An Eastern red cedar shades Alexander Chaney’s headstone in Janes Cemetery, Chestertown, MD, but the tree has not kept wind, weather, and time from corroding the inscription or keeping the stone from leaning. A visitor must touch and trace the raised letters to know what they say: “Alex. Chaney. CO. A. 6 U.S.C. INF.”  During the Civil War, Alexander Chaney served in Company A of the 6th United States Colored Infantry, also known as the United States Colored Troops. 

 He could not read or write. In his Civil War pension file, at the bottom of many documents, is the printed statement, “Claimant can ____ read or write” with the word, “not,” inserted. On the signature line of sworn affidavits, someone wrote his name for him, adding the note, “His mark,” with Chaney’s “X.” (In Alexander Chaney’s pension file at the National Archives, Certificate 683990) Federal censuses also record  that he could not read or write.

That he could not read and write is not surprising. The inaccessibility to education for free Blacks in Maryland at that time is well known. His illiteracy haunts me because it meant that upon his return from war, he could not write letters, as did other Black veterans, about his wartime experiences to national newspapers like the National Tribune or the Christian Recorder (the official newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal church).  (See examples of letters in A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861-1865, edited by Edwin S. Redkey, Cambridge University Press, 1992) He could not, even if he had wanted to, write about the circumstances of his conscription in Easton in 1864. (It has been suggested that he was conscripted in order to fill a quota. See the 2013 paper, “Alexander Chaney: Soldier, Laborer, Enigma,” by Washington College student Kelly Haswell.

For a free Black man to be conscripted was yet another experience of “travestied freedom,” to borrow a term from cultural critic, Saidiya Hartman. (Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth Century America, rev. ed. 2022, originally published 1997, p. 11) We are robbed of ever knowing what he thought about his white officers (only white officers led USCT regiments) or the duties he was given. Did he hope that by serving in the U. S. military, whites would recognize him as a man, as an equal, as a citizen at the war’s conclusion? Frederick Douglass, an enthusiastic recruiter of Black men for the Union army, had that hope. (David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, Simon & Schuster, 2018, p. 391)

Chaney could not write, but he could join, and, in 1882, he and twenty-seven other Black Civil War veterans established Post 25 of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a post that they named the Charles Sumner Post, to honor the abolitionist U. S. Senator Charles Sumner.

In 1882, the GAR, a fraternal organization for Civil War veterans, was part of the national conversation about how the Civil War should be remembered. Many Americans, wanting to move on, emphasized reconciliation and reunion, but not the GAR, especially all-Black posts. Historian Robert Cook writes, “Blacks were always the staunchest proponents of an emancipation-focused Unionist narrative . . . . While African American veterans were generally poorer than their white counterparts and likely to die at an earlier age than the latter, many of them resolutely demonstrated their patriotism and manhood by joining all-Black GAR posts . . . Maryland Blacks in the late nineteenth century had no intention of relinquishing Civil War memories to their oppressors.”  (Robert J. Cook, “ ‘F—k the Confederacy’: The Strange Career of Civil War Memory in Maryland after 1865,” in The Civil War in Maryland Reconsidered, edited by Charles W. Mitchell and Jean H. Baker,  Louisiana State University Press, 2021, pp. 318-319) GAR posts were also places where members received employment help and other kinds of aid. 

In 1890, Chaney applied for a Civil War pension. Historian Holly Pinheiro writes, “[E]ach application reveals African Americans’ desire to become part of the Civil War’s national remembrance in a lasting and meaningful way . . . . Civil War pensions created yet another battleground in the fight for African Americans’ cultural citizenship.” (Holly A. Pinhiero Jr., The Families’ Civil War: Black Soldiers and the Fight for Racial Justice, The University of Georgia Press, 2022. p. 11) From his file, one learns that Private Chaney contracted “yellow fever” and “camp fever” on the march from Kinston to Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1865 and was treated in a regiment hospital. Two months later, in 1865, Chaney and his fellow soldiers were mustered out in Wilmington, North Carolina. (In his pension file at the National Archives)

His pension application accepted, he received $12 per month. Each time Congress increased the amount Civil War veterans could receive, Chaney was required to submit yet another application which involved another wearying round of affidavits and doctor examinations. At the time of his death, in 1917, his pension was $22.50. (In his pension file at the National Archives) Federal censuses recorded his occupation as “laborer” over the decades; in rural Kent County, his pension must have been an economic lifeline. 

His barely legible headstone provides neither date of birth nor date of death: no government-issued headstone for Civil War veterans did. His death certificate lists his date of birth as “unknown” and his age as “more than 70 years.” Other documents suggest he was born around 1839. He died June 8, 1917,  at 305 Calvert Street, leaving behind his wife, Elizabeth. (In his pension file at the National Archives)

That very same month and year, June 1917, the monument  honoring Kent County residents who served in the federal Second Eastern Shore Regiment, an all-white regiment, and in the Confederate Army was erected in Chestertown’s Memorial Park. Reflecting the reconciliation narrative, the inscription reads, in part, “a once divided but now reunited country.” Not until 1999, eighty-two years later, was the monument to U. S. Colored Troops erected. 

