Commentary

I joined the Army before there was a war, and I never thought that one would come so soon. I joined because so many of the virtues and values I believed in as a young man had been taught to me by the instructors and Army officers I met at the military school my mom sent me to in hopes that I would stay out of trouble. I later became a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and sought to live the values

Just about every day I see things that prompt me to ask, “What’s taking so long?” This happens a lot with regard to climate change. The clock is ticking, and ticking louder, as the planet gets warmer, and we human beings — supposedly the most advanced form of life on the planet — still fail to come up with solutions. Check that: We come up with solutions, or know what they are; we just don’t bring them to scale fast enough.

The county is taking its Livable Frederick Master Plan out for a test drive, using the document which was approved by the County Council in 2019 as a template to examine the future of the Sugarloaf Mountain area. The beautiful rural and agricultural region looks like a good place for a real-world test of the principles and policies of Livable Frederick.

In his seminal book, “The Selling of the President 1968,” author Joe McGinnis famously describes how a Richard Nixon operative named Roger Ailes arranged televised town halls that featured pre-arranged questions from friendly audience members, so Nixon could hit them out of the park. I was vaguely reminded of this at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference last week, as I sat through a seminar sponsored by the Choose Who You Use Maryland coalition, which seeks to change state law to allow for more competition in the electric power market.

This is the start of a new academic year for about 20 million college students across the country. Here is some friendly advice, especially for those starting their first year, from someone who has worked in higher education for over 40 years. Please note that someone is spending a lot of money in order for you to attend college. Perhaps it is your money, money from your family, or a scholarship from a government agency investing in your education.

Maryland, like every other state in our union, has confronted a stressful, disturbing, and complex mixture of social injustices, divisive elections, and a global pandemic, all of which continues to highlight inequities in health, education, housing, economic opportunity, and more. And as our country mourns and protests the murders of Black people due to senseless police brutality and mistreatment of people of color, we continue to reckon with the undeniable, ongoing, and sometimes obscured truth of systemic racism.

Like in the rest of the country, Maryland’s COVID-19 cases are once again on the rise. While we hoped to be out of the woods by now, we still have a lot of work to beat back the virus and recover from the economic downturn. That’s why Marylanders need Congress to pass the bipartisan Hospitality and Commerce Job Recovery Act without delay, so our state’s affected businesses, including its vibrant beer industry, can get the additional help they need to get back up and running.