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December 16, 2025

Cambridge Spy

Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Cambridge

8 Letters to Editor

The Harmful Impact of Excessive Social Media Negativity on Cambridge Harbor

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The Cambridge Harbor project is a 30-acre waterfront development along Maryland’s Choptank River, bringing homes, retail, a boutique hotel, and public parks to the city. Managed by Cambridge Waterfront Development, Inc. (CWDI), it mirrors the success of other revitalized waterfronts. Recent milestones, including the promenade groundbreaking in December 2024 and ongoing hotel negotiations, show real momentum. But this progress is increasingly overshadowed by negativity on social media — criticism that risks investor confidence and future development.

Public scrutiny is not only appropriate — it’s essential. Taxpayer dollars and community resources deserve accountability, and asking tough questions about potential conflicts of interest or transparency helps keep projects on track. But when scrutiny turns into relentless, repetitive attacks, often fueled by misinformation, it stops being productive. Instead, it spreads confusion, divides the community, and discourages the very investment needed to make Cambridge Harbor succeed.

Examples of this are clear: false claims about secret YMCA zoning or unfounded accusations about board appointments linger online, even after being disproven. A small but vocal minority, including former officials, repeats these narratives across platforms. Over time, investors and insurers who monitor public sentiment see more risk than opportunity, which can delay funding, increase costs, or cause developers to walk away entirely.

The distinction is important: thoughtful oversight strengthens a project, but excessive, all-over-the-board attacks weaken it. Cambridge cannot afford to let a handful of online voices jeopardize a once-in-a-generation opportunity. As the saying goes, keyboard debates won’t build parks or hotels; action and engagement will.

To safeguard the future of Cambridge Harbor, stakeholders must double down on transparent communication and community engagement. At the same time, residents must recognize the difference between constructive accountability and counterproductive negativity. Social media may feel like a public forum, but endless criticism there accomplishes nothing. Real progress comes through collaboration, meetings, and solutions—not comment threads.

To protect this once-in-a-generation opportunity, stakeholders must prioritize transparent communication and active community engagement. Addressing misinformation quickly, emphasizing facts, and highlighting the tangible benefits for Cambridge can help restore investor confidence. Cambridge Harbor is more than development—it’s economic growth, public spaces, and a revitalized waterfront. Social media attacks may seem small, but their consequences are real. Countering misinformation and fostering community unity is essential to ensure the project succeeds for the city and the region.

Barbara Knepp,

Cambridge

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Congrats to Dr. Thompson

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Dear Editor:

I would like to congratulate Dorchester County Public Schools and Dr. Jymil Thompson for the significant improvement we have all seen in the academic scores of the school
system. The hard work that obviously took place is commendable. Dr. Thompson set a goal for the community and has stuck to it. Dorchester is very fortunate to have such a
forward thinking, innovative Superintendent. The school system is no longer next to the bottom; they are moving up, something needed if growth and industry will ever come to
Dorchester County.

Congratulations,

Susan Morgan

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Letter to Editor: An Abundance of Cruelty

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Have you noticed how often, how persistently, the word “cruelty” is showing up in the news?

I was reading about the prison built in the Everglades by the State of Florida to house people being rounded up by ICE. Built in a hurry, it is made up of cages for imprisoning humans and tarps for walls that freely allow mosquitoes in, not to mention the elements of summer in Florida. People who have been imprisoned there have reported maggots in the food, a lack of clean water, denial of medical care, legal access, and other basic human needs. The ACLU declared this “state-sponsored cruelty” and filed suit.  Thank goodness for the ACLU.

The setup is plainly sadistic. And Donald Trump apparently approved when he visited.  This denigration is OK with him, but is it OK with you? Is that what we are now?  Is this America?  My mother served as a WAC in World War II. She often told us how relieved enemy soldiers were to be captured by the US military–as opposed to being captured by Russian soldiers, who would just kill them. Americans were known for being big-hearted, kind, and compassionate. I was so proud when she spoke of this.

Why is this abuse of fellow humans still standing?  If we don’t protest, are we complicit? We might not be guilty of overt cruelty, but we are guilty of casual cruelty where we carelessly, with little empathy, maybe with a bit of superiority, blame the victim and shrug the thought aside. It’s a problem someone else can fix. Do you say to yourself, didn’t those illegals put themselves in this mess after all? It’s on you! Right?

