Last week President-elect Trump proved his wish to be a “disrupter” by announcing several capricious and extraordinary choices for some of the most important posts in his cabinet. They included Robert F Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS); Peter Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense; and Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General.

A half a century ago, I served as Executive Assistant to a prominent Republican public servant, Elliot Richardson, who served sequentially in these three cabinet posts. Trump’s choices caused me to recall and reflect on the experience and qualities that Richardson brought to these posts, and the stark contrast they suggest.

Richardson was paragon of the “Greatest Generation” and very much part of the “elite” that it is now popular to disparage. Descendant of a long line of prominent Boston doctors, he attended Harvard and Harvard Law School, where he was elected President of the Law Review. He interrupted law school to join the Army. He went ashore on D Day at Normandy as a medical officer and walked through a minefield to rescue a wounded companion. After law school, he clerked for a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1950s he was a Senate staff member and then Assistant Secretary in the new Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW, now HHS). He then became United States Attorney for Massachusetts. After brief service as a partner in Boston’s preeminent law firm, he was elected Lt Governor and subsequently Attorney General of Massachusetts. Before becoming Secretary of HEW in 1970, Richardson served for a year as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State.

To the job of Secretary of HEW, Richardson brought prior experience as the Department’s Assistant Secretary; expertise in public management from his roles in state government as well as the U.S. State Department; wide knowledge of the interaction of HEW’s programs with state social service, education and health agencies; and a family-based respect for HEW’s medical and public health professionals. He embraced a management style that emphasized respect for, and use of career civil servants. And he delighted in wrestling with the legislative and policy challenges surrounding welfare and health care reforms and vexed issues of civil rights.

The only thing that Richardson and RFK Jr have in common is family roots in Massachusetts. Kennedy has no experience with public management, no respect for civil servants or for public health programs. His vigorous embrace of a series anti-scientific conspiracy myths and other wrong-headed personal attributes should disqualify him from cabinet service even if he had relevant public management experience.

As Secretary of Defense, Richardson brought an understanding of foreign and defense policy from service as the number two officer of the State Department; seasoning as a manager of huge public agencies; heroic military service in WWII; and large respect for the Department’s military and civilian staff. Trump’s nominee, Peter Hegseth, a Fox News weekend commentator, is manifestly unqualified to be Secretary of Defense. He has no experience with which to manage a colossal public agency; has already started to wage culture war against military leadership and has engaged in lamentable public behavior. His military service is not in any way a sufficient qualification for the job.

Richardson brought sparkling credentials to the job of Attorney General—law review president, Supreme Court Clerk, United States Attorney and State Attorney General.

And he courageously defied President Nixon rather than execute an order he knew to be unlawful at the time of the “Saturday Night Massacre.” By horrendous contrast, Matt Gaetz, a morally compromised former legislator, has no relevant legal or public administration experience. He promises to be an agent of “retribution” for the new President.

Richardson was an exceptional representative of an exceptional generation. One cannot expect individuals of his quality to proliferate in later generations. But surely, there are more qualified citizens to fill these roles. The United States Senate should muster the will and courage to vote down these ludicrous selections for leadership of three of the nation’s vital departments. If it doesn’t, the Constitutional order will be in jeopardy and Republican Senators will live in infamy.

J.T. Smith served in the CIA, the Department of Health Education and Welfare, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce and the Department of State before becoming a partner in the law firm of  Covington & Burling. He retired to Easton in 2005.

My love for the Eastern Shore started in Chestertown. I used to visit each fall for the Chestertown Wildlife Art Festival and it was one of my favorite weekends of the year. Big groups of migrating Canada geese would hang in the air, as would that first real bite of autumn chill. The magic of Chestertown, like so much of the Eastern Shore, is in its close interplay of vista and village. Just a stone’s throw from my favorite bookstore one can enjoy the rural countryside in full, by paddling Radcliffe Creek, cycling a scenic byway, or photographing combines bringing in the harvest.

At the same time, I was making those trips to Chestertown, around 2007, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy was working with the Town of Chestertown, Kent County, and a professional planning firm, to create the Chestertown Greenbelt Master Plan. The master plan was meant to encompass the future of the Clarke-Hopewell farm, described by Chestertown Mayor David Foster as “our only real opportunity for expansion of Chestertown.” The nearly 500 acre farm, located northeast of Chestertown’s historic downtown, is one of the last remaining sizeable undeveloped tracts within the Chestertown Planning Boundary.

