Based on the allegations by Fani Willis, District Attorney for Fulton County, Ga., a Grand Jury has indicted former president Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants for “a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” 

This 98-page booklet reprints the charging document. With a table of contents to help navigate, it’s still a dense read. In a nutshell, it sets forth how this sprawling criminal conspiracy tried to return Trump to the White House illegally, and makes Watergate look like a nursery school tantrum.

The indictment’s three components are:

• Section 1: Administrative information. 
• Section 2: Count No. 1, including 161 Acts.
• Section 3: Counts Nos. 2 through 41.

SECTION 1 (pages 1-12) names the 19 defendants, itemizes the Counts for each, gives the title and legal reference for each of the 41 Counts, names the members of the Grand Jury, and includes a Table of Contents. 

SECTION 2 (pages 13-71) is focused solely on Count No. 1, charging Trump and 18 co-defendants with a conspiracy to violate the State of Georgia’s RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) law. It includes a one-paragraph description of the conspiracy (aka “The Enterprise”); eight paragraphs outlining “the manner and methods of The Enterprise”; and the 161 “Acts of Racketeering Activity and Overt Acts in Furtherance of the Conspiracy.” 

Count No. 1 — violating Georgia’s RICO law — applies to Trump, his closest associates, and all the other defendants. Each of the accompanying 161 Acts describes how the 19 defendants participated in “The Enterprise.” (Note: although an overt Act may not itself be criminal, it is considered as being “in furtherance of the conspiracy.”)

SECTION 3 (pages 72-98) contains Counts 2-41, the remainder of the indictment. Along with his alleged RICO violation, Trump is charged with 12 more Counts, as is his attorney, William Rudolph Louis Giuliani. In contrast, Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and attorney Jenna Ellis are charged with two Counts. The 15 other co-defendants are charged with varying numbers of Counts.

As alleged in the indictment, the conspiracy commenced on Nov. 4, 2020, when “Donald John Trump made a nationally televised speech falsely declaring victory in the 2020 presidential election” (overt Act No. 1) and concluded on Sept. 15, 2022 — almost two years later! — when Georgia lawyer Robert Cheeley “committed the felony offense of perjury” (overt Act No. 161). The 22 months in between witnessed an astonishing number of meetings, phone calls, emails, texts, voicemails, memorandums, statements, letters, presentations, conversations, assemblies, solicitations, falsehoods, threats, and that Capitol insurrection.

The 161 Acts describe exactly how Trump and 18 associates turned into conspirators under Georgia’s RICO statute. Highlights — lowlights if you will — include:  

• ACT No. 56: On Dec. 10, 2020, Giuliani made six false statements to “members of the Georgia House of Representatives present at a House Governmental Affairs Committee meeting,” including this: “Between 12,000 and 24,000 ballots were illegally counted by Fulton County election workers at State Farm Arena on November 3, 2020.” 
• ACT No. 90: On Dec. 18, 2020, Trump, Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell, “unindicted co-conspirator Individual 20, and others” met at the White House to discuss “certain strategies and theories intended to influence the outcome of the Nov. 3, 2020, election,” including “seizing voting machines and appointing Powell as special counsel with broad powers to investigate allegations of voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere.”
• ACT No. 97: On Dec. 27, 2020, Trump asked Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue “to make a false statement by stating, ‘Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.’”
• ACT No. 111: On Jan. 2, 2021, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark asked Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue to sign a document that “falsely stated the U.S. Department of Justice had ‘identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.’” This falsehood was to be sent to Georgia’s governor, speaker of the House, and president pro tem of the Senate, but Rosen and Donoghue refused. 
• ACT No. 112: By telephone on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump and Meadows tried to pressure Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into agreeing to “find 11,780 votes,” but he refused. (Note: millions subsequently listened to this recorded call.)
• ACT No. 130: On Jan. 5, 2021, Trump told Vice President Mike Pence that “Pence had the power to decertify the Nov. 3, 2020, election.” When Pence disagreed, Trump called him “naive, implied he lacked courage, and stated that Pence was doing ‘a great disservice.’”

These are only six of the overt Acts; there are 155 more. 

It would be negligent not to mention two shabby incidents covered in the indictment. First was the pressure put on Atlanta election worker Ruby Freeman to alter her testimony to prove she corrupted the vote count at State Farm Arena. This failed and resulted in indictments for Stephen Lee (Lutheran pastor from Illinois and former cop), Harrison Floyd (former martial arts fighter), Trevian Kutti (former publicist for rapper Kanye West), and Robert Cheeley (Georgia lawyer). 

Second was the foray into the Coffee County, Ga., election office to engage in an “unlawful breach of election equipment” and to “tamper with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines,” constituting computer trespass and computer theft. This caper involved attorney Powell, Cathleen Latham (former GOP chair for Coffee County), Scott Hall (Atlanta bail bondsman), and Misty Hampton (former election director in Coffee County), plus several unindicted co-conspirators. 

The United States will be forced to deal for years with the residual consequences of electing Donald Trump to the White House. It’s our nation’s grave, self-inflicted wound. The federal and state trials pending in Georgia, Washington D.C., New York, and Florida will be part of this reckoning.

