Commentary

For more than 100 years, Americans have set aside Nov. 11 as a day to honor the service and sacrifices of the men and women who have served in the armed forces to defend our country. Initially the day marked the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I, famously signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

Public education will be contentious in Maryland politics for many years to come. The academic life or death of our schoolchildren — especially those who are poor and of color — will be at stake. While the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is praiseworthy, it charts a course that won’t be completed until 2034 at the earliest. There are many obstacles and uncertainties that lie ahead. My goal, in past and future commentaries, is to shine light on these looming school issues from inside and outside perspectives.

In July, I found myself in Massachusetts for the wedding of a good friend. While there, I took a day trip that had been on my mind since 2008: I traveled to the working-class town of Beverly, Massachusetts, to visit the grave of Stephen R. Fortunato, killed in action 14 October 2008 in Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan. Stephen was my good friend, my buddy. To me and other soldiers, he was just Fortunato. Fortunato had been in the Army a year longer than me when we both arrived at Fort Hood, Texas.

If there’s a lesson for Maryland in last week’s bittersweet humbling of Democrats, it’s in the demographics and not the politics. In scattered elections across the country, voters of color asserted themselves with a convincing determination at the polls, sweeping aside long-held traditions and shibboleths to plant their flags and stake their claims.

If you are between the ages of 18 and 34 and do not have health insurance, the bottom of today’s column is for you. It’s a public service announcement about how to get insured at an incredible discount for a limited time and a limited time only. You’ll find the PSA in the penultimate paragraph. You can jump down and read it now, but, if you do, you’ll miss what I’m about to say about Democrats, Republicans and the quality of American life. It’s up to you.

As the pandemic continues to challenge and change the way we work across all industries, many of us are growing increasingly impatient with the wait for “normal.” Will we ever get back to normal in the court system? What will normal even look like when we get there? In fact, is normal something we should go back to, or should we simply be looking forward for the answer?

This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agreed to Emergent BioSolution’s request to end our 9-year pandemic manufacturing partnership that began after the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic. We did not come to this decision easily. Emergent was founded to help respond to and prepare for public health threats. And even though we’re ending this manufacturing partnership with the government, our Bayview facility will continue producing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments for our private sector partners, and we will continue to supply the U.S. government with other needed medical countermeasures.

Maryland’s food system is at the confluence of increasing chronic disease, escalating environmental degradation and growing recognition of racial injustice. Not addressing these challenges will only make them worse. That said, candidates for Maryland’s statewide offices in 2022 have not yet grasped the centrality of food and its production, processing, and distribution to our current and future well-being.