Last week President-elect Trump proved his wish to be a “disrupter” by announcing several capricious and extraordinary choices for some of the most important posts in his cabinet. They included Robert F Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS); Peter Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense; and Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General.

A half a century ago, I served as Executive Assistant to a prominent Republican public servant, Elliot Richardson, who served sequentially in these three cabinet posts. Trump’s choices caused me to recall and reflect on the experience and qualities that Richardson brought to these posts, and the stark contrast they suggest.

Richardson was paragon of the “Greatest Generation” and very much part of the “elite” that it is now popular to disparage. Descendant of a long line of prominent Boston doctors, he attended Harvard and Harvard Law School, where he was elected President of the Law Review. He interrupted law school to join the Army. He went ashore on D Day at Normandy as a medical officer and walked through a minefield to rescue a wounded companion. After law school, he clerked for a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1950s he was a Senate staff member and then Assistant Secretary in the new Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW, now HHS). He then became United States Attorney for Massachusetts. After brief service as a partner in Boston’s preeminent law firm, he was elected Lt Governor and subsequently Attorney General of Massachusetts. Before becoming Secretary of HEW in 1970, Richardson served for a year as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State.

To the job of Secretary of HEW, Richardson brought prior experience as the Department’s Assistant Secretary; expertise in public management from his roles in state government as well as the U.S. State Department; wide knowledge of the interaction of HEW’s programs with state social service, education and health agencies; and a family-based respect for HEW’s medical and public health professionals. He embraced a management style that emphasized respect for, and use of career civil servants. And he delighted in wrestling with the legislative and policy challenges surrounding welfare and health care reforms and vexed issues of civil rights.

The only thing that Richardson and RFK Jr have in common is family roots in Massachusetts. Kennedy has no experience with public management, no respect for civil servants or for public health programs. His vigorous embrace of a series anti-scientific conspiracy myths and other wrong-headed personal attributes should disqualify him from cabinet service even if he had relevant public management experience.

As Secretary of Defense, Richardson brought an understanding of foreign and defense policy from service as the number two officer of the State Department; seasoning as a manager of huge public agencies; heroic military service in WWII; and large respect for the Department’s military and civilian staff. Trump’s nominee, Peter Hegseth, a Fox News weekend commentator, is manifestly unqualified to be Secretary of Defense. He has no experience with which to manage a colossal public agency; has already started to wage culture war against military leadership and has engaged in lamentable public behavior. His military service is not in any way a sufficient qualification for the job.

Richardson brought sparkling credentials to the job of Attorney General—law review president, Supreme Court Clerk, United States Attorney and State Attorney General.

And he courageously defied President Nixon rather than execute an order he knew to be unlawful at the time of the “Saturday Night Massacre.” By horrendous contrast, Matt Gaetz, a morally compromised former legislator, has no relevant legal or public administration experience. He promises to be an agent of “retribution” for the new President.

Richardson was an exceptional representative of an exceptional generation. One cannot expect individuals of his quality to proliferate in later generations. But surely, there are more qualified citizens to fill these roles. The United States Senate should muster the will and courage to vote down these ludicrous selections for leadership of three of the nation’s vital departments. If it doesn’t, the Constitutional order will be in jeopardy and Republican Senators will live in infamy.

J.T. Smith served in the CIA, the Department of Health Education and Welfare, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce and the Department of State before becoming a partner in the law firm of  Covington & Burling. He retired to Easton in 2005.

My love for the Eastern Shore started in Chestertown. I used to visit each fall for the Chestertown Wildlife Art Festival and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year. Big groups of migrating Canada geese would hang in the air, as would that first real bite of autumn chill. The magic of Chestertown, like so much of the Eastern Shore, is in its close interplay of vista and village. Just a stone’s throw from my favorite bookstore one can enjoy the rural countryside in full, by paddling Radcliffe Creek, cycling a scenic byway, or photographing combines bringing in the harvest.

At the same time, I was making those trips to Chestertown, around 2007, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy was working with the Town of Chestertown, Kent County, and a professional planning firm, to create the Chestertown Greenbelt Master Plan. The master plan was meant to encompass the future of the Clarke-Hopewell farm, described by Chestertown Mayor David Foster as “our only real opportunity for expansion of Chestertown.” The nearly 500 acre farm, located northeast of Chestertown’s historic downtown, is one of the last remaining sizeable undeveloped tracts within the Chestertown Planning Boundary.