With Meadows and other defendants presently trying to have their cases transferred to a federal court, the cast of characters in this indictment is likely to change. No matter. In whatever ways this complicated legal and political situation morphs and is rejiggered from now on, Fani Willis’s historic indictment will forever serve to describe the full scope of Trump’s depravity.

Gren Whitman has been a leader in neighborhood, umbrella, public interest, and political groups and committees, and worked for civil rights and anti-war organizations. He is now retired and lives in Rock Hall, MD. 

According to several polls, most Americans do not welcome an instant replay of the 2020 election—Trump versus Biden. An overwhelming majority of Americans want the country to move on for a variety of reasons—age, indictments, too much baggage and more. I agree.

The philosopher John Locke coined the term “tabula rasa” which means a mind as a blank slate with no preconceived ideas—a mind which has not begun to process ideas from outside forces. 

So, here’s a concept. Let’s wipe the 2024 presidential candidate slate clean and start over. Let’s select two sane reasonable moderate Republicans and two sane reasonable moderate Democrats and give those currently running their walking papers. 

You say it sounds farfetched. You say it’s not going to happen. You’re probably right, But a girl can dream. Here’s my dream scenario. Some well-respected legal scholars claim that Trump is not eligible to run because he violated the 14th Amendment by inciting an insurrection. What if they are right? What if the case goes before the Supreme Court and five Supreme Court Justices agree that this is so? That would mean Trump could never run for public office again. 

Then, maybe, just maybe, if Trump were out of the picture, Biden wouldn’t feel compelled to run. Maybe, just maybe, he would step aside and encourage younger, more vibrant, more articulate leaders who are prepared to support future generations to run. 

And maybe, just maybe, if Trump were out of the picture, some sane Republicans would step up to the plate and call for a reset to normalcy and promote civil discourse, compromise, and fiscal responsibility. 

And were this dream to continue, who would those candidates on my wish list be?

On the Republican ticket, perhaps former Ohio Governor John Kasich as president and our own former Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan as Veep. These are two sane reasonable men who have tons of experience, know how to reach across the aisle, and who have appealed to both Republicans and Democrats. There are many more combos to consider—New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski as cases in point. 

On the Democratic side, how about Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as a presidential candidate and California Governor Gavin Newsom as Veep? Both these governors have garnered votes from the other party, and both are young, vibrant and support climate change, Ukraine, sound economic policies and more. There are many other such Democrats waiting in the wings—Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro, Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo come to mind. (I would be most excited if a qualified woman were the Presidential candidate as it is past time for a woman to be president of the United States.)

You may ask why not consider some of the Republican candidates who debated last week? Why? Because six of the eight said they would support Trump if he were the nominee. They did not qualify their support and say unless he was convicted of a felony. They just blindly said they would support him. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson did not raise their hands. But Christie has a ton of baggage, and Asa Hutchinson has his own age issue. 

Wiping the slate clean is sometimes the right answer. When workplaces become toxic, or a Board is unethical, wiping the slate clean makes good sense. 

Therapists who use the tabula rasa theory in their practices claim that patients who have anxiety, for example, suffer from that malady because of learned behaviors. Their therapies focus on unlearning those “target situations” and imagining “target situations” differently and therefore reactions become different as well. Basically, they focus on unlearning learned behaviors.

I say we as Americans should unlearn some of our past learned behaviors and react differently to some “target situations.” Let’s stop the vindictiveness, name calling and crude behavior and once again try civility, try listening to the other side, try compromise when appropriate, and try dealing with issues with a sense of compassion, kindness, and humility.  

And remember as Buddha once said, “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.”

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on reading, writing, piano, kayaking, gardening, and nature. 

In 2004 and 2005, a total of 8,250,401 new Americans were born.  Millions of them, will be voting for the first time on November 5, 2024 to elect, among others, the president of the United States. 

From my  senior citizen perspective, the 2 years and 8 months since the 2020 election have been variably depressing, extremely weird and deeply concerning, They have included: the violent 1/06/21 insurrection,  a failed complex effort to overturn America’s democratic electoral process and on 1/20/2021, the first non-peaceful transfer of power in US history. What a contrast to those halcyon politics and elections of long ago.

More recently, a former US president and current 2024 candidate, has been indicted in 4 courts for 80+ allegations of criminal conduct. Some or all of the trials will be held before the 2024 election  Opinions on this litigation have contributed to today’s deep chasm between Americans view of the current health and viability of the United States and its future. 

The confluence of our sociopolitical seismic eruptions with the Covid-19 pandemic, severe global warming disasters, American domestic violence, the ongoing war in Ukraine and China’s belligerence to the US over Taiwan, lends something of an apocalyptic aura to the 2024 election season. And possibly reinforcing this more cosmic quality, is a  campaign theme introduced by President Biden when he characterized next November’s choice for American voters as between authoritarianism and democracy. 

And then there’s Social Media, blogs, chat rooms and special apps offering thousands of interpretations of all this for hundreds of millions of people, including many if not most, of first time American voters.  I’m sure some of them follow (on-line) the Federal Reserve minutes, the Congressional Research Service (CRS)  reports and  the Council on Foreign Relations publications. Probably, most don’t.

