Editorial

Douglass: On the Cause of the Civil War and Honoring Rebel Soldiers

June 15, 2020 by John Griep 2 Comments

As Talbot County again debates the propriety of maintaining a statue on the grounds of the county courthouse to soldiers who fought for the Confederate States of America, it may be illustrative to read the words of Frederick Douglass concerning the cause of the war and whether rebel soldiers deserved the same honors as Union veterans and war dead.

Douglass, arguably the greatest native of Talbot County, was born a slave and escaped north to became a world-renowned orator and statesman and a leading abolitionist.

In speeches during and after the Civil War, Douglass made it clear that slavery was the reason for the rebellion of southern states against the United States of America.

In a lecture delivered repeatedly in the winter of 1863-1864, Douglass said:

“We are now wading into the third year of conflict with a fierce and sanguinary rebellion, one which, at the beginning of it, we were hopefully assured by one of our most sagacious and trusted political prophets would be ended in less than ninety days; a rebellion which, in its worst features, stands alone among rebellions a solitary and ghastly horror, without a parallel in the history of any nation, ancient or modern; a rebellion inspired by no love of liberty and by no hatred of oppression, as most other rebellions have been, and therefore utterly indefensible upon any moral or social grounds; a rebellion which openly and shamelessly sets at defiance the world’s judgment of right and wrong, appeals from light to darkness, from intelligence to ignorance, from the ever-increasing prospects and blessings of a high and glorious civilization to the cold and withering blasts of a naked barbarism; a rebellion which even at this unfinished stage of it counts the number of its slain not by thousands nor by tens of thousands, but by hundreds of thousands; a rebellion which in the destruction of human life and property has rivaled the earthquake, the whirlwind and the pestilence that waketh in darkness and wasteth at noonday.

It has planted agony at a million hearthstones, thronged our streets with the weeds of mourning, filled our land with mere stumps of men, ridged our soil with two hundred thousand rudely formed graves and mantled it all over with the shadow of death. A rebellion which, while it has arrested the wheels of peaceful industry and checked the flow of commerce, has piled up a debt heavier than a mountain of gold to weigh down the necks of our children’s children. There is no end to the mischief wrought. It has brought ruin at home, contempt abroad, has cooled our friends, heated our enemies and endangered our existence as nation.

Frederick Douglass

“Now, for what is all this desolation, ruin, shame suffering and sorrow? Can anybody want the answer? Can anybody be ignorant of the answer? It has been given a thousand times from this and other platforms. We all know it is slavery. Less than a half a million of Southern slaveholders — holding in bondage four million slaves — finding themselves outvoted in the effort to get possession of the United States government, in order to serve the interests of slavery, have madly resorted to the sword — have undertaken to accomplish by bullets what they failed to accomplish by ballots. That is the answer.”

— From www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1864-frederick-douglass-mission-war

During the Decoration Day ceremony on May 30, 1871, at Arlington National Cemetery, Douglass continued to remind the nation that the war had been fought over slavery. He also made clear his thoughts that rebel soldiers — who had fought for slavery — should not receive the same honors as Union soldiers — who had fought for their nation and for liberty and justice.

Honoring the “Unknown Loyal Dead” buried at the cemetery, Douglass said:

Those unknown heroes whose whitened bones have been piously gathered here, and whose green graves we now strew with sweet and beautiful flowers, choice emblems alike of pure hearts and brave spirits, reached, in their glorious career that last highest point of nobleness beyond which human power cannot go. They died for their country.

No loftier tribute can be paid to the most illustrious of all the benefactors of mankind than we pay to these unrecognized soldiers when we write above their graves this shining epitaph.

When the dark and vengeful spirit of slavery, always ambitious, preferring to rule in hell than to serve in heaven, fired the Southern heart and stirred all the malign elements of discord, when our great Republic, the hope of freedom and self-government throughout the world, had reached the point of supreme peril, when the Union of these states was torn and rent asunder at the center, and the armies of a gigantic rebellion came forth with broad blades and bloody hands to destroy the very foundations of American society, the unknown braves who flung themselves into the yawning chasm, where cannon roared and bullets whistled, fought and fell. They died for their country.

We are sometimes asked, in the name of patriotism, to forget the merits of this fearful struggle, and to remember with equal admiration those who struck at the nation’s life and those who struck to save it, those who fought for slavery and those who fought for liberty and justice.

I am no minister of malice. I would not strike the fallen. I would not repel the repentant; but may my “right hand forget her cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,” if I forget the difference between the parties to that terrible, protracted, and bloody conflict.

