Commentary

It was bad enough that Robert Jackson lost his job when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But without a reliable internet connection at home, the Maryland father struggled to look for work while caring for his son, Raquan. “The only way I could apply to jobs and get Raquan online for school was to use the hotspot on my phone,” he told interviewers last fall. “Or, I would have to drive Raquan somewhere else with Wi-Fi, like the school parking lot, and we would work out of the car.”

I love the moment when you come upon someone else’s joy, and all the better when you least expect it. There’s a nice sensation in discovering strangers blissfully at work or play. You step across the threshold into a certain well-lit room and suddenly everyone and everything seems charged and cheerful. So it happened when we opened the door to Arndrea Hoyle’s sewing class at Living Classroom’s UA House on East Fayette Street. There were six women smiling through their pandemic masks, enthralled in learning to sew and enthusiastic about their projects.

Real life for animals, it turns out, isn’t like a pixelated Disney film. For nearly two months, the D.C. area has been captivated by the tale of three zebras that escaped in late August from a farm in Prince George’s County, Md., a suburban area of sprawling subdivisions that could hardly be more removed from the African plains that are the species’ natural habitat. Their improbable saga — initially, it was reported there were five equine fugitives — offered what seemed to be a refreshing and much-needed diversion from the grim political news that so often dominates daily discourse here in the nation’s capital and its environs.

At one time, it was fashionable to advocate for zero tolerance policing on the grounds that cracking down on minor offenses prevents worse ones from happening. In more recent years, however, the adverse consequences of this approach — including high rates of incarceration of people of color and deep distrust of police in cities like Baltimore have become apparent.

What do disability rights, labor law, flirting and tort reform have to do with congressional and legislative redistricting? Not much, really — unless you’re interested in the work and philosophy of the man who has been empowered by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) during the redistricting process. Officially, there are three chairs of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission — one Democrat, one Republican and one unaffiliated voter.

Much has already been written on the life and times of former secretary of state Colin L. Powell, who died Monday. As a high-schooler in Northern Virginia, I looked up to him as the kind of leader I was raised to respect, a beacon of honor and patriotism. But he had something in common with my family and me that had nothing to do with politics: We were all aficionados of old Volvos. I drove my dad’s 1964 cherry-red 544 in our homecoming parade.

The serious health risks associated with smoking tobacco have been too well established for too long to harbor any doubts about that link. On average, studies show, people who smoke die about 10 years earlier than those who do not. It’s the leading preventable cause of death. And smoking is linked to about 30% of all cancer deaths in the United States. As a result, virtually any public policy choice — from public education and outreach programs that warn against smoking to state laws banning tobacco sales to teens —can be relied upon to pay enormous public health dividends. Tobacco is linked to about 480,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. That is COVID-19 pandemic territory.

Baltimore County’s proposed redistricting map — which retains six majority-white districts and one majority-Black district, despite the county’s current population being nearly 50 percent nonwhite — arrives in the context of the county’s long history of racist segregation. If accepted, it will lock in racial exclusion for yet another generation.