This large number of first time American voters confront violence, dysfunction, confusion, sharply divided opinions and beliefs, suffused with high emotions. Not to mention a former US president running in the 2024 election who’s facing an array of criminal trials and strongly maintains election fraud stole his reelection. And millions of Americans agree.  Some or all of this turmoil is no doubt present in their or their friends’ families, among peers and is inescapable on Social Media.

When I cast my first ballot, there were two dominant parties each with well known policy positions and attitudes towards governance. Easy and comfortable choices. If the 2023/24 political environment had existed then, I probably would not have voted. And I would guess this will be the decision of a number of new voters as well. Another possible option would be to maintain the peace and go with the family or friends’ flow. 

What follows is a description of the formidable puzzle of issues facing those among them who want to make independent choices, not affected by fear mongering, alternative facts and loud voices.  

Recent polling reveals large numbers of American adults already are or should be, in group therapy to address mass depression.  And many of 2024 first-time voters live with, are taught by, or work for or know, these people. The likely impact on their 18 year-old children, students, bosses or parents’ friends is to discourage them from voting.  Why bother trying to save a sinking ship?. Or maybe give it a shot.  

Miasma: Unwholesome or foreboding atmosphere 

Adult American Views on the State of the USA

Who? In danger of failing, Not in Danger, but Bad Problems

All registered Voters	37.00%	26.00%
Republicans	56.00%	28.00%
Democrats	20.00%	25.00%
Republican Men	50.00%	34.00%
Republican Women	65.00%	21.00%
Democratic Men	11.00%	27.00%
Democratic Women	25.00%	24.00%

NYT/Siena College Poll 7/2023

But, What does all this Mean?

If I were a shrink, which I’m not, but just based on the results of this poll, I would vote for all Democratic male candidates, including their much more successful and optimistic current president, seeking reelection. His major Republican competitor is a former president, who describes the US as failing and himself as the only salvation. 

Also, on the Republican side, I was not surprised to find that the smallest member of the Party’s coalition (8%) called the “New Comers”,is the one with with the most young people (18-29); 59% are white and 18% Hispanic. They are solidly behind Mr. Trump and opposed to President Biden. 

The article goes on to describe them, surprisingly, as overwhelmingly in support of immigration reform and social acceptance of transgender people. Not exactly in line with the Freedom Caucus or the 52% of the Party, labeled either Traditional Conservatives (Rick Perry-like) or Right Wing (Ted Cruz-like).  

The  New Comers (Vivek Ramaswamy-like) are said to be deeply unhappy with the state of the country and 90% believe the US economy is poor.  They agreed they would support candidates focused on fighting the radical “Woke” rather than those targeting law and order. 

I have no idea what America’s first time 2024 voters will do. However, given the environment they now inhabit, I wish them God Speed. However, I do offer, for reflection, three quotes from two founding fathers expressing their views on future American elections. 

Alexander Hamilton: 

“American elections provide a moral certainty that the office of president will seldom fall to the lot of any man, who is not in an eminent degree, endowed with the requisite qualifications.”  

James Madison:

“The people will have the virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom to lead their Republic.  If not, then Americans are in a wretched situation”

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.  Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally win.”

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

The parking lot at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City was two-thirds empty at 11:15 on Saturday morning, just as Gov. Wes Moore (D) was beginning his closing address to the Maryland Association of Counties summer convention.

The lightly attended speech highlighted one of the major flaws of the four-day MACo conference — an annual event that has become the Woodstock of Maryland politics, in the best and worst ways.

To average Marylanders, MACo must seem like a taxpayer-funded junket at the beach for their local and state leaders — and in some ways, that’s just what it is. So taxpayers are right to view the conference skeptically when they are subsidizing registration fees, meals and exorbitant Ocean City hotel room bills for government employees.

But the information provided at the MACo sessions, and the intel exchanged in the convention center’s hallways and at the countless receptions around town, are invaluable. It’s not an exaggeration to say that many of the conversations, official and unofficial, will lead to meaningful legislation, policy initiatives and changes in government management practices in the months and years ahead. Not to mention that they can cement enduring personal relationships and political alliances.

Moore summed up the MACo vibe pretty well during his speech Saturday.

“We come to MACo to celebrate Maryland,” he said. “To soak in the beauty of our communities. To prove that business casual can actually mean flip-flops! I’ve never seen more county executives rock shorts in my entire life. Even the ones who shouldn’t!

“But if there’s one thing I’ll take away from my first summer MACo as governor, it’s this: In every meeting — in every session — I’ve witnessed a tireless spirit of partnership. We are a state that doesn’t just welcome partnership, we need it. We thrive on it. And I’m grateful for it.”

Some of the value of attending MACo is incalculable and hard to define, if someone were demanding an audit of the public benefits and what elected officials and government bureaucrats — and by extension, the taxpayers — are getting for the investment.

Like all others, this year’s MACo was chock-full of interesting and beneficial panel discussions on every conceivable topic that government leaders need to know and think about, from broadband to the opioid crisis to climate resiliency, and everything in between.