This was before the Great Recession and there were plenty of questions about how development would shape the future of Chestertown and the entire Eastern Shore. So enter the master plan, developed with strong input from the community, to ensure that future development of the Clarke-Hopewell farm would serve as an “organic extension of the historic fabric of the town,” an effort to replicate in Chestertown’s future what had worked so well in its past.

One of the questions that was asked during the inevitable community workshop nearly twenty years ago was: “What defines the character of Chestertown, and should be reflected in this new part of town?” Responses include: “historic…small town feeling…neighborhood feel…walkable…life on a human scale.” Those words do a nice job describing what works about Chestertown. The master plan hews closely to these ideas, providing a flexible and iterative development program designed to “accommodate much of the growth of the town and the county over the next 50-100 years.” The plan includes hamlets and villages, each of which incorporates mixed-use buildings, civic uses, and neighborhood greens. 

In 2015, the Chestertown Greenbelt Master Plan was incorporated formally into the Chestertown comprehensive plan. It was memorialized in a beautiful leather-bound volume that sits on a shelf here at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center. Increasingly, it looks like that is where the master plan will stay.

Instead of human-scale hamlets, what now seems poised to occupy the Clarke-Hopewell farm is a 45-megawatt utility-scale solar array. The array will send power straight to the grid, keeping lights on and computers buzzing in homes and businesses and data centers as far away as Illinois. And all of this has been planned despite the clear and formal opposition of Chestertown and Kent County.

This change came about because the solar developer, a subsidiary of a massive Canadian-based asset management company, petitioned for, and was granted a Certificate of Public Convenience and Need (or a CPCN) from the State of Maryland. What does this mean? Well, in this case, the CPCN serves as a kind of permission slip, signed by state government, allowing the solar company to work around time-tested and well-understood local land use decision making processes. This is referred to as preemption, since local zoning rules, planning commissions, and comprehensive plans are ‘preempted’ by the CPCN, which serves as a kind of blanket approval for land use and site plans that might otherwise be inconsistent with local wishes.  

State preemption of local land use rules is being done in the spirit of addressing the challenge of climate change head on, for which the state has adopted aggressive renewable energy generation goals. But in the rush to site solar power, the pendulum has swung too far. The playing field is too unlevel. Parcels close to our towns and designated growth areas deserve careful attention, responsible land use, and close examination. In Chestertown’s case, the state’s CPCN is plowing through the town’s best laid plans and taking off the table a parcel that was meant to accommodate well-planned growth for the next fifty years or more. Instead of public parks, community orchards, and apartments that young people can afford and easily bike from, instead of tree-café-playground-garden-cottage-barbershop we’ll have panel-panel-panel—more than 140,000 modules.

Solar panels do not need fertile soil. They do not need to have their hair cut and they do not need to bike to class in the morning. There are many other places solar can go. Where else is Chestertown supposed to go? There are not many other spaces the rest of Chestertown can grow into. At least not without contributing to the Eastern Shore’s “auto-oriented suburban sprawl which threatens to erode its rural character.”

In the race to site solar power as quickly as possible, the Eastern Shore looks increasingly attractive. But we must have some balance, some way to say “Here, but not there.” Many of our open acres are best at producing food, and they should remain in agriculture. Other acres, located nearest our towns, are best suited for new neighborhoods. Some spots are well-suited for solar generation. But when we write a new set of rules that only applies to solar, the balance is thrown off in favor of a single land use.

Rather than allowing Chestertown to “grow harmoniously… slowly and methodically as to maximize the efficiency of its land use,” as the Greenbelt Plan so eloquently states, we will allow our land to be “rapidly digested.” The Eastern Shore will lose.

Steve Kline is the president of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy

The right to vote, and to have that vote counted, is the defining feature of our democratic system. As we all learned four years ago, that sacred right doesn’t mean much to Donald Trump, who made clear his willingness to casually throw out tens of millions of legally cast ballots if he doesn’t like the outcome.

Our congressman, Andy Harris, chairman of the comically misnamed Freedom Caucus, shares Donald Trump’s and J.D. Vance’s disdain for elections and voters. But Harris’ brand of authoritarianism actually goes a step further. He told a Republican Party dinner in Talbot County last Thursday that, given hurricane damage in western North Carolina, the legislature there should consider dispensing with voting altogether and simply assign the state’s 16 electoral votes to Donald Trump.

