When Congress passed the ADA in 1990, it promised equal access to public life, including the courtroom. Thirty-five years later, that promise is breaking down — especially in Maryland, where judges still decide who is and isn’t “disabled,” often without medical evidence.

When judges play doctor

The ADA is clear: Determining disability is a medical question, not a judicial one. Whether someone has ADD, PTSD or a brain injury must be established by qualified professionals — not a judge’s intuition.

This is personal to me and to millions of others, especially veterans. In my own custody case, a judge wrote that I was “struggling with serious issues” without any clinical evaluation. Those words, based on bias rather than medicine, restricted my access to my own child.

Across Maryland, nearly 70% of accommodation requests in family court are decided informally by judges without medical input. Nationally, more than 30 million Americans live with invisible disabilities, yet over half of courtroom accommodation requests involving cognitive or psychological conditions are denied outright. Because these disabilities don’t “look” disabling, they’re dismissed as exaggerations.

The human cost

These misjudgments have devastating consequences. Veterans with PTSD lose custody because their coping mechanisms are misunderstood. People with ADD are branded “uncooperative” for needing breaks during testimony.

In my case, the court granted a protective order even though no medical diagnosis was ever cited, and the judge cut off questioning before ruling. My confirmed conditions became a weapon I wasn’t allowed to defend against.

In Maryland, more than 60% of ADA-related court complaints are closed without a written decision. Nationally, fewer than 15% lead to corrective action. Without records, there’s nothing to appeal — a bureaucratic dead end that denies due process.

The “coordinator” illusion

Every Maryland county is supposed to have an ADA coordinator. In reality, these coordinators have no real power: All requests still funnel back to the judge. The result is a paper trail of compliance masking systemic neglect.

When I appealed my denied motion, the state office sent me back to the county, which admitted it couldn’t overrule a judge. Legal Aid and Disability Rights Maryland declined help because invisible disabilities weren’t their focus. I was trapped in a loop that thousands of Marylanders — veterans among them — know too well.

A system built to exclude

This isn’t about one judge or one case. It’s about a system structurally unequipped to uphold the ADA. More than 40% of Maryland adults with disabilities — and nearly two-thirds nationwide — live with cognitive or mental-health conditions, yet most never receive meaningful courtroom accommodations. The law protects them on paper but abandons them in practice.

What must change

The fixes are straightforward, but require political will and our collective civic calling: Empower ADA coordinators with independent authority; require written responses to all ADA motions to preserve appeal rights; create external oversight for judicial noncompliance; train judges to recognize and accommodate invisible disabilities.

And today is an especially pertinent reminder that we cannot keep our promises to honor our veterans hollow. (Any veteran dealing with injustice in the courts is encouraged to consider reaching out to my complimentary Military Family Justice Project.)

A promise worth keeping

On this Veterans Day — and every day — we must remember that service members bring home more than medals. They bring home silent scars our courts must acknowledge. The ADA promised equal justice, yet too often people like me — and countless veterans — are judged on assumptions, not evidence.

If a judge can decide someone isn’t “disabled enough” for protection, then no one’s rights are secure. Honoring veterans means ensuring our justice system is accessible, fair and informed — because equality under the law is a promise worth keeping.

Michael Phillips is a Maryland resident and disability-rights advocate who has spent years navigating the state court system while living with ADD and PTSD.

But “staring out the back door screen while listening to the news repeat itself” is not just the purview of those with more decades to reflect upon. Increasingly, loneliness is part of the human condition.

We’ve distanced ourselves from one another. Even in proximity, we seem more focused on our differences and disappointments than the condition of our whole cloth.

We are quick to blame “others” for what we fear or what we deem broken. In the capacity of conflict resolution facilitator, I’ve heard many self-described open-minded, prosocial individuals harshly judge those they know nothing about, citing skin color, religious beliefs, education level, nationality or income strata as justification.

The normality of podium-level dehumanizing, gun violence and anonymous, brutal enforcement of deportation crushes the lives of those directly affected and the spirit of witnesses. The denial of basic human needs, including belonging and dignity, observed daily, hardens hearts. Those cruelties encourage fear and diminish hope, leaving us all victims of the isolation Prine laments.

