Commentary

Last week a local politician asked me to resign as health officer because I had given my best advice on how to protect a school marching band during a 4th of July parade. Horns and woodwinds expel aerosols much farther than breathing and speaking, so even an outdoor performance with an infected musician could spread COVID-19 to other players and to the crowd.

“Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” This past legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly made history in passing what House Speaker Adrienne Jones referred to as “The Black Agenda.” With the passage of robust police reform, legislation requiring companies to diversify their corporate boards and approving historic funding for Maryland’s four HBCUs, Maryland made progress in righting historical wrongs that had for too long gone unresolved.

For those who have lived through the dot-com bubble bursting in 2000 and the housing market crash in 2008, they experienced how those financially challenging times impacted long-term retirement planning strategies. Fast forward to today, and many people are confident in their ability to save for retirement – even as we emerge from an economically difficult pandemic scenario. With millennials being the largest workforce in the U.S., they should also be prepared for future market volatility, even if confidence is currently high today.

Misunderstandings about drug use and addiction run rampant, undermining the ability to reverse soaring overdose fatalities — a number that has quadrupled in the last decade and broke records in the last year. I realize it’s not uncommon for public perception to be shaped by mythology, and that mistruths surround other important issues. Yet this humanitarian crisis — claiming the lives of 200 Marylanders per month and as many per day nationally — is distinguished by the massive gap between research and practice.

Baltimore’s “Highway to Nowhere” may finally be going somewhere, and as far as neighborhood residents are concerned the roadway could be reimagined as the 10th circle of Dante’s hell. Yet Baltimore is losing an important talking-point. Nearly every big city worth its name has at least one federally funded project that’s deader than a Pterodactyl and serves absolutely no purpose other than an archeological eyesore.

Scott Gibson is a Republican candidate for Ward 2 seat on City Council to replace the affable Fred Paone who is retiring. Gibson testified before the Charter Review Commission, recommending that the City Charter be amended to institute non-partisan elections. This would allow anyone wanting to run — Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, and Non-affiliated — to just pay $60 and fill out a candidate form designating the office sought. Only parties with 10 percent of registered voters could participate in primaries, now Republican, Democrat, and Green.

After more than three decades and $24 billion spent on restoration, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s annual report card indicates that the bay is little better off now than when we started. The most recent annual report card gave it a D+. It has never received a grade higher than a C — and that’s on an inflated scale. Would the bay have been worse had we not made this effort? Absolutely yes. But should we accept a return on investment this low after nearly a quarter of a century, and continue to invest in this venture?

Most people think Maryland is a state where all workers have full union rights. Unfortunately, this is not true. Thousands of public employees in our state do not have the right to form a union. Even if they want to form a union, it is not legal for them to form a union and negotiate with their employer. Public workers in Gaithersburg have no more rights than public workers in Hattiesburg, Miss. Why is this true?