Congressman Harris has long been an admirer of Hungary’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban. But not even Orban (or for that matter, Russia’s Vladimir Putin or Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei) has gone quite so far as to name a winner before the election. Think about that: Many of the world’s worst leaders at least make a show of democracy.  Our “Freedom Caucus” leader stands alone in his open disdain for democratic ideals.

Naturally, when word of what he said leaked out, Harris tried to walk it back. No one has ever accused the good doctor of being a profile in courage. Rather than owning up to his obvious anti-democratic impulses, he now twists himself into knots to claim that his statement was merely “hypothetical” and taken out of context.

Here’s some context for you. In the days before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Andy Harris was part of a small group of Donald Trump’s cronies who met in the White House to devise a plot to block the peaceful transfer of power and keep Trump in office by overthrowing the results of a free and fair election.

Are Harris’ colleagues having misgivings about promoting him to a high-level position within their ranks? It sure sounds like it. GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina told Politico “it makes no sense whatsoever to prejudice the election outcome,” and that Harris was misinformed about conditions on the ground in North Carolina. “Bless his heart,” McHenry added, as if Harris were some kindly but feeble-minded cousin.

But Andy Harris is neither kindly nor feeble-minded. He is a smart man, a physician with a long history of success in politics. He knows exactly what he is doing when he allies himself with the likes of wannabe dictators like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Viktor Orban.

Fortunately, we on the Eastern Shore have a chance in this election to let Andy Harris know what we think of someone like him – one who calls himself a leader but would casually discard the rights of his fellow citizens.

After all, we still live in a democracy. For now.

By: Heather R. Mizeur, former Maryland State Legislator and 2022 Democratic Nominee for Congress in MD-01. Ms. Mizeur resides in Chestertown and can be reached at [email protected]

A divided nation, fake news, election fraud, a President desiring to suppress the press and to use the military to arrest political opponents – this could be our future, but it has been our past, as it has all happened before in 1861 Maryland.  If history is our teacher, what lessons should be gleaned from that tragic time?

Early in the U.S. Civil War President Lincoln seized significant extra-constitutional powers to support his war efforts. The intent of the Executive was to suppress dissent, political opposition and manipulate Maryland’s democracy to ensure the Legislature of Maryland and its governorship would be dominated by unconditional Unionist who support the policies of the Executive.  To achieve this objective, it was considered necessary to seize extraconstitutional power and to set aside significant provisions of the Constitution that protected both civil liberties and our democracy itself.  “Arbitrary” arrests, where the Executive department could have citizens imprisoned without the process or a basis under the law, became the mechanism to achieve the objectives. Arbitrary arrests and imprisonments were used to eliminate political opposition and dissent, to intimidate potential political candidates, to intimidate voters, manipulate elections, and to suppress and intimidate the press so such violations would not be reported to the rest of the nation and the world. 

The targets of the arrests were labeled the “disloyal” but don’t be fooled into thinking they were only disloyal to our country or to the Constitution, the disloyal during Civil War Maryland meant disloyal to the President and his policies.  The disloyal were subjected to arrests, confiscation of property, having their businesses closed and revocation of licenses they held that were issued by the government.  It is estimated that 14,000 Americans were imprisoned by arbitrary arrests and over 300 newspapers suppressed during that war.  How could a President so easily grasp such power unchecked?  That is the lesson for our time.

The foundation of the Executive grasping such power rested upon four segments; the Executive seizing the power to suspend habeas corpus, the dissemination of misinformation, a military that blindly followed the Executive and a significant public support base that unconditionally supported the Executive but who were also manipulated by the dissemination of misinformation.

Habeas corpus is a citizen’s absolute right to challenge the legality of his detention by the government.  It is founded in old English law and is considered an absolute tenant of basic civil liberty.   With the Executive seizing the power to suspend meant the Executive got to decide how, where and for what the suspension would be used.  The President asserted that since habeas corpus was to prevent the unlawful imprisonment of citizens then the fact that the Constitution allowed its suspension implied that citizens could be imprisoned for reasons other than reasons under the law,  such as for political purposes, while it was suspended. 

The President however needed a power to execute arbitrary arrest and the U.S. military provided that power.  Early on we see the Judicial Branch of our government attempt to check the overreach of Executive power in the Ex-Parte Merryman case ruled by Supreme Court Chief Justice B. Roger Taney.  We think of the Merryman case as an issue over who can suspend habeas corpus, but Justice Taney noted numerous constitutional violations committed by the President not the least of which was the placement of the military over civilian authority and giving the military the power to arrest and try civilians.  The Executive department simply ignored Chief Justice Taney’s ruling which is lesson number one from this history.