But like so many aspects of Maryland government, MACo has also become another opportunity — a prime opportunity — for corporate interests to get themselves in front of policymakers.

The convention center’s Exhibition Hall, with almost 250 contractors, vendors and government agencies peddling their dizzying array of products and services, is one thing. In fact, visiting each and every booth during the course of the conference and trying to absorb what they are pitching could occupy a convention-goer’s entire time at MACo.

But more subtly, some of the panel discussions are now sponsored by special interests, and those can at times turn into infomercials rather than frank discussions. They at least seem like an attempt to steer a policy conversation in a way most favorable to the sponsors. These are often entities that already have robust lobbying corps in Annapolis and at the local levels, and MACo has become just another entrée to powerbrokers and policymakers.

No doubt these sponsorships have helped make MACo the robust organization it has become. But it means some of the policy discussions have to be viewed with a jaundiced eye.

Then there are the more than two dozen parties, receptions and political fundraisers that took place in Ocean City separate from the official conference program. Many of these are sponsored by lobbying firms and their clients.

There is a FOMO quality to all the social events at MACo, and it’s apparent that some people flock to Ocean City during MACo week just to do the party circuit, without ever registering for the conference or visiting the convention hall.

But let’s be clear: it’s rarely the hardworking bureaucrats and county administrators who are hitting all these parties. It’s the elected officials, who want to see and be seen, who have become a little too used to being catered to during the 90-day legislative session in Annapolis, who are the regulars at these gatherings, racing from one function to another, even though they all tend to blend together.

An ambitious party-goer would have to have the superpower of time travel to make it to every last social gathering. That’s why the ones that take place at the end of the night in Ocean City are so well attended: because there’s nowhere else to be and there’s one last open bar to savor.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D) — who is in line to become the next MACo president at year’s end — tried something novel this year, hosting a reception on Tuesday night, before the conference even started, at a pizza place fittingly called Johnny’s. The well-attended reception effectively stretched the conference by several hours.

Olszewski may have been on to something. The conference as it’s structured now stuffs a lot until into a relatively short period of time — both with the official program and the displays in the Exhibition Hall and all the extracurricular activities. Does it make sense to make the conference a day or two longer, even with the added expense of an extra night or two in an Ocean City hotel?

Clearly all the partying — which as recently as 20 years ago was not a staple of MACo — contributes to the sparse attendance at the governor’s Saturday morning speech. When there were just a couple of evening receptions in the course of the week, the governor’s speech was much better attended, and convention-goers were a lot less burned out.

Or is it time to dispense with that tradition and give the governor the keynote slot on Thursday morning? That would effectively enable the governor to set the tone for the bulk of the conference — keeping people buzzing and keeping donors, who are now a regular presence in Ocean City during MACo week, ever more engaged. It may not be a perfect solution, but more than a few conference attendees mentioned it last week as a possible alternative.

No administration wants to have the governor deliver their message to a half-empty room where gubernatorial aides serve as claques and others are nursing a hangover, pining for the beach, thinking about their tee time, or plotting their exit from Ocean City.

For years, national political pundits have wondered why Republicans and Democrats continue to hold their quadrennial national conventions, even though all the drama and uncertainty was drained from them 50 years ago. Yes, they have become slick television productions spotlighting the presidential nominees and other rising stars. But behind the scenes, there is still something of value going on.

Just as there is value to any mass gathering of professionals in a specific field, there is something affirming, uplifting and informational in a mass gathering of the nation’s political clan, however antiquated the national conventions themselves have become.

In that respect, MACo has the same value and charm. But just as the cookie-cutter, Brutalist and moldy hotels of decades past in Ocean City are slowly giving way to hipper and airier alternatives, is it time to retool the MACo summer conference, if only a little?

Josh Kurtz is the founding editor of Maryland Matters.

 

I recently read an article about a state’s fresh approach to public schools and parental rights and started laughing.  My wife told me I should be outraged, not amused and said it just confirms my advanced age.  And she’s doubtless right. My much younger relatives remind me repeatedly that I don’t get it.  To which I silently think: “Thank God”. 

The year is 2023 and in this American state, elected legislators and their governor have passed and signed laws threatening districts with a $10,000 fine if they do not enforce the following legal requirement: visitors, students, teachers, staff and trans must use school restrooms corresponding  to their birth sex OR use a special one-stall facility. And there’s more.

Gender: 

• State law defines a person’s sex/gender by “…the external genitalia present at birth”.
• Parents must fill out a form that provides their child’s nickname or new name that doesn’t correspond to legal name, e.g. Rob is OK, but Roberta is not. However, in some counties, parents can give permission for their child to use Roberta instead of Rob.
• Teachers are not permitted to ask students what their preferred pronouns are. If one does,s/he can lose their teaching certificate.
• A new teacher in a county public school was told recently  how to address a trans colleague: instead of using Mr. Ms or Mrs, use “teacher” 

Sex Ed: 

• Before these restrictive state laws were passed, county school districts had some discretion over how and what was taught. 
• The state has now asserted superior authority over county districts sex ed and wants to review all curricula and materials.
• The state wants the sex ed message to be: “abstinence” 
• The state’s guidance on sex ed is that students must be taught that “…the male and female reproductive roles are binary, stable and unchangeable”.