Scholars and pundits have considered how to heal our nation. The need for revolutionary change is common across national-level political and civic recommendations. I believe it is imperative at the grassroots level as well. The ability of individuals and communities to thrive depends on the quality and consistency of our engagement with one another. When communities are cohesive and principled, they’re more able to withstand leadership failures.

The importance of “weak ties” reemerged during the pandemic when we collectively mourned the absence of interactions with baristas, colleagues, neighbors and other casual acquaintances. In 1971, Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter published a then-groundbreaking paper on the importance of these casual relationships. “Weak ties connect you to networks that are outside of your own circle. They give you information and ideas that you otherwise would not have gotten.” Therein lies the ability to learn, cultivate empathy, gain competencies, build resilience and even secure employment. Revolutionary, for sure.

Admittedly, this seems as conceptually simple as a Hallmark Christmas movie. But quality interactions with loose acquaintances and strangers have become endangered. The proportion of Americans who feel they could reliably trust other Americans shrank to 34% in 2024. “Large shares of Republicans and Democrats associate negative traits with members of the other party,” including closed-mindedness and immorality.

Social distancing from one another extends to those we once held dear. A 2024 Harris Poll reports, “about half of U.S. adults are estranged from at least one close relation.” Political differences are among the reasons cited.

If we hope to fortify ourselves against a weakening democracy, we’ll need to toughen up. “Aggressive compassion,” a term I heard while interviewing residents of Sperryville, Virginia, population approx. 300, sums up the required skillset. “Kill yourself with kindness in the face of frustrating disagreement,” explained a Sperryville Community Alliance committee member with project planning responsibilities. This involves digging deep within oneself to find the patience, understanding and resetting of priorities necessary for connected coexistence.

Aggressive compassion requires living with discomfort periodically. Avoidance isn’t allowed, and debate is off-limits. Cynicism? Forget about it. Polite discussion, curiosity and consideration of alternatives may be substituted.

Willingness to forgo arguments is essential because “we have everything else in common,” explained another Sperryville resident after laughing deeply at the red-blue divide that exists elsewhere. And rarely does one succeed in changing minds. Facts tend to be irrelevant. Trust, however, is essential for communities to prosper.

“Hello in There” finds the grief we secrete away. The song’s truth is simultaneously excruciating to endure and impossible to ignore, like some of the encounters we must courageously face with aggressive compassion. Prine reminds us of the emptiness felt when confronted with cruelty or, worse, abject indifference. That pain is part of the “everything else” we have in common. It seems revolutionary to start with, “hello.”

Julie Garel (juliegarel@me.com) is a researcher and conflict resolution facilitator living in Bethesda.

On Oct. 29, we held a hearing on the notorious audit of the Department of Human Services (DHS). This audit found that DHS was not adequately conducting background checks on individuals who had direct contact with children under its care and neglected to reconcile its list of providers with Maryland’s Sex Offender Registry. Because of this, several children under state care were subject to abuse by an individual working for one of its contractors who was a registered sex offender. Another disturbing finding was the agency’s over-reliance on placing children in hotel rooms with one-on-one providers who are not licensed or, again, background checked. The impact of this finding was driven home only days after the audit was released when 16-year-old Kanaiyah Ward committed suicide in the hotel room where DHS was housing her.

The DHS response to this audit has been one of the worst I have seen in the 10 years I have served on this committee. DHS Secretary Rafael López discussed how his agency was working as a team, noting that they even have a hashtag. He spoke about how, before action could be taken to remove children from these unlicensed settings, they first had to develop a technological infrastructure to more easily determine their locations. It appears that the fact that the child’s name was on a spreadsheet rather than a modern, searchable database was a more urgent matter than the child’s physical presence in a hotel. He boasted that he had been able to search just that morning and determined that there were five children currently in hotels. What he did not mention throughout the entire hearing — until I asked him directly — was the death of Kanaiyah Ward.

I am on the record calling for the secretary to resign — not just due to this audit or Kanaiyah’s death, though either would be enough. The final straw came the night before the hearing when we learned that the secretary’s directive, issued the week prior, prohibiting the placement of children in unlicensed settings like hotels, had been violated just four days after its issuance. Secretary López lacks basic control over his department and is therefore not the person to fix this agency.

