Portal Highlights

Editorial: The Great American Slow Down

March 14, 2020 by The Chestertown Spy 2 Comments

It is hard to find anything in modern times that would prepare American culture for this prolonged period of social isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Beyond the immediate anxiety of health and financial threats of this horrific menace, countless numbers on the Mid-Shore will experience a profound change in the quality and scope of their lives.

For the next four weeks, perhaps longer, the cultural disruption caused by COVID-19 may be as significant a test for our community as it will be on our health system. With schools out, performances canceled, meetings postponed, and social gatherings taken off the calendar, Americans, if the virus does not directly impact them, will have a lot of time on their hands, presumably after they have washed them.

For the first time in some forty years, parents and their children will find an unprecedented amount of time together. Community leaders and volunteers will find their jobs have been put on hold. Professionals geared for court battle or staff meetings will need to stand down, and some of our most reliable sources of escape, from movie theaters to concerts, will not be an option.

There is little doubt that this social isolation will have a very grievous impact on some families, particularly those with minimum age salary earners, older parents, or parents working out day care while they continue doing their jobs. We have yet to know the full impact, but their suffering must be addressed and it is hopeful will be from our federal, state, and local governments.

It is also important to note that idleness is a dangerous state for some. With the lack of organized days and limited curiosity, it is conceivable to see a surge in alcoholism and drug abuse. And with that rise, there will inevitably be an increase in domestic violence and mental health issues. The Spy is dedicated to reporting on these kinds of development as they occur.

But for many of our readers, the next month will literally be a month of Sundays. Without normal work or school days, meetings, or team sports, we will also face the difficulties, but also the unknown opportunities that comes with combating idleness.

In a best-case, this great American Slow Down could open the door for stronger families, better friendships, and a re-acquaintance with ourselves. This unexpected downtime may be just the break needed to re-establish priorities and gain a new sense of purpose. People will have the time to express new creativity, self-educate, and reinforce personal ties.

The Spy is eager for our readers to use this newly found time to do just that. And to help it along, each day we will share suggestions from our columnists, neighbors and community leaders, on books to read, music to hear, films to watch, food to cook, games to play and outings to take. Stay tuned for these daily installments starting today.

The next month will be unlike anything one can realistically process in advance. Every day will bring new information and developments, and the Spy is prepared to do its part as an essential portal for that information. But we also see, and politely urge, the community to experience the these silver linings as well, and take advantage of the great slow down of 2020.

Editorial: Chestertown and Fireworks

September 30, 2019 by The Chestertown Spy 5 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Letter to the Editor: Towns Deserve Tax Relief from County

April 26, 2019 by Spy Desk

Kent County’s budget does not include an annual tax rebate to Chestertown, Rock Hall, Millington, Betterton, and Galena, nor does the county reduce its tax rate for property owners in these municipalities.

By eschewing rebates or tax relief, the County requires the five towns’ taxpayers to pay for certain County services—public safety, public works, planning and zoning—that they do not receive. It’s as simple as that!

Seven of nine Shore counties realize their responsibility to municipal taxpayers. Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties provide property tax differentials. Cecil and Somerset provide rebates. Worchester provides “grants.” Alone, Kent and Wicomico provide nothing.

Because it collects property taxes for phantom services, Kent County flim-flams all taxpayers in its five municipalities. It’s time for this to stop!

Because Chestertown is home to one-quarter of county residents, it bears the lion’s share of this taxing inequity. Thank you, Mayor Chris Cerino, for forcefully and clearly describing this situation to Kent County’s commissioners and asking them to be fair and just.

Grenville B. Whitman

Rock Hall

Signs of Spring by Nancy Mugele

April 19, 2019 by Spy Desk

Last Saturday at Kent School we offered a free Egg Dyeing event for the greater community in advance of Easter Weekend. The turnout was wonderful as moms and dads decided to leave the mess with us, and took home beautifully decorated eggs. Along with the traditional cups of dye and lots of bright paint, our inventive Little School teachers created bags of food-coloring-infused uncooked rice which served as a shaker for eggs. I had as much fun as the children shaking my egg, like a chicken leg in a Shake ‘N Bake bag, and the resulting speckled shells were simply surprising! A great morning was had by all.