Just type “cruelty Trump” into your search engine. Maybe the article title from the National Catholic Reporter will come up. It reads, “Silence in the face of Trump’s cruelty is complicity.” The headlines should be enough to make you weep. I hope so.

Marion O. Arnold
Easton

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Letter to Editor: O’er the Land of the Free…

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Are we a free people anymore? We were told ICE would begin seizing illegal immigrants who were convicted criminals, MS-13 members, drug dealers, murderers, human traffickers and people of that ilk. We wondered how there could be 12 million such people who needed to be deported as Trump claimed during his campaign. Maybe these were some of the illegal immigrants who were eating the dogs and cats of the residents in Springfield, Ohio.

Now, we are witnessing immigrant farm workers, students, factory workers and assorted individuals without criminal records of any kind, being arbitrarily arrested by masked operatives and removed to foreign prisons without charges and no means of family or legal protective help.

Now, cities that don’t demonstrate active assistance in these arbitrary ICE arrests are being threatened with withholding federal funding. City and state authorities are being put in the position of aiding and abetting the arbitrary arrests and deportation of innocent individuals as if these people are slaves. We’ve seen large numbers of men chained, hands and feet and sent to prisons with no civil or human rights assured. Thus, local authorities are being dragged into these unlawful acts of US government fascist authoritarianism.

Even as horrified wives and mothers protest the unproven charges against their sons and husbands, families are being broken up and administration officers are having to acknowledge that many detainees are no more dangerous convicted criminals than the masked ICE agents themselves. At least some of these government agents are themselves convicted criminals in the January 6th assault on the US Capitol. Certainly, few if any of these illegal immigrants have been convicted of 34 felony counts and assault against a woman.

Yet our Republican Party senators and representatives are silent on these vile, arbitrary assaults on individuals. Conservative Republican journalists ignore the subject as if its routine in American society.

If the old adage that “If one of us isn’t free, then none of us are free” is true, then we are already living at the start of a fascist, authoritarian state. If any government agent(s) can arrest anyone off the street without legal representation simply because of their color or foreign language, America has fallen back into the pre-Civil War era. ICE agents are the equivalent of slave catchers who used the Fugitive Slave Act to demand the assistance of otherwise unwilling individuals and groups. If you don’t aid and abet, you are also guilty.

Until this cancer on the face of America is removed, none of us is truly free. We are no longer a country of free men and women. America is descending into an enemy of world democracy, willing to abandon Ukraine and our European allies. Trump initiated a devastating worldwide trade war with huge tariffs. Our federal deficit is likely to balloon by $3-4 trillion with massive tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of the population. We have threatened to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal and control the Gaza Strip into a “Riviera of the Middle East”. Millions of average Americans will lose their Medicaid and Medicare benefits. Social Security is on the chopping block and that loss will devastate many millions of highly vulnerable Americans of that into which we have already paid.

The Republican-controlled Congress aids and abets Trump along with the Supreme Court as part of the Bill of Goods known as Project 2025, aimed at the dissolution of American democracy into an oligarchy.

When I think about those American soldiers’ graves at Normandy and other locations around Europe and Asia, it sickens me to think so many abased, deluded Americans would support Trump under these circumstances. Worse yet, the Republican legislators who ignore their oaths of office to defend the US Constitution and the Supreme Court majority who hand a convicted felon like Trump the legal power to break the law in pursuit of their mutual philosophical goals, are unworthy. They have abandoned the very thing all those good men suffered and died to preserve.

They support this scoundrel of a man so he can place a massively larger portion of our country’s wealth in the hands of a few. Now he can arrest and deport virtually anyone at will. Are we a free people anymore?

Somehow, the 4th of July has a very different feel in 2025.

Dominic Terrone
Oxford

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Letter to Editor: A Vanishing Way of Life

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I am currently reading the book, Chesapeake Requiem, which was recommended to me by a friend. It was written in 2016 and chronicles the year its author, Earl Swift, spent with the watermen and other residents of Tangier Island. I have found it to be a fascinating and disturbingly sad read. It has taught me a great deal about crabbing and the life cycle of crabs as well as the daily routines of watermen and others who live on the Island. Their way of life is vanishing. According to the 2020 census, the town’s population was 436, at least half of whom were senior citizens. At its peak, in the 1940’s, the town’s population was 1250. Tangier Island has also lost 67% of its land mass since 1850. It is literally being swallowed up by Chesapeake Bay. Thus, the Island, its people, and their way of life are facing real extinction.