Books:

• Any member of the public can challenge any book in a school library. The bulk of those books are about LGBTQ experiences or structural racism. “Romeo and Juliet” was challenged and briefly removed, because Shakespeare’s implication was the two had sex
• State certified media specialists review books in classroom libraries for appropriateness. .
• One county requires parents to fill out a “Media Access Form”.  The options for their children are: (1) Unrestricted, (2) Prevent access to (list) and (3) Access to Books: except those that have been challenged and reviewed (regardless of decision) 

After laughing at what seemed to me the absurdity of an intrusive government layering on bizarre rules about bathrooms, gender and sex, I began to think about their impact on students. It became clear that essentially, these law/regs excluded opportunities for students to be challenged, even shocked and ask questions, discuss issues with peers, parents and teachers and learn.  That’s what my friends and teammates did every day usually generating clashing conclusions and intense arguments that taught more lessons.  

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

It was early Sunday morning in the park. A refreshing breeze wafted from the foggy river as the sun rose above the horizon. Joe was setting up his chess board at his usual bench, hoping to engage someone in a friendly match.

Soon enough, another old-timer comes along and asks Joe if he wants to have a game.

Joe: Sure. What’s your name?

Old-timer: Call me Don. I should warn you, though. I’m the best chess player that’s ever been. The only way I can lose is if you cheat. 

Joe: Well, I’m not sure how one can cheat in this game, but I can’t miss the opportunity to play the best that has ever been. What’s your rating?

Don: 5000.

Joe: Really?! I’ve never heard of a rating for a human player above 2900. 

Don: The international chess community has conspired to ignore me because I make all other players look like amateurs.

Joe (shaking his head): White or black?

Don: I prefer white.

Joe: Have a good game.

Don: Pawn to king four.

Several passersby ask if they can watch the match. No problem.

It’s forty-five minutes later.

Joe: Knight takes bishop, Checkmate. Can’t believe I’ve beaten the best that’s ever been.

Don: You didn’t win.

Joe: Your king is under attack, with no square to move to where he would not be under attack. Game over. How can you say I didn’t win?

Don: You cheated.

Joe: How?

Don: You must have made a couple of moves while I wasn’t looking.

Bystanders 1 and 2: Sir, we were watching the whole time, and we didn’t see him make any extra moves.

Don: You’re friends of his, aren’t you?

Bystanders 1 and 2: No, this is the first time we’ve visited this town.

Don: You took too long to move.

Joe: This was an informal game with no time limit for moves.

Don: I never agreed to that. You rigged the game. 

Joe: Have you ever heard the words “sportsmanship” or “fair play”?

Don: I’ve heard of them. They’re words for losers.

Joe: Good grief! I didn’t know I was playing a nut case.

Don. You all heard that. I’m suing this guy for defamation. Joe, you old bag of bones, I’ll see you in court.

Bob Moores retired from Black & Decker/DeWalt in 1999 after 36 years. He was the Director of Cordless Product Development at the time. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University

Like many other families—perhaps most—I have experienced excruciating heartbreak from losing family members because of mental illness and addiction issues. Pain from such losses never ends. 

Recent data shows that U.S. deaths from suicide, alcohol and opioids totaled more than 156,000 in a one-year period. Numbers have risen for a variety of reasons—Covid, access to fentanyl, border security issues, and more. 

Some users and abusers have been saved thanks to rehabilitation, counseling, therapies, and support groups. Hunter Biden is one of the lucky ones. Read his book Beautiful Things: A Memoir to learn how serious his addiction was and how arduous his road to recovery. That is why I find jokes and wisecracks about Hunter Biden’s addiction unconscionable, heartless, and just plain wrong. 

Should Hunter Biden pay taxes he owes to the federal government? Absolutely. (And he has.) Should Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China be analyzed and must he be brought to task for any wrongdoings? Absolutely. And trust me, no stone is being left unturned. 

But is it wrong to mock Hunter Biden for his former drug use? To make jokes about the cocaine packet found in the White House? Is it wrong to suggest that President Biden should hide his troubled son from public view? I say a resounding yes. 

As a nation, we must celebrate those who have conquered their demons and come out victorious on the other side. We should encourage their continued sobriety and do whatever is in our power to promote a continued and sustained recovery. Many of us reading this article know loved ones who have reached a recovery status only to stumble and fall back into the abyss of alcohol or opioid addiction or acute depression. Remember the struggles of Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain, Whitney Huston, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and River Phoenix to name only a few. 

It is a tenuous and arduous task to sustain sobriety. Constant ridicule and mocking insults are not helpful. They harm and they hurt. 

Joe Biden has been a good father to his son. He has supported him and stood by him in times of trouble. He applauds his son’s sobriety as he should. And he understands that addiction is a disease—not evidence of lack of character. 

The State of Maryland is not immune to the trauma of substance abuse. In 2021, Maryland recorded 2,460 opioid overdose deaths. Such drug induced deaths in Maryland exceed the national average. One study reported that more than eight percent of Marylanders reported using illicit drugs in the past month. 

