As 2023 drew to a close, I had some time to think back on the year, pondering what the City accomplished, what it is still working on, and what more we need to do in 2024 and beyond. I decided to put together a 2023 recap in the time-honored, end of the year tradition of preparing a list.  Although my list was decidedly less interesting than the typical media ones like Top 5 Celebrity Marriages of 2023 or 7 Habits to Jumpstart the New You, I wanted to offer some numbers that jumped out at me as I reflected on the past year.

0 – The amount of PFAS detected in Cambridge’s water system. PFAS is commonly known as “forever chemicals” and is a carcinogen now found in most public water supplies. That we have found none in our water system is incredibly good news.

0.8096 – The City’s property tax rate this fiscal year, the same as it was in FY 23 and lower than it was in the previous five years. This is essentially 81 cents per $100 of real estate value. The City is trying to hold it steady in the upcoming budget year.

1 – The employee ranking I am assigning to Executive Assistant Tyasia Johnson who has worked in the City Manager’s Office for a full year now. Tyasia is the glue that holds the CMO together. She is as close to perfection as any mortal I have ever met, and she is here to help you anyway she can.    

2 – The number of checklists Administrative Services Director Ina Holden has created. One checklist is for onboarding a new employee, and the other is for whenever an employee separates from City service. All City department heads were issued copies of The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande and asked to develop checklists for municipal use. We need more systems in place to help us reduce errors and manage processes, and checklists are a great tool. Department heads have also been issued copies of The Sum of Us by Heather McGee and Dear White Friend by Mel Gravely. I recommend all three books.

3 – The number of certified police officers the CPD hired in 2023. Combined with new officers graduating from the academy less officers who have left CPD, we now have 37 sworn police officers. These three certified police officers have been essential to the CPD rebuilding efforts. Assuming the two recent academy graduates complete their field training successfully in the coming weeks, three of our four patrol squads will have a full complement of six officers of various ranks on duty. The other squad has five officers of various ranks on duty at a given time. (Of course, on any given shift the number of officers patrolling may be reduced by training, vacations, court, sick leave, or some other duty. But the point is our certified officers are helping us rebuild the patrol function staffing levels.)

3.829 – The true interest cost (TIC) as a percentage for the $2,500,000 the Commissioners of Cambridge borrowed in April for the West End Sewer Project. The good news is this interest rate is better than assumed in the 2022 utility white paper pro forma. The bad news is the City needed another $500,000 or so to undertake the project in 2024. Council awarded the contract on January 8^th and the project should start next month with plans that it will be completed in 2024.

4 – The number of small geographic areas moving from one ward to another to rebalance the City’s wards for the next few years. About 97% of Cambridge residents remain in the ward they are already in, and the five wards are even closer in population size than in the last redistricting process.

5 – The number of employees who were dismissed from employment by the City in 2023. Two were dismissed for gross misconduct, one was let go for not meeting standards during his probationary period, and two did not pass necessary classes to continue employment. While we never wish to see employees separated involuntarily, we need to uphold clear standards for performance and conduct.

6 – The number of extra months Assistant City Manager Brandon Hesson served in the dual role of acting Director of Public Services and Director of Development. When he returned to the City in February, I expected him to serve in this split capacity for two months and it ended up being eight months in total. I so appreciate the extra work he did running two complex departments, both in the midst of reorganization processes. Staffing has been a challenge for the City, as it has been for many organizations.

7 – The number of departments we have in our revised organizational chart if we include the Rescue Fire Company as a City department. And we should, as RFC provides an incredibly valuable service to our community, and I too often fail to call out the hard work and service RFC provides our community.

8 – Employee evaluations I completed (or almost) last year for staff reporting to me for some or all of 2023. CPD and Finance each did performance reviews annually as part of their own department procedures before I became city manager, but the rest of the organization has had a spottier record of annual performance reviews. Setting up a management system that gives clear and candid feedback to all employees is essential to improving our operations. Evaluations need to be forward-looking too, to give specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, timely (SMART) goals for employees. One simply does not hit a target that has not been identified. The City is putting in place systems for all employees to have an annual review, too.   

9 – The number of employees the City hired who took a third-party, pre-employment personality assessment which I have found to be very helpful in the hiring process. It is not determinant, but it is a very useful tool to include in our overall candidate review process for professional roles.

10 – The number of additional Work Sessions City Council held in 2023 to discuss a wide range of topics, including special elections, ward realignment, the draft budget, and housing. This figure excludes two joint work sessions held with our legislative delegation in January and with Dorchester County in July. I subtracted these two joint work sessions only because I already had what I thought was a clever idea for number 12.

12 – This is the number of bonus months of public service the City will receive from George Hyde, the City Engineer for 25 years. Technically, only one of these 12 months (December) of additional service was in 2023, so this should really be in the 2024 list (spoiler alert!). But I think it is worth mentioning how fortunate we are to have another year of George’s service to our community. Bucky Jackson is now officially the City Engineer, and George will be known as our Senior Projects Engineer.

13 – Portia Johnson-Ennels interns employed in 2023. We will continue this program for at least four more years and expect to have ten in 2024. Staff learned a lot through the first year of this new program, and we hope to make it better each year. The absolute highlight of my year was the reaction from the interns when Greg Olinde from Bay Vanguard announced his bank was opening accounts in each intern’s name with $500 in it. Two of the PJE interns remain working with the City, and one has become our first ever Stafford Fellow in 2024 (Cameron Waters who works in Finance).