Over the last three years, Secretary López has had the opportunity to rectify some of these issues. When he came into office, he had a blueprint for the department’s problems, as identified in prior negative audits. The pace at which they have addressed the safety of children in DHS care is unacceptable — from criminal background checks to placing children in unlicensed settings — these should have been the number one priority of this administration, even if they had to make it happen in a more low-tech way. Such measures should be standard procedure in any department responsible for keeping children safe. Quality assurance processes and oversight of the local departments should have been addressed immediately as first steps in stopping many of the issues uncovered by this audit. A child died as a direct result of several of the findings in this audit — this is not an accounting error to be dismissed and ignored by a bureaucracy — this is a life.

Gov. Wes Moore’s reaction to Kanaiyah’s death, the audit and his support for Secretary López have been disappointing. His reflex response to many issues is to blame someone else; he blames the “inherited deficit” and attributes bad audits to the “previous administration,” while blaming the Trump administration for just about everything else. But the “it wasn’t me” excuse rarely works more than once, and it rings even more hollow as we near the end of the third year of his term. He cannot expect Marylanders to take him seriously about accountability when he does everything in his power to avoid it. Leadership comes with accountability. Leadership starts at the top. As Maryland’s governor, he is at the top.

Steve Arentz is a Republican representing District 36, including Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Caroline counties, in the Maryland House of Delegates.

Here’s what it was: Lionel Messi — global icon, soccer’s GOAT, the world’s most famous athlete — walking from the parking lot into a Lowe’s. That’s right, the hardware store. It sounds like one of those wacky AI hallucinations, but this is an actual, honest-to-God, real-life sponsorship.

I find this pairing to be highly inconceivable. Insulting, really.

Because let’s be honest: Lionel Messi does not shop at Lowe’s. Never has, never will. And yet, that’s what this ludicrous sponsorship is asking us to believe. I refuse.

Some celebrity athlete sponsorships make sense. Lebron and Gatorade, Shaq and Icy Hot, Charles Barkley and Subway. Others are a bit of a stretch, like Stephen Curry and CarMax, or Caitlin Clark and StateFarm. But I’ll give those the benefit of the doubt — everyone needs to rent a car from time to time, and everyone needs insurance.

But this whole business with Messi and Lowe’s, well, it’s like a sponsorship between Prince William and Waffle House, or Jeff Bezos and Burlington Coat Factory. It beggars belief.

Pop quiz: It’s Saturday morning. Where’s Messi?

Packing Chase Stadium as he dons the flamingo pink of Inter Miami? Or how about training with the reigning world champion Argentine national team for the 2026 World Cup?

Nope. He’s re-caulking the bathtub, and after that he’s firing up the weed whacker and edging the lawn. C’mon.

Here’s the deal, Lowe’s. The next time I run into Lionel Messi renting a power-washer in Aisle 4, I’ll eat crow. But until then, I refuse to buy into your chicanery for even one second. I refuse to waste any more time thinking or writing about this.

There’s something admirable about your audacity, but I’m not buying it — I’m going to Home Depot.

Zach Przystup (zprzystup@gmail.com) works for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Global Public Affairs. He is the author of the Substack “Ask Your Father,” where he writes about parenting and family life.

These supplemental benefits aren’t luxuries — they’re essential to living healthy, independent and dignified lives. Vision care helps prevent falls. Dental care can stop infections that lead to emergency room visits. Transportation ensures seniors make it to the doctor. Healthy food stipends help prevent chronic disease. Together, these benefits keep Maryland’s seniors thriving — not just surviving.

That is why the growing instability of the Medicare Advantage program should alarm every Marylander. The system that has served our seniors so well is now under serious threat.

Three years ago, I warned that this crisis was coming. Today, it has arrived. More than 50,000 of Maryland’s most vulnerable seniors are scrambling to find a Medicare Advantage plan that meets their needs. Options are dwindling. Benefits are being scaled back. And anxiety is spreading among those who can least afford uncertainty.

Last week, more than 250 Marylanders crowded into a meeting of the state’s Health Services Cost Review Commission — a gathering that normally draws little public attention. The turnout spoke volumes. Seniors and advocates across the state, particularly in Baltimore City, are deeply worried about what’s coming next.