This was before the Great Recession and there were plenty of questions about how development would shape the future of Chestertown and the entire Eastern Shore. So enter the master plan, developed with strong input from the community, to ensure that future development of the Clarke-Hopewell farm would serve as an “organic extension of the historic fabric of the town,” an effort to replicate in Chestertown’s future what had worked so well in its past.

One of the questions that was asked during the inevitable community workshop nearly twenty years ago was: “What defines the character of Chestertown, and should be reflected in this new part of town?” Responses include: “historic…small town feeling…neighborhood feel…walkable…life on a human scale.” Those words do a nice job describing what works about Chestertown. The master plan hews closely to these ideas, providing a flexible and iterative development program designed to “accommodate much of the growth of the town and the county over the next 50-100 years.” The plan includes hamlets and villages, each of which incorporates mixed-use buildings, civic uses, and neighborhood greens. 

In 2015, the Chestertown Greenbelt Master Plan was incorporated formally into the Chestertown comprehensive plan. It was memorialized in a beautiful leather-bound volume that sits on a shelf here at the Eastern Shore Conservation Center. Increasingly, it looks like that is where the master plan will stay.

Instead of human-scale hamlets, what now seems poised to occupy the Clarke-Hopewell farm is a 45-megawatt utility-scale solar array. The array will send power straight to the grid, keeping lights on and computers buzzing in homes and businesses and data centers as far away as Illinois. And all of this has been planned despite the clear and formal opposition of Chestertown and Kent County.

This change came about because the solar developer, a subsidiary of a massive Canadian-based asset management company, petitioned for, and was granted a Certificate of Public Convenience and Need (or a CPCN) from the State of Maryland. What does this mean? Well, in this case, the CPCN serves as a kind of permission slip, signed by state government, allowing the solar company to work around time-tested and well-understood local land use decision making processes. This is referred to as preemption, since local zoning rules, planning commissions, and comprehensive plans are ‘preempted’ by the CPCN, which serves as a kind of blanket approval for land use and site plans that might otherwise be inconsistent with local wishes.  

State preemption of local land use rules is being done in the spirit of addressing the challenge of climate change head on, for which the state has adopted aggressive renewable energy generation goals. But in the rush to site solar power, the pendulum has swung too far. The playing field is too unlevel. Parcels close to our towns and designated growth areas deserve careful attention, responsible land use, and close examination. In Chestertown’s case, the state’s CPCN is plowing through the town’s best laid plans and taking off the table a parcel that was meant to accommodate well-planned growth for the next fifty years or more. Instead of public parks, community orchards, and apartments that young people can afford and easily bike from, instead of tree-café-playground-garden-cottage-barbershop we’ll have panel-panel-panel—more than 140,000 modules.

Solar panels do not need fertile soil. They do not need to have their hair cut and they do not need to bike to class in the morning. There are many other places solar can go. Where else is Chestertown supposed to go? There are not many other spaces the rest of Chestertown can grow into. At least not without contributing to the Eastern Shore’s “auto-oriented suburban sprawl which threatens to erode its rural character.”

In the race to site solar power as quickly as possible, the Eastern Shore looks increasingly attractive. But we must have some balance, some way to say “Here, but not there.” Many of our open acres are best at producing food, and they should remain in agriculture. Other acres, located nearest our towns, are best suited for new neighborhoods. Some spots are well-suited for solar generation. But when we write a new set of rules that only applies to solar, the balance is thrown off in favor of a single land use.

Rather than allowing Chestertown to “grow harmoniously… slowly and methodically as to maximize the efficiency of its land use,” as the Greenbelt Plan so eloquently states, we will allow our land to be “rapidly digested.” The Eastern Shore will lose.

Steve Kline is the president of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy

On our annual visit to my wife’s family farm on the Maine coast, we tend to do nearly the same set of activities every year. Hike the “Blue Hill” trail. Kayak to the Deere Isle Bridge and “Sand Dollar Beach.” Visit Bar Harbor. Eat lobsters purchased from a local waterman. Hike to Barred Island across the land bridge at low tide. Swim to the big rock in Billings Cove at high tide. Go progging in tide pools. And lots and lots of porch time mixed in with some chores around the farm.

One of the favorites every year is searching for starfish, now called Sea Stars, at the secret place we named “Starfish Beach.” Most years we see dozens or even hundreds of Sea Stars in widely varying sizes and colors in an hour or two of wading around the tide pools. An eight-inch Sea Star slowly inching along a rock or prying open a mussel is magic for phone-obsessed teens. However, this year we found a total of two small Sea Stars over two separate visits with eight children and half that number of adults searching for hours.