24 – The number of paid weeks of parental leave employees enjoyed after welcoming a new baby. (One employee who was the birth parent enjoyed 12 weeks and two non-birth parents enjoyed six weeks apiece.) This was the first fiscal year we offered this benefit, and it is part of a broader review of benefits and policies we are examining to increase our organizational competitiveness and be an employer of choice.

27 – The number of new employees hired in 2023. Of these, 14 are people of color, 3 are women, and 2 identify as members of the LGBTQ community. We have a long way to go to make our organization a better reflection of our community, particularly in senior and professional positions. But we are making progress.

30 – The number of years Oliver “CeeCee” Freeman has served the City of Cambridge Department of Public Services as of September in 2023. First Sergeant Jose Hernandez and City Engineer George Hyde each clocked 25 years of service this year. Three employees are now able to say that they have worked for the City for 20 years: Lisa Jones in CPD, Tynell Molock in the water division of Public Services, and Lavonte Edmonds of the buildings and grounds division of Public Services. It’s a bit strange to think about how CeeCee has quite a few more cumulative years of service than the most recently hired 27 employees. As much as I want to call to everyone’s attention the fact that we have a huge number of new employees, we do have some seasoned veteran coworkers who are the backbone of the organization.

65 – The number of employees who selected $150 gift cards from local businesses this year, helping to recycle some of the Commissioners’ holiday gift card dollars back into the Cambridge business community. What I am still trying to understand is why 45 employees opted for smaller $100 gift cards that were not tied to a local business. I would have thought more would opt for the more generous card that also supported community businesses. This has me wondering how the City can make sure that its investments provide as much benefit locally as possible, and how we can leverage our workforce to benefit the community.

481.2  – The value in millions of dollars of the amount of planned construction projects in the Cambridge community over the next five or so years. If we are not careful and intentional, most of this construction investment will go to employees and companies outside our area and we will not enjoy the full social and economic benefit of this amazing amount of construction. This list of projects is far from all inclusive, so it is fair to say Cambridge has more than half a billion dollars of construction on the books in the 2020’s.

200,000 – Amount of bond bill dollars the City received for a phased approach to the renovation and restoration of the Old City Hall at 309 Gay Street. This funding will be combined with $100,000 from Maryland Historic Trust and $400,000 in local appropriations for a good first phase project in 2024. Special Projects Coordinator Cheryl Hannan was instrumental in both the bond bill and the MHT grant.

1,025,000 – Amount of DHCD Community Legacy grant dollars awarded this month to Cambridge-based projects. The City benefits from a great working relationship with DHCD. Special Projects Coordinator Lynne Widli completed our Sustainable Communities recertification earlier this month, without which we would not be eligible for this funding. This is essential behind-the-scenes work that does not get a lot of attention.

1,063,463 – Amount of dollars the Commissioners of Cambridge have set aside in the City’s General Fund as a “debt reserve” reserve. This is the amount of General Fund debt service the City has in FY 25. The debt reserve policy essentially has the City squirreling away next year’s debt obligation as well as funding the current year debt service payment.

2,444,337 – Amount of dollars the Commissioners of Cambridge have set aside as a “rainy day” reserve. I am pleased with the ways in which Deborah Cooper and I were able to advance our annual budget as a policy document this year. This includes starting to establish some fiscal policies and reserve policies.

3,792,630 – The bid price in dollars for the West End Sewer project that will go forward with in 2024.

Every good year-end list inevitably comes to an end, if for no other reason than time runs out. But all of these metrics some way or another relate to the five goals City Council set in February. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Tom Carroll is the Cambridge City Manager 

Americans approach Christmas 2023 in a dark angry environment that has divided millions, even families and friends.  Bethlehem, even Santa Claus and definitely “Silent Night” seem far away and somewhat artificial. Two full scale wars, massive death and destruction in Europe and the Middle East and violence and hate elsewhere have definitely dimmed our Christmas Spirit.  

When I’ve been overseas and away from my family during Christmas, generally depressed, I remember an amazing event that happened over 100 years ago.   It always reminds me that there is a special human quality that Christmas can activate, regardless of existing conditions and emotions. 

There is no more dismal, discouraging personal situation than that found on December 24, 1914 in the cold, wet shallow, narrow trench occupied by  an 18 year old British machine gunner, named Bruce Bairnsfather. He was hungry, freezing and scared.  His unit,  the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment had been fighting the Germans  for 3 months. They ate stale biscuits and tried to smoke cigarettes, too wet to light.  And it was Christmas Eve. 

About 10 PM, he heard loud voices coming from the German trenches across the large field that separated them.  As he wrote after the war, he turned to the soldier next to him and asked: “Do you hear the Bochies kicking up that racket over there?” “ Yes, came the reply, they’ve been at it some time. They’re singing Christmas carols” Everyone in the trench stopped to listen. 

Someone then started yelling at them in English, with a heavy German accent. He was asking them to come join them.  With some suspicion, a British sergeant said, “you come halfway and I’ll come halfway”.  Nervously, the Germans and the British, left their trenches and met in the barbed wire filled “No mans land”.  What happened next is still remembered.  