The problem lies not with the health plans themselves but with a federal payment system that fails to account for Maryland’s unique health care model. Unlike other states, Maryland regulates hospital prices under an all-payer system — an approach that has saved money and expanded access for decades. But the federal government’s Medicare Advantage payment formula doesn’t recognize that difference. As a result, plans operating here are reimbursed at lower rates, forcing them to make painful trade-offs that threaten coverage, networks and benefits.

We cannot afford to wait for Washington to fix this. The federal government’s dysfunction and gridlock have already left too many critical issues unresolved. Meanwhile, the health and well-being of Maryland’s seniors hang in the balance.

Maryland must act — and act now.

Our state has long been a national leader in health care innovation. From our hospital rate-setting system to our groundbreaking global budgets, Maryland has never hesitated to chart its own course when Washington falters. Now we must summon that same spirit again — this time, to protect our seniors and preserve the lifeline that Medicare Advantage provides.

State leaders should bring together health plans, health care providers and senior advocates to stabilize the program in Maryland. That could mean temporary state-level solutions — such as bridge funding, targeted incentives or regulatory flexibility — that allow plans to continue offering robust benefits. At the same time, Maryland must continue pressing the federal government to revise its payment structure to reflect the realities of our health care system.

This isn’t just about policy. It’s about people — real Marylanders whose health, security and independence depend on these plans. It’s about the grandmother in West Baltimore who relies on her grocery benefit to manage diabetes. The retired bus driver in Prince George’s County who uses his vision benefit to maintain his independence. The widow on the Eastern Shore who depends on transportation services to get to her doctor. For them, Medicare Advantage isn’t an abstract debate — it’s the foundation of their daily lives.

Maryland’s seniors deserve more than the bare minimum. They deserve stability, dignity and peace of mind. They have spent their lives contributing to this state — raising families, paying taxes and strengthening communities. Now it’s our responsibility to protect them.

This is not the moment to walk away from a system that works. It’s the time for bold, compassionate leadership — the kind Maryland has always been known for. Let’s bridge the gap, safeguard these vital benefits and ensure that every senior in our state can continue to live with health, independence and hope.

Maryland has led before. We can lead again. Let’s act now — before the lifeline our seniors depend on begins to fray.

Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr. is the founder of the Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center. He was pastor of Union Baptist Church from 2007 through 2021. 

Maryland is the home of the Naval Academy, one of the nation’s top public liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News & World Report. This renowned leadership institution trains future service members in all facets of life, and after their military service, many of these young men and women return to Maryland to enter our workforce or build their own business.

As a veteran, I’m proud to represent a state setting the bar for business, health care and opportunity for all veterans. Through numerous programs and initiatives, Maryland is creating a healthy environment for veterans seeking business headquarters and a place to call home.

A federal and military hub

Maryland ranks second among the 50 states as the best for military retirees. Specifically, we rank first in quality of life and ninth in health care.

Maryland is home to approximately 360,000 veterans and another 100,000 active duty service members, reservists, National Guard and dependents. Approximately 7.6% of adults who live in Maryland are veterans. This includes more than 23,000 of the state’s federal workers, or roughly 16% of the state’s federal workforce, according to the most recent available data by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Service to our country is part of Maryland’s DNA, and we make every effort to build a state in which servicemembers and their families can not just live, but thrive for generations to come.

Securing prosperity

Economic security is essential to a thriving home, and we look to strengthen opportunities for our state’s veterans. From a business perspective, Maryland offers incentives to support the success of veteran-owned companies. For example:

The Military Personnel and Veteran-owned Small Business Loan Program provides no-interest loans for businesses owned by military reservists, veterans and National Guard personnel, and for small businesses that employ them.

To honor the work that they do and encourage the support of veteran-owned businesses, we incentivize employers to give preference to veterans when hiring. The Job Creation Tax Credit provides an income tax credit to small businesses that hire at least one qualified veteran employee to fill a net new full-time position.

The Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprise (VSBE) Program provides contracting opportunities on state-funded procurements for qualified veteran-owned small businesses. Designated agencies and departments are directed to spend at least 3% of the dollar value of their procurement contracts with certified VSBE firms.
Our commitment to veterans is backed up by the policies and programs we enact, and I am deeply proud to continue that work on behalf of everyone who served this country.

