Commentary

As schools return to in-person instruction this fall during the ongoing pandemic, education is in crisis. I do not mean a crisis in learning outcomes — as in failed courses, low test scores, low completion rates. I mean education is in existential crisis. Why have schools if the graduates choose not to use their educations? There is no point to education if, in the end, facts, logic, critical thinking and reasoned debate are rejected in favor of conspiracy theories and willful ignorance.

The history of organized labor in the United States is one of struggle against seemingly hopeless odds, with victories often decades in the making. It’s a history in which Baltimore plays a proud part. In fact, the city can lay some claim as the birthplace of the national organized labor movement, more than 150 years ago. We recount the tale each year, our own Labor Day tradition, in honor of the many essential workers who gave the rest of us some measure of comfort amid the pandemic, by simply going to work.

“A republic, if you can keep it …” And we are trying, Mr. Franklin, we are trying. Our organizations and the rest of the members of For the People – Maryland, representing more than 100,000 citizens across the state, are working tirelessly to prohibit gerrymandering, stop voter suppression and make it more difficult for billionaires to buy our elections.

Every so often in Maryland, we hear distressing news of a major explosion in a residential neighborhood. These explosions, caused by unsafe gas lines, have become all too common, even as they take lives, destroy homes and disrupt communities. Last August, a gas explosion took a life and damaged three homes off Reisterstown Road in Northwest Baltimore. Four years before that, a gas explosion in a Silver Spring apartment complex killed seven people.

In a major victory for constitutional norms, the Supreme Court overturned a lawless and essentially authoritarian policy of the Trump administration, and progressives are furious. You read that right. Let’s catch up. On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, and Donald Trump signed it into law. One provision of the massive $2.2 trillion legislation imposed a temporary ban on evictions for renters in response to the economic hardships caused by the pandemic. The case for the moratorium at the time didn’t rest on public health, but on the fact that the country was heading into a lockdown. Asking people to pay rent when they were told they couldn’t go to work didn’t make a lot of sense.

Despite a sputtering start, vaccine distribution hit its stride this spring. By May, all Americans above the age of 12 were eligible to receive the vaccine, and by the Fourth of July, we were celebrating the return of recently foregone freedoms. Happy hour was no longer over Zoom, family gatherings were once again without FaceTime, date nights were back inside restaurants and ballgames were played with fans in the stands. Such springtime hope has wilted with the heat of summer.

Transportation issues are rarely about getting from here to there. Usually they involve money, race, labor unions, jobs, votes, and whose back porch will disappear in the bulldozer’s path. So saying, there are two sticks of dynamite in the newly invigorated push to revive Baltimore’s stranded Red Line project: (1) The party of the governor who’s elected next year; or (2) The costly and redundant tunnel section of the original plan.