Commentary

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.

In a bold stride toward redefining the approach to aging, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order in January aimed at expanding access to critical care and services for older Marylanders. The executive order, spearheaded by the Department of Aging, is not just a policy adjustment; it is an inspired shift toward creating a future where the state of Maryland could be recognized as a Blue Zone — an area of the world, like Okinawa, Japan, where people tend to live longer and healthier lives than average, consistently living to age 100.

Deep into a three-hour meeting, the talk of trees was growing wearisome. The Annapolis Historic Preservation Commission was considering whether to approve the city’s massive $78 million public works project to lift part of its downtown waterfront above where cascading floods driven by climate change often rise. But the trees envisioned in sketches were in the way. Of the view. Of the water. Of a decision.