So instead of criticizing the shortcomings of those who suffer from these maladies, what steps should we as a nation take to reduce the preponderance of such dreadful statistics? Here are just a few suggestions from various mental health organizations.

Expand access to substance use prevention programs and mental health programs in schools.

Increase access to mental health and substance use healthcare through full enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

Reduce availability of illicit opioids. 

Limit access to lethal means of suicide.

Expand efforts to combat stigmas about mental health issues.

Expand the mental health and substance use treatment workforce.

Build community capacity for early identification and intervention with individuals who require mental healthcare.

And finally, and most importantly, show compassion, kindness, and support for those who travel that difficult road to recovery. Dusty Springfield said it best: Let’s “put a little love in our hearts.”   

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, music, reading, gardening, and nature. 

Is your house hosting an unprecedented mob of persistent ants?  Ours definitely is. However, when the cats started complaining about ants in their food bowls and most irritating, in their cat box, I was told this problem had to be addressed and solved.  

The first facts I uncovered were not encouraging: colonies generally contain from 20-100,000 ants with a possible life span of 20 years.  And like humans, their general health and longevity can be influenced by their place, called caste, in the matriarchal ant class system.  Adult males live only a few days after mating with a female, but Queen Ants, the egg laying members of the colony, live the longest, even decades. Non-reproducing female Worker Ants spend their time serving the community and if food becomes scarce, it’s the Worker ants who will voluntarily stop eating.  No surprise, they usually die of exhaustion or malnutrition, in a few weeks or months.   

Reading further, I found ants are ectotherms and unlike humans, their body temperatures automatically adjust to that of their environment (within limits), no winter or summer wardrobes required.  

Is Global Warming the reason there are ant infestations like never before? Partially, but until Earth has moved further into the permanent heat wave,  the ants will adapt and continue spending time with us. However, when temperatures get above 120 degrees or below 10 degrees Fahrenheit, they will expire. So Phoenix, Arizona probably doesn’t have this problem. 

However, the series of 90 plus degree days we’ve been having dry up a number of the usual natural sources of water outside our houses. Moreover, it will deplete their food supply and cause them to venture outside their normal safe habitat and go where humans and animals congregate.  In these circumstances, ants will establish their colonies in or near human habitation to have better access to food and water. 

Why do we notice the ants? Because other insects don’t have the heat/cold tolerances the ants do and react differently. Termites find water by burrowing deeper into the ground, while Cockroaches already have their places staked out in our houses or offices. Neither, of them move in masses.  Thus, we see the ants, who are looking for our crumbs and the cats’ food and water.   

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

 

 

It’s great to see Spy readers up in arms about the development at Lakeside, but this is nothing new. There have always been plenty of naysayers, bystanders, and active opponents of this huge development folly ( all bristling with outrage and fury).

For the many of us that have hung in there, we donated thousands of volunteer hours given to steer this tawdry unimaginative, out-of-character development to a better place, to no avail. Talbot County Planning and Zoning, through its three different Planning directors, all caught in the project crossfire, all horrified by the County Council’s behavior and then ultimately resigned, showing the pressure and disrespect for planners in the process.

The Council was always ending in the corner, protecting the profit motive of the landholders and the developers, which would profit from development, and denied any power to the controlling document that was the Comprehensive Plan. For the most part, The Talbot Council has been hugely unresponsive, unhelpful, caught like a deer in the headlights, indecisive between pro and anti-development forces, and by and large, very unaccommodating to low-end development despite the best intentions of the Comp plan, it was easily to route the interests of the people in favor of the almighty dollar.

And so this goes deeper into the question about who is in control, why land owners’ rights are more important than democratic plans adopted by elected officials, and why elected officials who vote against the documents and citizenry they have pledged to protect can so easily avoid legal accountability. 

I, for one, as a dedicated urbanist and local architect who has tried to practice good design, amplify the character of the Chesapeake, always promote historic preservation, and sell history as a draw for local business, have fought this dreaded development. It is located in my own neighborhood, no far from where I live, and it’s a reminder of what unregulated profit-hungry developers do when lawyers yield the power, not planners, that should be in control and refuse these kinds of projects. 

My neighbors have endeavored since the project’s original inception in 2006 and have tried to steer it in a better direction, never saying no, just saying give us a better product, now for almost twenty years. I have to admit that, sadly, we have lost. But as a lesson in bad land management, this debacle should not go unheeded, it should stand as a lesson to be learned; we could rise from these ashes and do better. Can we all agree it has been a horrible mistake? I can think of only one person that thinks it isn’t and many that have profited greatly from the mistake. 

Constructive efforts to shape development in Maryland have always failed precisely because the zoning and land ceding system in an “Annexation” request in Maryland is so terribly flawed against the County in favor of the Towns and Cities. 

The origins of this planning problem go way back to Britain and the land grant process, where the original land grants, many of them from Lord Calvert, gave counties most of the control. In open rebellion after much bad history with Britain and its merchant class, later as colonial cities that sprang up on the Eastern Shore were Chartered (or incorporated), Towns and cities were hoping not to repeat the mistakes of the past. 

