Commentary

It always takes a while for the dust to settle after the Maryland the General Assembly wraps up its annual 90-day legislative session, especially after the flurry of activity in the waning days. This is the normal rhythm to state lawmaking. Big promises, slow slog, frantic final hours and then bragging rights.

Content warning: This column contains details about suicidal ideation. On the day the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, my father called me around 6:45 a.m. to see how I was doing. I was asleep and missed the call but woke up to his text about a half hour later. “The Key Bridge is gone. Are you OK?”

If you’re a daily commuter across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, you probably find nothing awesome about it; the bridge is just part of a tired routine, 4 miles of the drive from Kent Island to Sandy Point and points beyond, then back again. But many others, who only cross the bridge once a year, still find the whole thing amazing (or terrifying), a wonder of engineering and a monument to human audacity.

Returning to the workforce as a new mother isn’t easy, especially for mothers who choose to breastfeed. I was appalled when Baltimore City courts recently updated their policy regarding new mothers and limitations on when and how they can feed their babies while serving as jurors. The courts reduced the time that moms have an opportunity to defer jury duty from one year to six months.

Across Baltimore, abandoned buildings tell residents that their neighborhood has no future. Migration out of the city has left the shells of homes — nearly 14,000 of them — to be held by land speculators or in administrative limbo without a clear owner, while they crumble. Baltimore’s population decline from nearly a million in the 1960s to less than 600,000 today both drives our abandoned building crisis, and is driven by it.

I have to laugh when people act like former Governor Larry Hogan is a “moderate” who deserves a “Profile in Courage” award for saying that he won’t vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 general election or would oppose a national law banning abortion if elected to the U.S. Senate. I don’t see the courage in a candidate for statewide office in Maryland saying he’s not going to vote for a presidential candidate who lost the state in 2016 by 26 percentage points and lost in 2020 by more than 33 points.

I hate guns but I realized I needed one. Last December, I became a licensed gun owner and carrier, joining a growing number of Black Marylanders that I know who legally own guns. I am proud of this accomplishment, but the decision came with intense emotions and unhealed wounds surrounding guns in my life.

As it is with most things we take for granted, the shocking collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge has reminded us, now that it’s gone, how vital the structure was to the region’s operations. Its loss, along with the effect of the wreckage on the Port of Baltimore, has threatened the livelihood of thousands of workers and caused supply chain disruptions along the East Coast. Many area residents have reached out to share personal connections to the landmark.