Dyeing eggs was my least favorite “mom” activity to do with my children (with the exception of helping them learn how to drive a car, but that is another story). I did not like the mess, or the dye soaked into my fingertips for days. Somehow a cup of the dye always spilled, soaking the newspapers we had carefully spread, and dripping dye on the table surface and the floor.

As Easter approaches each year, people around the world make hardboiled eggs and dye them brilliant colors. Did you ever wonder why? There may be many reasons, some religious, but at the heart to me, eggs are symbolic of rebirth and new life, making them a meaningful part of the celebration of springtime.

In my childhood, we dyed eggs each year and ate them at Easter Brunch. The first time I had Easter with Jim’s family, I admired the beautifully dyed eggs on the tablescape. As I reached for a hardboiled egg and proceeded to crack and peel it, the entire table froze and no one said a word. One of Jim’s sister’s finally asked what I was doing. I said “eating my egg.” Jim’s family was completely stunned. Apparently, eating the dyed eggs was not a universal tradition!

And, then there are those colored plastic eggs. Not as pretty as real ones, but definitely happy, especially when they are filled with candy and treats. Yes – we held Easter Egg Hunts annually. Truth be told we only stopped doing them last year when the participants became more and more scarce! I can attest though that adult children are very competitive when it comes to finding the golden egg! Amazon gift cards replaced the huge chocolate bunny years ago and created the cousin’s egg hunt wars.

One of our Kent School families brought me a dozen eggs this week from their chickens. Some of the eggshells were a brownish blue. I have never seen blue chicken eggs before, although I have seen pale blue robin’s eggs. Nature is truly amazing.

Jim and I are anxiously awaiting the sight of eggs in our osprey nest signaling success for our birds of prey who are, at the moment, very busy “nesting.” For the past two years, the osprey couple has not been rewarded with nestlings. Or, should I say, we have not seen any fledglings. Crossing our fingers the third spring’s a charm. The nest is looking quite sturdy, large and homey. You can be sure we will celebrate if baby ospreys should appear.

Happy Spring!

Nancy Mugele is the Head of School at Kent School in Chestertown, a member of the Board of Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s, and a member of the Education Committee of Sultana Education Foundation.

Instructions for Living a Life by Nancy Mugele

January 25, 2019 by Spy Desk

Mary Oliver died a week ago yesterday and left a sizeable hole in the universe. Yet, she also left us with an incredible legacy in her shared life’s work and I, for one, am so grateful for her writing. In 2007 The New York Times described her as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.” I believe she was also one of the most beloved.

For over a half century her poems have explored the connection between the natural and the spiritual worlds. She was often inspired to write during long walks as a child growing up in rural Ohio, and later in her adopted hometown of Provincetown, MA. “I could not be a poet without the natural world,” she wrote. “Someone else could. But not me. For me, the door to the woods is the door to the temple.” In the words of the late poet Lucille Clifton, “she uses the natural world to illuminate the whole world.”

Mary’s was not a happy childhood, but as she told NPR in 2012, she found solace in two great passions that lasted her entire life. “The two things I loved from a very early age were the natural world and dead poets, who were my pals when I was a kid.”

As you know one of my passions is living poets and their works. Poets such as Naomi Nye, who visited Kent School in 2017, and is coming again to the Eastern Shore in April thanks to the Kent County Public Library; Elizabeth Spires, Washington college alumna and professor of creative writing at Goucher College, whose new collection A Memory of the Future was named among the best poetry of 2018 by The New York Times; Catalina Righter and Caroline Harvey, who are the Washington College 2017 and 2018 Sophie Kerr Prize winners respectively; and Rupi Kaur, are on my list. A list on which Mary Oliver will always have a special place.

Mary Oliver speaks directly to me on a human level and I would like to share my top ten rules for living, as learned from the poems in her vast collection.

Every morning the world is created.
Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.
Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.
Poetry is a life-cherishing force.
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

You may remember that my copy of Mary Oliver’s Upstream, a collection of essays, ended up in Montana with James, also a lover of nature and the written word. This week, I tried to order another copy from Amazon for my office at Kent School and it is out of stock. I should have figured that. If you have never read any of Mary Oliver’s work I commend all of it to you. I would lend you one of my worn collections, but they are too precious to part with, even for a short time.

Baltimore’s poet Edgar Allan Poe, whose birthday was last weekend, wrote, “I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.” Mary Oliver’s poetry was absolute Beauty. She wrote her own instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. And, that she did.

