Commentary

Maryland has a rich history of service to our neighbors and our communities. We saw this selfless spirit during the past two years, as Marylanders from all walks of life stepped up to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. Service brings us together, creates a sense of connection to people and place, and shows our love for one another. It is also a powerful vehicle to create meaningful and long-lasting change.

I am 37 years old. Bobby Perkins spent 37 years in prison. The math was not lost on me as I got to know Mr. Perkins over the weeks I spent with him in Baltimore. In October of 2020, I went to Maryland with the goal of making a documentary about how the state was experiencing the 2020 presidential election. The project was part of my film work with the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. The idea was to compare the urban and rural experience in a (quasi) swing state. But I met Bobby on the first day of filming, and the project took an unexpected turn.

Mental health struggles affect everyone and too often, we suffer in silence. In Maryland, 1 in 5 live in an area with a severe shortage of mental health providers. Among those experiencing mental illness, 1 in 4 report unmet treatment needs. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed even more suffering and hardship, leaving Marylanders to jump through hoops to get basic access to affordable mental health and substance use care. Those who can’t find car

Jason Lando’s first year as the chief of the Frederick Police Department is drawing rave reviews. It looks as though the city has found a good one. Lando was hired by the city after he had served more than 20 years at the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. As News-Post reporter Mary Grace Keller wrote in her recent article on the chief’s first year, he has had a busy 12 months: A Fort Detrick gunman shot two coworkers before being killed. Two of Lando’s police officers were shot and wounded in the line of duty. Two other officers died of natural causes, sending the department into mourning.

The 400,000-plus customers of Baltimore’s municipal water system — households that have paid higher and higher fees over the last 20 years for the delivery of tap water and the treatment of sewage — should be outraged over the repeated failures of the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, prompting the state to seize control of it. But, before I get into that stinking mess, a little perspective on the cost of stuff.

A few years ago, in another iteration, Maryland’s current Firearm Safety Storage Requirements and Youth Suicide Prevention bill — which is now stuck in the House Judicial Proceedings Committee — became known as “Jaelynn’s Law,” named after 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey. On March 20, 2018, Jaelynn’s former boyfriend, who had been stalking and harassing her for some time, brought his father’s 9 mm Glock handgun to Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County. There, Austin Rollins shot Jaelynn in the head, and, later, himself.

In June of 2020, a woman in West Baltimore fired a gun at her domestic partner. She had assaulted the same partner three months earlier, was a convicted felon and had violated probation and home detention. Police found evidence that corroborated the shooting. Nevertheless, when the case came to court, the prosecutor offered, and the defendant accepted, a plea to probation for charges of misdemeanor assault and reckless endangerment.

Almost exactly a year ago, writer Katherine Dee, who blogs about internet culture and trend forecasting, predicted what she called a “coming wave of sex negativity.” Sex positivity, she suggested, had created new stigmas, including around discussing the harms of sex work and self-commodification. “People do not want to be atomized,” she wrote, adding, “Nobody wants this dystopia.” Not everything Ms. Dee foresaw — like a shift toward earlier childbearing among the upper-middle class — has come to pass, at least so far.