In 1921, William Burk of Chestertown applied for government-issued headstones for the unmarked graves of seven Civil War veterans. (Record Group 92: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Entry 592: Applications for Headstones in Private Cemeteries, 1909-1924 under Kent County, Maryland.) Six veterans were Black; one was white. Six headstones were to be erected in Janes Cemetery; one in Chester Cemetery. Besides Chaney’s headstone, I could only locate in Janes Cemetery the headstones of John H. Gould, Co. H 30th USCT, and Oscar M. Crozier, 54th Massachusetts Regiment, made famous in the film, “Glory.” Like Chaney, Crozier was a founder of GAR Post 25. The headstones of Gould and Crozier are still legible and upright.

We continue to debate whom to remember in our history and how to honor them. In 1879, the GAR threw its support behind federal legislation to provide headstones for the unmarked graves of Civil War veterans in private cemeteries. These veterans would be honored with “the best American marble.” One so remembered was Alexander Chaney, Co. A, 6th USCT and member of the Charles Sumner Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Kathryn Lee (Ph.D., J.D.), is the former chair of the Political Science Department and Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. Kathryn was recently profiles in the New Yorker which can be read here. She retired to Chestertown last July.

 

A young college professor rented the apartment above our garage. A narrow path separated our fenced back yard and the entrance to the apartment. We had two St. Bernard’s, Heidi and Otto. Heidi was very well mannered and respectful, Otto was gregarious and exuberant. Otto would put his front paws up on the fence and happily greet the teacher with his barking and slobbering. The tenant hurried to his door, with his back flat, edging along the wall. The poor teacher was terrified of dogs, especially Otto. My parents decided that Otto was a potential lawsuit and needed the freedom to run. Despite my offer to walk him more, Otto was given to a rancher 150 miles away. My heart was broken, Otto was my dog, my best friend.

Shortly after Otto’s departure, the roar of the Hell’s Angels motorcycles rolled into town. They started fights at a couple of bars and vandalized a camp ground resulting in their arrest. The leader of the Hell’s Angels threatened bodily harm to my Dad (who was City Attorney) after he prosecuted the gang.

There was a very loud banging at our door late one Friday night. Expecting the Hell’s Angels on the porch wanting to attack us, my Dad, with a baseball bat in hand, opened the door to …..Otto. He was muddy and exhausted but was excitedly jumping to be let in. He had walked for days to get home.

I naively thought that after that “Lassie come home” display of love, Otto would be welcomed home for good. I was wrong, the rancher was called and Otto was to be returned on Monday.

Otto was fed, bathed, and given big hugs. As he snored happily on my bed, I made plans to take Otto and run away from home. We’d leave on Sunday night after everyone had gone to bed.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. Despite being furious with my parents, I joined my siblings in celebrating my Mom. Coffee and cards in bed, gifts, flowers, brunch at The Petroleum Club, and dinner with my grandmother.

It was chilly that night as Otto and I snuck out of the house. In my thirteen year old mind I left with the thought that “they’d be sorry” when they noticed that we were missing and agree to keep Otto.

We made it two blocks to the city park, the quiet night and the scary shadows from the street lights made me grateful for my huge protector. I kept looking over my shoulder, thinking that someone in my family was searching for us, not knowing that everyone in my family was sound asleep. No one had noticed that Otto and I were gone. We could have just walked home but instead we headed to the Police station. I felt sure that the police could reason with my parents. The officer on duty seemed a bit surprised but invited Otto and me into the warm station and offered me a hot cocoa. I explained my reasons for running away as the officer nodded and took notes. He knew my Dad and offered to plead my case. Fear of being in big trouble suddenly gripped my chest as the policeman dialed my home.

My disheveled Dad arrived shortly after the phone call, he seemed more worried than angry. He hugged me and thanked the officer for his time. Later, my Mom, Otto, and I sat on my bed and had “the talk” about doing what was best for Otto.

I said my tearful goodbye to Otto the next morning and headed to school. That afternoon Otto was gone and there was a St. Bernard size grey squirrel stuffed animal sitting on my bed. I never understood the connection-was my Mom implying that I was a squirrel or was that the biggest stuffie that she could buy to replace Otto?

The Hell’s Angels returned year after year, eventually establishing a Wyoming club. Managing a food bank and keeping I-80 clean have replaced the bar fights.

Heidi lived fourteen years and was replaced by Phoebe an English Sheep Dog. Phoebe and my Mom spent Mother’s Day weekend with my family many years ago. Phoebe would put her front paws on the fence in the backyard and bark at the passerby. One day, I was out front gardening and watched as our young neighbor crossed the street before our house. When I asked him why, he told me that he was afraid of the Panda bear in our back yard.

As is the mother, so is her daughter –
Ezekiel 16:44

Although Maryland law enforcement agencies are required to provide mental health training to their officers, Abbie Ellicott said all police officers in her jurisdiction of Anne Arundel County need more.