The Judiciary branch of government has little actual power to check the power of the Executive since they have no enforcement division for their rulings against the Executive.  The President must voluntarily comply, which Mr. Lincoln chose not to do.  Nor did we find that Congress had much interest in checking the overreach of Presidential powers.  Congress basically supported the President, but we do find that some Congressmen were also subjected to arbitrary arrests with Congressman Henry May from Maryland being the first. 

Mr. Lincoln wrote “public opinion is everything, with it nothing can fail, against it nothing can secede.”   Misinformation was a tenant for the grasping of power and the suspension of liberties.  Misinformation created public support for actions that would normally be considered abhorrent if the truth were told.  In dealing with Maryland, the Executive had to deal with a State Legislature that wanted Maryland to remain neutral and did not want to support the war effort.  More importantly during the summer of 1861 the Maryland Legislature was protesting vigorously the violations of the Constitution against the State and against the civil liberties of its citizens.   After the federal imprisonment of the Baltimore Police Commissioners, the Legislature drafted a lengthy and well documented protest of the Executive’s violations of the Constitution and voted to have 25,000 copies printed to be disseminated directly to the citizens of the nation. 

The control of public opinion was considered critical to Mr. Lincoln to achieve his objectives.  The day after the Legislature approved to send their protest to the American public, Mr. Lincon issued a proclamation that censored the press and a little more than a week later the War Department began issuing press releases asserting that they have uncovered detailed plans on how the Maryland Legislature was cooperating with the Confederate army on an attack against the U.S. Capital and were planning to secede Maryland.  That misinformation campaign became the basis to arrest many members of the Maryland Legislature and to hold them imprisoned to isolate them from communicating with the public.  The copies of the report the Legislature ordered to be disseminated were found and burned by the Union army.  

Simultaneously with the arrest of Maryland’s Legislative members we see the arrest of U.S. Congressman Henry May of Maryland who would have created a vigorous protest in Congress, and we also see the first imprisonments of newspaper editors who would also have protested such violations to the world.  One of the editors arrested was Frank Key Howard, the grandson of Francis Scott Key.  Howard was imprisoned in Fort McHenry on the anniversary of his grandfather’s writing the Star-Spangled banner and the irony of his imprisonment was not lost to him. The imprisonment of the members of the Maryland Legislature who were not supporting the Executive’s war policies created vacancies to be filled in the upcoming State elections that were just weeks away. 

The city of Baltimore held over one third of the voters of Maryland and the elections of that city became the main focus of the federal government’s conspiracy to manipulate the outcome of the Maryland State elections.  The Baltimore Police Commissioners were responsible to run the elections and to ensure they were free and fair, however they had been imprisoned and replaced by a federally appointed Provost Marshal who, along with the military, would now run the elections of Baltimore.   Gen. John Adams Dix and the Provost Marshal publicly proclaimed they were taking control of the elections only to ensure that they would be “free and fair” and to prevent treasonous rebels from returning to Maryland to vote. 

This was just more misinformation to placate the public.  The day after the elections the Baltimore Sun published how early on election day hundreds of democrats were arrested by the federals as they attempted to vote.  Word of the arrests quickly spread throughout the city and the democrats stayed away from the polls in fear of imprisonment.  The misinformation campaign used to support the arrest of the Maryland Legislature and to take control of the Maryland elections worked quite effectively in that the Northern public accepted the arrests and control of the elections as a reasonable and necessary action.  This is lesson number two – the grasping of arbitrary power and the suppression of our democracy will always be surrounded by misinformation to maintain public support for such actions. 

The free press is the watch dog of our liberties but during the Civil War we see a massive suppression of the press.  With the early arrest of certain newspaper editors and the closing of specific papers, we see how most of the remaining papers simply fell into line.  The Baltimore Sun reported the arrests of the Democrats on the morning of election day, but they dared not provide editorial comments criticizing the federal government or the Executive.  The federal manipulation of Maryland elections in 1861 was done deceptively and covertly, however by the 1863 elections the press was for the most part completely muzzled in regard to reporting such matters.  For those elections, Marylanders were given color coded ballots that revealed the political party for which they were voting and had to walk through a gauntlet of armed soldiers to get to the ballot box. Many were threatened and beaten and had their ballots torn from their hands. The press was silent on this massive voter suppression and this event was only recorded by an investigation conducted by the Maryland State Senate the report of which is currently available online at the Maryland Archives for those interested in the dirty details.  Lesson number three – if the Executive suppresses or shuts down one or two news outlets, the others will fall in line and tone down their criticism of the Executive.

