Wednesday, October 30, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Commentary

Dan Rodricks: In one America, a righteous stand against racism. In another, racist violence and death.

On Saturday, at the very hour that the people of Chestertown, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, gathered to remember the Black man lynched there by a white mob in 1892, police say a white teenager fueled by racist hatred started shooting people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. He is accused of shooting 13 people in all, 11 of them Black. Ten of his victims died.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Leopold: Better communication can help prevent mental health tragedies

Although the county over the past 15 years has increased the health department budget for mental health services for returning veterans and others, mental health budgets have generally been slashed at all levels of government — federal, state and local — and some state governors have ill-advisedly refused to expand Medicaid coverage that could have boosted investments in mental health services. While serving as county executive, I organized two public forums at Anne Arundel Community College to address the need to improve access to behavioral health resources, and we began to outline a strategy focusing on prevention, early intervention and treatment.

Policeman watching the St Patrick's parade
Glass & Ivey: Community policing in Montgomery County — by the community

It has been almost two years since the tragic death of George Floyd. In the aftermath, Montgomery County and local communities across the country have made significant efforts to reimagine public safety and support policies that improve racial equity and social justice. One of the most important areas of this work has focused on police reform and ensuring that every resident — regardless of race, immigration status or Zip code — feels safe in the community. As we emerge from the pandemic, the entire country is experiencing an increase in crime and violence.

Stokes & Walters: The problem with Baltimore’s ‘TIF’ strategy

As legendary heroes go, Robin Hood is as popular as any. Who can be against robbing from the rich to give to the poor? Unfortunately, for too long Baltimore has been using a redevelopment strategy that does the opposite: We frequently punish the poor and working-class while privileging the well-connected and well-to-do. The latest example is a proposal to create a “downtown TIF district” to rescue that area from decline. For readers not up on the latest urban renewal jargon, “tax increment financing” involves giving developers a big subsidy on their upfront project costs.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Michelman: Draft opinion striking down Roe brings ‘fire to this fight once again’

The now infamous Supreme Court draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, repealing Roe v. Wade, is not just a shameful ransacking of a 50-year-old precedent, it is an epic assault on the fundamental right of women to participate as equals in American society. Roe is not just about the medical procedure of abortion and protecting women’s health and lives, it is also about women’s autonomy, dignity and status as citizens.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Thompson: Where did Maryland’s George Wallace voters go?

Fifty years ago, the day before the 1972 Maryland presidential primary, then-Alabama governor and Democratic presidential candidate George C. Wallace was shot at the Laurel Shopping Center in Prince George’s County. Wallace won Maryland — and Michigan, held the same day — but he was permanently paralyzed by the shooting. Despite winning two more terms as Alabama’s governor, he never again was a serious presidential contender. Wallace was never nominated for president, but his influence on the politics of the 1960s and 1970s was important, and his popularity in Maryland was significant.

Business newspaper pages
Rodricks: Comforted, criticized and challenged by Sun readers since 1976

I confess that, covering my first election for the Sunpapers of Baltimore, I broke a rule: I accepted a free meal. It was Nov. 2, 1976. An editor assigned me to write a story about Election Day politics in East Baltimore. I ended up in front of a giant bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, my journalistic integrity in shambles, overpowered by Highlandtown hospitality.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
As The Sun’s 185th anniversary nears, we look back on its coverage and community ties

Ten years ago, on The Sun’s 175th anniversary, we took stock of the paper’s editorial board positions on some of the biggest issues facing the country over those many years, largely focusing on what we thought earlier writers had gotten wrong: They were pro Confederacy, anti New Deal, and, it appears, they never saw U.S. involvement in World War II coming. The piece was a fairly lighthearted look at some very serious subjects. Forgive us if we’re slightly more sober now, as we reflect on turning 185, which the paper will do May 17th. The past decade has been a trying one, for both the news industry and the populace.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Rodricks: Max Weinberg, still drumming fearlessly after all these

Fifteen years ago, a quiet man in a green work uniform — something you might see a custodian or mechanic wear — stepped forward when his name was called, pulled a pair of drum sticks from his back pocket and took a seat behind a glittery drum set at the Guitar Center in Towson. He was a middle-aged man, the oldest contestant to appear for a Saturday drum-off in the music store. The man suddenly burst into a riff that was shocking in its excellence, building to a dizzying crescendo.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Hope is the thing with hooves: Rich Strike’s Derby triumph

Last weekend, a confluence of very public and intensely personal circumstances met when the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby coincided with the 14th-anniversary of my husband’s death — while I was at my boyfriend’s house (yes, 78-year-old widows do have boyfriends). I am a sucker for pageantry, and through the years, my husband Bill indulged my odd proclivity by mixing gin and tonics and watching the race with me. My Derby fascination, however, began long before I met him. As a Polish-Catholic kid in New England, I began watching it in my teens on my parents’ black and white TV, probably to catch a glimpse into an elegant world of julips in silver cups and women in tasteful sheaths and white gloves.

Read More: Baltimore Sun

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