Get ready. The tirade against Biden’s woman vice presidential nominee—whoever she is—is about to begin. Just wait. Already we’ve heard, “Kamala Harris is too ambitious.” “She’s also too tough,” “not feminine enough,” “too big for her britches,” “disrespectful to men.” Stacey Abrams “is overtly campaigning for the job.” “It’s singularly unattractive.” Susan Rice “has no warmth,” “no charisma.” “She’s never run for office.” Val Demmings “is too short.” “She doesn’t look presidential.” Elizabeth Warren “looks like a school marm.” Amy Klobuchar, although no longer in the running, “is mean to her staff.”  “She’s too demanding.” 

When Hillary was running, such comments ran rampant. I heard things like, “I can’t stand her laugh.” “She cackles.” “She has chompers.” “What’s with her hair today?” “She’d be nowhere without Bill.” “She doesn’t seem sincere.” “I don’t respect her because she didn’t dump Bill.” We all remember Obama’s famous quote during one debate when he said, “You’re likeable enough, Hillary.”  (That was before the New Hampshire primary which she proceeded to win—perhaps because of that remark.)

When Michelle Obama was first lady, there were comments like, “She wears too many sleeveless dresses.” “Her hair’s too big.”  “She’s taller than he is.” “She doesn’t defer enough to her husband.” 

This is depressing.  It’s 2020 and still the most sexist, misogynistic rhetoric is in play. I could go on for pages—as long as War and Peace—about the crazy looking, weird voices, bad dressers, bizarre hair of many male politicians—but it just doesn’t seem to make a difference for men. Somehow for men those things aren’t that important. What’s important, are their policy positions, their grasps of the bigger picture, their ability to make appropriate decisions on the spot. Somehow no one seems to question that they will step up to the plate when necessary and rise to the occasion.

The irony is that so many of those men have made so many bad decisions. So many of them were not right for the job. So many of them left havoc in their wake. Yet still, we Americans, keep electing men and are reluctant to elect a woman president. Many are shaking in their boots at the thought of a female vice president. 

Electing a woman leader seems to have worked out pretty well for Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, India, Israel, the Philippines, China, Iceland, Norway, Ireland, Canada, Argentina, the list goes on. Sure, many of those women leaders have made their share of mistakes, but I would argue, far fewer than their male counterparts for the most part.  

How long will it take until we truly judge a woman on her ability to get the job done? Studies have shown that most women “make it about the work.” They are collaborative, do their homework, come prepared—perhaps overprepared, meet deadlines, are great listeners, handle crises well, are empathetic, check their egos, lead by example, have high emotional intelligence, are flexible, defer to experts (there’s a concept),  hire the most qualified applicants, multi-task effectively, and are superior to men at achieving work-life balance.  

We elected a corrupt real estate magnate reality star who had no political experience and said the most outrageous misogynistic things about women. We elected him even though we knew, before the election, how he felt about women. Think Megan Kelly, Rosie O’Donnell, Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina, Heidi Cruz, Elizabeth Warren, Mika Brzezinski, Katy Tur, Maureen Dowd, the list goes on. “ Horse face, lowlife, fat, ugly, no longer a 10, a dog, fat pig, slob, bimbo, Pocahontas, highly overrated, Miss Piggy,” are only a few of his names for these women. What kind of example is that?  How far are we from judging women on their ability and experience when the President of the United States speaks in those terms?

I often say to my male friends and colleagues, “Many of you have wives, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, friends whom you have helped along the way. You want these women to rise to their potential. To make a difference. To be given every opportunity to succeed. You root for them. You would be appalled if any male spoke in those terms to the females in your life.” 

And then there’s this. Still, close to 40 percent of the American populous support such degrading and humiliating rhetoric from the leader of the free world. Some of those same 40 percent profess to be extremely religious and continue to support a man who says cruel, hurtful, crude, comments daily. I’ve also seen those same religious supporters post cruel and mocking pictures of female candidates with bodies of animals and worse. The hypocrisy of those supporters continues to stun me. 

I, for one, am rooting for Kamala Harris. Studies have shown that the traits that most people associate with politicians are competence, ambition, aggressiveness, confidence and toughness.  Harris has all those qualities. She’s been in the arena and she’s a survivor. She’s resilient. She can hold her own against Mike Pence any day. I would relish that debate.  

