There was a time when Rep. Andy Harris would brag about being Co-Chair of the Ukrainian Caucus in Congress.

There was a time, too, many times in fact, when Harris would wax poetic about his mother, describing her as an “Ukrainian immigrant who fled Soviet tyranny.”

There was a time when Harris supported providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, continuing financial aid to Ukraine, and granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to all Ukrainian citizens in the US.

That time has passed.

Today Harris supports removing TPS from everyone—to please Donald Trump.
Today Harris questions providing any further aid to Ukraine—to please Donald Trump.
Today Harris supports rewarding the Russian invasion by giving Putin Ukrainian land—to please Donald Trump.
Today Harris betrays his mother by acquiescing to the very Russian tyranny she fled—all to please Donald Trump.

Harris is a moral coward, and the people of Maryland’s First District deserve better.

Now is the time for Harris to try pleasing the people of his district rather than pleasing Donald Trump.

Slava Ukraini!

James N. Sicks
Cambridge

Elon Musk and Congress are waving a chainsaw towards the American safety net which has kept most of us healthy and provided some security in old age for 90 years.  Talbot County is especially vulnerable as a rural area with older residents. 

1.     Social Security is an insurance program that all workers pay into until they lose their jobs, become disabled, retire, or die. Thirty percent of Talbot County residents rely on social security benefits for income; for about 40% of them, it is their sole income. Trump claims he won’t cut benefits, but Musk seeks to lay off half the Social Security Administration workers and close the field offices.  

2.     Medicare and Medicaid, created in 1965, are slated by Congress’s budget resolution of February 25 for a cut of $880 billion, perhaps all in Medicaid, to enable tax cuts for the wealthy. 16.8% of Talbot’s citizens are on Medicaid, which pays for nursing homes and healthcare for those under 65 with limited income.  The loss of Medicaid money would heavily affect our Memorial Hospital and clinics.  Some nursing homes could close.  

3.     To help young families with children, another safety net was created by combining Medicaid with CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). 34% of children in Talbot County are on this program, and cuts in Medicaid will affect it. 

4.     The Affordable Care Act (also called Obama Care) was signed into law in 2010, offering a more affordable health insurance to Americans, particularly those with existing conditions such as diabetes.  Republicans have sought for years to end this program. 

We must speak up to save our safety net.  

Lena Gill
Easton

I’m writing to ask the Council not to remove the Inclusion Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from the Employee Handbook.  I cannot understand why asking people to treat others with dignity and respect is something that anyone would find objectionable.  Isn’t the first thing we teach our children, be kind, treat your classmates with respect,  be inclusive in your games?  Don’t many go to church to hear the preacher remind us to treat others as we would like to be treated?

Why would anyone find a statement objectionable which encourages diversity, which is an opportunity to learn of the richness inherent in our differences; equity, simply treating people equally;  Inclusion, not leaving people out of opportunities for which they are qualified.  Why?

– Judy Fauntleroy

The announcement that Trump will be in attendance at this Sunday’s Super Bowl was followed by the NFL’s announcement that it will remove the stenciled words “END RACISM” from the end zones of Caesar’s Superdome, where the game will be played. In doing this, the NFL joins the long list of organizations and individuals who have acted with what has become known as anticipatory obedience. Of course, the NFL will say that they have chosen to replace the “End Racism” stencil with one that says “Choose Love” because that is a more positive message. However, it seems to be more than coincidental that Sunday’s game will be the first Super Bowl since February 2021 at which “End Racism” will not be in an end zone stencil.

Once again, the question begs to be answered: why do so many powerful people continue to behave in such an obsequious manner towards Trump and his minions? What do they think will happen to them if they stand their ground and act in a principled and respectable way? Don’t they understand that they are abdicating both their power and self-respect when they obey, even before being asked? Don’t they understand that their actions make them collaborators in this new “regime”? Or even worse, do they actually agree with Trump’s overtly racist, self-serving, callous, and illegal actions?

These collaborators and their organizations will be remembered for what they did and did not do when the times called upon them to use their positions of power to stand up for what is right. And how many of us will ignore the NFL’s action and let this slide because it will get in the way of our national love of football, sports betting, and Super Bowl parties, if we become upset?

As for the idea of choosing one’s battles, there is a Native American story that involves an elder explaining to his grandson that there are two wolves that live inside each of us and these wolves constantly battle with each other. One is pure goodness and the other is evil. When the grandson asks which one wins, the elder replies, “the one you feed.”

Perhaps this is a good time to ask ourselves, as Americans, which one are we feeding?

Margot Weiss McClellan
Easton

Politics can be as unpredictable as the weather.  And a recent vote by the Eastern Shore’s Congressman, Andy Harris, proves that point. Though Harris represents an agricultural region and chairs the ag subcommittee on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the legislator recently voted against a federal program that protects the American food supply from the import of unapproved animal and plant materials.  