The grasping of power needed a force to conduct the arrests and support the Executive’s policies.  During the U.S. Civil War, the U.S. military was the enforcement mechanism to suppress many constitutional provisions of our liberties and democracy.  Would our military today be complicit in the Executive grasping extra-constitutional power and subverting constitutional provisions?  Our military members are our nation’s patriots, but they are human fraught with human defects.  There are always some who certainly would support the Executive unconditionally if placed into senior leadership positions.   The Executive replacing senior military leadership along with the leadership of the FBI with staunch loyalist should be a warning.  Lesson number four from Civil War Maryland – the Executive needs a force loyal to him to support the Executive’s overreaching of power and suppression of liberties.   

Early in the War the North was supporting the Executive’s grasp of power and the setting aside of constitutional provisions in Maryland.  The Northern press claimed “Inter arma silent leges” – in times of war the laws (Constitution) fall silent.  Before their imprisonment the Maryland Legislature attempted to provide a warning to the Northern people who were supporting the President’s suspension of constitutional provisions in Maryland.   The Legislature wrote “and let the people of no other section shut their eyes to the danger, because it seems to be impendent over us only, and not over them. Let them not sympathize with usurpation, because it blows for the present appear aimed only at sections and individuals, whose opinions differ from their own. They know not what a day may bring forth, and they cannot measure the harvest which may spring from a seed time of impunity and absorption and wrong.” 

The Legislature warned of the slippery slope of usurpation by writing “There can be no trust and no safety, for any people, in arbitrary power. It is progressive, untiring, unresting. It never halts or looks backward.”   We find that what began in Maryland quickly spread North until habeas corpus was suspended throughout the entire nation and every State had a military commander overseeing the civilian population.  We see how the authority and oversite to conduct arbitrary arrests quickly degraded from being overseen by the  Executive’s cabinet members and high-level military officers to being delegated to the lowest ranked military officer and local constables for almost any reason they saw fit. 

When the policy of arbitrary arrests spread North, those citizens made an immediate and complete reversal concerning the sanctity of the Constitution. This culminated in New York’s governor, Horatio Seymour, attempting to have Gen. John Adams Dix indicted for conducting arbitrary arrest against New York citizens.  The New Yorkers began to fight for their civil liberties and New York Judges made repeated attempts to issue writs of habeas corpus to the political prisoners kept in Fort Lafayette in New York harbor.  By the time the Northern populace began to awaken however, the genie had been out of the bottle and their efforts were too little and too late and they too were subjected to the same abuses which they had earlier supported when it was only against Marylanders.  This is history lesson number five – many citizens will support the Executive’s grasp of power and the usurpation of the Constitution when it is for an issue which they support.  They naively believed that the usurpation of power will never be used against them personally. The warning of the Maryland Legislature should be headed.  Arbitrary power never rests and as we saw during the Civil War, there can be a rapid and steep slippery slope regarding the suspension of constitutional provisions and civil liberties.  

What I have written is the darker side of our nation’s history and joins other categories such as the uncomfortable side of the history pertaining to Native and African Americans that is not taught in our schools or even talked about.  Unfortunately, not all of our history is about truth, justice and the American way but this truly is the history from which we can learn the most, particularly during these troubling times.  For Maryland the misinformation disseminated that he State Legislature was intent on seceding Maryland has become our defacto State history.  Other important events such as the federal attack ordered against the city of Baltimore in early May 1861 with the authorization to “bombard Maryland’s cities”  if Maryland resisted is not found in any of our history books. This becomes history lesson number six – the victors write and significantly influence our history.  We already see two distinct versions of the January 6th event.  The  upcoming elections will determine which version will dominate.  

The lesson I have learned from researching Maryland Civil War history is also supported by my experience working within the Soviet Union shortly after its collapse and later working with the Cuban migrants who were fleeing the Castro regime.   I have learned that our Constitution is the only thing that separates us from them.  It is the protector of our liberties and our democracy.  It is all too apparent that too many Americans take their liberties and democracy for granted, but in reality such freedoms are fragile. 