According to local naturalists, the decline of Sea Stars and other tide pool critters at our “secret” spot has a variety of causes – starting with collectors. A few years ago, our Starfish Beach was discovered by collectors of Sea Stars and Sea Urchins, who sell them online to aquarium and shell companies. This practice has been stopped and sanctuary status is being pursued for the area. Warming waters caused by climate change are also having a significant impact. The Gulf of Maine is one of the most rapidly warming oceans on Earth, causing many species to move north, including lobsters and other sedentary bottom dwellers, to suffer from increased disease and competition from invasive species like Green Crabs. There have also been sporadic but severe die-offs of Sea Stars along the Maine Coast from Sea Star Wasting Disease, a little-known condition made worse by warming waters.

In a family conversation later, one of the elders explained that everything must learn to adapt to survive. This drew a sharp rebuke from others about the unfairness of humans adapting to climate change by using more air conditioning while animals were often left to move north or die. This issue of responsibility obviously needs a more careful discussion at a later date.

While I am immensely proud of the conservation wins that have occurred to save species and habitats during my lifetime. I am also often saddened by the more recent tidal wave of losses to crises like climate change and overdevelopment. Seeing those kids looking doggedly for starfish without success is one of the saddest reminders about the world we are leaving to them.

Rob Etgen retired in 2021 after a 40-year career in conservation, the last 31 years as President of Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. In retirement, Rob is enjoying family and working on global and local sustainability issues with Council Fire Consulting out of Annapolis.

One of my favorite lines from Melvin Udall, aka Jack Nicolson, in the film As Good as It Gets is,” Go sell crazy somewhere else; we’re all stocked up.”  I’ve been thinking about that line a lot lately. Here’s why.

Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. has touted bizarre anti-vax theories, claimed that CIA agents were responsible for the JFK assassination, and said that an abnormality in his brain scan was caused by a worm that got into his brain, ate a portion of it, and died there. Recently he confessed to dumping a baby bear’s body in Central Park.

While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about Hannibal Lecter, his golf game, and shocking sharks. Tell me that’s not crazy.

Republican VP Nominee J.D. Vance lamented that the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”  He also said that people without children were “deranged” and “psychotic.” Before becoming Trump’s running mate, he called himself a “never-Trump guy” and called Trump an “idiot,” “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and “America’s Hitler.”  

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has ranted about Pelosi’s “Gazpacho Police,” claimed that 9/11 attacks were partly conducted by the Federal Government, suggested that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced with a body double before her death in 2020, argued that global warming is beneficial to humanity because more food is grown when it’s warmer which feeds people, called January 6 “a little riot,” and stated that California wildfires were started by Jewish laser beams. I could go on, but I’ll stop right there.

Paul Gosar (R-AZ) called January 6 rioters “peaceful patriots” and tweeted out an animated video showing himself killing Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Several of Gosar’s own siblings have repeatedly called on him to resign from Congress, claiming that he is “immune to shame,” and has displayed “unhinged behavior” and didn’t possess the “intellect, character or maturity to serve in Congress.”  

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) called the three branches of government, “The House, the Senate, and the Executive.” 

Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was convicted of all charges in his corruption trial, including accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as a foreign agent to the Egyptian government.

Matt Gaetz (R-FL) continues to be under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sex trafficking violations, illegal drug use, inappropriate use of campaign funds, and more. Couple that with his major league dramatically overly botoxed face at the Republican convention, and it’s difficult to take the guy seriously. 

So why are there so many unserious poor representatives in Congress? Many observers blame the current situation on Newt Gingrich who was Speaker of the House for four years in the late 90’s. Gingrich made fund raising a priority and massively gutted congressional budgets and downsized committee staff. Dozens of the most knowledgeable and experienced legislative staff members left Capitol Hill as a result. Today most members of congress don’t write legislation or develop legislative ideas themselves, instead they rely on Think Tanks like The Heritage Foundation (author of the now infamous Project 2025), The American Enterprise Institute, and The Brookings Institution. 

Gingrich embraced the philosophy of aggressively confronting the opposing party instead of seeking common ground and focusing on legislation. He sought attention for his party, and the ploy worked. Gingrich, more than any other Republican, is responsible for his party regaining a majority in the House of Representatives after many years of Democratic majorities. The Gingrich philosophy is still embraced on Capitol Hill. So now instead of substantive dialogue, we see delight in humiliating speakers at Congressional hearings, and endless grandstanding of congresspeople like Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Josh Hawley (R-KS), MTG (R-GA) Ted Cruz (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and a host of others. 