As the previous Congress neared its end in late December, Harris voted No on Senate Bill 759.  This measure laid the groundwork for funding of the school that trains dogs, mostly beagles, to sniff out pests and diseases on wild and agricultural items coming into the country.  Because the hound has been the favorite canine worker in the program, it has been nicknamed the Beagle Brigade. 

Although Harris voted No, the bill passed the House and is now law.  The USDA training center for detector dogs, located near Atlanta, can rely on funding beyond user-paid fees that rise and fall erratically with the economy, as was the previous practice.  In recent slumps, an association of American pork producers provided resources, according to Congressional testimony. That situation struck observers as a potential conflict of interest. 

Despite strong partisanship in Congress in recent years, the beagle measure passed unanimously in the Senate and even enjoyed bi-partisan sponsorship there. No dollar figure was included nor yet forecast by the Congressional Budget Office; the bill simply said the school for detector dogs would be “permanent.”  Of the 11 senators who endorsed the bill in the Senate, five were Republicans – Ernst and Grassly of Iowa, Ricketts of Nebraska, Crapi of Idaho and the new vice president of the U.S., J. D. Vance of Ohio.  It was introduced by Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia.  

The bill also passed easily with both parties onboard in the House (381 for, 20 opposed).  Harris was one of the 20 No votes.  Three messages given to Harris staff in Washington and an email, all seeking his reason for opposition, got no response over a span of a week..  

Public perception of the program has been generally positive.  Beagles and beagle-mixes are preferred, the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) asserts, because of ”their keen sense of smell, non-threatening size, …., and gentle disposition with the public.”  The agency says it finds all animals for the brigade at shelters.   

Over the course of the program’s 40 years, a total of 150,000 interceptions of illicit items have  “prevent(ed) the introduction of harmful plant pests and foreign animal disease from entering the U.S.” (CBP post entitled Agriculture Dogs.)

The actual inspections have been performed by agents of the CBP since 2003. They take place at border crossings, preclearance locations, and international passenger airports, where  returning Americans are shocked to learn the pressed flowers they innocently collected and the smoked sausage in their carry-on pose threats and are not allowed.  Inspections of commercial volumes of fruits and vegetables are conducted at air cargo terminals, ports, and warehouses. Even mail facilities that see heavy international business will receive visits.

From its beginnings with one dog at the Los Angeles airport in 1984, then under Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (often called Aphis for short, which still runs the training school), the Beagle Brigade has grown to about 180 teams of dog and handler, CBP reports. Though no specific mention of the program was found in reviewing Harris sources, the website andyharris.com had the following on its second page on January 22, 2025: 

“It’s been my honor to represent all of you and to stand up for your needs in Washington – needs like fighting invasive species in our waterways and on our crops, but also fighting for lower prescription prices and keeping the FDA and CDC accountable.”

Linda G. Weimer
Kent County 

Some weeks ago, I wrote in this space about speaking with our neighbors with civility and acceptance. I stand by that philosophy today and want to exhort people to pick up this mantle. Last week a new administration was sworn in and began a flurry of activity by issuing Executive Orders and memos by the dozen. Many of our community are overjoyed by this new administration’s agenda. And many are as terrified as the others are overjoyed. Immigrants, LGBTQ+, and others are concerned. My observation months ago was that the then-candidate attempted to distance himself from Project 2025. But time clarifies things, and this last week, what has been crystal clear to me is that Project 2025 is already in full swing.

This agenda will not simply serve to “Own the libs.” It will diminish our nation wholesale in nearly every capacity, fully disrupting not only our national politics but the way in which the US has been viewed internationally. Efforts to stamp out DEI have gone down the rabbit hole so far as to call for the striking from US military professional military education (PME for you vets out there) the teaching about the Tuskegee Airmen. And those of the overjoyed I described category above are too often giving full-throated support to this. Last Monday, our new president went to church and was openly and unabashedly called upon to act with mercy. His response was to brush it off. And the response of a notable Republican Congressman was to suggest that the priest/minister who delivered that call for mercy, who is a US citizen, be deported.

This is but the tip of a massive iceberg of what I find to be unacceptable behaviors. And these unacceptable behaviors are causing, for good reason, a great deal of fear among our neighbors. Having grown up here on the shore and enjoying most of my life in a community that has come together when awful things happen—from storm surges that flooded bayside villages to the long hard winter of 1977 when watermen could not get their boats out—this community leaned on one another to get by. But in recent years, the community has devolved into tribalistic behaviors that do not serve any of us.

We are being manipulated by massive forces controlled by people with unimaginable wealth to act against our best interests. We do not have to accept this. We are called to reject this and seek to bond with our neighbors with compassion and peace. We are better when we take care of our neighbors, and whether we agree or disagree on whatever nonsense is being propagated from Washington, there are more of us out here in rural America than there are of the oligarchs and politicians. The power they have is theirs only because we gave it to them. If you feel anxious in these times, try to find just a single issue that you might agree on with someone that you otherwise disagree with. Show them your humanity. Show them that you are so very similar to them that they can no longer see you as “other,” and you may begin to see them as “neighbors” just the same.