I also relish the day when we truly focus on the individual—their experience and “rightness” for the job—not their gender or the color of their skin or whom they choose to love. Maya Angelou said, “…in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” 

Maria Grant served as Principal-in-Charge of the Federal Human Capital practice of Deloitte Consulting.  Since her retirement, she has focused on writing, music, reading, travel, gardening, and nature.

I would like to lift up my voice with the many others who have expressed their sentiments in favor of the “Black Lives Matters” and “I Can’t Breathe” street murals in Chestertown. Let me be clear in stating that “I love this town and I love this county, but I am not particularly fond of some of its history.” I am keenly aware that Chestertown’s history is really not much different than other colonial towns.

My mother was a Kent County native, born and raised on land that was a former slave plantation. My genealogy was traced to a slave that was brought to Chestertown. I have spoken to countless residents who have shared heartbreaking stories of the injustices they and their ancestors have suffered here. The aesthetic beauty of this area is contrasted with a dark and dismal past that includes blackface performances, lynchings, murders and gross inequities in the justice system in the sentencing of many of its black residents. This is the not so “charming” truth. I must admit there were even times when my own faith and hope for humanity were tried. There were multiple times my life was threatened. I repeatedly had messages left on my voicemail calling me the “N” word, and I was a victim of “redlining” when a local realtor refused to take my legitimate offer to a property owner in order to keep my family from living in a particular area. In spite of these things, my family has enjoyed a great life here. I have had the distinct honor and privilege to serve, work along with and volunteer with many of the great people in this county.

What can we do about past injustices? It’s history you say. I agree that we cannot rewrite history, nor do we wish to erase it, but we now have an opportunity to show the world that we are not out of touch with the current movement. We can listen to, respond, and empathize with a segment of society whose pains and cries have been so callously ignored. This is Kent County’s chance to make good, positive history by going down on record and saying to its Black population, “We see you. We hear you. We feel your pain and we will not sit idle while you call out to us to embrace this small gesture of allowing these ‘temporary’ murals to be displayed.”

What is the real issue? Now that the residents of 100 High Street have done what most mature individuals choose to do, have a sensible discussion and not retreat to their respective sides, what is the “real” issue? Are the messages too poignant? Do they invoke anger or fear? Is it your sentiment that Black Lives Don’t Matter? You know what the real problem is. Is it that you believe by saying Black Lives Matter that you are supporting the organization? That is what the fear mongers want you to believe. Please understand that there is a movement and there is an organization. The movement is much larger than the BLM organization and it is not the same thing. Many people of diverse ethnicities support the movement and slogan “Black Lives Matter” who do not agree with the tenets of the Black Lives Matter organization. The irony of the reaction to the proposed murals is that many people are more upset with those who are making the suggestion than they are with the perpetrators and injustices that sparked the outcry for action.

I believe that while on this earth we should seek to do good, be a help and not cause harm to others. A quote often attributed to John Wesley captures it best. “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” This is a noble goal.

When we are gone, people will talk about things that happened during our time. I’m sure this period of unrest will be a hot topic. I’d like to be remembered as one person who joined the cause for equity and fought against injustices no matter how uncomfortable or unpopular it was. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is never the wrong time to do the right thing.” I firmly believe this is the right time to do the right thing. While this gesture is but a bandage on a wound that needs stitches, a bandage is better than leaving the sore open and susceptible to infection. Please don’t squander this chance to come down on the right side of Kent County history.

Pastor Leon Frison is a recently retired teacher, chaplain for the Kent County Detention Center, local pastor, former LMB Chair, and former Social Services Board Member.

Why are some people asking that question now? How do we consider a question like that? Well, let us put that question in an historical context. The first African slaves were sold in Jamestown Virginia to English colonist in 1619. Did black lives matter? Over the next 246 years, African Americans were slaves. Bought and sold. Often brutally treated with no recourse in the law. Did black lives matter?

While Frederick Douglass was a fugitive slave, he was considered stolen property. He was not a person in the eyes of the law. Harriet Tubman, who spent a lifetime fighting injustice, believed strongly in those hallowed words, “We hold these truths to be self – evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It was her patriotic duty to fight injustice. Even though her life did not count according to the Constitution.

The Fugitive slave Act 1850, Federal government to return slaves to owners. Dred Scott Decision, 1857. Chief Justice Taney, from Maryland, concluded Slaves cannot be citizens and are in fact, property. President James Buchanan agreed. Plessy vs Ferguson, 1896. Supreme Court decision. Segregation is legal. Jim Crow laws last 100 years. Housing, banking, education, churches, restrictions on voting. Do black lives matter?