A Pew Research Study shows that a majority of Americans have a very negative view of politicians. I understand why. The caliber of some elected officials is past embarrassing. Many of them are self-serving and ineffective. 

So, what’s to be done? For starters. both political parties should require candidates running under their banner to pass a basic civics test—along the lines of a citizenship exam—as a prerequisite for holding public office. Clearly other reforms are needed, including reviving ethics in campaign spending, banning lobbyists from fundraising for politicians, strengthening criminal anti-corruption laws, banning individual stock ownership by members of Congress, and posting legislation at least three days before a vote so that all members have the ability to read proposed legislation. Let’s be clear. We need to get serious. The swamp has not been drained and both parties need to work together to fix it.

In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch 22, the character Yossarian said, “Insanity is contagious.” It certainly seems that way, since this is the craziest group of elected officials I remember in my lifetime. Let’s hope a cure is on the horizon. It can’t come a moment too soon. 

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 writing, reading, piano, and nature.

This week Donald Trump spoke at a National Association of Black Journalists Conference and said that Kamala Harris used to be Indian and now she says she’s Black. He went on to question, “So is she Indian or is she Black?” What I want to know is what difference does it make? 

Trump, a man who once claimed that Obama was not born in the United States and that he was the founder of ISIS, this week claimed that Kamala Harris does not really like Jewish people. Oh wait, she is married to a Jewish man. Trump then dug himself an even deeper hole when he claimed that all undocumented migrants coming into the country are taking “Black” jobs—whatever that means. 

I have grown weary of all these “dust ups” about race, gender identity, and more. Why don’t we just talk about the best person for the job? The best experience. The best judgment. The best platform to propel America in the right direction and not be so hung up on race, gender identity, and looks. 

For decades no one complained when two white guys were on the same ticket, which was the case for most of my life. Now, it’s wait, you can’t have two women on the same ticket. Wait, you can’t have a woman and a gay guy on the same ticket. Wait, you can’t have two Black people on the same ticket. Wait, you can’t have a Black woman and a Jewish man on the same ticket. And now, thanks to the Republican VP Nominee J.D. Vance, we can also discriminate against childless “cat ladies” who, according to him, should not have an equal say in political decisions. 

It is time to get over it. Here’s a concept. Let’s select the most qualified people to do the job, regardless of race, sex, or gender identity. 

A case in point. Many of my friends have said that they wish Harris would select Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as her running mate. He has been in the military. He has been a mayor. He has had a cabinet post and thus has been on the national stage. And of equal importance, he is extremely articulate, quick on his feet, passionate about climate change, and resonates well with young voters. But then my friends go on to say, “It is not going to happen. We cannot have a woman—especially a Black woman—and a gay man on the ticket together. Not in this racist country. It is not going to work.” 

Should you care if the candidate is a convicted felon? The answer is yes. Should you care if the candidate lies consistently, or is patently unqualified given his past experience? The answer is yes. Should you care if the candidate is sexist or racist, discriminates against other Americans, and makes demeaning and cruel remarks about his opponent? The answer is yes. Should you care if the candidate espouses different views than your own about women’s reproductive rights, income inequality, climate change, education, taxes, and other substantive issues? The answer is yes.

It feels like some candidates are working from a playbook that worked decades ago but is no longer valid. Many Americans have evolved. The fact that a candidate is gay, or Black, or Jewish, or Catholic isn’t an issue for them. Many Americans have close relatives who are gay or trans, or of mixed race, and they want to be sure that they have the same rights and respect as every other American. 

It is time to challenge conventional wisdom. The whole argument that if we give marginalized people more power—more equality–we will lose what we have is bogus. A rising tide lifts all boats. 

I am making a fervent plea that we strive to seek the best candidate for the position regardless of race, gender identity, or looks. Let’s try to do the right thing for America. It is way past time to put divisive politics, gender, and race issues aside, and work with all our might to elect the most qualified candidates. This is a complex country with many pressing issues. We need to elect the best candidates who will implement appropriate solutions for the problems of the day. We must ensure that America works towards becoming the best that it can be. 

Civil rights icon John Lewis said it best when he said, “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” 

We can do this. We can do better.

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 writing, reading, piano, bicycling, kayaking, and nature. 

Call me crazy, but I don’t get why people who say incredibly damning things about a candidate then turn around and support him. Not only support him but campaign to be his vice president. Here are some comments from Trump’s current VP contenders.

