Commentary

We write in response to “New Commission Will Study Md. State Parks As Visits Soared During Pandemic” [Maryland Matters, Aug. 7]. As Maryland residents and co-chairs of the Partners for Open Space, we applaud Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones for their leadership to establish a State Park Investment Commission, which will help to highlight and address equity, maintenance and capacity issues at Maryland state parks.

When President Barack Obama wore a tan suit in the summer of 2014, he was scowled at for days as the greatest wardrobe malfunction since Janet Jackson’s support system collapsed before millions of viewers during Super Bowl halftime a decade earlier. The taupe trope was the most scandalous event of Obama’s eight years in office.

“Don’t come knocking on my door with your Fauci ouchi!” Rep. Lauren Boebert yelled at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference. “You leave us the hell alone!” Ms. Boebert, a Colorado Republican, has described her election to Congress as “a sign and a wonder, just like God promised.” She’s a moderate in some circles. One Florida pastor hears parishioners call the vaccination the “sign of the beast,” a biblical reference to the apocalypse. A Tennessee pastor who threatens to expel anyone who wears a mask to his church also discourages people from getting the vaccination, which he falsely claims contains aborted fetal tissue.

Children can’t learn and grow on an empty stomach. We see how hunger impacts our communities, especially families with children. Prior to COVID-19, hundreds of thousands of children in Maryland lived in homes that struggled to put food on the table. Since the onset of the pandemic, an alarming spike in food insecurity among children has been reported. Children who experience food insecurity face dire consequences in their overall health, well-being and development. Hunger has no place in Maryland. Now more than ever, children in Maryland need free Healthy School Meals for All.