If we ought to forget a war which has filled our land with widows and orphans; which has made stumps of men of the very flower of our youth; which has sent them on the journey of life armless, legless, maimed and mutilated; which has piled up a debt heavier than a mountain of gold, swept uncounted thousands of men into bloody graves and planted agony at a million hearthstones — I say, if this war is to be forgotten, I ask, in the name of all things sacred, what shall men remember?

The essence and significance of our devotions here to-day are not to be found in the fact that the men whose remains fill these graves were brave in battle. If we met simply to show our sense of bravery, we should find enough on both sides to kindle admiration. In the raging storm of fire and blood, in the fierce torrent of shot and shell, of sword and bayonet, whether on foot or on horse, unflinching courage marked the rebel not less than the loyal soldier.

But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause. We must never forget that victory to the rebellion meant death to the republic. We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers. If today we have a country not boiling in an agony of blood, like France, if now we have a united country, no longer cursed by the hell-black system of human bondage, if the American name is no longer a by-word and a hissing to a mocking earth, if the star-spangled banner floats only over free American citizens in every quarter of the land, and our country has before it a long and glorious career of justice, liberty, and civilization, we are indebted to the unselfish devotion of the noble army who rest in these honored graves all around us.

— Text of Douglass speech from Philip S. Foner and Yuval Taylor, “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings.”

Douglass also warned of the “Lost Cause” mythology developed after the war that the rebels had been fighting for states’ rights, not to preserve slavery. And he challenged the laudatory obituaries about General Robert E. Lee in 1870 and opposed any monuments honoring Lee or supporting the Lost Cause interpretation.

In 1989, historian David Blight wrote this about Douglass:

In the midst of Reconstruction, Douglass began to realize the potential power of the Lost Cause sentiment. Indignant at the universal amnesty afforded ex-Confederates, and appalled by the national veneration of Robert E. Lee, Douglass attacked the emerging Lost Cause.

“The spirit of secession is stronger today than ever …,” Douglass warned in 1871. “It is now a deeply rooted, devoutly cherished sentiment, inseparably identified with the ‘lost cause,’ which the half measures of the Government towards the traitors have helped to cultivate and strengthen.”

He was disgusted by the outpouring of admiration for Lee in the wake of the general’s death in 1870.

“Is it not about time that this bombastic laudation of the rebel chief should cease?” Douglass wrote. “We can scarcely take up a newspaper . . . that is not filled with nauseating flatteries of the late Robert E. Lee.”

At this early stage in the debate over the memory of the war, Douglass had no interest in honoring the former enemy.

“It would seem from this,” he asserted, “that the soldier who kills the most men in battle, even in a bad cause, is the greatest Christian, and entitled to the highest place in heaven.” …

As for proposed monuments to Lee, Douglass considered them an insult to his people and to the Union. He feared that such monument building would only “reawaken the confederacy.”

Moreover, in a remark that would prove more ironic with time, Douglass declared in 1870 that “monuments to the Lost Cause will prove monuments of folly.”

As the Lost Cause myth sank deeper into southern and national consciousness, Douglass would find that he was losing ground in the battle for the memory of the Civil War.

— Taken from http://blogs.dickinson.edu/hist-288pinsker/files/2012/01/Blight-article.pdf

In 1894, in one of his last public speeches, Douglass continued to make the case that the American public should not forget that the rebels fought to preserve slavery and waged war against the nation.

“Fellow citizens: I am not indifferent to the claims of a generous forgetfulness, but whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery; between those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it.”

Among those debating the issue today, some still continue to believe that a major cause of the war was states’ rights, and not slavery. This view was expounded by Southerners after their decisive loss as part of the “Lost Cause” mythology of the war that included a romanticized view of the Old South and slavery itself. (For a synopsis of the Lost Cause ideology, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy#:~:text=The%20Lost%20Cause%20narratives%20typically,superior%20military%20skill%20and%20courage)

Among those spreading the revised narrative after the war was Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederate States of America.

Yet Stephens — just a few weeks before rebel troops started the war by firing on American soldiers at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C. — made it absolutely clear that he agreed with Douglass: The cause of the war was slavery and the Confederate states were founded on the idea of white supremacy.

In what became known as the Cornerstone Speech, Stephens — after highlighting what he cited as several improvements in the Confederate constitution over the U.S. Constitution — said:

The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists amongst us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the “rock upon which the old Union would split.” He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the “storm came and the wind blew.”

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. [Applause.] This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

— Excerpt from https://www.owleyes.org/text/the-cornerstone-speech/read/text-of-stephenss-speech#root-38

Editorial: An Unnecessary and Ill-Timed Retreat from Core Values

December 2, 2019 by The Chestertown Spy 14 Comments

Maybe it can be taken for granted at times, but for 238 years Washington College has been a remarkable beacon of enlightenment and tolerance for the Eastern Shore.