The Tulsa race massacre, 1921. Did black lives matter? Black soldiers returning home from World War I and II, Korea and Vietnam, who fought with dignity, still faced legal segregation in housing, banking, education, voting and even water fountains. Addie Mae Collins. Cynthia Wesley. Carole Robertson. Carol Denise McNair. Killed in a Birmingham church bombing in 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail. The Gospel of Freedom, 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. killed 1968. Congressman John Lewis spent a lifetime fighting injustice. That is what a patriot does. What he left undone. Falls to us.

Elijah McNair. George Floyd. How do we show that black lives matter to us today? Paint the Mural on High Street.

Wayne T. Gilchrest is the former Congressman for the 1st District of Maryland.

 

 

“You must find a way to get in the way and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. … You have a moral obligation, a mission, and a mandate, when you leave here, to go out and seek justice for all. You can do it. You must do it.” – On recounting advice John Lewis received from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. told by John at Bates College’s 150th Commencement

My life and John Lewis’s life has been defined by our civil rights activities throughout the South. John was the son of sharecroppers who came to Eastern Tennessee around 1960 by way of Troy Alabama, his birthplace.

I, of course, was born as the son of a Tennessee cotton farmer in the town of Eads in Western Tennessee. Eads was located outside of Memphis and not far from the banks of the Mississippi. In Jon Meacham’s recent book, His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and The Power of Hope, Jon said Lewis’s life “was linked to the painful quest for justice in America.” And that link to John’s life is exactly how I came to know and appreciate the work of John Lewis. For John and I were focused on creating a reality-based in justice and equality for all.

John and I met when I was 17 years old and had just enrolled in the only historically Black College in Memphis – Owen College (now renamed LeMoyne-Owen College). Similarly, John had become enrolled at American Baptist College in Nashville, in Eastern Tennessee. Students at LeMoyne-Owen College in 1960 had started participation in the southern lunch-counter and anti-segregation interstate movements to protest the “separate but equal” accommodations laws. At that time, these laws were mandated by the U. S. Supreme Court from the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case.

The majority of most civil rights meetings, especially with the Big Six as they are called – Martin Luther King, Jr., Southern Christian Leadership Conference; James Farmer, Congress on Racial Equality; John Lewis, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; A. Phillip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, NAACP; and Whitney Young, National Urban League, took place at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, where most dine at the renowned Four-Way Grill. This provided me with ample opportunities to experience and engage with civil rights giants on a regular basis. John, similar to many of us, frequently moved throughout the south focusing on voter registration and political education.

John and I worked at ACTION, a federal domestic volunteer agency formed during President Nixon’s administration. And it was during these civil rights activities that John that assured me that voter registration and education would be kept alive.

In the February 2009 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine, Marian Smith Holmes wrote about a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement:

On Sunday, May 14, 1961—Mother’s Day—scores of angry white people blocked a Greyhound bus carrying black and white passengers through rural Alabama. The attackers pelted the vehicle with rocks and bricks, slashed tires, smashed windows with pipes and axes, and lobbed a firebomb through a broken window. As smoke and flames filled the bus, the mob barricaded the door. “Burn them alive,” somebody cried out. “Fry the goddamn ni**ers.” An exploding fuel tank and warning shots from arriving state troopers forced the rabble back and allowed the riders to escape the inferno. Even then some were pummeled with baseball bats as they fled.

The passengers on this bus were Freedom Riders, civil rights activists who fought for the implementation of desegregation on public buses in the south. John was a Freedom Rider and actively participated in these protests.

Although Tennessee was not one of the states chosen to participate in this fight, the Freedom Rides, I decided to spruce up my car and drive alone from Memphis to New Orleans, to do what I described at the time as: “testing justice in America.” I drove straight through the heart of Mississippi and, unknowingly traveled, I later discovered through Time Magazine, on one of the most dangerous highways in America.

I joined John and other civil rights activists and others in Marches fighting injustice. Our fight, in other words, continued as we both participated in the Marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, including Bloody Sunday – a brutal and violent day for John. Important to note that we were fighting and marching for justice and equality in voting rights for Black Americans, especially for my people in Somerville, Tennessee, where hundreds of “Tent City” families there had been driven from their homes by the Ku Klux Klan because of trying to register to vote.