Unfortunately, this was also an overcorrection and an equally bad mistake. With the Cities now having more power to grow larger than the Counties to control them, the Counties were powerless to resist growth. This condition still exists to this day; the Maryland Municipal League fights tooth and nail Maryland leadership and is dead set on keeping things that way. The cities will always win the conflict in an Annexation. This has dreadful consequences and did so in Trappe. 

Trappe is actually an incorporated town, which means it has its own planning and zoning, its own city administration, and its own world that it can manipulate as it likes. In the 2006 annexation of some 900 acres, the County was again caught flat-footed in this transfer, made the transfer because it had to, but then revised its comp plans ( too late) to correct its mistakes. So while the developer took the decade off and more or less vanished between 2008 and 2017, where we all thought he had gone elsewhere, but no, he came back! He contested he had been given approval for a wastewater system when he had not, claimed he had approval for the whole 2501 units when he did not, and with skillful misdirections from lawyers, bluffed his way back into the game of project approval, all catching poor Talbot county off guard. This ruse should have been stopped right then and there, but no, it actually worked! 

While this detail might all seem trivial, it is not. In an annexation request made by a city to the County, the County has very little power to resist the request. It must cede the property, but it leaves a gaping hole open to interpretation. The Annexation must follow the comprehensive plan and must comply with the comprehensive sewer and water plan the County is legally bound to create. Herein lies the problem, Talbot had not updated their wastewater “tier plan,” so there was confusion in the application process and, ultimately, a train wreck of sorts. 

In this case, Talbot updated their overall comprehensive plan but not their comprehensive sewer and water plan, and why not, you’d ask? Because it provided a loophole. Here the developer was allowed to slip between dimensions to say he had the rights to develop when clearly the main comp plan said he did not. So it was a well-orchestrated wreck. I suspect this; I don’t know this. 

In summary, all this extraordinary effort to arrest or redefine the development was pretty much undone by the sloppy administering of the comprehensive sewer and water plan by the County Engineer. One has to ask that if this one small loophole ( an unforced error) allowed such a repugnant development to occur, there has to be something very wrong with the process. And that is proven true; Comprehensive plans are no match for skillful or devious developers and clandestine lawyers. A better system is badly needed, but take heart, not all is lost; we are only forty years behind the times in the planning world; some consolation. 

We tried our Darndest to fight Trappe’s Levittown

We need to tell the story through chapters of this fateful episode of Government dysfunction. 

Chapter One: In the beginning, our neighborhood came together to form a community organization called “Friends of Trappe” in the early days of 2006, later known as “The Downstream Alliance” 2018, trying to slow and make the County rethink the Trappe development. People with strong legal standing and adjacent historic properties, after exhaustive testimony, opinions were overridden and executed with disregard by the County County. Early on, our local neighborhood team and the “friends of Trappe” tried desperately to solicit a local vote via an internal town voter referendum ( a way for townspeople to weigh in on just one topic, the Lakeside project) to slow the progress. This effort failed because the developer and his attorneys promised local grocery stores to be built; the only reason locals were in favor of the project ( people were tired of driving to Easton for necessities). Later, his developer offer was rescinded. Another feigned promise was broken by a developer, not that surprising actually, but a fatal mistake for a small, unsophisticated town, trusting a developer’s word. 

Chapter Two: After many, many meetings with MDE ( Maryland Department of Environment) where our group, backed by local environmental groups, presented evidence to MDE that the spray irrigation septic system was bound to fail ( we actually cited places where MDE violated their own policy) we cited evidence of failed system design, as many in the County were already doing ( In Wye, St Michaels, all were doomed to a very short and polluted lifespan).

Despite evidence that spray irrigation systems were underperforming, the MDE ( in their infinite wisdom) increased the capacity requirements of these spray systems and literally doomed the systems to failure. Their caution actually caused the failure, showing that their expertise needed to be questioned. This was the case in Wye, a system that the County had to bail out the developer who had long since departed. We tried to convince the developer to export Lakeside effluent to Easton or Cambridge, but none were publicly acknowledged despite the fact that the Town of Easton had plant capacity.

Chapter Three: Then, We tried through the Talbot County Public Works advisory committee to reject the permit application; this professional Advisory Board all voted unanimously to block the Lakeside application but was later overruled by the Council that refused to take their own Committee’s professional advice. You can’t make this stuff up! Dysfunctional government is nothing new, but the County just attained new heights. Nothing we tried worked. 

Chapter Four: Then the Talbot Integrity Project ( TIP) emerged, a strong and very experienced leader, and we thought we had a stand against the developer, but when all was balanced on the campaign for Council and their respective pro or con votes, once elected candidates now Councilmen reversed course, dooming the Lakeside resistance. TIP sued in Circuit Court, and amazingly the decision was thrown out; local judges in Circuit Court rejected our citizen pleas. Lakeside has proven to be unbeatable and unstoppable by normal channels. 