Regardless of political or social differences our Constitution is what joins us together as Americans and we should hold it as the most sacred champion of our liberties and democracy.  In times of confusion, crisis or distress there will always be those who will promise to deliver us from the turmoil, but they just need extra power.  It can be tempting to turn a blind eye particularly if you support the objective, but do not be fooled and rest assured that it is very likely that you are being misled.  If “honest Abe” can manipulate the public with misinformation, what politician would not?  The Constitution is for us, not for the politicians, it is what keeps our politicians from becoming another Putin or Kim Jong Un, and rest assured any one of them would grab that power if given the chance.  Do not take our liberties and democracy for granted and understand that if the genie is ever again let out of the bottle, it is likely that we will never again be able to put it back in. 

Paul Callahan is a native of Talbot County, Maryland, a former Marine Corps Officer, and the author of the recently released book When Democracy Fell, The Subjugation of Maryland During the U.S. Civil War.   

On our annual visit to my wife’s family farm on the Maine coast, we tend to do nearly the same set of activities every year. Hike the “Blue Hill” trail. Kayak to the Deere Isle Bridge and “Sand Dollar Beach.” Visit Bar Harbor. Eat lobsters purchased from a local waterman. Hike to Barred Island across the land bridge at low tide. Swim to the big rock in Billings Cove at high tide. Go progging in tide pools. And lots and lots of porch time mixed in with some chores around the farm.

One of the favorites every year is searching for starfish, now called Sea Stars, at the secret place we named “Starfish Beach.” Most years we see dozens or even hundreds of Sea Stars in widely varying sizes and colors in an hour or two of wading around the tide pools. An eight-inch Sea Star slowly inching along a rock or prying open a mussel is magic for phone-obsessed teens. However, this year we found a total of two small Sea Stars over two separate visits with eight children and half that number of adults searching for hours.

According to local naturalists, the decline of Sea Stars and other tide pool critters at our “secret” spot has a variety of causes – starting with collectors. A few years ago, our Starfish Beach was discovered by collectors of Sea Stars and Sea Urchins, who sell them online to aquarium and shell companies. This practice has been stopped and sanctuary status is being pursued for the area. Warming waters caused by climate change are also having a significant impact. The Gulf of Maine is one of the most rapidly warming oceans on Earth, causing many species to move north, including lobsters and other sedentary bottom dwellers, to suffer from increased disease and competition from invasive species like Green Crabs. There have also been sporadic but severe die-offs of Sea Stars along the Maine Coast from Sea Star Wasting Disease, a little-known condition made worse by warming waters.

In a family conversation later, one of the elders explained that everything must learn to adapt to survive. This drew a sharp rebuke from others about the unfairness of humans adapting to climate change by using more air conditioning while animals were often left to move north or die. This issue of responsibility obviously needs a more careful discussion at a later date.

While I am immensely proud of the conservation wins that have occurred to save species and habitats during my lifetime. I am also often saddened by the more recent tidal wave of losses to crises like climate change and overdevelopment. Seeing those kids looking doggedly for starfish without success is one of the saddest reminders about the world we are leaving to them.

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40-year career in conservation, the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement, Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire Consulting out of Annapolis.

Eleven years ago, Shore Health Systems (SHS) presented to the Talbot County Council development plans for the new hospital. The Plan required a realignment of Route 662, with a new, relocated section of Route 662 to be constructed first, in order to maintain continuous traffic flow on Route 662 during the hospital construction phase. It was unanimously approved by the 2013 County Council.  Bill 1231 enacted March 26, 2013.

Fast forward to early this year (February/March). SHS, without involving the County Council, approached County Staff (not the elected officials) to push for a temporary closure of a segment of MD Route 662. This closure was to occur before the completion of the new, relocated section of Route 662. The urgency of this request was tied to SHS’s desire to start hospital construction, claiming that the building design had “changed slightly,” necessitating the relocation of a small corner of the hospital over Route 662. This change, according to SHS, made it “urgent” to close the road to begin foundation work.

County Staff, including Public Works, Roads, and the Sheriff’s Department, recognized the significant negative impacts this closure would have. The proposed detours would require redirecting traffic to nearby County roads: Hiner’s Lane, Hailem School Road, Goldsborough Neck Road, and Airport Road, from October 2024 to May 2025 (assuming the construction stayed on schedule). These roads would require upgrades to handle the increased traffic. There were also serious concerns about safety and the negative impact on the farming community and Community Center traffic. Despite the diligence of County Staff in communicating these concerns to SHS, except for a concession to make a financial contribution toward the costs for upgrading the county roads, the hospital was resolute about the closure.