John was often referred to as a “troublemaker,” a label that I am often confronted with here in Howard County, Maryland. Here again, I learned from John that fighting for justice requires courage, a culture of ignoring the torpedoes, and a resoluteness of a bear continuing full speed ahead. John has been referred to as a “saint that walked among us.” And I am proud and honored to have had the opportunity to have joined this Saint, this giant, a revolutionary, in the fight for peace and justice.

Sherman Howell is a freelance writer who addresses social, political & economic issues on global level. He resides in Howard County.

Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) has always had an unmatched sense for knowing just where the Maryland electorate is and how to position himself squarely in the middle of it.

It helps explain why he has been able to remain so popular since taking office in 2015.

But can Hogan maintain his finely-tuned political antenna on a national scale?

That’s one of the main questions surrounding our term-limited governor as he begins to take some not very tentative steps toward exploring a run for the White House in 2024.

The rollout of his soon-to-be-released book, “Still Standing: Surviving Riots, Cancer, a Global Pandemic, and the Toxic Politics that Divide America,” has gone pretty well so far. Hogan is getting attention in the national media along with several write-ups in The Baltimore Sun, and The Washington Post on Thursday ran an adapted excerpt of his book detailing his efforts to obtain COVID-19 testing kits from a South Korea company. In an era when Americans get a daily dose of chaos and crazy from the Trump administration, so far so good.

Hogan has profited from being more or less in the “Never Trumper” camp. When it comes to preparing for and addressing the COVID-19 crisis, Hogan has done well – especially when compared with the national response.

Hogan seems to be in line with most mainstream Democratic governors in the U.S. when it comes to the pandemic — and that’s noteworthy when Trump and so many other Republican governors are choosing to ignore or minimize the danger, resulting in mind-numbing cases of illness and death.

Is Hogan to be praised for resisting the kooky Republican orthodoxy of the moment? Or is he merely at the baseline for what a competent and compassionate chief executive ought to be doing?

Whatever the answer, Hogan has won plaudits from the national punditocracy and numerous Democrats for his performance.

But attention from pundits and a perceived level of sanity only goes so far in this current political environment. It may get you invitations on “Meet the Press” and CNN, but does it get you any closer to winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2024? Or is Hogan merely the latest incarnation of Jon Huntsman and John Kasich, GOP governors who were media favorites but whose White House campaigns fizzled?

So Hogan has his book, which, his protestations to the contrary, serves as an early toe — more like a shin — in the 2024 presidential pool.

We’ve only seen a bit of Hogan’s book so far — it’s not officially due out until July 28.

We’ve seen that adaptation in the Post — Hogan’s account of obtaining the Korean test kits — and we’ve seen the Sun‘s summaries of Hogan’s telling of the 2015 unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray.

Until we see the book in full, it’s hard to say just what its tone is going to be. The segment on the Korea test kits is an exercise in triumphalism, as his press appearances were when he first made the announcement in April. If the Sun‘s accounts of Hogan’s recollections of the Baltimore unrest are accurate, Hogan sounds a little combative and snippy.

None of these descriptions should come as any surprise to anyone who has followed Hogan’s political trajectory in the 21st century. Even through his regular-guy sheen, he is prone to self-congratulation and at other times can be brutish and snippy.

It’s worth noting that Hogan’s memoir was co-written by Ellis Henican, a journalist and former Newsday columnist who also co-wrote former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s autobiography, “Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics.” Christie, a mentor to Hogan, can also be combative and snippy, of course, and governed with a chip on his shoulder, much as Hogan does.

Henican himself probably knows a thing or two about having a professional chip on his shoulder, because his well-written columns at Newsday were often overshadowed by the presence on the Newsday staff of legendary columnists Jimmy Breslin and Murray Kempton. It’s tough to be a very good ballplayer when you’re surrounded by Hall of Famers.

It’s entirely likely that Hogan’s book will shift its tone when he talks about his dad, the late Congressman Larry Hogan Sr. (reverential, no doubt), and about his battle with cancer, which he faced with humility, grace and good humor. But until then we’re left with what we see so far.

Well before the book, Hogan was harsh in his assessment of Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s performance as mayor of Baltimore during the Freddie Gray trauma. So his attacks on her now, though spotlighted in the Sun, do not seem fresh, and if anything they’re maybe a little gratuitous.