Reading this book has been a painful pleasure for me. While I am enjoying learning about this very isolated part of the world and its culture, I am keenly aware that even in 2016, when the book was written, Tangier Island was in a state of sinking deterioration from which it would not be able to recover. And despite not personally knowing anyone from Tangier or ever having set foot on its shores, I have felt saddened and upset while reading about this.

When I tune into what I am actually feeling, it is a visceral sensation of being punched in the gut, almost as though I can’t catch my breath. When I ask myself why I might be feeling this so intensely, it occurs to me that our current political climate has threatened us with a different kind of extinction. And much like the watermen and the other residents of Tangier Island, we complain about the changes that are happening in our midst, and then go about our day-to-day lives as though this is not really happening. I pray that, unlike Tangier Island, our country will recover from the greed, racism, and oligarchic fascism that have been biting at our shores and eroding our way of life. However, I am not sure we will be able to beat back this storm. Too many of us are asleep. Too many of us are selfish. Too many of us are complacent, too many of us are brainwashed, and too many of us are afraid to stand up to the routine cruelty and fear being used by the current regime to vanquish our freedoms.

While the end of Tangier Island seems to be a certainty, I think it is too early to say that about our democratic way of life. Perhaps the roots of our Constitution run deeper than we think. Perhaps the values of liberty, justice, and decency will be able to weather this storm. It is possible that the storm will turn out to be a clarifying and cleansing force, prompting us to let go of non-truths and embrace the democratic principles necessary for our survival. The one thing that seems clear from the many storms that Tangier Island has weathered over the years is that the longer the storm, the more damage it did, and the longer it took to repair. We will see how much damage this current storm does and how long it will take for these dark and menacing winds to finally subside.

Margot Weiss McClellan
Easton

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Letter to Editor: How the Big Beautiful Bill Would Affect the Mid-Shore

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President Trump has all but demanded that his One Big Beautiful Bill Act pass both houses of Congress for his signature by July 4. The differences in the legislation approved by the House of Representatives and what has emerged from the Senate must be resolved in conference before the president can sign it into law. So stay tuned. In the meantime, here are a few provisions in the mammoth legislation that affect us locally, and in one case, already have affected us here in Talbot County. The proposals cited below are among many, many others in this 940-page bill that will have major consequences for fellow Americans across the country. Here are a few observations about what is at stake.

The Talbot County Council meetings of June 10 and March 11 offer proof positive on how presidential politics, however spiteful or misguided, can coerce local elected officials into voting against their better angels.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, citing a directive from President Trump, warned that federal funds for capital improvements for civilian airports – Easton Airport, in this case – are contingent on the removal of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies from local government. The council statement of support for DEI principles had no enforcement provisions or financial commitment by any Talbot County governing body. Yet the message was direct and uncompromising: Unless you remove any mention of DEI objectives in employee handbooks or annual reports about meeting or failing to meet diversity goals, Talbot County would say goodbye to $48 million in federal grants for runway expansion and modification at Easton Airport, no matter the reason. Not for safety nor for the county’s economic benefit.

The council voted 4-1 to approve the directive, which eliminates two statements previously passed by the Talbot County Council in support of DEI objectives, as well as removes such language from any public documents emanating from county government. Such directives, if passed as expected by Congress in the president’s proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), would codify by law the banishment of DEI references from the official vocabulary. Censorship by presidential fiat. Forget that the Easton Airport improvements at stake are intended to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations. MAGA loyalty trumps – pun fully intended – safety and security.

The meeting in March had resulted in a reaffirmation of the council’s DEI statements of support. In June, the council’s arms were twisted, MAGA-style, to rescind any mention of those principles. King Don must have it his way. Or else.

John Swaine III, spokesman for the Talbot County Farm Bureau, says the aspect of the Big Beautiful Bill that most troubles local farmers and crop-processing companies is the proposed mammoth increase in funding for apprehending, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrant workers, even those who have worked and lived in Eastern Shore farming communities for decades and have never been criminally charged. The recent arrest and detention of longtime farm workers in Caroline County alarmed two farm owners who relied on them in order to stay in business. They’ve had no luck finding other help because migrants fear being nabbed by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents. What’s more, it’s difficult to find American-born citizens to take jobs as day laborers. Some farm families, including those with adult children who have no interest in farming, have considered retirement by selling their land to developers or leasing it to corporate farming companies.

