanements” behind 2019 this year, according to one estimate. That’s a lot of people going nowhere.

In Baltimore County, conventional wisdom has long been that voters wanted a tough-as-nails state’s attorney to, if possible, stand astride the city-county boundary like a Colossus and warn criminals that they aren’t welcome in the suburbs — and that murderers would be put to death. For several decades, this was the role filled by Sandra A. O’Connor, who earned a reputation for seeking the death penalty more often than her counterparts in any jurisdiction in Maryland. It continued to be the philosophy exhibited by her successor Scott D. Shellenberger, who started his career as a law clerk for Ms. O’Connor and took over the state’s attorney role in 2006.

I thank a Baltimore Sun reader who goes by the pseudonym of Curious George for telling me about a certain work of art hanging in a gallery near Patterson Park. But I’m afraid it’s not as “controversial” as he might think. “Is the artwork riddled with bullet holes a problem?” Curious George asked in an email with “controversy” in its subject line. Obviously wise to the notion that controversy provides superb material for newspapers, George suggested that I visit the Creative Alliance and have a look. So, I headed to that good gathering place on Saturday, driving and walking through the busy and thriving neighborhoods of a city that too many other correspondents believe to be hell on Earth — so dysfunctional, violent and corrupt as to make a trip here impossibly risky.