They had a spontaneous Christmas party. Handshakes all around, wine was found and a soccer game began  Bairnsfather wrote years later that he couldn’t believe his eyes: “Here they were the common soldiers of the German Army and there was not an atom of hate on either side. “

There were other similar instances across the Western Front that day when  small numbers of Germans,  French, Belgian and British troops created their own peace on Christmas Eve.  On December 26, 1914, they resumed killing each other. 

WWI dragged on for four more years at a terrifying cost: 9.7 million military and 10 million civilians were killed. The wounded totaled some 21 million.

As grim as things seem to us this 2023  Christmas Season, they definitely don’t match what Bairnsfather and the other British and German soldiers were enduring on December 24, 1914.   

Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of four books, lectures locally and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.

Charles Dickens was a darn good writer. Imagine reading A Christmas Carol for the first time—wowie! Thrills, chills, suspense, hilarity, and a villain you love to hate, until he becomes a hero you love to love. 

For years, I worked on an ambitious annual stage version of A Christmas Carol at a theatre in New England. Our script was an original adaptation that didn’t mess around with Dickens’ language, omitting just enough to keep the running time reasonable and get us out of any truly impractical special effects. The Ghost of Christmas Past did fly, though, and furniture moved magically, and a gravestone materialized out of thin air at the crucial, climactic moment. 

I knew I was making professional progress as long as I got a better title on Christmas Carol every year. I started as a stagehand, only responsible for moving props and sweeping up glitter during intermission, but I worked my way up the theatre food chain year by year through sound, lights, and stage managing, dozens of performances every December, and probably hundreds of rehearsals, when all was said and done. 

What I’m saying is, Dickens’ text is burned into some of my most deep-seated synapses, never to be erased. No doubt I’ll be muttering Belle’s, Fran’s, and Fred’s speeches from a wheelchair in a shadowy corner years from now, when petty details like my birthday and the name of my first pet have long since faded from my mind (…Another idol has displaced me, and if it can cheer and comfort you in times to come as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve… Father is ever so much kinder now… a bowl of Smoking Bishop Bob!). The words are rote enough in my mind now that they lose their meaning sometimes, but classics are classics because there’s always something new to be  found in them, if you look for it.

In a nostalgic and Christmassy mood this week, I watched one of the zillions of film versions of A Christmas Carol—the one with Patrick Stewart, magnificent as always, playing Scrooge. It’s easy to forget how good it is, how dazzling and formidable the language, how scary the ghosts, and heartbreaking the losses. And it’s easy to scoff at Dickens’ righteous indignation. Lighten up, dude! We’ve come a long way from coal scuttles and bedcurtains, and workhouses. 

But lo, I fear we have not come so very far at all. Consider the Ghost of Christmas Present, a merry, laughing giant so full of life that living things manifest themselves around him wherever he goes. He’s hiding shameful secrets, though, and his words gave me a new chill this year: 

Two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable… “They are Man’s… and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all, beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it! Slander those who tell it ye! Admit that for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end!” 

I began to notice a creeping and distinctly uncomfortable sensation in my neck. We have different words now, but The Ghost of Christmas 2023 could make that very same speech. He might call the boy Propaganda, Conspiracy Theories, or Climate Denial. The girl might be Food Insecurity, or Medical Debt, or Refugee. We see them daily on our phones. They’re in detention centers on the southern border of the US. They’re standing in blood-spattered kibbutzim in Israel, and huddling in a landscape of unimaginable devastation in Gaza. They’re in subway station bomb shelters in Ukraine, and floating in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya. We see them and we ask, Are there no refugee camps? And the asylum systems, are they still in operation? 

The jolly Ghost’s warning is more pressing today than it was 172 years ago. The magnitude of the threats to those clinging, beseeching children has only grown, while our collective wisdom and foresight seems as scant as pre-redemption Scrooge’s. Are we living out the doom that scared Scrooge into mending his ways? Denial, slander, and factiousness still drive political and personal choices large and small, and of course the Ghost was right: they’re tools for avoiding responsibility, and they make it worse. With 2023’s much more global perspective, it feels as if we may not have much longer to bide until the end, be it through climate change, war, or disease.

If we choose take a seasonal Victorian ghost story seriously—which apparently I do—there is hope for us yet, in all the good old cities, towns, and boroughs in the good old world. Scrooge mended his ways. He was intransigent, ignorant, willfully uncaring, and fully committed to being “a tight-fisted hand a the grindstone,” and yet a tiny, invisible ember of imagination and empathy still glowed deep, deep in his core. As he began to recognize that all people share the joy and suffering of being human, that tiny ember brightened and expanded until its light and warmth filled every part of him. He laughed instead of scowled; he gave instead of took; he saved Tiny Tim and he loved his nephew Fred. And he was happier than he’d ever dreamed he could be. 

If Scrooge can give that ember a chance, so can we. The end is not yet here. 