Born as a testament of George Washington’s character and citizenship, the 10th oldest college in the country has been a source of exceptional scholarship and distinguished alumni fulfilling the founders’ vision to provide to the new nation citizens and leaders with the gift of critical thinking. The entire Eastern Shore is and should always be grateful for its existence, proud of its accomplishments, and supportive of its centuries-old mission.

The Spy certainly does so. Indeed, to be fair, this publication is a product of Washington College alumni. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Spy always has had, and will continue to have, a disproportionate bias in Washington College’s favor.

Nonetheless, the Spy must fulfill its own mission and speak critically about the institution when warranted. In fact, a review of our editorials will show a consistent concern for its future, including challenges with leadership as it refines its mission for the 21st Century. We take no pleasure in these commentaries.

But the events and circumstances leading up to and after the institution’s abrupt cancellation of a student production of “The Foreigner” are alarming.

The use of the word “institution” is intentional here. While there is always an opportunity to point fingers at decision-makers, it is rarely helpful to the school or the community. The administrators and faculty involved in this rushed decision were well-intended. It is best to recognize that all organizations or governments (including the Spy) are capable of systemic folly of the highest order at times.

This was one of those times.

Published in 1983, the play tells a moral tale about confronting xenophobia and racism in a rural Georgia hotel against a backdrop of white supremacy and the KKK who work to take control of the lodge. The protagonists take the moral high ground and vanquish the evil ones from their lives in the final scene.

In short, if one was looking for smoke to yell “fire” in a crowded theater, this would not make the list. The College made a capital error in not allowing the play to be performed as scheduled.

The word folly may be too generous a term when recounting a series of events that led to this act of academic censorship. All of which was compounded by the fact that the play itself stands up to bigots and bullies. It stretches the intellectual imagination to see how this play would be any different from a performance of To Kill a Mockingbird with its racially charged scenes or the equally sinister Nazi characters in The Sound of Music.

Equally discouraging was the rationale that the play’s performance had become a safety issue, when the cancellation came several days before confirmed reports that a driver of a pickup truck had yelled racial slurs at students. The reports appeared to be retroactively conflated as a justification to cancel the play.

In the end, Washington College’s decision to cancel the play may be the byproduct of a complicated world of increasingly heightened political and cultural sensitivity. Nonetheless, censorship, in this case, was a sign of an institution out of sync with its core values. Every time censorship is used, it draws into question a school’s genuine commitment to the liberal arts’ highest purpose to have students think critically.

Adding to this botched process, the College has not provided any serious explanation as to why the concerns about the play were not raised during the 23-months between approval and the point at which the director, cast and crew were ready for dress rehearsal. It seems a substantial misuse of student and staff time and college treasure.

Beyond the fact that the College canceled the wrong play for the wrong reasons, it was the worst kind of intellectual retreat at the worst of times. As the school was shutting down The Foreigner, the nightly news was filled with footage of college students in Hong Kong bravely fighting in street battles to protect their right to free speech. It also came at a time when UC-Berkeley safely allowed the arch-conservative Ann Coulter to speak on campus.

As Washington College picks up the pieces from this most unfortunate moment, there is hope its leaders will share with its community what it has learned and what it must do to reinforce its commitment to liberal arts education and the training of free-thinking citizens.

“Censorship and Abuse of Power” — WC Parent Decries Foreigner Cancellation

November 12, 2019 by Spy Desk 6 Comments

Provost DiQuinzio,
Dean Feyerherm;

Your outrageous decision to cancel the senior capstone production of the award-winning play ‘The Foreigner” at the very moment that the students were about to perform the dress rehearsal was rash, ill-justified and shameful, bringing dishonor to yourselves and to the academic institution that you represent. I am writing to you, and copying the President of the College and the Chair of the Board of Visitors & Governors, to demand a public apology to the theater students and faculty who have been traumatized and victimized by your actions.

Your November 8, 2019 email to parents and the all-campus email that preceded it only compounded your error and illustrate that your actions were made in ignorance and in haste. You were unfamiliar with the play and cannot have taken the time to read and discuss it with those in the theater department who have, or to understand the way that the issues it raises about bigotry and intolerance are addressed in this production. You have now joined a single institution – a high school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota – in censoring and cancelling production of Larry Shue’s award-winning play, which continues to win acclaim for its numerous revivals since its Off-Broadway debut in November 1984.

Your glib statement that parents should understand your decision in the larger context of an ongoing and evolving effort “to be a community that prioritizes inclusiveness and the ability to articulate one’s perspective with an effort toward finding greater understanding, effecting positive change, and strengthening communication among all of our students, staff, and faculty” is belied by your cowardice and refusal to recognize this as precisely the kind of teaching moment that could have created the “brave space” that would advance those ideals. Instead, you gutted a segment of your community – my daughter among them – and made them targets of uninformed accusations of racism from those who objected to the play and who now associate them with racist ideas simply for being part of this manifestly not racist production. You privileged “Callout Culture” and denied members of your community the opportunity to constructively engage with difficult or uncomfortable ideas. Shame on you!