Autumn Fire by Nancy Mugele

November 2, 2018 by Spy Desk

We lit the first fire of the season in our fireplace last weekend and breathed in its warmth and comfort. I love a glowing hearth in the evenings, and now that we have started, there is no turning back until spring. Not only do fires warm my toes, but the cozy fireside always warms my soul. Gazing into the dancing flames I can reflect upon my day, organize my thoughts, and recharge.

Not that I am in a particular rush to see Daylight Saving Time come to an end this weekend, especially considering how much earlier it has been getting dark these past few afternoons, but with thanks to Benjamin Franklin’s invention in the 18th Century, the dark evenings are definitely made brighter by a crackling fire in the family room. The added benefit, of course, is that the fire reduces our heating costs.

I don’t even need a roaring fire to relax and unwind. I just need a small fire to last a few hours as I read or watch television. Candles suffice in the summer months, but as soon as the weather changes, the flue is thrown open. (Our flue stays in the open position for months, but that is another story.) The fire is my companion on evenings when Jim returns home late from his office in Towson. And, for Jim, it is literally a warm welcome home.

I am pretty handy with the fireplace tools and can light a paper log with the best of them. But the art of stacking wood in the proper way to bring the fireplace to life is Jim’s gift (it is also James’ gift, but since he lives in Montana it doesn’t help me). When Jim is working on getting our fire going I can’t help but think of the phrase “light my fire” made famous decades ago thanks to a song by The Doors. “Light my fire” is, among other meanings, a metaphorical way to say “inspire me.” Fires, in our oversized cooking fireplace, (made in the Dutch design, much wider than taller), inspire me.

Student writing also inspires me and this quarter at Kent School I will be teaching Creative Writing in Middle School Explorations. Four times during the academic year students can select an elective from a menu of offerings to learn something new, fuel a passion, develop a hobby, discover a potential future vocation, or contribute to student life via Yearbook or our Kent School News video production. This is my first experience teaching an Explorations class and I am really excited about it.

In preparation for my writing class, where I will focus on journaling, blogging and writing poetry, I have been reviewing my personal favorite resources. I will use Julie Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook. Both provide lessons on the basic mechanics of writing, as well as exercises and thoughtful prompts to awaken creativity. When I came upon this Mary Oliver excerpt, it struck a chord:

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”

Fires for the cold – I had never looked at a poem that way, but yes, now I see. Poems are literary works in which “special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm” (Merriam Webster). Autumn fires with their special intensity can capture the heart as only a poem can, and they certainly have a rhythm as the wood catches.

On Monday our Middle School students will select their elective for the next two months. I hope some of them sign up for my session. For those who do, I hope that I can inspire them to share their special intensity through the written word.

Poetry and warm, autumn fires. Both will continue to inspire me as this fall season turns to winter.

Choose Kindness by Nancy Mugele

November 3, 2017 by

“Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.”

These poignant words written by R. J. Palacio in Wonder resonate deeply with me for three reasons. First, they echo the central tenets of a Kent School education – Integrity, Respect, Responsibility and Friendship. Second, they mirror the Six Pillars of Character Counts – Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring; and Citizenship. And lastly, they have always been words that I live by – especially kindness.

When our children were growing up, my husband and I told them over and over again that nice people go further in life, and to always be kind because you never know what a person might be dealing with at any given time. I still remember, with pride and fondness, that our children always seemed to make friends each academic year with new members of their class which meant Jim and I also made new friends. Kindness means being a true friend and also doing for others with no expectation of anything in return.

I promised my school community that I would write if I learned of a school with a specific need in light of the devastating hurricanes experienced in September in Houston, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. I had been waiting to hear from my friend Liz Morrison, the Head of School of Antilles School serving 500 students in PreK – Grade 12 on St. Thomas and St. John since I first contacted her on September 5 as Hurricane Irma was approaching. I finally heard from her last week.

In her own words: “St. Thomas and the Territory experienced two category five hurricanes in two weeks last month. Consequently, 90 percent of the island of St. Thomas is still without power and running water, and many have lost their homes and their livelihood. Antilles School, one of the few independent schools in the territory and the only one on St. Thomas, needed to reopen as quickly as possible for the health of the children and their families and to aid in the relief efforts.

