Commentary

There’s an internet meme that asks what message you’d write to let your loved ones know you’ve been kidnapped — a statement so unlike you that they’d know something was wrong and to look for you immediately. My longtime answer was, “I am voluntarily camping in the woods,” as I am a proud, lifelong, five-star-hotel snob who considers roughing it to be a place without room service. After three peaceful, lo-fi but not completely unplugged nights looking at the stars from under a canopy of green along Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountain, though, I’m going to have to come up with another one.

Seventeen years ago, one of the busiest bridges in Minnesota fell into the Mississippi River in the middle of evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The tragic fall of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in downtown Minneapolis was correctly judged a national catastrophe. The Red Cross was called out. Huge memorial services were held for the victims. The eyes of the world were upon the “Star of the North.”

If you hung around current Ravens vice president Ozzie Newsome during his 33 years as an NFL executive, he was always dropping some nuggets of wisdom. Back in the mid-1990s, when the team was still at its old training facility in Owings Mills, Newsome once said, “Every team needs its share of knuckleheads, and you can’t win without them.” He was right.

The best example of why political debates shed more shadow than light was there for all to see. Two candidates for the most important elected position in the democratic world were reduced to talking heads spouting blather.

When schools closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact was deep and long lasting. In Maryland schools, test scores fell to an all time low, particularly in math. In 2021, counties received funds to provide high-dosage (intensive) tutoring to students to close gaps caused by school closures. This funding ensured that students consistently engaged in targeted, supplemental instruction at least two to three times per week for 30-45 minutes per session.

Most of us don’t get too excited about a C-plus grade on a report card regardless of who brings it home. As every teacher knows, it signifies a “satisfactory” performance while a “B” is seen as “good” and an “A” is excellent. Yet this week’s announcement that the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay has earned a C-plus from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science provides a reason for optimism.

When the Pentagon wanted a giant underwater robot, it turned to a little-known factory on the Chesapeake Bay with a history of doing new things. You may have seen pictures of the results online — a sleek, gray sub called Manta Ray. This $50 million unmanned underwater vehicle was developed by Northrop Grumman over four years and constructed at its plant outside Annapolis. That’s a source of pride for the people who work there.