Even though there was a perfect opportunity in May to address the issue while addressing another issue with SHS, the County Council was only substantively brought into the process, as a body, late in the game, with a “work session” with SHS which was not held until July 23. However, this work session felt like a charade. It was clear that its plan was a fait accompli, essentially a done deal.

Now, based on discussions led by the County Manager—conversations that did not substantively involve the County Council, as a body, as they were left out of the process—the Council is being asked to rubber-stamp this “emergency” change of plans. Bill 1577 will come before the Council on July 13 for an amendment and for a public hearing on August 27 as an “emergency” bill. But let’s be clear: an emergency, as defined by Webster’s, is “a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence or set of circumstances demanding immediate action.” SHS has not demonstrated that an emergency exists to justify the closure of Route 662 before the new route is completed. This is not a sudden or unforeseen occurrence. As SHS’s legal counsel admitted, the hospital design was only “changed slightly.” If SHS recognized back in February that the design change required the closure of Route 662 in October, they had ample time to either revise the construction plan and avoid closing the road or begin the construction process for the new road earlier this year.

We all want the new hospital, and I fully support and want to facilitate the timely construction of the new hospital. However, for the sake of the public, there must be a transparent process. I cannot support their request that compromises the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens. The hospital should not have requested the closure of Route 662 before constructing the new section and should have adhered to the original plan as outlined in Bill 1231. Any changes SHS needs to make should be at its own expense to comply with the approved plan. This approach is not only best for the County residents but also respectful of their welfare and safety.

Lynn Mielke serves on the Talbot County Council.

One of my favorite lines from Melvin Udall, aka Jack Nicolson, in the film As Good as It Gets is,” Go sell crazy somewhere else; we’re all stocked up.”  I’ve been thinking about that line a lot lately. Here’s why.

Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. has touted bizarre anti-vax theories, claimed that CIA agents were responsible for the JFK assassination, and said that an abnormality in his brain scan was caused by a worm that got into his brain, ate a portion of it, and died there. Recently he confessed to dumping a baby bear’s body in Central Park.

While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about Hannibal Lecter, his golf game, and shocking sharks. Tell me that’s not crazy.

Republican VP Nominee J.D. Vance lamented that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”  He also said that people without children were “deranged” and “psychotic.” Before becoming Trump’s running mate, he called himself a “never-Trump guy” and called Trump an “idiot,” “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and “America’s Hitler.”  

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has ranted about Pelosi’s “Gazpacho Police,” claimed that 9/11 attacks were partly conducted by the Federal Government, suggested that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced with a body double before her death in 2020, argued that global warming is beneficial to humanity because more food is grown when it’s warmer which feeds people, called January 6 “a little riot,” and stated that California wildfires were started by Jewish laser beams. I could go on, but I’ll stop right there.

Paul Gosar (R-AZ) called January 6 rioters “peaceful patriots” and tweeted out an animated video showing himself killing Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Several of Gosar’s own siblings have repeatedly called on him to resign from Congress, claiming that he is “immune to shame,” and has displayed “unhinged behavior” and didn’t possess the “intellect, character or maturity to serve in Congress.”  

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) called the three branches of government, “The House, the Senate, and the Executive.” 

Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted of all charges in his corruption trial, including accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as a foreign agent to the Egyptian government.

Matt Gaetz (R-FL) continues to be under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sex trafficking violations, illegal drug use, inappropriate use of campaign funds, and more. Couple that with his major league dramatically overly botoxed face at the Republican convention, and it’s difficult to take the guy seriously. 

So why are there so many unserious poor representatives in Congress? Many observers blame the current situation on Newt Gingrich who was Speaker of the House for four years in the late 90’s. Gingrich made fund raising a priority and massively gutted congressional budgets and downsized committee staff. Dozens of the most knowledgeable and experienced legislative staff members left Capitol Hill as a result. Today most members of congress don’t write legislation or develop legislative ideas themselves, instead they rely on Think Tanks like The Heritage Foundation (author of the now infamous Project 2025), The American Enterprise Institute, and The Brookings Institution. 

Gingrich embraced the philosophy of aggressively confronting the opposing party instead of seeking common ground and focusing on legislation. He sought attention for his party, and the ploy worked. Gingrich, more than any other Republican, is responsible for his party regaining a majority in the House of Representatives after many years of Democratic majorities. The Gingrich philosophy is still embraced on Capitol Hill. So now instead of substantive dialogue, we see delight in humiliating speakers at Congressional hearings, and endless grandstanding of congresspeople like Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Josh Hawley (R-KS), MTG (R-GA) Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and a host of others. 