Maria Wood traveled throughout the country as production and tour manager for award-winning musician David Grover, with whom she co-founded a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing education and fostering positive social change through music and music-making.  She returned to school mid-career, earning a BA in American Studies and a Certificate in Ethnomusicology from Smith College. More recently, she has written and taught on the meaning and impact of the musical Hamilton, served as Deputy Campaign Manager for congressional candidate Jesse Colvin and was Executive Director of Chestertown RiverArts. She lives in a multigenerational human/feline household in Chestertown. 

“Survival of the fittest” was coined by Herbert Spencer, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, as shorthand for Darwin’s 1859 theory of Natural Selection.

A critical feature of Darwin’s theory is that for any species to exist, members of that species must be so well adapted to their environment that they will survive long enough to reach reproductive age and reproduce.

Leaping forward to 1985, Usenet discussion groups created the Darwin Award as a tongue-in-cheek honor to be granted to those who, by exhibiting exceptional stupidity in accidentally killing themselves, assured that their particular genes were not fit to survive and contribute to the gene pool of future generations. 

Today we need a modified version of the Darwin Award, one that does not need to be awarded posthumously. I’ll call this new version the “Carbon Darwin Award”, or CDA. To be eligible for the CDA the recipient must not only be trying to take himself (the vast majority of Darwin Award winners have been men) out of the gene pool, but also children and grandchildren, his, yours, and mine.

Nominees for the CDA are easily identified because they are verbally self-nominating. Their favored mantra is “drill, drill, drill.” 

Oh, I could ask them to consult “Greenhouse effect” on Wikipedia, but what good would that do? The chance that science could have the smallest effect on what their cult leader tells them is slightly above zilch. Unfortunately, the credulous not just killing their own, they are taking yours and mine with them.

This is a difficult problem to explain succinctly, but I must try. Who knows? Maybe a “driller” will be curious enough to investigate.

In a nutshell, since the Industrial Revolution began in the mid-1700s, we have been exponentially taking gazillions of tons of carbon that was safely buried 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous era, and putting it into the air as carbon dioxide, a particularly potent “greenhouse gas” which is superbly effective in trapping heat. The greenhouse effect is our friend, to a point. Without it, Earth would be an ice planet. Problem is: we don’t want too much. Water vapor and a little carbon dioxide provides the warmth we need. Too much carbon dioxide not only works to dangerously increase the average global temperature of Earth, it also acidifies our oceans, being especially detrimental to creatures at the bottom of the food chain. 

If you wish, you can track the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, CO. Here, NOAA publishes monthly updates from their main CO2 recording station at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Measurements started there in 1960, so these charts do not show that CO2 in our atmosphere before the Industrial Revolution was at 280 ppm (parts per million) and at no time in the last 800,000 years had it exceeded 300 ppm. Today it stands at 421 ppm and is increasing by about 2.5 ppm every year.

Some of those who deny that global temperature is rising are like frogs in the cooking pot, where slowly rising temperature of the water is not immediately perceived to be a problem, that is, until it is too late. Some say “I don’t live near the ocean, so rising sea level is not a problem for me.” Others say “I don’t live in an area subject to hurricanes or tornados, so no big deal.”

But there are effects of climate change that affect everyone. It’s just that they’re not immediately obvious. Changing weather patterns are creating drought conditions in many areas where food production once was high. This is one of the reasons why we see so many people from South and Central America migrating north.

It’s not that we must immediately stop drilling; our economy and the world’s is too dependent on fossil fuels for energy needs. It’s that we must transition as fast as we can from dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and nuclear.

In sum, boneheads vying for the CDA who keep shouting “drill, drill, drill,” are sending the wrong message. Our grandkids will pay the price. 

Bob Moores retired from Black & Decker/DeWalt in 1999 after 36 years. He was the Director of Cordless Product Development at the time. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University

The MAGA conservatives moved away from policy positions as a platform, years ago, when they discovered people’s feelings were more malleable than policy opinions. It took a while, but Parents Rights, LGBTQ+ Attitudes, State Legislatures’ Independence, God’s Christian Politics, and anti-liberty Federal Government as the enemy, became effective political assault nukes. 

But, there already existed an increasingly effective weaponized word: “abortion”. It had been introduced into the Republican electoral armory during Nixon’s re-election campaign and was eventually adopted.  Over time, it became a very powerful Christian-charged partisan  issue, recast as Pro-Life. The Democrats’ Pro-Choice struck many as too passive. And finally in 2022, the 50 year-old Constitutional right to abortion, was struck down by a more conservative Supreme Court majority.  

In the November 2022 mid-term elections, Democrats unexpected success was largely based on  the other party’s harsh state anti-abortion laws in the former confederacy. And then on December 8, 2023 the Texas Supreme Court denied a young woman’s request for an emergency exception to the state law forbidding abortions. It has become the highest profile abortion case since Roe v. Wade.

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, had announced earlier his intention to criminally charge the woman’s gynecologist, if he performed the abortion. This case is receiving largely negative national and international media attention because the court and the prosecutor, ignored the obvious seriousness of the threats to the pregnant mother’s life and the likely still born infant. And for what reason?  Possibly to punish the woman and her family for wanting to abort the baby. Many would call it cruelty. 