More surprising are Hogan’s criticisms of President Obama, who, according to the Sun‘s account of the Hogan book, nudged him to take a less harsh attitude toward protesters. Hogan apparently did not appreciate this. He was dismissive of Obama’s attempts to guide “me, the rookie, white Republican governor who had recently defeated his candidate for governor of Maryland in this overwhelmingly Democratic state and whose majority-black, largest city was now in flames.”

Hogan is certainly entitled to his viewpoint of these events. And it may well be that Obama did take a lecturing tone with the new governor. Obama did that often enough with any number of people, and it was one of his least attractive characteristics.

But it’s interesting that Hogan decided to air these grievances in public right now. Last we looked, Obama was one of the most admired figures in America, and Hogan is certainly one to take stock in what polls say.

This may just be a rare opportunity for Hogan to throw some red meat to Republicans whose support he would need in 2024. A few swipes at Obama may produce some tsk-tsk-ing among the pundit class — and remember, Hogan’s pal Christie literally embraced Obama in the immediate aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 — but it may be worth it to score a few political points and burnish the “tell it like it is” persona that Hogan has fashioned for himself.

Hogan frequently preaches bipartisanship and civility in politics – a practice he himself does not always follow, at least not in Annapolis. That’s a conversation for another day.

Yet in his writings and national appearances, Hogan is quick to blame Democrats and Republicans equally for the dysfunction in Congress. That equation doesn’t quite add up.

Are there demagogues, showboats, disruptors and jerks among the Democrats in Congress? Of course. But congressional scholars like Norman Ornstein and James Thurber generally agree that Republicans on Capitol Hill have done far more to poison the atmosphere than their Democratic counterparts. You’ll never hear Larry Hogan acknowledge that.

In fact, Hogan has found a recent foil in Nancy Pelosi, calling her out of touch for her shrugged response when she was asked about the July 4 toppling of the Christopher Columbus statue in Baltimore’s Little Italy, where she grew up. Blasting Pelosi is the oldest Republican play in the book and another nod to GOP enthusiasm for law and order. Won’t Hogan be surprised when a Pelosi statue is someday erected in Little Italy?

Hogan attracted a lot of attention in 2016 when he announced that he wrote in his dad for president and could not support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Asked by Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” Sunday how he was going to vote this November, Hogan lamented the dilemma he and many Americans face.

“I feel like I’m in the same position I was in four years ago,” he replied, adding, “I think people would look to see something different, and maybe we will in 2024.”

But Biden is broadly acceptable

That’s a very 2016 response to a 2020 question, leavened with a nod to 2024. A lot of voters thought the choices were terrible in 2016. But while Biden seems hopelessly retro and as embarrassingly gaffe-prone as ever, and may not engender a ton of enthusiasm, he has become broadly acceptable to a huge swath of the American electorate — especially to many of the “Never Trumpers,” who are simpatico to Hogan and whose support he craves. Heck, some prominent Republicans are actively working for Biden now.

So here too Hogan appears a little tone deaf. Unless, of course, this is another cheap and easy way to score points with potential Republican primary voters four years from now. Any suggestion that there’s an equivalency between Trump, whose performance over the last few months has literally cost American lives, and the “Leave it to Beaver” dad Biden, even for a lifelong Republican like Hogan, is a terrible stretch.

Over the next few weeks, Hogan is going on a virtual book tour with the likes of Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. None is likely to endorse Biden this fall, but they probably all privately agree that a Biden presidency represents less of a threat to the Republic than four more years of Donald Trump. That’s an aspirational crowd for Hogan to hang out with – and we’ll see if he benefits.

As Hogan prepares for his book tour, he can’t be happy about the Wall Street Journal report this week, followed a few days later by a Baltimore Sun piece, offering more detail on how the Republican-connected firm Blue Flame Medical LLC, got such a lucrative contract from Maryland to provide masks, ventilators and other personal protective equipment — even though the firm only started up as the pandemic hit, had flimsy credentials, and sought to take advantage of political connections to get contracts from a few state governments but didn’t deliver the promised materials.

The conduit for the shysters at Blue Flame, according to the newspapers, was Tiffany Waddell, the state’s chief lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

“Please meet a good friend of mine, Mike Gula,” Waddell wrote in an email to Ellington Churchill, the Department of General Services secretary who leads procurement for the state government. She made similar introductions in other states.

