Commentary

“Be Kind or Leave.” The newspaper article, and the restaurant sign that inspired it, caught my eye. The owner of an Erie, Pa., eatery posted the notice after tiring of obnoxious, belligerent customers berating his employees and sometimes each other. It seems the escalating — make that descending — level of boorish behavior in our society has many in customer-facing enterprises rethinking their traditional “all are welcome” policies. As a Rhode Island hotel manager put it, “The customer was always right. Well, they’re not.” One consumer-research consultant said he now advocates drawing of clear and firm rules: “If you don’t meet our expectations of decorum, leave.”

Last month, on a perfect night for baseball, Kennedy Krieger Institute’s community gathered at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen to watch and cheer on a young man as he accomplished something rare and exciting. Robby, a twenty-something with autism, landed a job with the Aberdeen IronBirds minor league baseball team this spring. He works as a fan host, rotating between serving as a ticket taker, operating the area known as the fan zone and working as an usher. If you take in a game this summer, you might see him greeting ticket holders and showing them to their seats.

How sad that the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital plans to sell off hundreds of acres of forested land in eastern Prince George’s County to the highest bidder. Is that really the best it can do? With accelerating climate change, we urgently need to conserve our remaining forests for carbon sequestration, heat mitigation and absorption of storm water. Sprawling residential development increases greenhouse gas emissions, with bigger houses to heat and cool, bigger lawns to mow, bigger appliances and longer commutes in bigger cars. Despite long-range plans that call for focusing new residential development in already developed areas served by public transit, Prince George’s County’s open space dwindles as farms and forested land are converted into housing developments.

Nobody asked me, but any bystander who says they saw Ivan Bates leading Marilyn Mosby in the Democratic primary for Baltimore State’s Attorney going into the final count is a big liar-liar-pants-on-fire kinda liar. All predictions I heard had the incumbent drawing about the same level of support that she drew in 2018, with Bates and Thiru “Third Time’s A Bomb” Vignarajah splitting the rest. Bates’ showing is a welcome surprise. Nobody asked me, but, however disappointed, Mosby should feel relief with a loss in the primary. That outcome would allow her to devote her full attention to beating the federal rap.

t’s not Larryland or Harryland. It’s Maryland. But the state named for a queen is not going to elevate a woman to its highest office anytime soon. From Harriet Tubman to Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D), Maryland’s women have shaped our nation. On Tuesday, its voters once again stubbornly denied women the power to lead us into the future. “I always said that though I was the first, I wanted to be the first of many,” Mikulski said in a 2010 interview, when she recalled her 1986 fundraiser, “Bebop for Barb.”

With Baltimore caught up in a cacophony of conflicts over the quality of its public schools, the safety of its streets, a shrinking population and what to do about young Black men squeegeeing car windshields for tips, how delightful to hear that the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has named Jonathon Heyward as its next music director. Mr. Heyward, 29, will likely be the only Black American conductor to lead a major U.S. symphony when he takes over the BSO post in the fall of next year.

Over the past several weeks, the debate about squeegeeing has reached a fever pitch. Some have called for mass arrests of squeegee kids. Others, such as Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, are trying to help them find better jobs. Much of this conversation misses the larger picture. Squeegeeing on its own is harmless: Even if you don’t give them a cent, if you are polite, almost all the squeegee kids will treat you with respect. In a city rife with extreme poverty, squeegeeing is a decent way to earn.

My husband and I have several frozen embryos in storage somewhere in suburban Rockville, Maryland. Over the past decade, this possibility to expand our family one day has held a place in our hearts. But now, we are rushing to fill out the paperwork to thaw and respectfully dispose of our embryos — before they potentially gain legal personhood status in this country.