Your assertion that your act of censorship “does not diminish the months of hard work, collaboration, emotion, and thoughtfulness that students invested in the production—nor does it lessen all that they have learned through those efforts” is grossly disingenuous. What they have learned may indeed be valuable, but it is not the sort of lesson that a responsible institution of higher learning would seek to engender. They have learned that their voices do not matter, for they were not among the “members of the student community” with whom you claim to have consulted. They have learned that they may be subject to the whim of arbitrary and capricious authority. They have learned that their investment in a college-sanctioned theater production can be undone whenever a community voice objects to any of its content. They have learned that they will not be protected from the backlash that your decision has empowered.

You compelled your faculty colleagues to cancel the play while the students and director were on stage for the dress rehearsal, and stood silently watching their grief and distress. You did nothing to comfort them. You did nothing to address their pain. Your only concession was to allow a closed performance of the dress rehearsal, and neither of you congratulated them on their performance. You did not even offer to come and help them strike the set. You did nothing to anticipate or ameliorate the trauma that you have caused. Your belated meeting with the director and cast on Saturday only elicited an apology from you when they told you they needed one.

I call it cowardice. I call it cruel. I call it censorship and abuse of power. I call it intellectually dishonest and a mockery of the educational and community values you cite and that Washington College purports to espouse. This is your mess to clean up. Do not sweep it under the rug. Own what you have done and apologize publicly for the unintended but undeniable harm you have caused.

Timothy B. Abbott

CC: Chair Stephen T. Golding
President Kurt Landgraf

Editorial: Sultana Downrigging Upgrades Deliver Smashing Success

November 7, 2019 by The Chestertown Spy 2 Comments

Photo by Jamie Kirkpatrick

It would be safe to say that the Chestertown Spy staff were not the only ones worried about the dramatic changes the Sultana Education Foundation was making for its beloved Downrigging festival this year.

Over 18 years, the Downrigging has become the one event, for many, that successfully captured the true essence of Chestertown’s ethos with its unique blend of history, culture, scholarship, and sense of fun. And while The Spy understood the Sultana’s thinking that Downrigging had to evolve, there was an unspoken fear that this effort to upgrade and expand its programming, including the formal addition of dozens of bluegrass performances, would radically and permanently change the tone and climate of this town’s beloved fall weekend.

There was good reason for that anxiety. Sultana has been the pride and joy of Chestertown since 1997. Beyond pursuing its mission of connecting “people to the Chesapeake Bay’s history, ecology, and culture,” it has also evolved into being intertwined with the best elements of Chestertown itself; a subtle, sophisticated community proud of its heritage and intellectual curiosity.

So when we heard over the summer that the Sultana’s leadership had decided to shake things up for the 2019 Downrigging, it was sometimes hard to suppress the thought that while the board and staff motives were understandable, a Downrigging 2.0 concept was messing with success.

It is human nature to protect the things we love, and the idea of Downrigging morphing into a music festival was seen as a perilous proposition. While there was considerable sympathy with the fact that Sultana has lost money on this fantastic and expensive weekend of nautical programming since 2001, there were countless examples of town festivals losing their identity and purpose in their attempt to become more “hip” to expand attendance.

Undoubtedly, Sultana leaders also knew there was an inherent risk in offering a new Downrigging experience. Drew McMullen, president of the organization, along with its board members, had built this successful organization by being known for a “steady Eddie” culture, and a mature approach to change. The shift for Downrigging 2019 was seen as a bit out of character.

But like almost everything the Sultana has done since its inception, the new and improved Downrigging was a smashing success. Not only did it keep its cultural foundation in tack, but the addition of bluegrass also led to record-breaking attendance last weekend. Over 3,000 flocked to the new performance village, downtown retailers saw unprecedented traffic in their shops, restaurants and bars were full, and visitors were left amazed by the beauty of the new Cerino Center at the Chestertown Marina.

The take-home message after this remarkable weekend is two-fold. One is that taking this kind of risk pays off. The second is the reminder that never second guess the Sultana Education Foundation.

The Spy

Editorial: Voters Want Accountability and Plan for Sustainability

October 31, 2019 by The Chestertown Spy 4 Comments

Chestertown Wards 2 and 4 voters head to the polls on Tuesday, November 5. South Queen Street resident Tom Herz is challenging two-term incumbent Linda Kuiper. Ward 4 Candidate Meghan Efland is running unopposed to fill the seat currently held by retiring Councilman Marty Stetson, who served three terms.

