Commentary

The civics lessons implicit in news coverage and social media posts relating to the 2024 election, the conflict in Israel and Gaza, crime and safety, and other pressing issues are clear. They suggest that the role of a good citizen is to choose sides and speak out, knowing that an election might empower one’s enemies, and that silence might mean complicity. The civic environment driven by our feeds is full of fury and alarm.

Whatever criticism Gov. Wes Moore may draw for his decision to issue a staggering 175,000 pardons on misdemeanor marijuana charges, one has to acknowledge the unreasonableness of maintaining the status quo. Maryland has today not only legalized pot but now rakes in huge fees from its licensed dispensaries. Yet there still are individuals — and they are disproportionately likely to be Black men — disadvantaged for having been charged with cannabis possession in the past.

Our Baltimore City Council’s Ways and Means Committee recently engaged in political grandstanding during a fiscal oversight hearing instead of listening when valuable information was presented by the State’s Attorney’s Office. Rather than focusing on the historic charging and conviction data provided by State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates and his team, Councilman Kristerfer Burnett used the budgetary bully pulpit to demonstrate his ire and ignorance of the citation docket.

Is Detective Frank Pembleton close to streaming glory? After months of speculation and decades of frustration, there are signs that “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the critically acclaimed Baltimore-set NBC drama, might be one step closer to being available for streaming platforms. The holdup for the Emmy-winning classic, which followed fictional Baltimore Police Department detectives as they navigated life, death and humanity from their Fells Point headquarters, has been the necessity of securing rights to the music used on the show.

When it comes to gun violence, Baltimore appears like the wild west, except the wild west’s violent reputation was created by Hollywood. Baltimore’s violence is real and although the Mayor claims it is declining, it’s still too high for comfort and safety. In fact, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement calls gun violence the primary barrier to sustainably addressing Baltimore’s most pressing inequities, joblessness, homelessness, poor education and health. No doubt this is correct.

In response to The Baltimore Banner article, “Almost 6,000 dead: How Baltimore became the U.S. overdose capital,” the present is bleak, but the future is bright. Substance use disorder is a preventable and treatable disease. It is a shameful commentary on our society that we have become desensitized to the sight of people overdosing on the streets. We cannot continue to accept this.

“Thanks mom.” Yep, that’s right. Thanks mom. I know it’s Father’s Day, but sorry dads. No matter how many games of catch you played, no matter how many fishing lines you untangled, or how many tears you wiped away with ice cream, when the big moment arrives, the first words out of our sons’ and daughters’ mouths will be, “Thanks mom.”

One of the great obstacles to developing political will for more mass transit is that politicians, particularly those who represent the suburbs and rural areas, never take a bus. They have little personal experience with public transportation and represent people who want nothing to do with it and live happily in places where it does not exist.