Another issue of deep concern to farming families are the proposed punitive tariffs resulting from Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to rectify trade imbalances, especially involving China. Tariffs on Chinese products were set at a whopping 145 percent until negotiations reduced them to 30 percent on top of the 20 percent level during Trump’s first term, starting in 2017. China has threatened retaliation by purchasing soybeans from Brazil and Argentina instead of the United States. Currently, much of the field corn and soybean crops grown on Talbot farms and all over the Eastern Shore go to producing feed for Mountaire Farms and Perdue Farms, two of the largest poultry companies in the U.S. However, if China withdraws from the American market, it would likely drive down the prices of such crops to farmers in every state. The Big Beautiful Bill would codify Trump’s executive order, making it harder to overturn except by a change in leadership in Congress and the White House. Federal courts, in general, have been mostly indifferent. So it’s up to voters in the mid-term elections next year and the presidential election in 2028.

Along with trepidation about overzealous ICE agents, the rampant immigration round-ups may – if detention goals prescribed and funded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are realized – result in the writ of habeas corpus being denied for good. Or certainly ill. Even American citizens and legal migrants are at greater risk than ever of losing their habeas corpus protection. These are rights that go as far back as 12th century England and are guaranteed (until now?) in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution. But there appears to be no room for due process in the headlong rush to rid MAGA Amerika of all manner of immigrants. The pace suggested by OBBBA and the president’s “antisocial media” postings could lead to the formation of migrant concentration camps – they’ll call them “internment campuses” – to accommodate the population overload as the Trump administration runs out of countries that will accept deported immigrants.

“My understanding of the OBBBA,” says Matthew Peters, director of the Easton-based Multicultural Center serving Eastern Shore immigrants regardless of status, “is that it aims to spend enormous amounts of money to immigration enforcement efforts, aims to deter anyone from applying for asylum relief, aims to deter any sponsorship of unaccompanied minors, aims to reduce the amount of financial aid sent to families abroad, and aims to eliminate any tax credits or benefits for mixed-status families – all of which would affect families currently living here.” In short, denying their rights as humans.

All the rest of us are at risk, too. Especially now that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away the remedy of District Courts issuing nationwide injunctions against presidential overreach pending an appeal to a higher court. ICE agents – sometimes acting like masked thugs – will feel freer than ever to manhandle anyone who gets in their way.

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Open Letters to Congressman Andy Harris

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Dear Representative Harris,

In your June 27th Capitol Hill Report, you discussed House passage of HR 875, the Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act.  You indicated that this legislation:

“…takes decisive action to ensure all illegal immigrants convicted of driving under the influence are eligible for deportation. Sparked by the tragic loss of American lives at the hands of drunk-driving illegal immigrants, this bill will help safeguard Maryland families from preventable and dangerous crimes.”

Given your outrage over the impact the DUIs have on innocent Americans, I’d like to share some information that you may have missed, but hopefully was presented as part of the consideration of this legislation.

Research consistently shows that undocumented immigrants have lower rates of DUI, and lower crime rate in general compared to the rest of the public.  According to a peer reviewed study in the American Journal of Public Health, every 1 percent increase in the proportion of undocumented immigrants in a population of 100,000 results in 42 fewer drunken-driving arrests, 22 fewer drug arrests and roughly one less drug overdose.  Similar results have been found in other studies discussed in a briefing paper by the CATO institute (https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2021-07/IRPB20.pdf).  States with the highest DUI rates have the lowest rates of undocumented immigrants.  A study in Miami found that, while illegal immigrants had drink more than illegal immigrants, they are much less likely to be involved in DUIs.

Given your outrage over criminal activity impacting innocent lives, I trust that you will turn your attention to the January 6th criminals pardoned by Mr. Trump and look into all of the crimes they have committed, including those in addition to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the assaults against law enforcement officers.  Here are a few examples:

–  Andrew Taake, convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers on January 6th, was later arrested for online solicitation of a minor based on a 2016 charge (https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/06/arrest-trump-pardon-insurrection).

–  Shane Jason Woods, after receiving a pardon for assaulting police and a press photographer during the riot, was convicted in April 2022 of reckless homicide and driving under the influence (https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2025/04/30/shane-woods-lauren-wegner-jan-6-capitol-riot-murder-trial).