The Chestertown Spy has strived to deliver thorough coverage of the candidates and the issues. Visit Election 2019 where The Spy has compiled our print and video coverage, including video interviews with all three 2019 candidates, as well as video coverage and print reporting of the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum.

As voters head to the polls, The Spy believes a great number of residents want the Chestertown Town Council to restore public confidence in the town’s financial sustainability. Spy reader Jeff Maguire hit the heart of the issue: Chestertown is taxing its residents out of their homes, and they cannot sell them because the taxes are so high.

Maguire echoes a consistent desire: Town council members need to bring meaningful accountability and reform to Town Hall operations. Maguire points to annual tax increases and aggressive assessments that have put him on track to experience a doubling of his home’s property taxes in 15 years. Shifting police duties from the town to the county may seem sensible, but the public and the Kent County Commissioners have concluded it’s “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” for which there is no apparent political will. Town residents like their local police department.

The long term picture is not so bleak. The marina renovation is now done and is beginning to meet operating expectations. Additionally, the impact of the Mayor and Council’s risk with Enterprise Zone tax benefits has resulted in substantial commercial investment, evidenced by the LaMotte Chemical facility expansion and Dixon Valve & Coupling’s decision to stay in Chestertown and build its international headquarters and industrial campus. In the years to come, the tax incentives will expire, and as Mayor Chris Cerino once said, “Ten years from now the Mayor and Council’s bank account will be flush.”

It is important to remember that when Cerino and his slate took office, they found a grim picture: empty storefronts, stagnant tax revenues, aging population, risk of losing a significant employer, and the ill-advised 2012 Marina Purchase Bond Agreement that was approved by then-Mayor Margo Bailey without public input, a council vote, or a professional advisor. The terms of the bonds prohibited commercial development and saddled the taxpayers with a $150,000 annual bond payment with no prepayment before 2032. It stifled any refinancing to accomplish critical infrastructure improvements. Sources close to the financing contend that with proper advice and council input, more favorable terms could have been secured, but questions were never asked. Fortuitously, Cerino was able to build a coalition that included the town council, a banker, and citizens to finance the marina renovations so grants could reimburse the effort.

The Spy recommends several steps that would restore confidence.

Model 10-Year Tax Revenue Impact of Economic Development Incentives on long-term revenue

Local governments cannot budget by speculating on revenue sources. Still, they can inform themselves and the taxpayers by modeling revenue projections from taxes generated from commercial investment underway as a result of Opportunity Zone investment, Enterprise Zone tax incentives, and other economic development incentives.

Maguire and his fellow taxpayers are the unsung heroes who have been footing the bill for the marina bond deal payment, as well as the tax hikes to offset the county’s withdrawal of the tax differential payment.

Prepare a succession plan for a town manager

Succession planning for Chestertown should not be the 800-pound gorilla in the council chambers. Chestertown has been well served by its Town Manager, Bill Ingersoll, for over 44 years. Ingersoll is approaching 70, which by all measures, is an outlying retirement age for civil servants. The town has not replaced a manager since Ingersoll succeeded Bill Nicholson in the 1970s. The council should study and develop a modern job description, including considering the requirement of a Masters in Public Administration or Public Accounting, experience with economic development and other best management practices.

Build a productive relationship with the county

The Kent County Commissioners and the council should work cooperatively to restore some portion of the tax differential that the commissioners rescinded, which created a $250,000 hole in the town’s annual budget. We need cooperation and resolution of this issue so that we can focus on our future. Kent County and Chestertown are close to an economic boom that could just as easily slip away. Kent County has invested heavily in a fiber-optic network, while other jurisdictions took no action. We are poised to be a high tech hub if we work cooperatively for the outcome.

Outside investors are watching to see if this small, rural county has the ability to work together work the future. The county has adopted two goals that will require cooperation: 25,000 residents by 2024 and rolling the red carpet out for business. This means our leaders must support our public school system so it is attractive to prospective employees; enact tax and zoning policies that promote economic sustainability; and commit to a unified effort to secure the future of our hospital.

We encourage all Ward 2 and 4 voters to get out and participate. We plan to have preliminary election results on Tuesday night.

–The Chestertown Spy

Editorial: Chestertown and Fireworks

September 30, 2019 by The Chestertown Spy

This past Fourth of July was the quietest in recent memory. By the morning of the Fifth of July, it was apparent to town elected officials and community leaders were sensing regret that a long tradition came to an end so unceremoniously.

To be fair, the Council had voted in 2018 to end public funding of fireworks for 2019 and future years. That decision went unnoticed or unappreciated or maybe the public felt that the vote to eliminate the funding from the town budget was hollow.