A Pew Research Study shows that a majority of Americans have a very negative view of politicians. I understand why. The caliber of some elected officials is past embarrassing. Many of them are self-serving and ineffective. 

So, what’s to be done? For starters. both political parties should require candidates running under their banner to pass a basic civics test—along the lines of a citizenship exam—as a prerequisite for holding public office. Clearly other reforms are needed, including reviving ethics in campaign spending, banning lobbyists from fundraising for politicians, strengthening criminal anti-corruption laws, banning individual stock ownership by members of Congress, and posting legislation at least three days before a vote so that all members have the ability to read proposed legislation. Let’s be clear. We need to get serious. The swamp has not been drained and both parties need to work together to fix it.

In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch 22, the character Yossarian said, “Insanity is contagious.” It certainly seems that way, since this is the craziest group of elected officials I remember in my lifetime. Let’s hope a cure is on the horizon. It can’t come a moment too soon. 

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, piano, and nature.

This week Donald Trump spoke at a National Association of Black Journalists Conference and said that Kamala Harris used to be Indian and now she says she’s Black. He went on to question, “So is she Indian or is she Black?” What I want to know is what difference does it make? 

Trump, a man who once claimed that Obama was not born in the United States and that he was the founder of ISIS, this week claimed that Kamala Harris does not really like Jewish people. Oh wait, she is married to a Jewish man. Trump then dug himself an even deeper hole when he claimed that all undocumented migrants coming into the country are taking “Black” jobs—whatever that means. 

I have grown weary of all these “dust ups” about race, gender identity, and more. Why don’t we just talk about the best person for the job? The best experience. The best judgment. The best platform to propel America in the right direction and not be so hung up on race, gender identity, and looks. 

For decades no one complained when two white guys were on the same ticket, which was the case for most of my life. Now, it’s wait, you can’t have two women on the same ticket. Wait, you can’t have a woman and a gay guy on the same ticket. Wait, you can’t have two Black people on the same ticket. Wait, you can’t have a Black woman and a Jewish man on the same ticket. And now, thanks to the Republican VP Nominee J.D. Vance, we can also discriminate against childless “cat ladies” who, according to him, should not have an equal say in political decisions. 

It is time to get over it. Here’s a concept. Let’s select the most qualified people to do the job, regardless of race, sex, or gender identity. 

A case in point. Many of my friends have said that they wish Harris would select Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as her running mate. He has been in the military. He has been a mayor. He has had a cabinet post and thus has been on the national stage. And of equal importance, he is extremely articulate, quick on his feet, passionate about climate change, and resonates well with young voters. But then my friends go on to say, “It is not going to happen. We cannot have a woman—especially a Black woman—and a gay man on the ticket together. Not in this racist country. It is not going to work.” 

Should you care if the candidate is a convicted felon? The answer is yes. Should you care if the candidate lies consistently, or is patently unqualified given his past experience? The answer is yes. Should you care if the candidate is sexist or racist, discriminates against other Americans, and makes demeaning and cruel remarks about his opponent? The answer is yes. Should you care if the candidate espouses different views than your own about women’s reproductive rights, income inequality, climate change, education, taxes, and other substantive issues? The answer is yes.

It feels like some candidates are working from a playbook that worked decades ago but is no longer valid. Many Americans have evolved. The fact that a candidate is gay, or Black, or Jewish, or Catholic isn’t an issue for them. Many Americans have close relatives who are gay or trans, or of mixed race, and they want to be sure that they have the same rights and respect as every other American. 

It is time to challenge conventional wisdom. The whole argument that if we give marginalized people more power—more equality–we will lose what we have is bogus. A rising tide lifts all boats. 

I am making a fervent plea that we strive to seek the best candidate for the position regardless of race, gender identity, or looks. Let’s try to do the right thing for America. It is way past time to put divisive politics, gender, and race issues aside, and work with all our might to elect the most qualified candidates. This is a complex country with many pressing issues. We need to elect the best candidates who will implement appropriate solutions for the problems of the day. We must ensure that America works towards becoming the best that it can be. 

Civil rights icon John Lewis said it best when he said, “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” 

We can do this. We can do better.

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, piano, bicycling, kayaking, and nature.