More specifically, they need to incorporate an advanced training program known as Crisis Intervention Team, or C.I.T., which brings together law enforcement, health professionals and others when responding to mental health crises.

“Every police officer needs to know how to respond, in a respectful way, [to] a mental health crisis,” Ellicott, a county resident and psychologist in the county for 27 years, said last month during a listening session hosted by the county’s police accountability board. “How they get trained is above my paygrade, but every officer will be involved in dealing with a mental health crisis.”

Unfortunately, there remains a shortage of health professionals statewide, said Daniel Watkins, a member of the accountability board and director of behavioral health operations and nursing at Luminis Health.

Jeanette Ortiz, chair of the accountability board, which hosted its third listening session this year, said not all officers need the same level of advanced training in a specific area.

“Not all police officers should be school resource officers. Not everyone can work with children and students,” she said. “They have different skill sets. Some are patrol officers. Some are detectives. But they do have baseline [mental health] training.”

When the General Assembly approved police reform measures two years ago, it required all 23 counties and Baltimore City to form police accountability boards. Each jurisdiction had to begin establishing those boards last year to receive police misconduct complaints, provide policy advice to law enforcement agencies and help bridge the gap between police and residents.

Anne Arundel is among the first jurisdictions to implement a police accountability board and an administrative charging committee to review allegations from the public against police officers and recommend any disciplinary action.

The county’s accountability board and charging committee have held more than a dozen meetings so far, according to agendas on the county website.

Officers can appeal a decision before a local trial board, which convenes if an officer appeals a decision from the committee.

During the recent legislative session, Sen. Ron Watson (D-Prince George’s) and Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Montgomery) sponsored identical legislation that would have allowed municipalities also to create police accountability boards. However, the bills never made it out of their committees.

The police accountability board is part of the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021 — House Bill 670 — which repealed the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights and implemented other police reform measures. The law requires each county to “establish the budget and staff for a police accountability board.”

Under that law, as of July 1, accountability boards are required to hold quarterly meetings, meet with law enforcement leaders, identify trends in the disciplinary process in their jurisdiction and produce an annual report by Dec. 31. However, it doesn’t state that jurisdictions would be penalized if a board isn’t created or a report isn’t issued within a certain timeframe.

According to calendars on county and Baltimore City websites, about 10 jurisdictions’ police boards held their first meeting in the fall or this year.

Several counties such as Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles, Calvert, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s posted reports on their websites.

The Baltimore City Office of Equity and Civil Rights, which served as the designee because the 17-member police board wasn’t fully formed, posted a report that listed more than 300 police complaints filed to the city. After the City Council voted to confirm all the members, the police board held its first meeting in February.

In Dorchester, the county council appointed Paul Riordan on April 18 to serve as chair of the county’s police accountability board. Riordan represented the last person on the five-member board to be confirmed.

It’s unclear when the county’s police board will hold its first meeting because state law requires that each member must first receive training, including on ethics and implicit bias.

Jeff Powell, the county’s interim manager, admitted it’s been a struggle to get the board going because all responsibilities lay on the county. In addition, he said two people joined the County Council in December and must learn all aspects of this law.

“For smaller, or poorer counties, sometimes people don’t understand the struggles we go through. [It’s] a pretty big curve to get up and running…” Powell said last month. “We’re suffering everywhere trying to get citizens to serve on [various] boards and planning commissions. It’s just not as simple as writing the legislation and pushing it down.”

One challenge to why some counties took longer to get charging committees formed deals with training conducted by the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission, said Sarah Sample, associate policy director with the Maryland Association of Counties.

The training required committee members to participate 40 hours for an entire week, or five consecutive days.

“That was very difficult for a lot of counties to find individuals who had that kind of flexibility to be able to take off work for a week,” Sample said Thursday. “That was a bigger lift than most counties were originally expecting.”

Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery), who chairs the Judicial Proceedings Committee and helped lead to craft the police reform measures, said in interview Wednesday that state lawmakers didn’t see a need to penalize jurisdictions if they did not form accountability boards on time.

“We wanted to make sure everyone has the ample opportunity to adhere to them, but we expect everyone to adhere and move forward with the reforms that were made two years ago,” he said. “The jurisdictions had ample time, at this juncture, to develop and to staff the PABs. At this juncture, we certainly expect [county officials] be on board and serving the citizens of Maryland.”

Besides building trust between residents and police officers, Smith said the hope is for the police boards to analyze complaints that could decrease legal action and settlements because of police misconduct.

“You’ll see less lawsuits. You’ll see more trust in the community. Ultimately, it will be a cost savings and enhance trust,” he said. “These PAB’s not only receive complaints, but they make recommendations for better policing every year. That type of feedback and involvement is something we never had before. Hopefully that will lead to not only better policing practices, but a higher level of accountability and transparency. But ultimately a more fluid and strong relationship between public safety officials and the communities they serve.”

Getting groups in order

The number of police accountability board meetings held in each county varies.