It wasn’t a hollow gesture. As The Chestertown Spy has noted in the past: Chestertown has a revenue problem. The Chestertown Fireworks tradition is another victim as the Council attempts to cut its way out of the problem. It was a sad moment when the Town of Chestertown Council voted to end public funding of this annual tradition, but the $7,500 that it costs to put on the show was needed someplace else in the municipality’s growing list of underfunded priorities.

The Chestertown Spy regrets this decision on several fronts. The first is the simple fact that every town should have fireworks on the 4th of July weekend, particularly those over 300 years old. Enough said.

The second is that fireworks are so much a part of Chestertown’s history. While the Kent Historical Society continues to research fireworks in Kent County, we already know it has been a vibrant culture in academic scholarship and manufacturing dominance of this uniquely American symbol of freedom and expression. It was also the incubator for international pyrotechnique safety improvements.

And, more recently, the upcoming dedication of Radiant Echo at Washington College in October, which could turn out to be one the Eastern Shore’s most extraordinary public art projects, is not only a 500,000 light sculpture to celebrate the chemical reactions as art but also a fitting tribute to one of fireworks greatest heroes, WC’s former president and chemistry chair, Joseph McLain.

Even now, WC’s John Conkling, one of fireworks legendary scholars in its technology, still calls Chestertown home.

This town needs to embrace this heritage, not cuts its budget. But that is all history now.

It is a tribute to Chestertown’s great tradition of local people and local institutions, who have answered the call to solve this current challenge. A group of fireworks advocates has come together in recent months to not only to promptly raise the funds for 2020 but also develop plans to seize on this unique heritage and celebrate it throughout the year.

The truth is that fireworks are more than the display of chemical combustion. The act of seeing and hearing fireworks has included writers and composers alike. From Handel’s Suite to Fireworks to author George Plimpton’s phenomenon treatment of its history, it has captured the imagination in almost every conceivable part of our culture.

In the months ahead, the Chestertown Fireworks Fund, made up of volunteers from Main Street Chestertown, Washington College, the Kent Historical Society, and yes, we are proud to say, the Chestertown Spy, will be working on long term plans to ensure that Chestertown design becomes the fireworks capital of the world. The Fund will be sending out more information in the next few weeks about how to donate and volunteer.

In the meantime, we do have the immediate challenge of ensuring our 2020 July 4th weekend is locked down and funded. The Spy will be donating advertising so that our readers can donate directly to its cost and we hope our fellow citizens will give generously.

Go Purple and Ramp Up Your Role in Opioid Awareness

September 3, 2019 by Spy Desk

Eastern Shore communities have launched their respective “Going Purple” campaigns. The purpose of the “Going Purple” campaign is to promote public awareness of the opioid crisis and the roles we can play in preventing addiction disasters. Signs were very evident Sunday evening as businesses, public buildings and residences were lit up with purple lights. The Chestertown Spy and Talbot Spy mastheads have gone purple as well.

The Kent Goes Purple campaign kicked off its 2019 program a week early on August 24 when runners, walkers and campaign supporters came out in the rain to attend the “Kent Goes Purple Fun Run.” The campaign’s program continues on September 14 at 1 p.m. when public is invited to the Kent Goes Purple Community Jamboree at Worton Park. There will be food and other refreshments, entertainment for kids, and a special speaker. The campaign wraps up its program with a presentation on September 23 at Kent County High School by Tony Hoffman, a nationally-recognized speaker on youth substance abuse prevention.

The 2019 Going Purple campaign comes at an opportune time to engage the community. Just in the past few weeks, an Oklahoma judge sent a strong message to manufacturers and others in the prescription opioid distribution pipeline when he found Johnson & Johnson liable for practices that fueled the addiction crisis in Oklahoma and awarded $572 million in damages. Just last week, Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler Family, came to a settlement with a consortium of states that will result in a loss of control of the company and disgorging of billions from the descendants of the creators of pharmaceutical-grade heroin for pain management and the industry we call Big Pharma.

For a brief history of the evolution of opioid uses and the intersection with the rise of the modern pharmaceutical industry in the United States, including the role of the Sacklers, we encourage readers to read Backstories on the US Opioid Epidemic. Good Intentions Gone Bad, an Industry Gone Rogue, and Watch Dogs Gone to Sleep published in the American Journal of Medicine in June 2018.

There are good reasons why Kent should be particularly aware of opioid abuse. In August, Spy columnist Dan Watson discussed Kent County’s place as leading the State of Maryland from 2007-2012 in per capita distribution of Oxycodone and Hydrocodone, both containing opiates, based on Drug Enforcement Agency data published by the Washington Post. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2017, 1,985 persons died from opioid-related overdoses in Maryland, twice the national average. The largest increase was attributed to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

This month, the Spy writers are working on articles and interviews with public health, medical professionals, law enforcement, and individuals to provide insight on local progress in prevention, treatment, and recovery.