The Hogan administration declined to comment for the Journal story. In the Sun, Churchill chalked up the flawed contract with Blue Flame to the chaos of the pandemic, and noted that the lion’s share of Maryland’s attempts to purchase vital goods and services during COVID-19 have worked well.

For those who pay attention to such things, The Wall Street Journal article was written by a fellow named Brody Mullins, an excellent investigative reporter who has reported about money and politics for two decades. Some people may recall a very flattering profile of Hogan that Washingtonian magazine ran on Hogan in 2017, as he was ramping up his re-election campaign. Ironically and coincidentally, that article was written by Luke Mullins, who happens to be Brody Mullins’ brother. (Disclosure: I worked with both at Roll Call on Capitol Hill many years ago.)

The Mullins giveth and they taketh away. National media attention, as Hogan no doubt is already discovering, has its pleasures and its pitfalls.

Josh Kurtz is Co-founder and Editor of Maryland Matters. 

As one of many who strive to be good stewards of Kent County and the region, I felt strongly compelled to issue my views regarding a recent Op-Ed submitted by Al Hammond regarding data centers, a subject that I have opined on recently and continue to work at as a design professional to fairly frame the discussion for our community. It is that important.

The cheerleading dense and factually thin Op-Ed was akin to sugar coating a very bad pill. I asked – is it naive optimism or an intentional glossing over to divert attention from the serious realities of large data centers and their potential detrimental impacts on Kent County?  

The introduction of data centers into any community will have far reaching consequences. In bucolic and history-rich Kent County, the impacts are of paramount concern.  Our unique community deserves thoughtful growth and requires specific and studied regulations for this ‘emerging’ industry because it is new and has already proved problematic.

The use of the clichés ‘data farm’ and ‘data farming’ is offensive and tantamount to desecrating a noble human endeavor, essential to the survival of humankind over millennium. Having been raised on a farm I worked the land and machinery in the hot sun, picking tons of produce and saw cash crops wrecked due to weather calamities. It is a difficult occupation with absolutely no relationship to a data center. We can’t eat or drink data and we won’t perish if our social media or Zoom platforms go down. I doubt that pride will ever stem from a multi-generation owner-operated data center.

I do not oppose data centers. I do oppose inviting data centers into our communities without first studying what that means, weighing the pros and cons, considering other creative possibilities, and putting measures in place to assure success of the County overall.  Solely promoting economic benefits without considering the effects on community and environment is a failed model that has caused horrendous damage to communities and the planet – it is a paradigm whose time is waning and cannot be the foundation of a successful future. 

I read nothing about finding balance between data centers, the populace and the environment. The intent of a Land Use Ordinance is to protect the welfare of the public and the environment, not the profits of corporations or the County coffers.  These are laws created to advantage the community at large regardless of the views held by the County Commissioners and the Economic Development Office. The public should be involved in determining the fate of the County. The charrette process, which gives voice to the public, should be a mandated element of the approval process for a data center.

To educate and set the record straight, here are just a few overlooked facts and science to bring us back to reality.

• Data centers are the ‘cloud’, operating 24/7, year-round and up to 50 acres under roof
• Data storage industry is on par with the aviation industry pre-2020 in adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and will surge ahead due to the exploding market 
• Data centers consume 2% of the world’s electric and will soar to 8% by 2030
• Data centers consume vast amounts of water to cool equipment – the U.S. Energy Department predicts usage at 174 billion gallons in 2020
• A South Carolina center uses 500,000 gallons per day from the ground and requested an increase to 1.5 million gallons – the average U.S. household uses 138 gallons per day
• Data centers range in size from Tier I to V – the higher tiers require more resources with increased potential detrimental impacts to the community
• A Tier IV center can require 26 to 34 Megawatts of power to operate – equal to powering 26,000 to 34,000 homes
• Offshore wind power is not failsafe – sea turbines are vulnerable to wave action and high winds and the production and installation of power cables is expensive and disruptive
• Data centers require emergency power systems to protect computing equipment when the primary power source goes down
• Emergency power is provided by up to 20 massive diesel generators, typically 15oo to 3ooo hp, which are run and tested weekly causing documented noise problems
• Stored diesel fuel for generators can exceed 100,000 gallons making leakage and contamination a legitimate concern
• Cooling towers and equipment to maintain interior temperatures create humming and rattling that has impacted communities in at least 7 states nationwide
• Scientists have determined that for people living near seven major airports, a 10-decibel increase in aircraft noise was associated with a 28 percent increase in anxiety medication use
• Another study found that people living in areas with high traffic noise were 25 percent more likely to have depression 
• Noise is more than ‘annoying’ – it is a proven health risk and a detriment to resale
• Data centers are not pristine and visually appealing – the larger ones are Amazon-like bunkers, austere and impossible to blend into their surroundings
• Large centers require a secure perimeter with high fencing, a guard house, bright lighting and pole mounted cameras – in stark contrast to the farmlands where located
• Cooling equipment options are available to reduce water usage and noise but are typically rejected by budget driven developers due to increased cost
• Green and sustainable data centers are being built by big players like Facebook and green design can be required in a Land Use Ordinance