–  Theodore Middendorf, who pleaded guilty to destruction of government property on January 6th, was previously sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2024 for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25508132-theodore-middendorf-sex-offender-detail/).

–  Taylor Taranto was arrested in 2023 for illegal gun possession and making threats (https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/washington-state-man-who-livestreamed-threats-convicted-weapons-and-other-charges).

–  Brent John Holdridge was arrested for burglary and grand theft in May 2025, after being pardoned for his role in the Capitol riot (https://www.khsu.org/2025-05-13/sheriffs-office-arrests-copper-wire-theft-suspect-who-was-also-identified-in-jan-6-riots).

–  Zachary Alam was rearrested in May 2025 for an alleged home invasion and theft (https://apnews.com/article/zachary-alam-january-6-capitol-riot-burglary-44936751dc13364d5e64bf52f65d51aa).

–  Edward Kelley was convicted of conspiracy to murder federal employees, including FBI agents, and threatening a federal official (https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/federal-jury-convicts-man-conspiring-murder-fbi-employees).

–  Emily Hernandez was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a fatal 2022 drunk driving crash that occurred after the January 6th riot (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/30/emily-hernandez-sentenced-fatal-car-crash/78047420007/).

–  Matthew Huttle was killed in January 2025 during an altercation with a sheriff’s deputy following a traffic stop related to his being a habitual traffic offender, including driving while intoxicated and a battery case involving his son (https://apnews.com/article/indiana-man-killed-trump-pardon-matthew-huttle-8c674e76c8e3c5ef1610ed29d0669050).

–  Daryl Johnson was arrested and charged with invasion of privacy for secretly recording women at his father’s tanning salon, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender (https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2023/07/22/iowa-capitol-riot-january-6-sentenced-tanning-salon-peeping-tom-daryl-johnson/70432301007/).

It is important to note that President Trump granted clemency to approximately 1,500 individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January 6th attack, including those with prior criminal histories, such as rape, manslaughter, domestic violence, and drug trafficking.  Excluding the January 6th event, I would not be surprised if these 1500 individuals had a higher rate of criminal activity that the public in general – and certainly higher than undocumented immigrants.

After sharing this information with you, I’m eagerly awaiting to hear your outrage over the tragic loss of American lives and horrendous crimes caused by those receiving January 6th pardons.

Ron Ketter
Easton, MD

***

Dear Representative Harris,

I am writing to ask for your thoughts on the proposed Medicaid cuts that are part of the “Big Beautiful Bill” currently in process in the Senate.  

While looking into the impact of cuts on Maryland residents, I learned that Medicaid along with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health insurance for 1 in 4 of our state’s population. Medicaid covers the cost of giving birth for 40 percent of births in the state, provides help for 1 in 3 persons with disabilities and also covers care for 5 out of 8 nursing home residents.  The proposed cuts to Medicaid would result in loss of health coverage for 229K Marylanders.

There are also proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which would result in 200K recipients losing some or all of their benefits.

In addition, some 190K Marylanders enrolled in the state’s healthcare marketplace will likely lose their health insurance coverage if tax credits on insurance premiums are not extended.

I read that Republicans think too many people are enrolled in Medicaid, so they want to cut $625 billion from Medicaid and $300 billion from SNAP.

People who benefit from Medicaid and supplemental food and nutrition programs are the most vulnerable people–mostly children and the elderly–among us. So when you cut Medicaid because too many are enrolled, who’s the Decider?  Who decides who gets kicked out?  Without healthcare and food assistance where do these people go? They don’t just disappear. They’ll still be there. I suspect hospital emergency rooms will become the obvious healthcare option.  If you’re hungry and poor, what are your options? When you distress a population, is it possible that crime will rise too? 

What’s really behind these cuts? We hear that the most impoverished are being asked to pay this price so that billionaires and the very wealthy can reap the benefits of tax cuts. Billionaires who can buy their own hospitals are going to pay less in taxes. The poor get poorer (and hungrier and sicker) and the rich get richer. 

 So, Dear Andy Harris, how is this OK? 

Senator Mitch McConnell says about these cuts, “They’ll get over it.”  I don’t think “they” will get over it, but I think we will remember.


Marion O Arnold
Talbot County

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Letter to Editor: Another Shameful Act by a Shameful Administration 

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“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename an oil ship named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk, a move that pointedly comes at the start of Pride Month.”

So reported “The Hill” today. Well what a sad commentary on our current state of affairs.

