Over the last few years, there has been a considerable effort to “preserve” local history and use it strategically in such debates as the location of the Talbot Boys Confederate memorial in Easton. But in today’s edition, Spy contributors Neil King, Jr. and Jeff McGuiness have sought to actually “protect” local history from being abused on a national scale.

Neil and Jeff, whose last contribution earlier this year, Statues and Fields, became one of our most widely-read stories in 2021, have returned with a tough but responsible response to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s recent false narrative of Frederick Douglass and his time living as a slave at Talbot County’s Mt. Misery estate.

The cable news star had used Douglass as part of a “good riddance” essay on the recently-deceased former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had owned the historic home while serving in Washington during the Bush years. Part of Maddow’s narrative was that the former cabinet member was, in some psychologically deranged way, perfectly A-OK in owning the property where Douglass had suffered his worst beatings, which Rachel suggested was consistent with Rumsfeld’s unforgivable use of torture with Iraqi war prisoners.  

Spoiler alert: Rachel Maddow was dead wrong about Mt. Misery. Please read their brilliant essay here. 

As many had feared, the Delta variant has found its way onto the Mid-Shore along with its deadly infection rate and increased pressure on our relatively small healthcare network. To our chagrin and complete frustration, the Spy has had to return to reporting local COVID cases. While conditions still don’t warrant daily updates, we will be analyzing those numbers every 24 hours to determine if any significant changes require public notice. I want to thank again Spy public affairs editor John Griep for his ongoing coverage of this health crisis. 

Finally, I’d like to thank the hundred or so Spy readers who contributed to our summer fundraising effort. These small donations are now the lifeblood in keeping the Spy spying on the communities we love. Speaking for our writers and volunteers, I am profoundly grateful for these gifts and their use to keep the Chestertown Spy free for all our readers. For those who still would like to contribute please feel free to do so here.

Dave Wheelan
Publisher and Executive Editor

As the Chestertown Spy enters the last few months of 2020, our collective annus horribilis, we owe a special thank you to our readers and sponsors for their kind support during what may have been the most difficult year of its existence. Like all enterprises, large or small, the COVID-19 crisis presented unique challenges to our mission. It was only due to our loyal subscribers that we have weathered this dangerous storm. We cannot express enough our gratitude. 

Jim Dissette
Editor, Chestertown Spy

I also want to give a special shoutout to Jim Dissette’s leadership as editor of the Chestertown Spy. With Jim’s return in this role, the Spy has maintained its kinder and gentler approach to the community’s public affairs while also continuing as both advocate and practitioner of the arts (he’s a poet) and our regional culture. Both the Spy and Chestertown is lucky to have him during such difficult times. Our readers can show their appreciation by supporting our fall appeal so that we can continue to fund this important role here. 

I would also be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the Spy’s public affairs editor John Greip’s tireless work in documenting the coronavirus pandemic in Chestertown and the entire Mid-Shore since March of this year. His reports have been some of the most read articles in the Spy’s history and a sober reminder that we have miles to go with this horrific disease before returning to “normal.”

The Spy is also celebrating the official launch of the Cambridge Spy today. It will be our third online publication for the Mid-Shore and the first to have a formal partnership with WHCP Community Radio. We have had a supportive relationship with WHCP ever since former NPR executive Mike Starling founded the nonprofit in 2015. This fall, we agreed to work collaboratively on original content for both radio and the internet, which we hope will be a successful model for our other Spy newspapers down the road. 

As the Spy continues to grow incrementally into other communities, I’d like to end with my own heartfelt gratitude to the people of Chestertown as we enter into our twelfth year of existence. Without the town’s early support of the Chestertown Spy and its very inexperienced publisher in 2009, this local news experiment would have simply failed. It is just another example of the generous nature of this remarkable place along the Chester River but also one that has given birth to a template that will serve the entire region for many years to come. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. 

Dave Wheelan
Publisher and Executive Editor