Commentary

We are living through a time of economic contradictions, with the world of business and the lives of workers disrupted by the aftershocks of the pandemic in ways that we are struggling to understand. Recent headlines in the News-Post reflect this topsy-turvy situation: “Help Wanted,” “COVID safety net ending” and “… poverty rates could rise.” According to the federal government, 8.4 million potential workers are unemployed, while businesses say they have 10.9 million job openings.

Now that the General Assembly’s redistricting commission has begun meeting, even as Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s redistricting commission continues to hold sessions, it feels a little like the varsity team has finally taken the field. With all due respect to the other redistricting commissioners. Hogan will attempt to get as much political mileage as he can from the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission he assembled earlier this year, and whatever maps the commission proposes for Congress and the state legislature will undergird Hogan’s bully pulpit when he argues, yet again, that partisanship needs to be taken out of the redistricting process.

For decades now, Maryland’s seafood processors have relied on temporary seasonal workers to help them with one of the more demanding tasks at hand — picking crab meat for eventual sale to retailers and restaurants. The workers, most often women from Mexico, stay only for the season under visas from the H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program, fulfilling a vital role for the seafood industry and preserving jobs for people further down the supply chain.

The good news: Marylanders have embraced getting outdoors. About 3 million more people visited our state parks in 2020 than in 2019. The bad news: park capacity limits resulted in almost three times the number of capacity closures in 2020 than in 2019. So kudos to Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) for establishing a legislative commission, the Maryland State Park Investment Commission, to “investigate and make recommendations regarding overcrowding in Maryland State parks.”

One of the grand promises of America is what I’ve always understood to be a national commitment to progress. Inertia is unacceptable. Failure is not an option. The country will always learn from its mistakes, grow wiser and become exceptional in all things, from mail service to cancer treatment. We shall run miles ahead of other countries.

We won’t bother with a blow-by-blow account of the Baltimore Ravens’ unlikely victory against the favored Kansas City Chiefs in the home opener at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday night — we’ll leave that to the sports writers. But let’s just say it required extraordinary effort in the face of long odds, along with a bit of carefully considered daring. The choice not to punt on the fourth down in the waning minutes of play might have been supported by statistical analysis, but it certainly wasn’t in the better-safe-than-sorry tradition of National Football League coaching. In short: It took guts.

FIFA representatives visited Baltimore over the weekend and attended the Ravens’ game Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs to evaluate the city as a finalist to host the 2026 World Cup. While the odds of FIFA selecting Baltimore are about as good as Justin Tucker missing an extra-point attempt, the committee behind Baltimore’s bid relishes its underdog status. Just check out the video posted on its website, which features a voiceover from Baltimore’s own Mike Rowe.

I never intended to become a ransomware negotiator. But a year and a half ago, we notified a ransomware victim that their corporate data was about to be released on a dark web “shame site” for all to see, and they pulled me in as the lead troubleshooter. Following that, more cases followed and today it’s turned into a deluge. Now I tend to show up a lot in the media as “the guy who talks to ransomware bad guys.” It’s not a job I want or particularly enjoy.

Anne Arundel County School Superintendent Dr. George Arlotto’s opinion piece Sept. 5 stated we must practice grace, patience, and flexibility entering the new school year. Such sentiment is not just for global pandemics; grace, patience, and flexibility are how great teachers make our kids love school each day, every year. Yet Arlotto missed the mark in headlining what county public schools should be focusing on. The Annapolis cluster has shouted it for decades: equity, safety, and transparency. Oh, and transparent, safe, equitable transportation.