Substitution. Given “abortion’s” sharply declining utility to the more radical Republican strategy, there was an obvious, immediate need for an equally muscular and divisive replacement. And the Israel-Hamas War provided it. It’s some mixture of  anti-Zionism, anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, genocide of either or both, which has been translated into “anti-Semitism” on elite (Democratic leaning) university campuses”. It made its dramatic political debut at a 12/06/23 House Hearing, ,where Congresswoman Elise Stefanik interrogated the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania about their policies re  genocide threats to Jews. The three should have been guided by common sense, not their attorneys’ advice.

It was a stunning success for Ms Stefanik and has resulted in the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania’s head and an unsuccessful attempt to force Harvard’s out as well. There is little doubt that variations of the theme: “Democrats are anti-Semitic” will be used more and more by the other party during the 2024 campaign.  I also foresee more House investigations of liberal-leaning universities racial/ethnic biases. 

Conclusion.  I confess, I’m not sure it’s possible to criticize Israel’s Netanyahu Government, without being accused of anti-Semitism.  Or if it’s OK to urge more US/Western attention to relieve the Palestinian’s catastrophic humanitarian situation, without being accused of pro-HAMAS sympathies.  Predictably, a confusion  politicians will deepen.  

Just a reflection, but the Nazis’ murder of 6 million Jews during WWII – the Holocaust – led to the post-war allied decision to support the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the, then British colonial Mandate for Palestine. During the decades between 1948 (independence of Israel) and 2023, the prevailing image of Israel and Israelis in “Exodus”, carried with it a strong belief in Israel as David fighting the Arab Goliath.  The automatic US support for the defense of and economic assistance for, Israel was assumed by Americans..  

It would seem the Israel-Hamas War may contribute to the fading away of his perception. 

Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of four books, lectures locally and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.

 

Friday was a great day for those of us who live in Cambridge and Dorchester County. What I have mentioned in past Cambridge Matters and has been going on here behind the scenes showed itself at the Annual Awards Breakfast of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation (MSCF). 

As I sat and watched the award winners receive their recognitions, I suddenly realized that three of the six people/organizations receiving awards were from Cambridge and Dorchester County and one other person, Dr. James Bell, had spent many years working in the Dorchester County Public Schools leading Student Services, overseeing the multiple grants that the school system sought and was awarded, and helping so many students to succeed.

These MSCF awards and recognitions come from an organization that supports five counties of the Eastern Shore from Dorchester to Queen Anne’s and Kent. The Cambridge and Dorchester winners were recommended by us but chosen by people not associated with Cambridge or Dorchester County. Dr. Bell represented the Mid-Shore Early Learning Center for its award https://mselc.org/. That program has existed for over 30 years, and in recent years he and his wife helped improve its mission. They live in Talbot County, but he committed years of his life to helping the youth of our community.

The Town Watch Award received by Shay Lewis-Cisco is named in honor of a militia of local citizens that protected the Town of Easton during the War of 1812 and “recognizes individuals who have demonstrated leadership and service in the community”. Shay is just that kind of person. I won’t give you all the details of what she has done here, except to say that she is and has been everywhere working on behalf of our children and parents to help improve their lives.

One Mission Cambridge, led by Krista Pettit, received a Special Recognition Award for the work that she has done since moving here in pulling together portions of the Cambridge faith community and volunteers to provide resources and assistance for our most vulnerable people. See https://onemissioncambridge.org/ 

Chris Branch and Shawn Tucker, both teachers in the Dorchester County Public Schools run the Gentlemen’s Club to help our young men learn appropriate behavior while also exposing them to places, people, and things that they might not otherwise experience. In talking with Shawn after the program, I learned that recently he has been hearing from former students who are now in college thanking him for helping them to have a vision and a life for themselves that they would not have had were it not for the work that the Gentlemen’s Club did with and for them. See https://m.facebook.com/dcpsmd/posts/check-this-out-the-dorchester-county-gentlemens-club-is-open-to-the-young-gentle/3189556574504928/ 

While the above recognitions should make the recipients and our community proud, it should also be a message to all of us that there is much work to do here and the need for many more of us to step forward as Shay, Krista, James, Shawn, Chris, and others have done and are doing.

Thanks for Reading.

Steve Rideout is the mayor of Cambridge, Maryland.

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I belong to a Great Books Club in Florida. Our current assignment is reading Tartuffe by Moliere, a play written in 1669.  I haven’t attended the meeting yet but have finished reading the play.  I have decided it’s the perfect play to read for “our times.” Why?  Because the similarities between Trump and Tartuffe are quite simply undeniable.

In short, Tartuffe is a play about a fraudster who pretends to be religious and pious but is a charlatan and a crook—basically a totally unscrupulous scoundrel.  He has hoodwinked a wealthy estate owner named Orgon who has taken him into his home. Tartuffe has totally brainwashed Orgon and his mother into thinking he is a saintly man who only cares about goodness and prayer. Nothing could be further from the truth.  

The play was controversial when it was first published because many saw it as an attack on the Catholic Church—a church that claimed to be humble and pious but one that many saw as ostentatious and covetous.  

So, the first theme of the book is hypocrisy. One can’t help but think about the height of hypocrisy of Trump courting evangelicals—a man who I can’t imagine anyone describing as virtuous and pious. And then one must add in the gaudy ostentatious, glitzy tasteless excess prevalent in so many of his properties. You know—that whole golden commode decorating scheme.  