“This came at an extreme financial cost to the institution and yet gave the children of the island normalcy and much needed educational continuity. In the wake of the hurricanes many of our families are unable to meet their financial obligations to the School, and yet we have allowed these students to continue their education. We continue to admit local students from public schools as their schools have yet to reopen. I would love to share the stories of three of these families.

“One of our second graders lost her father while he was protecting his family during Hurricane Irma. Adding to their difficulties, her mother’s employer downsized six months ago and she is unemployed. Antilles has been a safe haven for the family – a place where the child has friends and adults to help her process this tragedy. Keeping this student at school, keeping the family clothed and fed, are one of our top priorities.

“A new student in sixth grade whose school is still closed as a result of the hurricanes shared at the end of his first day that he believes “dreams do come true” because he was able to come to Antilles. Three weeks after this young man’s arrival at Antilles he is smiling, engaged in his studies, and is excited to come to school every day. His mother says, “It’s the first time he has ever said he has had a good day at school.” Giving this student, whose family could not afford the tuition, an Antilles education is a life-changing experience for him.

“One of our 11th graders who has been at Antilles since Kindergarten, was forced to move into a shelter after his home was destroyed in the hurricanes. Meeting his academic obligations while he is living in a gymnasium with more than 100 people, and eating FEMA rations is an incredible challenge. Yet he is, and he continues to do so with grace and poise.”

Liz’s story is so compelling, heartbreaking and, yet, also hopeful. She has lost 1/3 of her student population because their families have lost homes and jobs (75% of Antilles families work in the tourism industry). Liz has had to lay off teachers and cannot pay the school’s bills. The school really needs funding to remain open and continue to be a place of comfort, security and yes, joy, for its students.

Tonight Kent School is holding its annual Empty Bowls event. Empty Bowls is an international project to fight hunger, personalized by artists and art organizations on a community level. While admission is free and open to the public, guests may enjoy a variety of homemade soups and breads with the purchase of a student-made ceramic bowl. Each bowl is $10.

In the spirit of Auggie Pullman, the main character in Wonder, who asked us all to choose kindness, the opening of the movie Wonder this month, and Thanksgiving, Kent School has decided to use tonight’s Empty Bowls event to raise funds for both the Kent County Food Pantry and Antilles School. We BELIEVE deeply in supporting our local community as well as being able to extend our reach to a far-away friend in need. If you are inclined to help personally I can put you directly in touch with Liz or you can donate online. Please join us at Kent School this evening at 6 p.m. at our Empty Bowls event where you can enjoy a bowl of soup before heading to First Friday.

Nancy Mugele is the Head of School at Kent School in Chestertown and a member of the Board of Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s.

Proud Moments by Craig Fuller

September 29, 2017 by Craig Fuller

I think we all have them. Some are widely shared. Some are very unique.

I’m fully prepared to acknowledge that in the unique category are those proud moments that occur in public service at the White House. And, mind you, I said “unique” not better or more important.

They are unique because of the roughly 326 million people now living in the United States, only a tiny percentage have an inclination to serve in the White House and only a fraction of those ever receive the opportunity.

Several days ago, I confess to spending a good deal of time in reflection about proud moments shared with President George H.W. Bush. The occasion was a meeting of the Bush Library Foundation Board of Trustees. I was asked to serve in the 1990s as the former chief of staff to Vice President Bush. The group hadn’t actually met in a number of years and out of the blue came an invitation to Kennebunkport, Maine for a meeting and a reception with President and Mrs. Bush.

Perhaps because I have not visited their wonderful home in Kennebunkport for a few years; or, perhaps due to the tribulations in Washington that seem almost debilitating; but, whatever it was, the occasion brought some of the best of times rushing back.

We’d traveled to over 60 countries together. And, we managed to build a campaign effort that proved successful with his election in November 1988.

It wasn’t so much a sense that somehow we’d changed history…of course, we certainly made some. And, there wasn’t some focus on big decisions. It really was more a sense of pride in time spent helping a person in whom I believed so much become President. Along that path there were many proud moments.

I came away from the weekend mindful of how important it is not to take for granted the proud moments all of us experience in whatever circumstance they may arrive. Family certainly provides many. Professional opportunities provide them. Helping others brings a sense of pride and self-worth that has been the focus of many a study.

