Commentary

So THIS time Democrats are vowing to mobilize their voters around the issue of abortion and the Supreme Court. Isn’t it a little too late for those declarations, now that we’re at the precipice of a public health catastrophe? Yes, the leak of the draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will change the narrative about this year’s election and reorder some of the parties’ strategic priorities. But will it transform the overall political dynamic for the 2022 elections all that much?

I am writing to support the significance of engaging poor residents for low-income housing accessibility. Fully 77,000 households — more than 20% of households — in Montgomery County, earn less than $50,000 per year; many are living in crowded and unsafe conditions in order to afford rent. All Montgomery residents, including low-wealth citizens and non-citizens as newcomers who are poor, deserve to live in beautiful, safe, healthy dwellings and neighborhoods, but we face many barriers, including language barriers. Montgomery County’s decisions about housing and land use policy affect poor people profoundly.

Seven years ago, John Angelos drew considerable attention for his defense of the public demonstrations, at least the nonviolent variety, that arose in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Not only did the son of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos support free speech, but he acknowledged many of the social ills that have plagued the city as the “American political elite,” he tweeted, “shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore.”

Who in this world has never needed a second chance in life? There is a group of people that need it more than most: the formerly incarcerated. Hundreds of laws and regulations make it difficult for people with criminal convictions to access resources and opportunities, including housing and employment, which helps explain high recidivism rates. The business community can play a significant role in reducing recidivism by hiring qualified returning citizens to fill vacant positions.

Lawn signs are multiplying as local elections heat up after a confusing start due to the pandemonium associated with redistricting and uncertainty about who was running for what because of extended filing deadlines. In my state district (District 33) incumbent state Sen. Ed Reilly (elected in 2010) was, until recently, running unopposed in the GOP primary. Dawn Gile (to whom I have contributed) is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. In April, Del. Sid Saab surprised many people, perhaps even Reilly, by filing to run for the District 33 Senate seat after announcing in December that he was seeking a third term in the Maryland House. Reilly announced his retirement within days.

I have been exposed to the good, the bad, and the ugly both in people and policy during a half-century of environmental advocacy. One of the really ugly scams is the corn ethanol federal mandate. It forces Americans to use 15 billion gallons of ethanol in their gasoline that has been grown and then distilled from corn. Whether in your car, truck, boat, or lawnmower, Congress has dictated by law since 2006 that ethanol be blended into your gas so that 98% of gasoline now contains corn ethanol, most commonly a 10% blend called E10, but it can be as high as 15%.

The unprecedented leak of a draft opinion authored by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito overruling the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade and thus permitting state legislatures to decide the legality of abortion sent a shock wave through the national legal establishment like few other incidents involving the court. Lawyers of all stripes, journalists who report regularly on the work of the federal courts, as well as others who pay attention to developments in the national legal system, were at once dismayed and, at the same time, unsurprised by the disclosure of the draft opinion.