Commentary

A former student in my financial literacy class approached me at the local public library. I remembered he had considered my class a “dumb” elective, something mindless to fill a gap in his class schedule. The young man had moved to Chicago after graduation, and he had made some mistakes there that forced him to move back home to Maryland.

Gunther Hashida killed himself last month. We don’t know why. At this writing, we don’t even know how. What we do know is that Hashida, an 18-year veteran of the D.C. police force, is the fourth cop to die by his own hand after responding to the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. What we do know, having heard testimony from four of Hashida’s colleagues recently before a House select committee, is that the cost of defending the Capitol was high, both in physical terms — bones broken, eyes gouged, skin split — and in emotional ones.

Just who is Chris Phipps? He is the director of the county Department of Public Works and responsible for many essential daily aspects of our lives that we may take for granted. He is a registered civil engineer and has worked at the department for 26 years, serving as deputy director for 11 years before being appointed to his present position in August 2013. The Department of Public Works operates with a budget of $307 million and 762 employees dedicated to serving 587,000 county residents.

Celebrated PBS documentarian Ken Burns says, “ … everything in American history led up to (the Civil War), and everything since has been a consequence of it.” As startling as his words are, they ring true. Equally true is that public conversations about race and race relations are complicated and fraught with strife, particularly when it comes to the issue of housing. Annapolis is alive with opportunities and traditions. My time here has introduced me to wonderful people who call “Crabtown” home.

In April, as COVID-19 was on the decline in the U.S., and our collective optimism about the pandemic’s end was palpable, the Biden administration insisted that there would be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring a single vaccination credential. Such vaccine verification — the so-called “vaccine passport” — is politically fraught, much like everything else surrounding this pandemic. Today, 20 Republican-controlled states prohibit proof-of-vaccination requirements, and only four states, California, New York, Hawaii and Oregon, have created vaccine verification systems.

During a summer filled with disturbing news about climate change’s drastic impact – from wildfires and extreme heat to damaging floods – there is some good news to share. Maryland is taking a big step forward in the development of our offshore wind industry, which has the potential to make our state a leader in the fight against climate change while bringing immense economic benefits to our communities.

There are a lot of good things in the U.S. Senate infrastructure bill that was released earlier this week. The $1 trillion bill would address needs that our nation has faced for years, helping to repair, rebuild, and even reimagine our nation’s crumbling infrastructure by providing funding for things like roads, bridges, pipes, ports, highways, rail, broadband, and climate. And I am especially grateful that it would provide $150 million a year to the Washington Metro transit system for the next decade. But the bill falls short in several ways, and several things about this bill should be fixed before it is passed by Congress.

I was born with tetralogy of Fallot, one of the most common congenital heart defects. In 1965, when I was 5 years old, I had my first corrective surgery. My parents were told I had a 50/50 chance of surviving. I did. Nowadays, they do this surgery on newborns, and it is fairly routine. My surgery was considered somewhat primitive back then, and I developed some cardiac arrhythmias later in life; my doctors said they likely came about from scar tissue from my earlier surgery.

“CELEBRATE INCLUSION! The United States Olympic Committee has formally changed its name to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee! What a great day to be a para-athlete!” So wrote Timonium’s Becca Meyers, U.S. Paralympian who is deaf and blind, on her Instagram on June 20, 2019. She could look forward to getting Paralympic prize money from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) — $37,500 for each gold medal, $22,500 for every silver, and $15,000 for a bronze — in the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.