No one left behind

We take seriously the need for comprehensive veterans’ support, including health care and quality of life. There’s a reason Maryland ranked seventh in the nation for our veteran care. The state has a large number of Veterans Benefits Administration facilities per capita, ensuring veterans receive dedicated care.

A program that originated in Baltimore City, the Veterans Treatment Court, recently expanded to all of Central Maryland. The program offers veterans voluntary, court-supervised services such as treatment for drug and substance abuse, mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families also provides assistance to veterans, their dependents and survivors with several programs focused on leading military members through life’s transitions. Gov. Moore recently appointed retired U.S. Army Colonel Ed Rothstein, a strong and inspirational leader, as the agency’s new acting secretary after a 30-year military career.

But caring for veterans is about more than the volume of services. The method and attentiveness in which we do so matter. We leave no stone unturned in our mission to expand access to veteran health care, and this includes the embrace of the latest innovative technologies. For example, the Queen Anne’s County Veteran and Military Support Alliance made history recently as the first veteran service organization in the nation to leverage artificial intelligence to strengthen VA disability claim submissions. Maryland aims to provide more efficient, dependable service for our veterans.

Service is who we are

The combination of job opportunities, robust health care and access to entrepreneurship makes Maryland an attractive home for veterans, and we will never waver in our commitment to them.

Service is a core component of who we are, and central to my role at the Maryland Department of Commerce. I would not have taken on this responsibility without Maryland’s demonstrated support for veterans, and I am honored to serve alongside veteran leaders like Gov. Moore and Secretary Rothstein who embody this principle. If you are a veteran in the market for new opportunities, consider calling Maryland home. We are waiting to welcome you.

Harry Coker Jr. is secretary of the Maryland Department of Commerce.

The policy culprit is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — a cooperative agreement among 11 northeastern states that caps CO2 emissions from power plants. In practice, RGGI functions as a carbon tax: Fossil fuel plants in member states must buy allowances in proportion to their emissions.

A carbon tax can be an effective policy when applied evenly across a single market. But that’s not the case here. Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey are part of the regional power market that includes 10 other states without the RGGI tax. This mismatch pits taxed generators against untaxed competitors, breaking the PJM market design. (PJM, the regional operator responsible for keeping the lights on, is now struggling to do just that.) The numbers tell the story. Maryland’s RGGI revenue over the past four quarters was $257 million. Spread across the 16.7 terawatt-hours of electricity produced by Maryland’s fossil plants, that’s a $16 per megawatt-hour tax. By comparison, PJM’s average electricity wholesale price in 2024 was $36 per megawatt-hour. RGGI is imposing a 44% tax on gross revenue! And that tax is increasing at 7% per year.

The consequences are everywhere. Over the past decade, Maryland’s coal plants fell like dominoes, taxed into bankruptcy. For years, no one noticed until the Brandon Shores plant filed for early deactivation in April 2023. By 2023, the capacity cushion was gone. The RGGI tax began cutting into muscle — threatening reliability. PJM intervened and pushed Brandon Shores’ closure to 2029. But will that really be the end?

By 2024, roughly 10 Maryland natural gas units had filed for early retirement — another big red flag. Natural gas is the cleanest fossil option in PJM. A well-designed carbon tax would allow these plants to pass costs to ratepayers, increasing wholesale prices until cleaner, more costly technologies can compete. Instead, inept state policy is driving them out of business.

When PJM held its July 2024 capacity auction, BGE prices cleared at $19 per megawatt-hour ($466/MW-dy). A fair market found a price that was just big enough to offset the $16 RGGI tax. All of Maryland’s natural gas units rescinded their retirement notices. But the July 2025 auction was politically capped, preventing the market from finding its natural balance.

A study published in February by consulting firm TCR confirmed what engineers already knew: PJM would deliver both lower costs and lower emissions if no PJM states participated in RGGI. RGGI suppresses relatively clean in-state gas generation while encouraging imports from dirtier out-of-state coal plants. In short, Maryland’s participation in RGGI isn’t sound climate policy — it’s a regressive tax that increases regional emissions.