The second theme of the play is gullibility. Other members of Orgon’s family cannot believe that Orgon and his mother have been taken in by the charlatan Tartuffe. So, there are quite a few speeches about how you can tell whether a person is truly who and what they say they are.  

I think about the people I see at Trump’s rallies and wonder how they can possibly believe the nonsense he utters. “If they are coming after me, they’re coming after you.”  “I will build a wall and Mexico will pay for it,” and on and on.  And then, of course, there is Trump’s promised revenge tour—whatever happened to concepts of forgiveness and turning the other cheek?

A third theme in the play is a quest for logic and reason.  Orgon’s family members point out the inconsistencies in Tartuffe’s words and deeds.  Again, their pleas to listen to reason fall on deaf ears.  Once again, I wonder why Trump’s supporters don’t see the disconnect between many of Trump’s policies and their own plights.  Tax breaks for the uber wealthy. Reductions in social programs. Defense of White supremacists. 

A final theme is an appeal for humility. The concept of a truly pious person being a humble servant.  I don’t think I need to wax too philosophical here to speak about these two words–Trump and humility.  Poles apart is not far enough. I’m not even certain different universes does the trick.  

I won’t tell you how the play ends because, if you have not done so already, I hope that you will read it.  It’s quite short but it’s a pure delight, brilliantly written, quite witty and insightful about human nature.  

What has given me pause, is that so many of these traits—hypocrisy, gullibility, lack of logic and reason and humility—were concepts grappled with way back when and still, here we are.  It makes you wonder, as Peter, Paul and Mary once asked, “When will we ever learn?”  

In closing, here’s one of my favorite stanzas from the play: “Be cautious in bestowing admiration and cultivate a sober moderation. Don’t humor fraud, but also don’t asperse true piety; the latter fault is worse.”  

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the Federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm.  While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, kayaking, piano, gardening, and nature. 

Given the emerging speculation about what will follow the massive death and destruction visited upon Israel and Gaza since 10/07/23, there is for me, an important fact to be understood: Hamas is not a country. 

Introduction: Hamas is a violent movement that encapsulates all Palestinian-Arab anger and rage that began in 1948. During the 74 intervening years, Israeli actions deepened these emotions and grievances, out of which a terrorist organization evolved.  It took control of Gaza and generally over the West Bank. It acquired $billions, the support of Iran and others and invested in developing a trained, disciplined and well-armed military force, equipped with a range of modern weapon systems. 

If Hamas were a country, it could be defeated, its government and military dissolved and the winner placed in charge of the loser’s future.  But, Hamas is not a country, it resembles a religious crusade driven by a belief in and dedication to, recovering its holy land from the Jews, who with America’s help conquered and enslaved them.  Powerful motivation. 

If Hamas can no longer operate from Gaza and the West Bank, they’ll relocate and rebuild, with considerable help from Iran and other Middle Eastern and Gulf Arab states. The support may even include Europeans and Americans, who have responded positively to Palestinian suffering in Gaza. In the interim, its leadership will operate from  its headquarters in Qatar, where they will continue to plan and implement terrorist assaults. 

What about the 4-6 million now homeless, desperate, revenge seeking Palestinian civilians? They will continue to be helped by the UN, Western and Middle Eastern governments and international humanitarian organizations. 

Is there  another approach?  The US organizes an international conference to address an agenda for a later decision-making gathering, aimed at creating an independent Palestinian state.    

Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of four books, lectures locally and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.

 

It has been a while since I have reached out to you. It has been a busy summer and fall for all of us (including me for a number of reasons), so I thought it was time to reconnect.

While I understand and appreciate the many challenges that we face here, at times we need to take a step back to take a look at where we have been and what has been done to address our issues. Some of us too often focus on the bad things that are happening and ignore the positive changes. That, then, helps the world outside of our community to hear about the negative and provides them with an incomplete message about us. 

I have had the opportunity to work with and/or observe those who are working to make a difference here and would like to share a few stories.  A week or so ago I was able to be at one of those positive events. 

It was a fundraising event for MidShore Meals Til Monday, a nonprofit founded by Leslie Bishop, who  over the past six years has refused to give up on her vision of providing food for children here during those times when food is not otherwise available for them – after school, weekends, holidays, and school vacations.

I watched her in those early years trying to work with other groups that were feeding the hungry in an effort to develop a collaboration that would feed even more people, including the children. While she has not been fully successful in that effort, she and her team have built a collaboration that includes the school system that is having a significant impact on the lives of children here. It needs to be supported by everyone in our community either with money or with their time. To learn more about them, here is their website – https://midshoremealstilmonday.org/

A week or so ago, I was contacted by Valerie Davis and Jack Saum about a concern that they had for the homeless and the need to have a safe and warm place for them to go during the day. While it is apparent that there are not enough shelter beds here in a community that is A.L.I.C.E. (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) see www.uwles.org, what is available in some cases requires that the clients be out of the facility during the daytime hours.

So, where to they go? The library, a friend’s home, out on the street? There are at least three organizations that provide some daytime warm space but not every day of the week. They are the Salvation Army, the Overflow Café, and One Mission Cambridge. They and representatives of Delmarva Community Services, which also provides shelters, and some local churches met to talk about what might be done to make a daytime facility available every day of the week during the winter. 