Said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Purnell: “Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos.”

Harvey Milk served on a submarine rescue ship during the Korean War ( unlike the current president who avoided military service by questionable means during the Vietnam War) but was kicked out of the military and accepted an “other than honorable discharge “ instead of a court martial for being gay (a crime in the 1950’s military). Harvey Milk went on to serve as the first openly gay elected official as a Supervisor in San Francisco in the 1970’s. He became a celebrated leader of the gay rights movement. He was gunned down in 1978 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
He may not have represented Trump and Hegseth’s valued “warrior ethos “ but he served his country honorably and, to many, represented values that many Americans admire. The current homophonic, xenophobic, racist administration and its policies desire to throw us back to the bad old days when having the wrong skin color or the wrong sexual orientation were criminal acts to be punished. Many thought we had moved on from the hateful policies of the past, but unfortunately, we are forced to live through a four-year nightmare with an administration that wants us to live in the past and seeks to destroy progress made over the last decades.
Jim Wilkins
Talbot County

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Letter to Editor: The “Big Beautiful Bill” is only Great for Billionaires

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I’m certain you’ll receive numerous letters extolling the virtues of Mr Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ passed by the House. Well, it’s big, can’t deny that, and it’s a bill, which we’ll all end up paying, but as for beautiful, that’s in the eye of the beholder.
Let’s start with Medicaid, which needs more funding rather than less, at this moment when the administration is doing its best to make the lives of poor, disabled, and elderly people miserable. This bill is a frank handout to billionaires, and it’s squarely on the backs of middle and working-class people, to add insult to injury.
Give money to billionaires—take it from rural hospitals, kids’ school lunches, seniors in nursing homes, and people who need medical care the most. I retired from running a clinic that provided free care to previously hospitalized Medicaid recipients, among others, and I’m sickened to think what will happen to them.
And my Congressman, Mr Harris? He voted ‘present’ because, from his antediluvian point of view, the bill didn’t go far enough in taking from the neediest. He doesn’t like the $2.3 trillion, with a T, the bill will add to our deficit over the next decade, but his solution would be to take more from people who have nothing.
To give to billionaires? Oh, please.
Richard Bearman
Cambridge

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Letter to Editor: Trump and the Declaration of Independence

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Last week the President hosted an interview with Terry Moran of ABC News in his newly gilded Oval Office. Trump drew Moran’s attention to a wall-mounted copy of the Declaration of Independence. Moran prompted the President to state his understanding of the significance of the Declaration. Trump disconcerted Moran by saying that the document stood for “unity, love and respect.” 

Amidst Trump’s deliberate and incessant saturation of the news cycle, this ignorant assertion should not be overlooked or forgotten. Indeed, it should stimulate Americans to take a fresh look at the Declaration. (Those who bought the $ 60 God Bless the USA Bible that Trump grifted before his re-election will find a copy of the Declaration included within.) Although the President has stated that the Bible is his “favorite book,” it is apparent that he failed to read the Declaration when packaging it with the Bible.

Most are familiar with the Declaration’s eloquent preamble that “all men are created equal” and are endowed with rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….” Many, however, may not realize that the great bulk of the Declaration comprises a litany of ways in which King George III was despotically and tyrannically interfering with the rights of Englishmen resident in the American colonies. These were rights underpinned by an evolving, unwritten but sturdy British constitution. Even with the passage of 250 years many of the Declaration’s bill of particulars still resonate today.

Some examples will illustrate. Thomas Jefferson and other drafters accused the King of:

  1. Preventing growth of population of the Colonies by obstructing laws of naturalization and limiting immigration;
  2. Obstructing administration of justice;
  3. Making Judges dependent “on his Will alone;”
  4. Erecting a “multitude of New Offices” (think DOGE);
  5. “Cutting off Trade with all parts of the world”;
  6.  Depriving many of the benefits of Trial by Jury (analogy to lack of respect for Due Process);
  7. Suspending our own Legislatures and declaring power to legislate in all cases ( analogy to Trump Administration’s program and budget cuts without approval of Congress); and
  8. Exciting “domestic insurrections.”

Not mincing words, Jefferson et. al. concluded that George III “whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

President Trump could profit greatly from reading the Declaration on his office wall and modulating his behavior in office accordingly. Certainly, he won’t find it a testament to “unity, love and respect,” but rather an admonition against despotism.

J.T. Smith II
Easton

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