Prince George’s County held its first meeting in November, but still published an annual report that lists the law enforcement agencies in the county, a summary of its board members and meetings convened last year and 43 complaints against officers filed between July 1 and Dec. 31 of 2022.

Prince George’s accountability board has a staff that consists of a program administrator, program associate and administrative aide. Marva Jo Camp, who worked as a legal advisor to other county boards and commissions, will serve as the board’s contract attorney, according to their report.

It cost the county more than $1 million to fund its police accountability board, administrative charging committee and to pay full-time workers, stipends for board members and operating and administrative costs.

The Prince George’s board held its 11th public session Wednesday.

In neighboring Montgomery County, the police accountability board convened more than two dozen times and held a listening session last month. It’s scheduled to hold its next meeting on Thursday.

“The members of our board seem to be taking their jobs very seriously…weighing in on policy matters,” said Joanna Silver, co-chair of the Silver Spring Justice Coalition’s policy committee in Montgomery County.

However, Silver said there remains a major concern that the accountability board doesn’t have an independent attorney to give legal advice.

“The same lawyer, our county attorney, who advises the police, cannot be the same one who advises the people who are overseeing the police. This doesn’t create the independent oversight that we need,” she said.

Other counties continue to work to get the policing boards and committees in order.

Garrett County’s charging committee plans to hold its first meeting at 6 p.m. May 22 to review “three incidents,” county administrator Kevin Null wrote in an email to Maryland Matters last week. He also wrote that the accountability board met March 15, but hasn’t scheduled a meeting for the second quarter.

The Allegany County Police Accountability Board held a special meeting Tuesday to appoint Sonya Cooper Lathrop to serve on the administrative charging committee.

Lee Beeman, the county’s attorney, said he’s helping out the PAB temporarily, and that the board held its first “substantial” meeting this year.

“We’re just helping out in the interim as they get things established,” he said. “There’s only two of us in the county attorney’s office. Once things are up and running, they’ll turn it over operationally and appoint additional counsel.”

Back in Anne Arundel County, its police accountability board plans to hold its fourth listening session May 22 at the Odenton Library.

The word “acting” in Moyah Panda’s executive director title could be removed by Monday if the County Council confirms her appointment. The previous director, Janssen E. Evelyn, became the county’s deputy chief administrative officer in January.

Ortiz, the county’s PAB chair, offered a message that can resonate in her jurisdiction and statewide.

“People have different thoughts on this law, but we need to be fair,” she said. “We need everybody involved.”

By William J. Ford

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is running for president. Having read about his conspiracy-laden book attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, I shook my head. What America does not need is another president who embraces bizarre theories in support of questionable ideas. In the case of RFK, Jr., he authored a book suggesting Anthony Fauci promoted vaccination as a response to the COVID pandemic in pursuit of riches. He also suggests that Fauci’s career has included inhumane testing of vaccines on children and other abuses.

Sound bizarre? Pick up a copy of The Real Anthony Fauci:  Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.  Catchy title, don’t you think? 

After learning the news of RFK’s presidential bid, I was disgusted. I do not like family political dynasties of either party, and I like conspiracy theorists even less. The impudence of Kennedy, who has never won elective office previously, running for president also rubbed me the wrong way. I thought:  Maybe Joe Biden should not be the 2024 Democratic nominee, but RFK, Jr. could get me to vote Republican, unless, of course, Trump or Trump-wanna-be DeSantis, gets that troubled party’s nod.

I started to write a column that I envisioned would include three or four quotes from Kennedy’s despicable book. I also thought I would review the rest of his personal history and highlight a few negatives, things like his heroin use as a youth or the fact that Steve Bannon, Trump’s political strategist, encouraged him to run. 

My research led me to change my mind. I still do not want RFK, Jr. anywhere near the White House, but I found myself regretting that somehow, he had bought into ludicrous anti-vaxxer theories which he documented in a book. I wonder about the sanity of Mr. Kennedy. What if he were elected president, bought into more conspiracy theories on a multitude of subjects and took the country into left field? 

My regrets about Kennedy’s disqualifying attempt to become the nation’s leading anti-vaxxer came after I read about his work on the environment. He served as a senior environmental attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He founded the Waterkeeper Alliance. He has championed environmental justice and human rights. In short, there is a lot to like in Kennedy’s background, especially if you live in an environmentally fragile area like the Eastern Shore.

It is not likely that Mr. Kennedy’s presidential aspirations will go far. He has too much baggage. The Kennedy political dynasty is dead. Whatever benefit RFK Jr. will get from his famous name and looking a lot like his tragically assassinated father will be offset by the public reading about his attack on Dr. Fauci. (I say reading about his attacks on Fauci rather than reading the book because the fewer copies of The Real Dr. Fauci that make it into circulation, the better.)

I dream of a young, honest, Democrat emerging to take the baton from Joe Biden and carrying out his work on the environment, social justice, and a lot more. Ideally, someone will emerge who has had a career in environmental law similar to RFK, Jr’s. With that background, the new leader of the party may be able to put the fight against climate change where it should be—at the top of our national priorities.