Wherever you may be and whatever the activities in which you engage, do take the time to pause and appreciate the proud moments in life.

If there was any downside to these proud moment reflections, it went to the notion that in this White House so many must be working so hard; yet, I can’t help but think they will be denied the proud moments the many who have gone before them experienced. That is a shame. But, maybe the message here is that proud moments are too important to endanger with adverse circumstances. Paying attention to the environment in which one places themselves and the available opportunities for taking pride in one’s achievements is important; and, a paucity of proud moments is not to be taken for granted – at least that’s what I’d tell anyone currently working at The White House should they ask.

Craig Fuller served four years in the White House as assistant to President Reagan for Cabinet Affairs, followed by four years as chief of staff to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Having been engaged in five presidential campaigns and run public affairs firms and associations in Washington, D.C., he now resides on the Eastern Shore with his wife Karen.

Op-Ed: Is there Hope for the Dysfunctional Republican Congress by Rob Ketcham

July 14, 2017 by Rob Ketcham

Our Republican Congress is essentially dysfunctional, is there any hope for improvement?

With its new President and a Republican Congress the United States itself in an unsettled place. I am hoping that with my background working as senior committee staff in the US Congress, I may be able to shed some light on what is or is not going on with our leaders and our government. Despite the fact that there has been a considerable gap between now and when I was immersed in the legislative branch, the principles of how to legislate well and produce a quality product (law) haven’t changed.

It is my belief that Congress and its modus operandi are not well understood by our citizens or by the media, and worse, by the legislators themselves, in part because the legislative process itself requires very hard work to do well. Generally, it comes across as the blind men viewing the elephant; it depends on what you are touching, not what you are seeing.

The Republican party has a majority in both the House and the Senate, and historically, since the President was also elected as a Republican, the development and passage of a Republican agenda should be quite feasible. But we live in interesting times, and it is my view that the Republicans in the House and Senate, by and large, are demonstrating that they either do not understand the legislative process or they have deliberately chosen to stay on their narrow, partisan path, no matter the consequences. Until Donald Trump’s election they were able to operate in a mode of opposition, seldom in the mode of cooperation. In addition, many of them have managed to tie themselves in knots by signing single-minded pledges demanded by this or that constituency which serve to reduce their policy options by placing blinders on their thinking about the topic under consideration.

In 2012 a book was published by two political scientists I had rubbed shoulders with some years ago. Their book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, by Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein examines the polarization that has shaped the Republican party. The book portrays

the party “….. as an outlier, using unusual and unprecedented parliamentary tactics and tools to delegitimize outcomes and acts from the other party and promote mass obstruction and nullification.” I was also interested to read their observations from an earlier book written in 2006, The Broken Branch, which documented the demise of regular order, describing the bending of rules to marginalize committees and hamstring the minority party, and probably even more important, discussing the decline of deliberation in the lawmaking process, and the loss of what they identified as “institutional patriotism” among members.

The legislative process requires considerable effort, a consensus ahead of time about the objective, an identification of the persons and policies affected, a careful plan to hold open hearings about the policy being legislated, and, at some stage, drafting the policy in legislative form which can be introduced and sent to the appropriate committee or committees. All of these legislative activities are designed to build support for the proposition being legislated and to hear and learn about the reactions to the propositions by those who favor them and those who oppose them. All these legislative steps provide checks and balances for the system.

The NYT of July 11, 2017, contains an article, “Which Party Was More Secretive in Working on Its Health Care Plan? “ It notes that eight years ago, Senator Mitch McConnell complained that the Affordable Care Act was “being written behind closed doors, without input from anyone.” The authors compare what happened eight years ago during the first six months of public activity on health legislation in Obama’s first term with what has happened on health legislation this year in Trump’s first term. So far the number of days of public activity this year on the GOP bill in the House and Senate is nine days, compared with 43 days for what became known as Obamacare, during the same six-month period. During its Obama care deliberations in 2009, the House Committees held four days of hearings, and the Senate committees held one on related health care changes, all before the bill was drafted. That same year the Senate health committee spent a total of 13 days marking up the bill, seven of them during the first six months.

