Commentary

Today Maryland’s interstate highways, I-495 and I-270, still belong to the public. Our taxes paid for them, we depend on them, and we expect that any changes to them will be made in the public interest by accountable representatives of the citizens of Maryland. But something new and disturbing is happening. When the Board of Public Works approved private toll lanes for I-495 and I-270, they said ‘yes’ to the idea of surrendering control of our public highways for the next 50 years to a private conglomerate whose mission — to maximize its own profit — may well come at the public’s expense and long-term interests.

Baltimore, we have been here before. A high-profile act of violence that seems to shake the foundation of our city to the core and seemingly has the potential to destroy Baltimore all together. Fate would have it that this tragedy happened as our city and country continue to deal with a spike in violence that we have not seen since the 1990s. Adding in the potentially explosive facts that this tragedy is a result of a conflict between a white man and Black youth who squeegee, and you have the perfect storm.

The news was jarring: Andy Harris, the incumbent Republican in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District, is trying to do something that will be beneficial to the Chesapeake Bay and those who make a living harvesting the invasive blue catfish from its waters. You thought I was going to say something else, right? You thought I’d been jarred by news that Harris was part of a group of Republican lawmakers who met at the White House in December 2020 to discuss a plan to overturn Joe Biden’s election and keep Donald Trump in office.

From schools to Starbucks, and Apple to Amazon, labor unions are experiencing a powerful, public resurgence across the region and the nation. The movement is fueled by workers who, in the wake of the Great Resignation, more clearly recognize their power and the value of collective advocacy in the workplace. We must capitalize on this moment to unravel the systemic inequities embedded in our society. As SEIU Local 500 president, I have witnessed this resurgence firsthand.

Rents are soaring across the country, including locally, and while not all increases are so dramatic, some are rising by double-digit percentages, 16, 17, 25, even as high as 50%, forcing tenants to choose between a squeezed budget and a relocation that is hardly cost-free itself. Solutions to this issue remain complicated and contentious. Allowing more housing would indeed help. Providing more competition from more homes lessens the leverage landlords have over prospective tenants, and thus, their ability to increase rents as dramatically as we see now.

If you look back over the political chaos of the last half-dozen years or so, many Americans of all political stripes — though surely not all — would place the lion’s share of blame at the feet of former President Donald Trump. Trump, after all, has been all about shattering consequential norms on an infinite variety of levels, thriving on the disorder.

Over the years of my practice as a psychoanalyst, teens and adults have come to see me for troubled relationships, parenting difficulties, depression, social anxiety and the many other challenges of everyday life. Until just recently, though, no one had ever called with the chief complaint that they were grieving for our country and, so, for their future here. This month, however, a bright graduate student began her session with this memorable phrase: “Well, I figured it out: I have Democracy Anxiety Disorder.”