I despair of such a candidate coming forward. Remember the presidential campaign of Washington State Governor Jay Inslee? He thought he could build a campaign on a foundation of fighting climate change. Even progressive Democrats walked away, preferring candidates highlighting “more immediate” policy proposals, like free college or just getting Donald Trump out of the White House.

I will follow Kennedy’s campaign once he formally announces he is in the race later this month. I hope he will highlight his work on the environment rather than his work in attacking a man who, by promoting vaccines, may have saved my life.  Maybe he can get other 2024 candidates to start taking climate change more seriously.

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, birds, and other subjects.

 

It is time to spread awareness and understanding of Parkinson’s Disease. This is a chronic condition affecting approximately one million people in the U.S. This is more than multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig’s disease combined. Every year in our country 60,000 people are diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

The importance of National Parkinson’s Awareness Month is that it helps people to learn more about the symptoms, causes and treatments of this disease. Knowing more about Parkinson’s can help to work towards more research discoveries and treatments.

A few facts:

Men are more likely to have Parkinson’s than women. 

Symptoms include tremors, balance issues, rigidity, freezing, microphagia (writing that gets smaller in size), mask-like expression (due to a reduction in involuntary facial movement) and problems with motor control.

The causes of Parkinson’s are still unknown, but researchers believe it is a combination of genetics and environmental factors. Though only 15-25% of people with Parkinson’s have a relative with the disease, those with first degree relatives have a slightly elevated risk of developing the disease. Environmental toxins may be a greater risk than any other factor. Rural living, well water, manganese and pesticides have been associated with an elevated risk of Parkinson’s. Scientists are quick to emphasize that although certain neurotoxins may be a risk factor, no single exposure to a particular chemical has been directly pinpointed as a cause.

Treating Parkinson’s disease is more about managing symptoms and slowing the progression than it is about “curing” this disease.

One thing we know for sure is that exercise is medicine for people living with Parkinson’s. Exercise is a physiological tool that protects neurons at risk or compromised, and guides brain health, protection, repair, and adaptation after a neurodegenerative process occurs…otherwise known as neuroplasticity. Once triggered by exercise, these physiological mechanisms have the potential to slow disease progression!

If you or someone you know lives with Parkinson’s Disease and have not yet investigated an exercise program, I encourage you/them to check out our local YMCA Rock Steady Boxing for Parkinson’s Disease. This program was developed specifically for Parkinson’s disease, by someone who lives with it. The premise being that forced intense movement, like those of a boxer, will in fact slow the progression of many of the symptoms including bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability. Boxers train hand-eye coordination, speed of movement, flexibility, balance, core strength, agility, and rapid muscle fire. All these training skills are effective in slowing disease progression.

This program is highly effective and promotes social interaction and improved mood.

And it is just plain fun!

Susan Covey is the  Acts Bayleigh Chase Fitness Director and Rock Steady Boxing Coach

Seventy seven years ago, George Kennan, then US ambassador to Moscow and America’s premier authority on Russia and the USSR, sent the Secretary of State what is now known as the Long Telegram. Its 5000 words contained deep analyses supporting his recommendation for a US strategy of Soviet containment. It became the foundation of American policy towards USSR/Russia for decades. Today, Kennan, who died in 2005 at the age of 101, is considered one of America’s foremost diplomats. 

At the time, the Soviets were occupying Central and Eastern Europe, including half of Germany and its prewar capital, Berlin. Western Europe was in ruins, its economies wrecked and America was the sole intact global superpower left standing. But, then the Soviets got nukes.

A confounding question has puzzled minds in Washington and other world capitals since February 24, 2022: why did Putin, absent any provocation, invade Ukraine?  And closely related,  why did he believe victory would be his in 5-6 days? The next 12 months dramatically demonstrated, at great human, political and economic cost, how wrong he was. 

However, despite the battlefield failures and the very public and nationally embarrassing performance of Russian forces, he presses on. The West, under US leadership, has galvanized NATO and the EU to oppose the invasion and to provide very substantial military and financial support to Kiev and its  impressive President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin’s reversion to 18th Century empire building, has also energized two long-time European neutrals, Finland and Sweden, to apply for NATO membership.  

Kennan’s deeply informed comments on Russia, Stalin and their attitudes towards themselves and the West could help us understand, what in hell Putin is doing and why.

The most important date during these intervening 33 years is 12/26/1991: the day the Soviet Union collapsed from endemic corruption and institutional disintegration. It had a profound and lasting impact on Putin and others of his generation and contributed to his 2/24/22 decision. He has also repeatedly shared his opinion that: “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century.”

And for him, it probably was.  Within months, he went from being a feared KGB Lt. Col., in Soviet occupied East Germany, to driving a taxi in St. Petersburg.  But, not for long. 

He has served as Russia’s prime minister or president since 1999. And since assuming power, he has set about pursuing one goal openly and another not so much. 

