Commentary

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.

Before anyone flipped the switch to activate the new speed cameras on the Jones Falls Expressway (Interstate 83) in Baltimore last Thursday, there was a veritable traffic jam of critics on social media with a thumb’s down assessment of the situation. The responses ranged from the pointed but polite like an eye-roll emoji with the comment, “speeders are a top priority in Baltimore” to the even more sarcastic suggestion that the next step for Baltimore may be to imprison too-fast electric scooters. “Baltimore is so greedy with those speed cameras,” lamented one woman on Twitter last week.

As complex as our legal system can be, most readers will recognize the phrase “innocent until proven guilty.” By design, our criminal justice system favors the accused. Think momentarily about what it means for the government to remove our fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — even temporarily — through imprisonment. This is an immense power, and it is why our court system both maintains a presumption of innocence and requires the state to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that a criminal defendant is guilty before removing one of us from society.