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Commentary

A promising location for city’s police headquarters
August 5, 2021 -

After years of searching and a lot of stopping and starting, it looks like the Frederick Police Department may have found a new home — and it is less than a mile from the current headquarters downtown. If the building works, we can all offer a sigh of relief. The Frederick mayor and Board of Aldermen will meet Thursday to consider buying the building at 100 E. All Saints St., which once housed the county’s Department of Social Services.

Read More: Frederick News Post
Don Mohler: We Are Broken, But…
August 4, 2021 -

I am angry. You are angry. Hell, the entire nation is angry. But what makes this such a challenging time is that we are not all angry about the same things. I am angry that we have developed vaccines that dramatically prevent the spread of COVID, but that in much of the country, the vaccine itself is treated as if it were the plague. That’s not just a liberal rant. Here are some facts: In the past two weeks, there have been about 237,000 new coronavirus cases recorded in counties that voted for President Biden last year — and 388,000 in counties that voted for Donald Trump.

Read More: Maryland Matters
I went to a party with 14 other vaccinated people; 11 of us got COVID
August 4, 2021 -

I was sitting on an examination table at an urgent care clinic in Timonium, giving my history to a physician’s assistant. An hour later, she would call me to confirm that I was positive for COVID-19. Given the way that I felt, it was what I expected. But it wasn’t supposed to happen: I’ve been fully vaccinated for months. Five days earlier, I had gone to a house party in Montgomery County. There were 15 adults there, all of us fully vaccinated. The next day, our host started to feel sick. The day after that, she tested positive for COVID-19.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Education Advocates: Blueprint Board Must Have Members With Expertise in Race Equity
August 3, 2021 -

While our community still revels in the victory of overriding the governor’s veto of the landmark Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the fight for racial equity in our schools is far from over. With just days left in the application window for the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB), it is critical that the nominating committee prioritize race equity in the selection process of the board.

Read More: Maryland Matters
Simone Biles leading a new generation of athletes who prioritize mental health
August 2, 2021 -

To watch Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles soar through the air is like watching a superhuman defy the laws of physics. So perhaps that’s why it is easy to forget that Ms. Biles is still human and subject to stress and illness, just like the rest of us. When Ms. Biles recently bowed out of the team final and later the women’s all-around finals in the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, the news was shocking. She was slated to lead the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team to another gold medal with her death-defying, high-flying routines.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Riemer: Maryland’s transportation improvements will help Montgomery County thrive
August 2, 2021 -

For years, Montgomery County has called on Maryland to build more lanes on the American Legion Bridge and Interstate 270. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) proposed expansion, estimated to cost at least $6 billion, is badly needed. As an at-large member of the Montgomery County Council, I was shocked when Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) derailed the plan in June with a surprise vote before a regional planning board. Though he secured leverage with the state to get a better deal, Elrich couldn’t get to “yes.”

Read More: Washington Post
A Washington-region traffic Armageddon has been averted. For now.
July 30, 2021 -

The most critical pending project to avert traffic Armageddon for the Washington region got a reprieve last week from what looked like a death sentence. Yet that highway expansion plan, advanced by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), remains in jeopardy, owing to local officials and activists who seem indifferent to overwhelming evidence that pervasive highway gridlock is inevitable unless the region acts now.

Read More: Washington Post
Una Cooper: Bowie community is losing something important today
July 30, 2021 -

Today marks the final edition of the Bowie Blade-News. I learned about the paper’s fate on June 24, just a few days before the third anniversary of the Capital Gazette shooting, and while the trial of the shooter was underway. The announcement was not unexpected, but I was profoundly saddened by the news and by the ongoing assault on community journalism. Some will say that the Blade won’t be missed or that it just hasn’t been the same paper that it was 10, 20, or 40 years ago. I know it has been a long time since we enjoyed the “On the Road” feature showed us how well-traveled Bowieites were or there were entertaining extended debates in the letters to the editor. It has not been a 3-section paper, completely devoted to the Bowie for a while, but I will be sorry to see it go.

Read More: Capital Gazette
You know who really needs to be schooled on critical race theory? Your doctor
July 30, 2021 -

The hint of an education on race and racism I received in medical school involved a historical overview of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and retired eugenics practices. As I rotated on the wards, race came up again as a vague tool to help narrow a diagnosis. New Black patient with severe headache, blurry vision? Think hypertensive crisis. I wasn’t taught why hypertension might be more prevalent in the Black American population. (Hint: Genetics is not the answer.) I was never taught that Black newborns delivered by a white doctor are more likely to die than those delivered by a Black doctor, either

Read More: Baltimore Sun
On new judges, civic duty and the fragility of democracy
July 29, 2021 -

We’ve come long way from the all-white, all-male judiciary that looms large in portraits on the walls of Baltimore County’s ceremonial courtroom, where the investiture ceremony was recently held for Susan Chambers Zellweger to the District Court for Baltimore County. A hundred lawyers and judges, a dozen family members or so, and a couple of politician types attended to watch Ms. Zellweger, a longtime public defender, be sworn in.

Read More: Baltimore Sun

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