We encourage all of our readers to “Go Purple.’ It is as simple as changing our porch lights or lamp posts to purple bulbs. Better yet, attend the Community Jamboree or order tickets to the Tony Hoffman event. Finally, make time to be aware of the impact of the opioid crisis around you and consider how you can promote awareness and change.

Editorial: Mass Shootings, Mental Health Stigma, and Flags

August 5, 2019 by The Chestertown Spy

This started as a piece about flags, free speech and our community’s ability to rise above the divisive.

Then came the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting, which likely prompted more than a few safety check texts to West Coast family and friends. Saturday brought news of the shooting of 20 persons and maiming of many more at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. We woke on Sunday to hear of the early morning shooting of nine persons at a Dayton, Ohio nightspot.

We moved on from flags. We want to remind all of our readers that mass shootings should not fuel stigma about mental illness. And the power to prevent these tragedies starts with family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. See something, say something, and follow up.

This is confirmed in a well-time piece published in the Los Angeles Times by criminologists Jillian Peterson and James Densley of the Violence Project who summarized their conclusions and recommendations having completed an analysis of U.S. mass shooter data since 1966 funded by the National Institute of Justice. Read their entire piece here.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-04/el-paso-dayton-gilroy-mass-shooters-data
Peterson and Densley identified common traits among most mass shooters studied: exposed to trauma and violence as a child; experienced an identifiable life crisis leading up to shooting; emulated prior shooters and fed off their notoriety and public fear created; and had the means to carry out the act.

Peterson and Densley noted that most mass shooters have reached a point of having lost everything and are likely suicidal. Sadly, these persons don’t slide so far without missing the notice of someone—a family member, friend, neighbor.

Among their recommendations was the reminder we need to be proactive, not just in time of crisis, but when the trauma is first experienced. These events are a sad reminder that we owe to each other to build trust, demonstrate empathy and keep lines of communications open, particularly in times of crisis. You never know the crisis you may avert or the community you will strengthen.

Editorial: There Can Never Be Enough Purple on the Mid-Shore in September

August 29, 2018 by The Chestertown Spy

In the field of advertising, the old saying goes that it takes at least seven uniquely different exposures to a product before the consumer actually decides to purchase it. In the marketing of awareness and prevention of the opioid crisis, one should apply a multiplier effect of a 1,000 when the aim is to reach out to young people of the fatal consequences of a drug epidemic that killed 70,000 Americans last year.

Like other public health campaigns that have came before it, including such great successes as with the war against tobacco and AIDS, the strategy for drug awareness is simple; pound on the table as much as you can for as long as you can.

And that is the power and magic of the Purple project for the Mid-Shore this September.

Started last year in Talbot County by the Sheriff’s Office and the Tidewater Rotary with modest expectations, it turned out to be remarkably successful for reasons large and small as the community responded dramatically to “Talbot Goes Purple” through rallies, games, high school programs, and most importantly, the profoundly moving sight of entire towns lite up purple on almost every porch, storefront, street lamp, or dozens of other creative ways to show solidarity with oppied prevention.

As a result of this overwhelming response, Talbot Goes Purple became a model for other Mid-Shore counties to replicate, and it is profoundly moving that Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, and Queen Anne’s counties have formed community partnerships with their schools, businesses, and neighborhoods to join “Mid-Shore Goes Purple,” including the Spy, which will become, we hope, a portal for news and stories from the five different purple campaigns.

But how do we know all this purple in September is working? Is this the most effective way to reach potential users of opioids?

The answer is an unequivocal “yes,” at least from the perspective of someone who is on the battlefield; Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble. In his Spy interview to be broadcast today, Gamble points to data where deaths by overdoses have been reduced, and the number of those receiving police-administered Narcan treatment (and therefore should be counted as lives saved) has increased.

Statistics like these remain the final test for how a county on the Shore is succeeding or failing on a drug epidemic, but one can not overlook the collateral benefits that have come with Talbot Goes Purple. From the creation of group homes for recovering drug users, the widespread training in the use of the life-saving Narcan, or the creation of student awareness groups at local schools, these examples demonstrate that Talbot’s collective response to the crisis is serious and sustained.

Our region has a long way to go before we are out of harm’s way with this horrific danger. The opioid crisis will take years, perhaps more than a decade, to be totally defeated. In the meantime, there can never been enough purple in September on the Mid-Shore and the Spy is proud to turn that color.