Early on, Putin toured western European capitals assuring his hosts he was a practical man, who simply wanted to rebuild his country and maintain the post WWII peace. He was quite successful to the point that while addressing the German Bundestag (parliament), he was interrupted frequently with standing ovations. 

His second, quieter, but more honest goal, was to reassemble the Soviet Union, by force if necessary: Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and now Ukraine. If successful in the latter, likely future re-conquest targets could include some former Soviet Satellites. However, a number have become NATO members, which might dissuade him from military aggression, but not from the traditional Soviet practice of political meddling and active subversion. 

Various US and European “modernizing” impulses pursued different visions of the 145 million Russians: (1) paying customers and (2) future voters in a democratic Russia. Dozens of American Government representatives and others from mega corporations, international organizations, think-tanks, major law firms, high-end retailers, consultants of all sorts, eagerly took up residence in Russia to begin their work. 

But, capitalism only truly arrived when thousands of young Russians lined up in Moscow for their first Big Mac. 

By 2009, urban Russians could buy in local stores, virtually any item available in the West. The advent of digital communication and advertising spread this global market beyond the large Russian cities, and acquired millions of new users/buyers, particularly those who were 18 and under on 12/26/91.  Snapchat and Telegram and Facebook and Twitter spread global lives across all 11 time zones.

Despite all the apparent westernization, optimism and excited Western assumptions about the new Russia, Putin and friends were privately taking care of business. Many of his old KGB colleagues and others, all well equipped with useful contacts, knowledge, great confidence and forceful ambitions, pursued wealth and luxury by “acquiring” control over previously state owned natural resources and major industries.  Among all these oligarchs and newly rich sycophants, Putin has emerged as the wealthiest of them all. A model kleptocratic government.  

Putin’s razor sharp KGB instincts continued to function efficiently and he soon perceived that the new glitterati could threaten his rule. Believing they needed to be sternly reminded who the new czar was, he found the perfect exemplar-target: the richest man in the new Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Unfortunately, the latter’s $15 Billion fortune had dulled his sensitivities to current reality: the old top-down Soviet power architecture may have new labels, but hadn’t changed. Then, he made a fatal error: he founded a reform minded civil society organization. 

Khodorkovsky’s enormous petroleum firm suddenly lost  its value and then he himself was arrested, as he exited his private jet. He remained in prison until German intervention convinced Putin to pardon him in 2013. He and his family now live in exile in London (on only $500 million). 

Political opponents or potentials are dead or in jail. Others have been poisoned, died or survived and are serving long terms in prison (Alexei Navalny). Senior business leaders whose loyalty Putin doubts, have fallen out of hospital windows. These tactics resemble Stalin’s,  although he and earlier czars, preferred the feared , but more convenient, Lubyanka Prison and its torture chambers.   

Excerpts from the Long Telegram:

Inbred fear of the West: 

• “USSR (Russia) still lives in antagonistic capitalist encirclement with which in the long run there can be no permanent peaceful coexistence.

• Everything must be done to advance relative strength of USSR (Russia) as factor in international society. Conversely, no opportunity most be missed to reduce strength and influence, collectively as well as individually, of capitalist powers.

• At bottom of Kremlin’s neurotic view of world affairs is traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity. Originally, this was insecurity of a peaceful agricultural people trying to live on vast exposed plains in a neighborhood of fierce nomadic peoples.

• To this was added, as Russia came into contact with economically advanced West, fear of more competent, more powerful, more highly organized societies in that area. But this latter type of insecurity was one which afflicted Russian rulers rather than Russian people.”

• “And they have learned to seek security only in patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of rival power, never in compacts and compromises with it.

Tactics/Strategy towards the West 

• Undermine general political and strategic potential of major western powers. Efforts will be made in such countries to disrupt national self confidence, to hamstring measures of national defense, to increase social and industrial unrest, to stimulate all forms of disunity. 

• All persons with grievances, whether economic or racial, will be urged to seek redress not in mediation and compromise, but in defiant violent struggle for destruction of other elements of society. Here poor will be set against rich, black against white, young against old, newcomers against established residents, etc.

Tactics/Strategy towards the US

• Soviets (Russians) are a political force committed fanatically to the belief that with the US there can be no permanent modus vivendi.
  
• It is desirable and necessary that the internal harmony of US society be disrupted, and their traditional way of life destroyed, the international authority of the US be broken, if Soviet power is to be secure. “

To grasp Kennan’s current relevance in 2023, 77 years after enormous changes in Russia and the world, two facts are essential: Putin’s mindset never left the USSR or the KGB and is still affected by Russia’s imperial past. (2) Nor did his 65+ generation of males move on after the demise of the Soviet Union, particularly those who had served in its military and intelligence services.  

And those younger Kremlin acolytes learned the Khodorkovsky Lesson well.  They owe their powerful positions and wealth (and lives) to him, as did their predecessors to Stalin and Nicholas II. 