The warning signs are multiplying. In August, a substation outage caused a 30-minute blackout for 4,000 Howard County residents. That’s not supposed to happen. A resilient grid should withstand the loss of any one element. The blackout was another red flag — evidence of a fragile, overstressed system.

Yet Maryland remains in stubborn denial. The Maryland Energy Administration assures us that RGGI is working just fine. In one sense, it is — it’s working exactly as planned and is generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Officials claim generators are closing for “economic reasons.” That’s also true — the economics of paying a 44% tax don’t work.

This leaves two big questions: How does Maryland finance its climate programs? Has RGGI ruined the PJM capacity market in PJM-RGGI states?

RGGI is the primary source of funds for the Maryland Strategic Energy Investment Fund (SEIF). The September 2025 SEIF advisory board reported a cash balance of over $1 billion. This should be enough to support prudent climate programs for years, at least until another revenue source is established.

The deeper issue is state interference with regional markets — whether through carbon taxes or subsidies. Maryland’s Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) invited natural gas baseload plants to submit proposals by Oct. 31 for expedited approval. The response was disappointing. There were two low-cost proposals from Constellation that are essentially peaker uprates, repurposing secondhand generators. There was no substantial investment in new base load generators. NGEA provides further evidence that RGGI has corrupted the PJM market. Businessmen will no longer invest in Maryland’s natural gas plants without guarantees.

The fix is simple — cancel Maryland’s participation in RGGI with guarantees that new natural gas infrastructure will not be taxed into oblivion. Maryland should not need to subsidize natural gas baseload; just get out of the way and let the PJM markets work.

Alex Pavlak is a professional engineer, Severna Park resident and the chair of the Future of Energy Initiative, whose mission is to facilitate the development of sustainable, affordable clean energy systems.

The reason to be bullish about Baltimore is thanks in large part to our geography. We sit within the Northeast megalopolis, which is arguably the most politically and economically consequential corridor on the planet. This region drives policy, finance, media and culture. And Baltimore is right there, threaded into the spine of it all. With direct access via Amtrak and I-95, you can be in Baltimore for breakfast and D.C. for lunch or Manhattan for dinner relatively easily.

That’s where economics come into play. Simply put, the other major cities in the Northeast corridor are prohibitively expensive. In places like New York and Boston, the cost of living has spiraled so high that even well-paid professionals find themselves compromising, often forced to sacrifice on things like safety and square footage. Baltimore, by contrast, offers something rare in this region — a shot at stability without sacrificing scale. Here, a middle-class life is still within reach.

And unlike smaller cities along the Northeast corridor, such as Wilmington, Providence and Hartford, Baltimore punches above its weight. We’re a major-league city in every sense of the term. The Orioles and the Ravens are cultural institutions that anchor us on the national stage. Our airport features routes spanning the country and, in some cases, the world. We’re not just a bedroom community for some larger urban overlord. We have our own pulse, our own voice, our own identity.

I predict that as more Northeasterners feel the financial squeeze of living in cities like New York, Boston and even D.C., they’ll start looking to Baltimore as a “best of both worlds” option. To them, Baltimore will feel familiar, with its colonial architecture, rowhouse charm and East Coast grit, but without the punishing price tag. It’s close enough to feel like home, yet affordable enough to actually build one.

That’s where I think Baltimore needs to shift its focus. Local institutions like Visit Baltimore do admirable work promoting tourism, but we’ve been playing the short game. We spend too much time trying to get people to visit, and not nearly enough time trying to get them to stay. The real opportunity isn’t in weekend getaways, it’s in convincing people that Baltimore is worth investing in. That’s a different kind of campaign, and it’s one we need to start now.

And in an especially timely way, Baltimore could become a landing spot for the many New Yorkers who may flee as Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani implements his agenda. Let’s not kid ourselves — Baltimore’s taxes aren’t low. But they’re nowhere near what New York City residents would face under a full rollout of Mamdani’s platform. So instead of crying “bah humbug” about transplants, let’s flip the script. Let’s make Baltimore cool again. Let’s create a vision of a city with its own gravitational pull.

I believe in Baltimore. It’s beautifully imperfect. But it holds advantages our neighbors can’t match, even if the national spotlight hasn’t caught on yet. Over the next decade, I believe that will change. People will start to see what we’ve known all along. But only if we show them. Only if we tell our story louder, clearer and with the kind of pride that makes others want to be part of it.