In summation, our community would be better served by presenting a factual portrayal of what it would mean to open our arms to data centers. If Joni Mitchell were inspired by Mr. Hammonds Op-Ed to rewrite her hit song Yellow Taxi, she might substitute ‘They raided paradise and put up a data center.’

Thomas Kocubinski is the principal architect at Kocubinski Architects.

Author notes: I would like to clarify my comments regarding an online response I made to the Mayor’s quote regarding the Black Lives Matter street painting on High Street:“…should not deface the Charm of the Historic District of High Street.” My reaction is not meant to condone or condemn the street painting. It is a visceral reaction to the whole subject, knowledge of the history and my experiences in Kent County.  Moreover, it is in support of every effort to rally for the cause, yet not an endorsement of the Black Lives Matters organization, as I understand it.  

I have cause to draw deep breathes that ache to the very depths of my soul when I read this. Please tell me where is the charm in the history of High Street and its adjoining streets in the lynching of James Taylor or the tar and feathering led by the town’s Sheriff of a Black woman and the White male who assisted in her protest; the sentences handed down from Kent County’s Courthouse to White women who bore the “issue” of Black men; was the charm in the White women who watched from the widow walks that sit atop the gracious houses still lining High Street pining for the return of husbands-Captains who docked their ships at the foot of High Street and brought their chained merchandise to auctions selling Black Lives? Is it in today’s overzealous sentences leveled upon Blacks and others lacking social-economic equivalence?

I’m starved to see charm in the obligatory gathering of young Black men reduced to stand in one location on High Street during the Tea Party, incessantly guarded by police because a desire to be a part of something has brought them there, but the agenda repeatedly fails to make an admirable place for them yet holds hope to benefit from the dollars they spend. No charm in the loss of benefits from the skills and talents of numerous Black Artists and would be patrons whose past pains are so prevailing it doesn’t allow them to cross the threshold of the Garfield Theatre for what was the “charm” of the former movie theatre; the rudeness endured by Blacks who have dared to grace downtown businesses (NOT ALL but even one is too many) only to be greeted by silence, suspicious trailing, and rudeness?

Charm, when the country puts a Black man in the White House and that news does NOT make the front page of the local newspaper- situated within the “charm” of High Street, yet it too benefits from Black dollars spent? Was charming the goal as gentrification herded Black families from downtown C-town dwellings that held generations of heritage and familiar comforts? Where is the “charm”? If charm is to be defined only by the eye, what then guides the character of our hearts? To be led by the concern of maintaining charm over equality is like dead fish in Christmas wrappings. It will always be pretty on the outside, but the long, slow rot on the inside is surely stinking up the place. If all this talk about racism is making you uncomfortable, that means you are listening.

Now that we finally have your ear Chestertown, are you brave and honorable enough to stay on the path to equality so that every living soul can experience the “Charm”?

Born and raised in Kent County, MD, Karen Sommerville is renowned for her singing appearances at the annual Women Helping Women concerts at The Garfield Theatre, the Chestertown Jazz Festival. She currently works with Hope Fellowship in Chestertown.

 

2.    Safety Issues: Many parents are unwilling to allow their children to play ball at Gateway park, due to the traffic on and near the circle at Rt. 291. Young people can safely and easily make their way to Ajax park from any of the neighborhoods in town.

3.    Harassment: Teens who congregate in most downtown areas are frequently asked to leave by shop owners or the Chestertown Police Department who are called by shop owners. Ajax Park is one of the few places in the area where teens are able to gather with little harassment.

Statement from Families

A member of our steering committee met with families in Calvert Heights and they prepared the following statement, which they asked us to share you with you.