Kennan’s total Immersion in Russia is Unique

Kennan’s credibility on Russia, Russians and the Soviet Union was enormous in 1946 and still is, because  he had submerged himself  for many years in all things Russian to gain a very deep grasp of the Russian people, their history, their rulers and the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution and Communism. For Kennan, Stalin represented a less elegant continuation of the absolute, harsh rule of the czars.  And Putin must have seemed a similar, familiar figure to Kennan.    

Kennan spoke bilingual Russian and could pass as a native.  He traveled throughout the Soviet Union, early on, not as a foreign diplomat, but as another Russian. In short, he was intensely fascinated  with Russia and acquired a depth of knowledge few non-Russians had or have.  

What Kennan’s Long Telegram does for us, is to remove the necessity of trying to make sense of Putin’s actions, because we can’t. Kennan, however, drew on his amazing database,  formed from decades of Russian experiences and Soviet interactions and provides us the motivations and underlying emotions that make sense to Putin and more broadly, to the older Russian men who share his nostalgia for an imaginary past. 

The potential existential challenge Putin faces lies with those Russian men under 50, who liked 21st Century Russia and don’t want to be dragooned to die in Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of these men and women have left Russia and are now living and working from Bali to Bratislava.  They formed the foundation for a future modern Russia. They are entrepreneurs, highly educated, doctors, nurses, business owners and high tech specialist, particularly in AI. And few have any intention of returning to a reactionary, repressive Homeland.  

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

It was a typical day for Republicans on the floor of the House of Delegates on Tuesday.

GOP lawmakers launched lengthy debates on gun regulations, transportation funding and tax breaks for retirees, only to see the latter two discussions lead to predictably resounding defeats as they attempted to add amendments to Democratic bills. The third debate, on guns, will continue into Wednesday, but is likely to result in the same lop-sided futility.

For many Republicans, it was all in a day’s work — a chance to shine a spotlight on what they characterize as Democratic overreach and to put Democrats on record supporting policies that the GOP will invariably use on the campaign trail and in fundraising appeals.

But freshman Republican Del. Christopher Eric Bouchat of Carroll County is suggesting that such a strategy has its limits. He asserts that Republicans have become too performative during floor debates in the House and that they run the risk of obsolescence in a chamber where they are badly outnumbered.

That lament has angered several of Bouchat’s more senior colleagues — who characterize his stance as a form of surrender.

The strategic debate was a topic of heated discussion in the weekly House Republican Caucus meeting Tuesday morning and could come up again when the caucus gathers Wednesday morning. To some Republicans, the messenger was just as objectionable as the message.

The internecine conflict started when Bouchat, a conservative who arrived in Annapolis this year after serving a term on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, sent a letter to his GOP colleagues last week, questioning their tactics and urging them to “look inward for corrective measures that increase our future success rates.”

Bouchat, a self-proclaimed political nerd and one of the original Republican plaintiffs who challenged Maryland’s congressional district map in court following the 2010 Census, observed that many of his fellow Republicans have become “show horses” on the House floor, offering meaningless messaging amendments to bills that have no chance of passing or of influencing the broader State House debate.

“We as a party have limited resources with 39 proverbial troops opposing 102 troops in military terms,” Bouchat wrote in the letter. “Any individual with officer training in combat will tell you it is a waste of resources, energy, and life to continuously execute a frontal assault upon a superior entrenched force, yet that is what we keep doing only to be repulsed and laughed at…If we were a military unit our commander would be court martialed. I feel we are stuck in a perpetual loop of failure.”

In an interview, Bouchat said he believes that committees, rather than the House floor, are the appropriate venues for lengthy debates over legislation. “Once it’s out of committee, it’s a done deal.”

He added that by rhetorically torching Democratic proposals, Republicans are making it more difficult to work with their colleagues who control the agenda and the purse strings in Annapolis. Democrats, he noted, “won a clear and decisive victory” in Maryland last fall.

Bouchat, who owns a welding and metal fabricating business, likens the situation to a workplace: An employee who routinely irritates the boss isn’t going to be able to credibly ask for a raise. And 95% of the Republican attempts to amend a bill, he calculated, are defeated.

“If I had an employee who was successful 5% of the time, I’d fire them,” Bouchat said.

The GOP intramural debate comes as both houses of the General Assembly become steadily more polarized. While the level of partisan rancor isn’t anywhere near what it is on Capitol Hill, the fact is that while conservative Democrats held sway for decades in Annapolis until very recently, the Democratic caucuses have moved steadily to the left over the last few elections, while the Republican caucuses have moved to the right. True ideological moderates in both parties are hard to come by.

And with supermajorities in both chambers, Democrats can largely move their agenda without paying the Republicans much heed — especially with Democrat Wes Moore now serving as governor.

Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery), who served until recently as House parliamentarian and fought fiercely with Republicans over procedural and ideological questions during the past few legislative sessions, said House Democrats are still willing to work with their GOP colleagues.

“We are bringing out Republican bills and they’re gaining support, especially when the [Republican] members are working to build relationships,” she said.