Julian Baron (jbaron@baltsun.com) is a contributor to The Baltimore Sun editorial board.

By appointing a commission to study redistricting, that’s exactly what Moore did. Ferguson made a different choice and articulated the practical and moral case against redistricting, and then held his ground. His actions are a local reminder of something that’s important to remember nationally: Loud voices in the Democratic Party are embracing an extreme position on political gerrymandering, describing it as a justified response to Republican redistricting. A different group of Democrats is setting a better example.

Ferguson didn’t present his decision in terms of the ongoing debate among Democrats between the left and the center, but his decision embraced an important part of the centrist mentality. It held out hope that American politics can change, and that layering bad decisions by Democrats on top of bad decisions by Republicans doesn’t make anything better. In 2018, Democrats flipped 40 seats when they took control of Congress. Even if Republican redistricting plans work as President Donald Trump intends, Democrats don’t need to embrace redistricting to win.

With a congressional majority and their credibility intact, Democrats can marshal support from the 67% of Americans who prefer districts that aren’t gerrymandered and address the practice through federal legislation. In Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court in 2019 suggested that Congress has the power to regulate partisan districting. Rather than embrace what they know is wrong, this is a better way for Democrats to proceed.

Bill Ferguson will almost certainly face political consequences for his principled stand against gerrymandering, and it’s been a tough run nationally for centrists as politics has become a competition between MAGA and the Zohran Mamdani wing of the Democratic Party. Attention may be focused on the extremes, but moderates are the answer to solving our nation’s problems. MAGA and Mamdani can’t create the consensus we need to escape the discord defining our politics.

Electing centrists requires Americans to believe that centrist victories are possible. The political environment will look different if Trump’s policies fail to deliver the golden age he promised and some of his voters stay home in 2026 and 2028 when the president isn’t on the ballot. If ICE raids and No Kings marches mix with an underperforming economy and rising prices, Americans will be ready for a change.

Republican primary voters may even find their way to supporting a more traditional candidate. Larry Hogan’s easy victory in Maryland’s 2024 Republican primary for U.S. Senate and Spencer Cox’s governorship in Utah prove the old Republican Party isn’t gone.

On the left, the Mamdani wing feels ascendant, aided by the 66% approval rating that Democrats give socialism. That level of support is a condemnation of our system’s inability to produce results for struggling workers more than it’s a commitment to a political ideology. The centrist wing of the Democratic Party can still convince voters that its moderate policies can win elections and improve their lives.

Republicans should turn away from MAGA, and Democrats should chart a course away from socialism. Socialism is a loser in general elections and throws out too much of what’s good in our system as it tries to fix what isn’t working. The energy being generated by democratic socialists is noticeable but still pales in comparison to what centrists are accomplishing.

Governors like Josh Shapiro and Andy Beshear are popular and winning contested elections in states that are difficult for Democrats. No democratic socialist can say the same. In New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, Rebecca Bennett is leading the Democratic field in fundraising without embracing socialism and by talking comfortably about her religious faith and military service. Along with governors-elect Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, it’s centrists like these who make Democrats a national party.

Against a weak field, Mamdani only won about 50% of New York City voters. If a democratic socialist can only win half the vote in one of the nation’s most liberal cities, embracing socialism is a sure way for Democrats to lose nationally.

Rahm Emanuel is another centrist Democrat offering an alternative to the left wing of the party. His willingness to admit in the Wall Street Journal that Democrats kept schools closed for too long during COVID was a welcome dose of humility when most politicians refuse to admit their party is capable of mistakes.

Emanuel represents a segment of the Democratic Party that believes in accountability, not the part that unconditionally supports teachers unions even as test scores fall and too many of our public schools fail. His version of the Democratic Party acknowledges the tragic loss of an innocent woman on a train in North Carolina before it rationalizes the circumstances of the man who killed her. Emanuel’s Democratic Party supports policies that offer a helping hand but honor the idea of personal responsibility and provide people with tools rather than trying to guarantee outcomes.