Lessons learned: The state MDE administrators for wastewater never saw a development they could not approve. And the comprehensive plan that was lovingly created to deal with this threat of unrestrained growth that developments like Lakeside posed proved to be no match for legal maneuvering. And what exactly did we learn? We learned our approach using normal channels in zoning ordinance wasn’t working; the Town and County had no tools to do the job to guide development. We all learned ( cynically) that planning is not an imaginative exercise for lawyers; it is fraught with problems, does not understand in the least about community character, and ultimately is a way for lawyers to bill by the hour and have little care for the results, sometimes laugh at the stupidity of its citizens for being so easily conned. Can we at least earn not to trust lawyers to do the business of planning or zoning? Can we leave that to planners, please?

Failure of Imagination: 

The question we pose here and now is this; why make a big deal out of crafting skillful comprehensive plans ( wordsmithing ad nausea) if they simply don’t work to control and regulate growth, and if developers can literally drive a truck through the regulations, can find ways to taint the Council and to overrule public opinion, why do we insist that this is all we have to shape development? It’s not! Much of the problem is that we are stuck with a system that doesn’t work, but most are afraid to try another that would require learning how to use it! 

Besides, Is it right to leave the magnitude of the decision up for the Town or City Council to decide? Does anyone in Council have any academic background in Planning? Do they think they can solve problems with local expertise, namely lawyers? Do they know how other areas have solved their growth problems? Are they interested enough to even look? Do they listen to their planners more than they listen to their constituents? Should we be leaving these decisions to planners in our area who haven’t been schooled in modern development warfare? 

Answers, answers ….yes, despite a huge majority percent of community pushback, opinions are all against the large unbounded development; Lakeside still survives, if not legally, through sheer persistence. The tools to shape good development are not currently in our grasp. So why do we bother with bolstering a failed system? We don’t want to recognize this because we don’t have other tools to replace the ones that aren’t working.  

Is this not a failure of imagination? Is it really a fight to the death at the end after all the big decisions about where, when, how big, and how much has already been made? Are we getting the order of this all wrong? Shouldn’t this big a problem be solved on the front end, not the back end, when it’s too late to make a difference, when money and effort have been expended, and heels are dug in? This sounds e bit like good national diplomacy that could avert warfare; we know this works or can work in skillful diplomatic hands. The unequivocal answer is yes, it can and should be solved at the beginning, not in the end, and developers go way too far and way too fast before people know what they are doing. The community needs better design guardrails upfront. 

Pattern Books as a solution:

The same developer, Rauch Corp, came in and tried the same shenanigans in Denton, Maryland, but they underestimated a very sharp shrewd town planner who, after seeing the plan for the Ruach project, applied for twin grants and hired a nationally prominent planning firm “Urban Design Associates” from Pittsburgh, to do a better development plan. Wisely the Planner in Denton did not fight the project but struggled mightily to reshape it. And this is exactly what needs to happen in Lakeside and in all developments in the region. We have to recognize growth is coming to the shore; we simply have to have the smarts to shape it, not stop it, and if we set the development bar high enough, a lot of the mediocre shlock will go elsewhere. 

It’s a proven fact; stepping up the regulations in the front end means you have fewer battles to wage in the back end. The funny thing is, something you wouldn’t expect, that developers actually want these regulations; they know what to expect, and they don’t have to fight for every inch because it’s spelled out for them what they can do if they follow the guidelines. People want this because they can reasonably safeguard their property within the towns they love. One added advantage is that these new three-dimensionally regulated planning guidelines, or form-based zoning regulations, are legally enforceable; they are not optional; they are law. No way to dodge them. This works for developers and for citizens; it’s no longer a game of who you know that you can bend to your will. 

The project that emerged from the Denton Experience was “the Denton Pattern Book,” which was a blueprint or “template” for how Eastern Shore towns should grow and how they can retain their character without fighting without confrontation. The beauty of these Pattern books is they lay down the law that lawyers, with only pretend experience in planning, have no idea how to write and are clueless about new form-based zoning regulations. In a way, Denton walked into the next millennium by hiring real Urban design professionals ( yes, we have urban spaces in towns) and left behind a strong template for the growth of any city or town to use free of charge. 

My point is that the failure of imagination, the failure to grasp the idea that there are other ways, other planning tools to get what your town wants and needs are out there, just look around, and don’t for a minute assume that you have no options. You have one that is free right in your own backyard that is working in Denton. One problem is new systems require learning how to use them, but the stakes are high here and now; getting better form-based zoning planning tools is the future. 

And… If you don’t care enough to research this, to look for other answers, to encourage your county and city planners to adopt these codes, then you deserve the ugly conundrum you will face when developers turn this into a stark profit-driven landscape; remember, New Jersey used to be beautiful too. The goose that laid the golden egg sometimes never realizes it’s gold. 

BTW: Urban Design Associates designed Easton Village, which you will have to admit is another universe distant from Lakeside. 

LINKS: and required research: Urban Design Associates, Denton Pattern Book ….This is the town website; you’ll have to claw through to find the Denton pattern book reference. 

This is for the Urban Design Associates website and the host of successful pattern books they have published and areas they have saved. 

Jay Corvan is a Talbot County architect who specializes in historic work and commercial work, imaginative infill buildings that play on local architectural patterns.