For information on how to help, volunteer, or just where one can pick up a purple light bulb for their home, please go here

Editorial: The First Congressional District and Election 2018

May 21, 2018 by The Chestertown Spy

When thinking about the Eastern Shore’s historical relationship with the 1st Congressional District of Maryland, it’s important to keep one thing in perspective. The Shore, until recently, had mostly been served by one of their own residents for more than 150 years. From the election of James Stewart from “Tobacco Stick” in Dorchester County in 1854 to the defeat of Frank Kratovil from Stevensville in 2010, the 1st was always considered to be an Eastern Shore seat.

And, for the most part, the Shore had taken that responsibility seriously by electing men (no woman has yet to serve) of strong moral fiber and, at times, real political courage.

From Cecil County’s abolitionist John Creswell in 1862 to Easton’s Harry Covington, the founder of Covington & Burling, former Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton, and more recently, Kennedyville’s thoughtful and independent Republican Wayne Gilchrest, the Shore has a record of sending some of their very best and brightest to Washington.

But that all ended in 2010.

The moderate Democrat Kratovil could not survive the anti-Obama wave that election year. While Kratovil did not vote for the Affordable Care Act, a key issue in that election, GOP conservative Andy Harris was able to attract enough new voters from the far right, many of whom were motivated by such grassroots movements as the Tea Party, to win with 54% of the vote.

The 2010 loss was a big deal for the Eastern Shore beyond the loss of Queen Anne’s Frank Kratovil. It was also the year that a decennial census took place which would make up the data used to help Maryland draw new Congressional districts for the 2012 election year.

With Democrats holding both legislative houses and the Governor’s office in Annapolis, senior party leaders drew up new boundaries in Maryland that many critics felt were designed to secure more congressional seats in Congress for Democrats. By moving high concentrations of predictably Republican voters from Carroll, Baltimore, and Harford Counties into just one district, the theory went, the odds improve for the Democrats in the other districts.

And that one district happened to be the 1st Congressional District.

Now separated from the Shore’s historically-linked sister counties of St. Mary and Anne Arundel, the new 1st arches across the top of the Chesapeake and moves west while cutting into Carroll, Baltimore, and Harford Counties to guarantee this super-safe Republican seat.

While the courts are now reviewing the constitutionality of that new districting plan, by November 2012 the results were clear. Congressman Harris beat his Democratic opponent with now 70% of the vote, which eventually placed it on the Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voter Index as the 86th most reliable Republican district in the United States.

With that kind of outcome, Maryland GOP leaders would normally not worry too much about an upcoming mid-term election, but then Donald Trump became president.

The political maverick had accomplished what experts said was impossible in 2016 by defeating more than a dozen Republicans in GOP primaries and ultimately Hillary Clinton in the general election. With majorities of both the House, and now the Senate, the Trump mandate, however modest it was, based on an electoral college victory rather than the popular vote, was seen by the winners as a rallying cry for significant social and economic change in Washington.

Some of that change has now taken place. The Trump administration has wasted little time in the dismantling of the EPA, cut thousands of regulations, provided significant corporate tax relief, introduced an “America First” foreign policy, and dozens of other actions, large and small, that cumulatively may add up to be the largest deconstruction of the federal government in our history.

If those changes turn out to be what the voters truly wanted, the Republicans would have much to crow about as they enter into the 2018 midterms, and that would include Congressman Harris.

But these policy victories have come with unprecedented collateral damage. Since taking office, the new president has used his bully pulpit to literally bully his opponents, foreign leaders, ethnic groups, a national war hero, and even celebrities through his Tweeter feed and in public appearances. He is also considered to be by most Americans, including members of his own party, highly capricious in judgment and lacking moral authority, while at the same time is the primary story of a federal investigation of 2018 campaign collusion and obstruction of justice. The fact that he is also being sued by two women he may have had affairs with would make even the most objective onlooker believe the President is a major liability in the fall election.

For Congressman Harris, this is especially problematic since he has not only been a steadfast defender of the President, his own moral compass was thrown into question when he endorsed Alabama’s Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate well after credible reports showed the former judge’s history of having intimate relationships with underaged girls.

With all that in mind, the Spy now believes that, despite the remarkable political engineering it took to guarantee a safe Republican 1st District, the projected outcome in November is hardly certain.

That is why the Spy will be taking a special interest in the 1st District throughout the rest of the year. Over the next six months, we will be profiling Democrats and Republicans from most of the counties that make up the 1st to understand these very different communities and the people that live in those communities.

We start today with our profile of Carroll County through the lens of the member of the Democratic Central Committee there. The following month will be an active Republican in another county. Our stakeholder interviews will alternate between the two parties until the election takes place.

While the Eastern Shore may never return to a time when their U.S. Congressperson is from the Eastern Shore, and we hope that is not the case, that will not limit the Shore’s real interest in the 2018 election. We can only hope that our Spy coverage will only help further a thoughtful and civil conversation about how it will be represented in the future.

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