Valerie Davis also gave a presentation about this issue to the Cambridge City Council on Monday Evening. You can hear what she had to say on www.townhallstreams.com at the November 13th meeting if you want to know more about this particular challenge. Contact me if you would like to help and be part of the solution.

There has been much talk about the changes to the Maryland law regarding juveniles and how those children under 13 years of age are causing trouble in our community and elsewhere in the state and are not being held accountable. While the focus has been on blaming the legislature or Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) or the police, that does not address what may be the solutions to the underlying challenges of a small portion of our youth that are impacting our community – fights in schools, stolen and/or ransacked cars, burglaries of homes.

With any new legislation such as the Juvenile Reform Act, the implementation of the new law is not always easy and seamless. While the new law makes changes to how things have always been done, I see most of the policy and philosophy for the Maryland changes as being sound and consistent with keeping children out of the court system when possible. The law, when implemented well, is consistent with community safety, holding kids accountable, and providing needed services.

The law does not suggest that children under 13 years of age should be free to do what they want and not held accountable for their behavior. It does mean, however, that those called upon to implement the law need to be trained on it and how their policies and procedures need to be adjusted to help make their systems work better. That training and system change should have happened as soon as the law was passed so that the state and local agencies were ready to address its implementation when the law came into effect. From news articles and other reports that I have seen that training was not implemented in many parts of the state.

For instance, there has been a focus on and news stories about how nothing can be done to children 12 and under. Well that is just not so. There is a process that has been in place for years, is standard procedure around the country, and has not changed by passage of the new law that allows the police, agencies, or citizens to file complaints with the DJS regarding younger children who are in need of supervision. These are not delinquency cases. These complaints are a way to get services to a child or family that needs them. They can be provided or supervised by DJS or, when appropriate, petitions can be filed with the court to obtain the help with parent and child compliance. 

During my time on the bench, these cases were very helpful and effective in our community in providing prevention and early intervention services to children and families that helped prevent children from becoming delinquent and getting those that were truant back in school. The assertion that the courts are not able to do anything to the child or family in these kinds of cases is just not accurate. 

While the court cannot detain a child in a Child in Need of Services (CINS) case, it can take other actions to hold the child and parents accountable. These cases can be, however, some of the most difficult cases that Juvenile and family courts have to manage, and judges and magistrates need to use their training and imagination to achieve successful outcomes.

One example from my experience was my ordering a truant teen mom to read to her infant every day. She both bonded with her child and learned the value of education to the extent that she no longer missed school. Another child who had done well under a court order and could have had her case dismissed asked that the order remain in effect as she was able to use it to keep youth gangs from recruiting her to join them. 

Judges and Magistrates can set curfews on children. They can order the child before them to perform services in the community or at home. The options for meaningful sanctions that can teach lessons are numerous.

Another part of this challenge includes the lack of resources at DJS and in most, if not all, Maryland communities to bring services and programs to those children and parents that need them. A solution for this challenge is for the state to consider a different, more consistent, and more locally driven approach for these services and programs with state funding. I am speaking with representatives of the Governor’s office and the legislature in hopes of having the state government begin to make this idea a reality.

Housing has been a challenge here for years with little or nothing being done to address the problems that some of our citizens face. During this past year, the city has seen some significant progress in its efforts to make a difference. 

Thanks to the work with Habitat Choptank, a nonprofit that you can support financially or help as a volunteer, beautiful homes are going up on Wells Street and elsewhere in the Pine Street Area. The city also has grant funding to build 8-12 houses on Chesapeake Court off of High Street that will provide home ownership opportunities for some in the community. I just signed the agreement with the builder for that project that the city council approved recently.

A grant application to HUD that the city submitted earlier this year was not successful, but the city has learned how to make that grant request better, and we are going after it again to provide resources to fix up some of the more rundown houses with lead paint and other health hazards. In addition, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has been very supportive of Cambridge and its efforts over the past few years to make a difference in the lives of those living here and continues to work with us.

Earlier this year, and in many past years, we heard about the poor condition of the Bradford House on Race Street. The owners of the property made promises to correct unhealthy conditions there without any follow-up. The Altair Apartments, an apartment complex on Greenwood Avenue, recently came to the attention of the city and the community about the poor management and living conditions that existed there.

In the past, Cambridge, for a variety of reasons, did not have the staffing and resources to undertake some effective action against landlords such as at the above properties. This year, however, we did. While all of the problems have not been solved, the city along with our entire state and federal legislative delegations contacted HUD and the property owners to complain and engaged with HUD to press for solutions.

With both properties, the owners of the properties sent representatives to meet with city officials. They committed to undertake solutions to the multiple challenges that exist in the properties. With the Altair Apartments, the ownership and the city have just entered into a no cost agreement for the Cambridge Police Department to have a substation in the complex. 

With the Bradford House, I understand that the ownership of that property has agreed to have private security at the building in the evening hours to help reduce criminal activity that has been taking place. While all of the problems with these two properties are not yet solved, we are on the road to solving them; and city staff has developed relationships with representatives at HUD and in state government that will make it easier for us to have a faster and more effective response when and if other similar situations arise at other properties in the city.

