Commentary

As officials in Carroll County government continue their work to preserve 100,000 agricultural acres it is a good time to reflect on the history of master planning in the county and the community leaders who have worked hard to provide us with the firm foundation we have today, which allows us to confidently plan our future. Then again, when it comes to master planning, leadership is something that comes quite naturally to our county. We have a history of excellence. It is a story that needs to be told over and over again. Portions of this discussion have been published before.

Inflation is up, the job market is tight, and oil markets are volatile: These indicators seem, for the moment, to be the key factors determining the United States’ well-being. But they will shift substantially in a matter of months or years. In the meantime, seemingly no one pays attention to the long-term picture, which has remained alarmingly consistent. The nation has made promises to its elderly that it cannot possibly keep while continuing to do right by younger generations. That the country has muddled through so far is a testament only to the fact that the worst has not yet hit.

Former President Donald Trump is against reasonable gun control when it comes to protecting our children. Yet, when he spoke at the NRA convention in Texas last week, no guns were allowed in the room. I believe most folks would call that gun control. Republicans in Congress also want gun regulation to protect their safety, but not for the rest of us. You can’t bring a gun into the halls of Congress or congressional offices. That’s another simple and reasonable example of gun control. It is also an example of Republican hypocrisy.

On Sept. 22, a mother stood in front of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, railing in anger about masks and canceled Homecoming dances and said to the board members, “My kids are dying inside!” This same woman and many like her have shown up repeatedly at meetings of our Board of Education to speak out angrily against decisions made in an effort to keep our children safe during a global pandemic.

With Wednesday’s announcement that it will erase $5.8 billion in federal student loans owed by an estimated 560,000 former students of Corinthian Colleges Inc., the now-defunct for-profit college chain, the Biden administration has changed many lives. People’s debt-to-income ratios and credit scores will improve; wage and tax garnishments will cease. But the relief is long overdue. Had it been granted eight years ago when former Corinthian students began to organize, they could have been spared immense financial and emotional hardship. Instead, they had to fight for justice.

Pride Month is celebrated each year in June to honor the memory of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. Members of the transgender, bisexual, lesbian, gay and queer community (more specifically, transgender people of color) had grown angry at the continual police harassment they received across the city. Tensions rose and one night at the Stonewall Inn, a popular bar in Greenwich Village, members of the LGBTQ+ community, led by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, fought back against this abuse of power.

How do you love a stranger locked away in prison? I was only 7, and that stranger was the reason I was shuttled through metal detectors on Saturday mornings. His addiction was why I was in a pastel visiting room in an uncomfortable chair in a room of men in white jumpsuits convicted of crimes in the state of Arkansas. This stranger is my father. My twin brother and I were taken to visit my father in prison three times as children between the ages of 7 and 9. I have no memory of hin before he was in prison.