According to several House Republicans, Bouchat’s letter became part of the agenda during the 75-minute GOP caucus meeting Tuesday.

“I would say we had a lively discussion with respect to people’s ideas and how best to serve our constituents and our state,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Allegany), as lawmakers walked from the caucus to the House floor session. “I would suggest that [Bouchat’s letter] was not well-received by his colleagues, but there won’t be any consequences” for the freshman lawmaker.

Buckel said House Republicans take different approaches when it comes to floor debates: Some speak and offer amendments frequently, others do so occasionally, and many choose to stay silent.

“There’s no right strategy,” he said. “Everybody is going to do what they think is best for their communities and the state.”

In interviews as the caucus meeting ended, two firebrand conservatives in the GOP caucus, Del. Matt Morgan (R-St. Mary’s) and Del. Mark Fisher (R-Calvert), suggested that Bouchat’s strategy essentially amounted to surrender.

“I don’t think the Republicans should be waving the white flag,” Morgan said.

Fisher added: “You have three things down here: Your voice, your vote and your reputation. He wants to give up his voice.”

Del. Carl Anderton (R-Lower Shore), who works more closely with Democrats than many of his colleagues, took issue with both the substance and tone of Bouchat’s letter.

“You just got here,” Anderton said. “You’re calling people who’ve been here a lot longer losers when you haven’t really seen the process yet?”

GOP strategy on display

During a three-hour House session Tuesday, as lawmakers cycled through dozens of bills, Republicans peppered Democratic floor leaders with questions on several measures. Most dramatically, Republicans used a bill by Del. Mark Edelson (D-Baltimore City) that would change the way fare hikes are calculated for Maryland Transit Administration bus and rail service, to remove a provision in state law that raises the state gasoline tax annually based on the Consumer Price Index. The amendment, introduced by Morgan, was hotly debated for about 20 minutes.

Several Republicans argued that the legislature shouldn’t consider a bill that effectively decouples transit fares from the inflation rate without doing the same for motorists — especially during a period of persistent inflation, when a significant gas tax hike on July 1 is inevitable. Morgan estimated that the state could be collecting an additional $62.4 million in gas taxes then.

“We talk a lot about equity in this body,” Buckel said. “Equity to me means fairness. It means treating people in an equally situated way.”

Fisher warned that tax increases are “crushing the middle class in Maryland.”

Defending Edelson’s bill, Del. Marc Korman (D-Montgomery), the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and the Environment, said transit fares and gas taxes are significantly different, because the state’s Transportation Trust Fund, which is replenished with gas tax revenues, is so big.

“It’s really not comparable to what we’re talking about in terms of scale,” he said, adding that the trust fund could be severely depleted and major transportation projects jeopardized if the amendment went through.

But Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) boiled the debate down to its political essence.

“So a vote for your amendment,” Szeliga asked Morgan, “is a vote to tell the citizens of Maryland that we don’t want their gas taxes to go up on July 1?”

“Yes,” Morgan replied. “And a vote against this amendment says I support a $62.4 million tax increase.”

Nevertheless, the amendment failed on a 38-90 vote. Two Democrats — Dels. Brian Crosby (St. Mary’s) and Chou Wu (D-Howard) voted for it. Bouchat was the lone Republican to vote against it. He said in an interview that the floor debate essentially illustrated everything he had written about in his letter to colleagues.

Urging Republicans to be more outspoken

But the day’s drama did not end there. About an hour after the floor session came to an end Tuesday, six of the most vocal conservatives in the House Republican Caucus — Fisher, Morgan, Szeliga and Dels. Lauren Arikan (Harford), Brian Chisholm (Anne Arundel) and Robin Grammer (Baltimore County) — issued a statement criticizing Bouchat and rebutting the points in his missive. Arikan, who serves with Bouchat on the Judiciary Committee and on the Criminal Law subcommittee, said she “cannot recall a single time he spoke up in an attempt to impact the legislation in our committee.”

The statement blasted Bouchat for voting against Morgan’s amendment on the gasoline tax, saying he “failed a basic litmus test of Conservatism.”

The six Republicans also took their GOP colleagues to task for not speaking up more on the House floor.

“It deeply concerns us that this erroneous concept of rarely or never standing on the floor to articulate Republican and Conservative ideals appears to be the new accepted norm,” they wrote.

The lawmakers argued that the House GOP hit its modern-era high water mark — 50 seats in the 141-member chamber — after speaking out against Democratic taxes and spending during the 2014 election.

“Our communities and voters did not send us here to be the handmaidens of the Maryland Democrat Party,” the six Republicans wrote. “We must stand in solidarity and combat the Left’s ever-growing radical agenda. Our unified vision, unwavering stance, and proactive leadership will allow us to maintain our values against those who seek to destroy them.”

Bouchat said he agreed that Republicans should vigorously contest the Democrats in the next legislative elections, which are 3 1/2 years away, and that political opportunities may present themselves for the GOP then. But for now, he said, “we need to stop annoying them.”

By Josh Kurtz