Can I go on about the positive that is happening here? I can, but this report could go on for many more pages. I will conclude by saying that 

• The community is starting to step forward in new and different ways to be part of the solutions that we face. 
• The Cambridge Police Department and its leadership are looking at different ways to reduce crime in some of our high crime areas and to engage the community.
• CAN is growing its membership and is working on helping the police to start Neighborhood Watch programs around the city. Sign your neighborhood up to be part of the solution.
• The City Manager and City Staff are working hard in all aspects of city government to continue to improve providing city services in a more consistent, effective, and efficient manner.
• I have started a Mayor’s Citizen Committee to reduce gun violence and have over a dozen citizens who know the community or have experience in addressing this and other crime related issues that are helping to make a difference.
• We had a summer youth jobs program this past summer for the first time in many years, which is funded for continuation for at least another four years.

What we need in order to continue the above and other efforts is for you to help in any way that you are able. If you have ideas or want to help but do not know where to go, contact me.

Thanks for Reading.

Steve Rideout is the former Chief Judge of the Alexandria, VA Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (1989-2004). From 2004 until the present he has consulted in different states to support their efforts to improve their child welfare systems. From 2016 to early 2021, he was the Ward 1 Commissioner on the Cambridge City Council. He now serves as mayor of Cambridge. 

The US Government reacted very quickly after Hamas’s brutal 10/07/23 assault on southern Israel.  From the highest Washington levels, America’s complete support for Israel and its right to defend itself, were repeatedly underscored. And then on 10/17/23, President Biden traveled to Jerusalem/ Tel Aviv to personally reassure the Israeli people, that  America had their back.  

Two US carrier battle groups were deployed to the Eastern Med, to deter others, particularly Iran and Hezbollah, from broadening the conflict. The United States had the initiative and dominated the story line, until 10-27-23 when Israeli ground forces entered Gaza and its air force continued its indiscriminate bombing.   

The devastation of Gaza, the attacks on hospitals, the mounting death toll of Palestinian civilians, now over 11,000, including some 4,000 children, has placed the US Government on the defensive. Under US pressure, the Israeli Government reluctantly agreed to daily pauses to allow tens of thousands of Palestinians to move South safely and to receive the humanitarian assistance they need.  However, Jerusalem continues to refuse all ceasefire suggestions, with somewhat wavering US support.  

Sharp increases in anti-Semitic violence are widespread and international public opinion has divided:  (1) Pro Palestinian, anti Israel, anti-US and (2) pro-Israel, but also blaming the US for not forcing Netanyahu to avoid the current high level of death and destruction. Large demonstrations of supporters of both views are taking place around the world.  But, somewhat surprising, have been the student conflicts on US campuses, including against Jews.       

Perhaps inevitably, the two positions have become politicized in the US. Republicans are exclusively pro Israel and identify pro-Palestinians as Hamas.  The only House member who is Palestinian in origin, has been censored by her colleagues, for pro-Palestinian remarks. The Republicans also have shifted their support from Ukraine to Israel, but deleted aid to both from their Continuing Resolution. 

Common sense and civility are MIA in Congress.  

How can America Regain Control and Positive Momentum? Simply put, by dramatically changing the subject from the on-going Palestinian human catastrophe, to its (and Israel’s) long-term solution. The US government like most others can be captured by today’s crises because they are in-your-face, demanding immediate attention.  In November 2023, examples re Israel, Gaza and the Palestinians are: longer combat pauses, humanitarian aid delivery and hostage exchanges.  

But, what if President Biden, announced that the US will host a Conference at, for instance, Camp David in early 2024, to discuss the establishment of the independent state of Palestine. It would be leaked as international consultations get underway and would quickly monopolize the thrust of rampant speculation about how, who and where.  Israel would not be pleased because the pressure on Netanyahu to negotiate a ceasefire, would increase ten fold and more quietly, would include the US.  

It’s useful to recall that between June 30 and November 10, 1944, as WWII raged in Europe and the Pacific,  the US organized two conferences (Bretton Woods, NH and Dumbarton Oaks, WDC), where the post war economic order, international reconstruction and the UN organization, were planned.  Probably easier then, absent social media and TikTok. 

Unhelpful Internal Political Dynamics: There is a surprising similarity between some aspects of today’s American and Israeli political situations. Netanyahu and his quite authoritarian government have been working to eliminate the only existing check on its power – the Supreme Court. During the summer and into the fall, massive public demonstrations took place, strongly opposed to this anti democratic action. Reserve Air Force officers, even announced they would no longer participate in regular training exercises, sending a very strong signal regarding the depth of the opposition.  

Moreover, some important cabinet members are prominent fundamentalist Orthodox Jews with an agenda. Most Israelis and American Jews are reform oriented and more secular.  That being said, there has never been civil marriage in Israel, and the agenda being pursued, includes possibly limiting automatic access to Israeli citizenship, to Orthodox Jews. 

And finally, Netanyahu has been able to avoid prosecution for corruption and bribery as long as he is prime minister.  However, once the war and elimination of Hamas no longer dominate Israel, e.g. proposed US conference on Palestine statehood, it’s likely the Netanyahu government would fall because of the “surprise” October 7 massacre and also their attempts to weaken Israel’s democracy. The efforts to introduce stricter Orthodox restrictions also wouldn’t help. 

Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of four books, lectures locally and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.