Commentary

Our words matter. This adage has never been truer to me as I increasingly hear contentious rhetoric about immigration buzzing around the dinner table and in the media during this election year. Using natural disaster or criminal language terms such as “surge,” “influx,” or “illegals” to describe increases in immigration tends to stir fear and replace truth with political diatribes.

If there’s one thing we’ve come to count on from Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr., the state’s 62nd governor, it’s that he won’t commit to protecting abortion access for Marylanders, let alone the rest of the country. So you’ll forgive our shock when, after securing the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ben Cardin, he suddenly said he supports codifying abortion access into federal law.

With Angela Alsobrooks’ surprisingly easy victory in Maryland’s Democratic primary for the United States Senate, all eyes of the nation are now on the Free State. Once Senator Mitch McConnell convinced former Governor Larry Hogan to put down his cable news microphone and get back in the game, our state became ground zero for control of the Senate.

Amidst a national debate regarding methods of protest and activism, students at B-CC High School in Bethesda have once again shown our community how it’s done. I recently attended an exhibition by B-CC students hosted by Artomatic, the annual showcase of visual art, music, film, performance and poetry. Organized by B-CC teacher David Lopilato and timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting in Colorado, the student art dealt with the issue of gun violence.

Anyone who knows me knows I love books. The real ones — the ones where you can actually turn the pages. Not those that you read on electronic devices. In fact, I am still a big fan of print, which is why I am proud to get an actual newspaper delivered to my house each morning. I am doing my part to ensure that there is still a place for print. But I digress.

In the darkest moments of her campaign for Congress, Sarah Elfreth listened to a message from a man who died five years ago. “Stay tough,” House Speaker Mike Busch said in a lengthy voicemail after she announced her campaign for state Senate in 2017. “You’re the future of the Democratic Party.” Elfreth listened to the recording on the day that her main rival in the Democratic primary, former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, announced he was millions ahead of her in fundraising.

The phrase, “make the world a better place,” is used so commonly that it can seem devoid of meaning. It can be found in song lyrics, in canned food drives, anti-litter campaigns and even in support of military intervention abroad. But sometimes there are opportunities where the United States, as a nation, can have an undeniably positive impact on parts of the world that direly need our help.