Marco Rubio. “He runs on this idea that he is fighting for the little guy. But he has spent his entire career, sticking it to the little guy…If you all have friends who are thinking about voting for Donald Trump, friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”

J.D. Vance. “I’m a never Trump guy.” “I never liked him.”  “My god, what an idiot.” He’s “noxious” and “reprehensible.” 

Doug Burgum. “I would not do business with Trump.” “It’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep.”  

So, how weird is it that Trump would narrow his VP picks down to these three guys? Not sure I would select someone as my running mate who has said so many derogatory things about me. And I certainly wouldn’t put aside all my principles to partner up with this guy.

Nikki Haley called Trump “unhinged “and “diminished.” She said making Trump the nominee, “is like suicide for our country.” She also said that “Trump showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them.” Haley has now endorsed Trump and last week turned over her delegates to him.

The list of those who have said damning things about Trump and then turned around and endorsed him is long. It includes Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Lindsay Graham, former Attorney General William Barr, Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, and Representative Elise Stefanik, to name only a few.

The few Republicans who have stuck to their guns and refused to endorse the guy include Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey; former speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas; Mike Pence, former vice president; Liz Cheney, former representative of Wyoming; and Adam Kinzinger, former representative of Illinois. 

You may say, hey it’s just politics. But I don’t think so. It’s just politics when you are generally on the same page as your opponents and are singing off the same song sheet when it comes to policies and priorities. It’s not just politics when you decide to join a cult with a guy you find utterly reprehensible, has no moral scruples, and is a convicted felon. 

The philosopher Hannah Arendt once said, “Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil, but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.”  Amen.

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 writing, reading, piano, kayaking, biking, gardening, and nature. 

The upcoming Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, July 15-18, recalls another GOP gathering 60 years ago at the huge Cow Palace arena near San Francisco, July 13-16, 1964. 

It was a chaotic affair.  Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the darling of right-wing Republicans, was the party’s leading nominee for President.  But on June 12, a month before the convention, party liberals and moderates, including Milton Eisenhower, then president of Johns Hopkins University, youngest brother of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, pushed hard for the nomination of the popular governor of Pennsylvania, William Scranton. (As assistant to Milton Eisenhower I witnessed much of the maneuvering prior to the convention.)

Goldwater and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York had waged a bitter battle in the primaries but, when it became clear that Goldwater was likely to win, a “Draft Scranton” movement took shape. Scranton tossed his hat into the ring on June 12, just a month before the convention. Milton Eisenhower nominated him for President. Delegates from 10 states, including Maryland, gave Scranton their votes on the first ballot. It was too late. Goldwater was nominated with 833 votes to Scranton’s 214. Nelson Rockefeller, also on the ballot, came in at 114.

Following his victory, Goldwater, on July 17, paid a visit to Dwight Eisenhower at his St. Francis Hotel suite in San Francisco. Milton Eisenhower prepared a memorandum of the conversation. 

The former President expressed his concern about two critical sentences in Goldwater’s acceptance speech: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is not a vice,” and “Moderation in support of justice is not a virtue.” Milton wrote: “The two critical sentences were construed as support for the right-wing elements of the Party and a repudiation of more moderate Republicans.”

Goldwater denied any intention of conveying such meanings but Dwight Eisenhower said the Senator needed to make clarifying statements to calm moderate Republicans who were calling him in great dismay and deep concern. Goldwater said he would try to do that but added that his differences with Rockefeller and some other party moderates were irreconcilable. 

A few days after the convention ended the former President and Mrs. Eisenhower arrived from California by train, late at night, in Harrisburg, PA. near their farm in Gettysburg. Their two handsomely outfitted, old fashioned rail cars, were dropped off on a siding in the rail yards. Milton said his brother had invited him to have breakfast with him and Mrs. Eisenhower, on the train, before they departed for the farm.  He asked me to go with him.

Conversation among the Eisenhowers at the small, round breakfast table in the corner of one of the ornate cars, was a  post-convention analysis with many expressions of concern about what Goldwater’s nomination meant for the country and the party. (In November, President Lyndon Johnson trounced Goldwater, winning 61 percent of all votes.)

Breakfast was served by John Moaney, the former Army master sergeant who had been Eisenhower’s valet throughout World War II and was his companion until Eisenhower died in March, 1969. Moaney and his wife, Dolores, were born in Talbot County. Following their deaths in February, 1978 and September, 2014, respectively, they were buried in DeShields Church Cemetery near Easton.  

Ross Jones is a former vice president and secretary emeritus of The Johns Hopkins University. He joined the University in 1961 as assistant to President Milton S. Eisenhower. A 1953 Johns Hopkins graduate, he later earned a Master’s Degree at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.