We must reject this division or risk that the nation and world that we came up in will be irrevocably altered—and for the worse, far worse.

James Siegman
Talbot County

Three months ago tomorrow, the Spy published an open letter to the Talbot County Council from the Talbot Integrity Project (“TIP”) alerting the Council to evidence that, in 2022, a 20-acre parcel in Trappe was illegally connected to the old, inadequate Trappe wastewater plant.  That connection had never been reviewed by the Planning Commission or properly authorized per State law.  (Unsurprisingly, that impropriety was intertwined with Lakeside getting underway…and there is evidence that some in Talbot County government knew of the illegal hookup before the connection was made, perhaps facilitated it.)  TIP requested “A thorough investigation of these matters by a completely independent party….”  

As reported in the Spy, two months ago, when County Council members had taken no action, TIP spoke forcefully at the Council meeting, again demanding an independent investigation and some accountability if, as it appears, an honest review shows the County itself participated in this affair.

Nearly one month ago, TIP did receive word that Council Members “are actively gathering relevant facts regarding this matter and are working with the Town and appropriate parties.”  TIP sent every Council Member (and others) a reply emphasizing the inadequacy of that response, warning that an internal review can only be seen as a white-wash, and again demanding a proper, independent investigation of the illegal connection.  TIP concluded thus:

“Citizens and voters of Talbot County are not bumpkins.  If denied a truly independent, bone fide investigation by a qualified party of how this came to pass, with facts and documents publicly released, they are not going to believe that this Council–or at least its three-person majority—is doing anything but hiding from the truth.

Tolerance of corruption is complicity; complicity is corruption itself.”

TIP has heard nothing further from any Council Members regarding the County’s apparent complicity in this newly revealed illegality.  Have you?

Item #2:  Giving It A Rest.

A fair number of folks in Talbot County assume that TIP continues unfailingly to be “on the case” as regards land use issues in Talbot County Council—in particular, monitoring possible improprieties arising from this County Council’s support of developers (Lakeside in particular).  Well, nothing lasts forever.  

Long ago TIP put a bright spotlight on the initial falsehoods that were the basis of Lakeside’s approval in 2020:  TIP established that the Talbot County Planning Commission had NEVER reviewed Lakeside prior to 2020, and, in fact, an earlier Council had REJECTED it flat out. The County had never programmed that land for development at any time, in any way.  Learning that it had been misled, the Planning Commission rescinded its 2020 approval (a legal requirement for sewer), but the County Council, supporting the developer, refused to acknowledge the Planning Commission’s action.

Though staff (and the State) have acknowledged the original misrepresentation, for the last three years the County Council itself has refused to do a thing about it, or to hamper in any way the developer’s plans for this Billion Dollar project, the biggest, most disruptive project ever built in Talbot County, one that is patently inconsistent with the County’s Comprehensive Plan.  Three current Council Members–Callahan, Haythe and Stepp–have consistently supported Lakeside, and Council Members Lesher and Mielke have been ineffective in efforts to change course (even, it seems, as respects this newly discovered illegal connection).

At this point, interested citizens should know TIP is giving it a rest.  Others—individuals and organizations (many of which have been involved all along) can continue, or will step up now, to follow events, monitor actions, keep an eye on the details.  For example, if you want to know what “relevant facts” your Council Members have “actively gathered” about that illegal sewer connection cited at Item #1—and what they’re going to do about it—ask them.  If you have an opinion, attend a meeting, speak up at Public Comment.

And for all of those not really inclined to do any of that, here’s the magic sauce:

ITEM #3:  2026.

In Maryland, county comprehensive plans are built on citizen input.   The Vision at the heart of Talbot’s Comprehensive Plan has for decades been the protection of our Rural Character and Quality of Life, the things that make Talbot truly distinct and precious.  But Talbot is being overwhelmed by development pressures—pressures that this Council is not resisting, but which they are frequently aiding, not just at Lakeside, but in a myriad of nicks and cuts that will assure Talbot’s uniqueness will bleed out.

Only a thorough house-cleaning at the next election to remove the dominant group directing the County Council will change this.  If the Callahan-Haythe-Stepp power center is not supplanted in 2026 by knowledgeable and effective Members committed to reform our land use planning and approval policies—a majority, at least–Talbot’s future is sealed.  If the Council will not control development, then developers will control Talbot.

This is absolutely not a matter of party politics—both Republicans and Democrats love Talbot for what it is, want to stop the destruction.  Both Republicans and Democrats (and independents, too) can put forth candidates committed to reforming the system and protecting, not undermining, our shared vision for Talbot County.  Both Republicans—Callahan and Stepp—and Democrats—Haythe—need to be unseated, in the view of The Talbot Integrity Project.   

Many important local issues are in the hands of the Talbot County Council, but none are as significant to our daily life and welfare, and to the value of living in Talbot County, as development and land use controls.  The current Council majority has failed us, and we can and must do better in 2026.

Dan Watson
The Talbot Integrity Project