Commentary

The parade of public statements emanating from colleges and universities following the brutal murder of George Floyd last year, and those released by large multinational corporations, shared common features. They embraced the activist language of racial equity and social justice organizations; they proposed administrative and academic hiring campaigns intended to foster greater “diversity, equity, and inclusion”; and they addressed the ongoing consequences of systemic racism in consciousness raising lectures and academic courses.

At a time of increasing demand for outdoor opportunities, our state parks are in crisis. Last year, 21.5 million visitors sought refuge in state parks — a 45% increase from 14.9 million in 2019. Thousands more were turned away with a record 292 closures due to overcrowding and lack of staffing. These turn aways were nearly triple the number in 2019 (101) at 15 state parks.

Though details of the recent cyberattack on the Maryland Department of Health are scarce — including implications for coronavirus reporting and Medicaid applications — malicious actors targeting state and local governments with sophisticated cyberattacks is nothing new. This incident follows a long line of incursions, including an attack against Baltimore City (which cost an estimated $18 million), MedStar and Baltimore County Public Schools, which prevented hundreds of thousands of Marylanders from accessing medical care or their classes.

Last Wednesday, members of the Carroll County Board of Education were on the verge of approving new restrictions on political speech among county educators when the proposal was tabled, apparently because a last-minute addition — the suggestion of a tracking system to help report teachers who stray from political “neutrality” — caused a bit of a stir. Might it be a violation of their free speech rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment? The board’s lawyer thought that could be the case.

In 1955, the nation was horrified by the film “Blackboard Jungle.” It showed an inner-city school out of control where students terrifying teachers was a daily rite of passage. I saw the film in the early 60s, and I shuddered when Vic Morrow turned to Glenn Ford to say, ”You want to take me to the office Daddio? Then take me to the office.” Was this film an accurate portrayal of public education at the time? Absolutely not. Did it represent what was happening in far too many classrooms across the nation- then and now? It did indeed.

The Prince George’s County Council has maintained as a top priority, advancing the county’s new zoning ordinance and countywide map amendment. On Nov. 29, in its final legislative session of 2021, the county council unanimously adopted Council Resolution-136-2021, approving the countywide map amendment and completing a seven-year, multimillion-dollar effort to modernize the county’s 50-year-old zoning ordinance.

It is hard to imagine that any governor of Maryland would approve Lenny Cirincione for parole from prison. A jury convicted him of murdering a Baltimore police officer in 1986, and no governor — Republican or Democrat — wants to be the one who declares 35 years of incarceration sufficient punishment for that. Not even an outgoing governor planning to retire to Ocean Pines would dare grant Cirincione freedom.

I had not watched a Carroll County Board of Education meeting in quite a while, but I did watch on Nov. 10. For those of you who are regular viewers, I commend you on your endurance. I’ve commented before on the county public schools’ long struggle to diversify it faculty. Regrettably, the results just posted by the school system show another year of no meaningful progress. The main excuse this time around for the lack of improvement recruiting minority teachers is everyone has the same problem, so the failure to make real progress should be viewed as understandable. We’ve heard this before.

There’s been a lot of justifiable complaints this year about how most states handle redistricting. Two plans released Wednesday give near perfect examples of how to do it right and how to do it wrong. Maryland’s legislature is the template for how to do it wrong. The Democratic-led body ignored the work of a good government committee co-chaired by Walter Olson (no relation, though he is a friend), and approved a naked partisan gerrymander on a predictably party-line vote.

In the United States, and around the world, protests are vital forms of political expression. The ability of protesters to deliver their message depends on the presence of journalists, who not only inform the public but also hold the police accountable when they engage in violence or abuse. But this fundamental right is being undermined by police abuse of journalists themselves, according to a new report by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.