Commentary

I think it would be accurate and appropriate to call Pamela and Christian Wilson the most determined-to-do-good couple in Baltimore. They won’t say it. I just did. I might be wrong, but I doubt it. I first met them for coffee in their Charles Village home in 2017. At the time, the Wilsons had a singular charitable undertaking: They supplied the ingredients of “weekend survival kits” for the 110 homeless children who were then attending six of Baltimore’s elementary schools.

At a recent White House event, President Joe Biden joined his predecessor, Barack Obama, to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act ’s passage. So much has changed for the better thanks to the ACA: The country’s uninsured rate has dropped dramatically (by half in Maryland), people no longer struggle to get coverage due to preexisting medical conditions, and millions of Americans receive help paying their insurance premiums. But there’s still work to be done to get everybody covered and to ensure they have access to the care they need.

We are at a powerful inflection point in our city’s history. Baltimore has so much promise, and we are on a path to recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, our recovery is far from over. We all know that Baltimore is the birthplace of racial redlining and neighborhood segregation. That legacy rears its ugly head in the stark inequalities and disparities in the quality of life afforded to residents in predominantly Black and brown communities. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare this brutal truth we have ignored for far too long: Too many of our residents live in poverty and navigate the lasting effects of structural inequality.

At my university, we accept students as they are. But we certainly do not expect them to leave our institution as they entered. I often reflect on that simple premise as I watch them grow and mature, ultimately taking their places as informed citizens in a democratic and increasingly multicultural society. The developmental processes leading up to their point of departure form the bedrock of our existence. Thus, I am somewhat puzzled by a growing number of external social critics who argue that our higher education institutions are becoming “too liberal.” What exactly does that mean? I wonder?

Have you noticed a sudden “sprouting” of blue pinwheels throughout Downtown Bel Air over the past week? Have you been wondering what they represent? April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. In 2008, Prevent Child Abuse America introduced the pinwheel as the new national symbol for child abuse prevention. Why? Because by its very nature, the pinwheel connotes playfulness, joy, and childhood. It has come to serve as a physical reminder of the great childhoods we want for all children.

Americans could scarcely be blamed for feeling confused about whether or not to wear a mask right now. A week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended into May a nationwide mask mandate for travel on airplanes, trains, buses and other forms of public transportation. Then on Monday, a federal judge in Florida struck it down. Meanwhile, some local governments and private employers are reasserting mask mandates in response to rising COVID-19 transmission rates because of virus variants.

After last year’s record numbers of resignations, almost every industry in America is currently in need of more workers. While the overall labor shortage in America has been extensively broadcast, it is less widely known that we are currently in dire need of one specific kind of laborer: skilled trade workers in fields including construction, electrical work and plumbing. Today, there are 650,000 open construction jobs in the United States and 10 million unfilled manufacturing jobs globally.