The Republican 2017 legislative health care activities are de minimis. Republican lawmakers spent two days debating policies related to their bill on the House floor. The Senate, thus far, has not debated at all. Two other items of comparison jump out: 1) 200 witnesses were heard during consideration of the Affordable Care Act in 2009, while so far this year, 18 witnesses have been heard by the Republican Congress, and 2) There were five Senate bipartisan meetings in 2009, while none have been held so far in this legislative cycle.

The Republican party and its machinations related to Health care this year are a great ongoing case study. For years, the Republican party line was that Obamacare should be repealed, and anything calling for a legislative fix should be opposed. No positive alternative was supported, considered or proposed. We are now learning that since the Republican leaders did not think Trump would win the election, they were not positioning themselves to have to come up with anything new or substantive, just a continuing opposition. With their election success in November, the spotlight shifted the legislative onus to the new Republican Congress and to the new Republican President. It is increasingly clear that no one was ready with a well thought out proposal that had been developed and tested. The shift from being against Obamacare and Obama policies, to being in favor of something positive has not yet been demonstrated. Ignoring the legislative process, and essentially remaining in the negative role, the House proceeded to darken the windows, offer homilies and generally inaccurate or misleading assessments about how awful Obamacare is, and without hearings or an Congressional Budget Office report (which is a requirement in the legislative process) rammed a bill through the House. This poorly thought out strategy put the Republican House members on record as voting for something that will most surely come back to haunt them.

Then the Senate, whose vaulted leader who is often billed as a legislative genius and strategist is in July, 2017, attempting to build support for a Senate Republican version of Health Care produced outside the legislative process by some 13 hand-picked Senators. This attempt gives new meaning to the book title previously cited; It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.

So where do we go from here? The Trump Administration appears at this juncture to have very little understanding or appreciation of the legislative process, and seems to think of the Congress as just a rubber stamp for whatever it wants. It is not clear after more than six months in office that the President understands that his political role vis-a-vis legislation requires far more than simply making demands or threats (which can often be counterproductive, and not at all helpful).

As a result, Congress is pretty much on its own and is camped out in the open field all by itself. Right now the Senate is in the headlights and beginning to face considerable pressure because of its unfinished legislative business with October 1 coming up fast. The media is beginning to hone in on these coming deadlines, in part because some of the same topics have wreaked havoc in the past, including agreeing on a new budget before the fiscal year begins on October 1. Another factor is the debt limit: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin has asked Congress to increase the debt limit by the end of July! Good luck with that!

Over the past few days, it has been reported that Mitch McConnell, has twice mentioned the possibility of now working with Democrats. It is also being reported that efforts are underway by opponents to the Senate’s health proposal to involve Republican Governors whose states and citizens are affected. Now that the Republicans are in charge there is no place for them to hide, the American people are watching, and so far it is not a pretty sight. The amazing confluence of national issues, health, taxes, and budget deadlines and legislation to reauthorize important program areas like the Children’s Health Insurance Program all are demanding legislative attention. Every day there is another story about what some of the Republican proposals will do to many many of our most vulnerable citizens, and almost none of it is good.

Therefore, my deepest hope for our country in 2017 is that Congress finally decides to get down to work, to take the time to meet and discuss what can be agreed on, and what can be put off. Bipartisan discussions should begin. The Chinese symbol for “conflict” depicts both danger and opportunity. For whatever its worth, all the members are in this together. Although most legislators, almost by definition, are conflict adverse, not dealing with these issues before them is much worse. The heat under the legislative pot is being turned up and up, and the issues are now out in the open, no longer behind closed doors where they can be “controlled.” As a result, by not following some type of regular legislative order those issues not raised and discussed publicly in the orderly process of legislating are now being raised by each affected interest group.

So stay tuned. It is my hope, which the Senate will decide to slow down health care legislation with some bipartisan agreement, and then find some agreement on how to proceed on the other critical issues that must be addressed, hopefully again, with bipartisan cooperation. I am also hopeful that Democrats will become a positive force, rather than starting to act like obstructionist Republicans.

Robert Ketcham served as the chief of staff of the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology and staff director of the Fossil and Nuclear Energy Subcommittee during the 1980s and 1990s. Prior to those positions, he was Special Counsel to the House Select Committee on Committees chaired by Richard Bolling (D-MO). He holds a BA and JD from Washington and Lee University as well as a SG from Harvard University’s Senior Managers in Government Program. He has lived in Easton since 1999 with his wife, Caroline.

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