Community members have expressed concern regarding the removal of the basketball court at Ajax. Many feel it would be another disservice to our teens that utilize the court considering, Chestertown is severely limited to fundamental activities. We the community urge you to reconsider. While many of us have pondered the possibility of the equipment being merged and beautified. One should consider the perfect spot being Wilmer Park its already has a beautiful scenery plenty of space and those walking the trail with children can allow the kids to play. This will allow all to benefit not just little children and parents but the teens will still be able to hoop.  I know you will consider the concerns of all community members.

We also attach, for your consideration, a 2016 article from the Chestertown Spy. Just four years ago you and the town council considered the Ajax park “… a positive addition to Chestertown’s mission to cultivate thriving and well-maintained community play areas.” Four years later, Ajax park remains a shining example of the town’s mission to provide community play areas for all of the town’s young people.

The Social Action Committee for Racial Justice strongly urges the Mayor and Council to reconsider the planned siting of a new playground. The current plan reduces options for teens rather than increasing them. We recommend that the current equipment at Ajax park be upgraded and the new playground be located at Wilmer park. Wilmer park affords families of small children a place to run and play in an open grassy space. Playground equipment would be a welcome addition to Wilmer park and would expand, rather than reduce, options for families in Chestertown.

Paul LA Tue, III, Co-chair
Arlene F. Lee, Co-chair
Social Action Committee for Racial Justice

 

Sometime in 2005, during my first year as the Director of the then Prince Theater Foundation (Now Garfield Center for the Arts), I’d invited a friend to volunteer to help me with preparing the theater for an evening event. Her job was to place a program for the event on every seat. When she finished the main level, she handed the rest to me and said, “I’m not going up there.”

For two-thirds of its 90 years, the New Lyceum / Prince Theater was segregated. There was a “Blacks Only” entrance, ticket box, staircase, and what’s more is that even the balcony was separated by a wall – Whites up front in chairs, Blacks behind, on benches. When we were doing research for the student-created “A Chestertown Attic” in Playmakers summer camp 2006, a life-long White resident of Kent County with 300+ years of lineage here shared this with us about sitting in the balcony in the 1950’s – “We knew better… we climbed over that stupid wall and we sat with our friends.” There is a history here, we must acknowledge it. We can do that with Public Art.

Public Art should exist to speak, unconstrained about problems, celebrations, injustices, memories, and so much more. It should exist to erase barriers to art, it should exist “among” the people. It must exists to stir emotion, to honor good work, and to challenge our understanding of, and sometimes the insufficiency of what we were taught. Sometimes its sole purpose is to make us see uncomfortable truths. Public art should not infringe on someone else’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; it should especially asserts those rights for people who have historically and societally been hindered from achieving them.

The phrase “Black Lives Matter” is a statement of truth. It is not political. It does not challenge my life and its purpose. It does not take away from my humanity but it does assert the humanity of those whom this country once called three-fifths of a human being.

If painting the words “Black Lives Matter” on the streets of Historic Chestertown makes one Black person feel safe and valued in their own hometown, then it is worth it. If painting the words “Black Lives Matter” on the streets of this 18th Century Port town, known for its slave trade” creates a conversation that leads to the opening of one Black-owned business, then it is worth it. If painting the words “Black Lives Matter” on the streets of the home of Henry Highland Garnet, Isaac Mason, Albert Walker, Clarence Hawkins, and so many more, can affect policies and practices and values statements of local governments, nonprofits, churches and businesses, then it is worth it.

In my 30 years as an arts and nonprofit administrator and advocate, I have learned a great deal. But I know this: I don’t have all the answer, none of us do. So in my role as the director of the Kent Cultural Alliance, I will take up the mantle of my predecessor and mentor Leslie Prince Raimond, and I will show up, and listen, and I will actively support the use of the arts to engage our County in important conversations moving forward. This mural can start a new chapter.

John Schratwieser is the Director of the Kent Cultural Alliance (formerly the Kent County Arts Council). He spent seven years as the Director of Maryland Citizens for the Arts. John served as the Director of the Prince Theater Foundation (now Garfield Center for the Arts) from 2004 – 2010 and has worked for two Tony Award Winning Regional Theaters – Signature Theater in Arlington, VA and Lincoln Center Theater in New York, NY. John has a bachelor’s degree in Theology from Fairfield University and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from The George Washington University.