Emanuel may be a centrist, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a fighter. The idea that the far left is the only part of the Democratic Party capable of taking on MAGA is wrong. Nearly a year into President Trump’s second term, Democrats want a candidate with strength, but they shouldn’t be fooled by tough talk and large crowds. The Mamdani wing is taking the path of least resistance by promising policies that are hard to deliver. Centrists like Shapiro, Beshear, Bennett and Emanuel are the ones showing real fortitude by refusing to embrace this easy path. Bill Ferguson did the same in Maryland when he took an honorable and practical stand against redistricting.

If Democrats want leaders capable of standing up to MAGA, they should support candidates who can withstand pressure from their own party and share hard truths with voters. That’s real strength. Coupled with centrist policies, it’s that type of honesty and fortitude that stands the best chance of returning Democrats to power.

Colin Pascal (colinjpascal@outlook.com) is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a registered Democrat and a graduate student in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C.

“The measure of a man is the depth of his convictions, the breadth of his interests and the height of his ideals.”

Sure, it has the feel of an incomplete assessment. What about, for example, the depth of one’s love, the breadth of one’s imagination or the height of one’s courage? Still, for however incomplete it may be, it serves as a powerful barometer against which we can measure ourselves.

Importantly, this unattributed inscription is an “and” statement rather than an “or.” It recognizes that one’s character is a composite of convictions, interests and ideals, not a precious good mined from a single source.

At the same time, the language of this formula does not give equal weight to each of its elements. Convictions, interests and ideals are all important, but not in equal measure. I propose that of these three, the breadth of one’s interests is the most important one because of the foundation it provides for the other two.
A breadth of interests leads one to a host of different experiences. These experiences carry with them an objectivity that only comes from exploring different perspectives, engaging with different people, navigating different places. It provides for a diversity of experience that inculcates an appreciation for a diversity of opinion. What’s more, such an openness to new experiences suggests an openness to new information, no matter how at odds it may be with a previously held position — a position previously held with less information.

A breadth of interests creates an opportunity to cross-pollinate between disciplines. Indeed, it is foundational to the idea of a liberal arts education. Its benefits, of course, are not limited to the classroom. Skills obtained in one sport, for example, can be applied to another. Once, when asked after a game how he avoided a certain tackle, Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana cited “an old basketball move.” He added: “Spin away from your man, remember?”

A breadth of interest encourages wonder, a trait that seems in such short supply among adults today. But not so with children, for whom even the mundane is an adventure. Indeed, it was Ralph Waldo Emerson in his “Self-Reliance” essay who wrote of how the greatest among us consider themselves “childlike to the genius of their age.” We would do better to make it so among ourselves as well.

None of this is to suggest that specialization isn’t important. We need specialists in medicine, for example, not enthusiastic hobbyists. The point is that specialization can be enhanced by elements beyond the immediate purview of a certain field.

A neurosurgeon who took a philosophy class in college may well approach her work differently than a peer who dedicated himself only to the study of medical textbooks. A civil engineer with an interest in history could perhaps build bridges and buildings in a way that roots development in the existing community of a given area. A governor with an interest in the world could well open up new economic opportunities for her constituents.

What’s more is that having an array of interests can lead one to abandon shallow convictions and ideals that are hardly worth the name. Anyone can hold a deep conviction about something, no matter how wrong it may be. Some, for example, continue to hold a deep conviction that the earth is flat. But even a passing interest in geography or travel or fact cuts such a conviction low.

Having high ideals is laudable. Having high ideals that don’t wither away in their first confrontation with the way of the world is perhaps even more so. Ideals detached from reality are easily obliterated and can shatter the holder of them. Ideals rooted in reality are less easily uprooted and can embolden their messenger for their resilience.

This is not a call for you to gawk at each passing whim and adopt it as a new interest. Rather, it’s a call to encourage you to explore those interests beyond the familiar to you. It’s a call for openness that in no way requires a forfeiture of one’s self, but a strengthening of one’s self. It’s a call for you to look up from your phone, to look above the immediate horizon, and explore the world around you for the interests you may discover.

If you’re looking for a place to start, you could do worse than taking in a show at Maryland Hall, that community bastion of “art of all.” If you do, I would encourage you to look up, read the inscription just above the stage, and see how well you measure up to it.

David Peduto writes from Annapolis.