Trump is acting like the dictator he told us he would be. Facts are facts.

“Lessons from Geese” is based on the work of Milton Olson and has been used as a leadership development tool; however, its many lessons apply to all of us.  The honking geese are a good reminder, but will we look up, look out, listen, and act?

  FACT 1:

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

LESSON:

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

  FACT 2:

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

LESSON:

If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

  FACT 3:

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation, and another goose flies to the point position.

LESSON:

It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities, and unique arrangements of gifts, talents, or resources.

  FACT 4:

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

LESSON:

We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

  FACT 5:

When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

LESSON:

If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

Robin Stricoff
Oxford

What the heck is going on in Oxford? Last Tuesday, during an official Commissioner discussion on allowing non-residents the right to vote in local Oxford elections, Commissioner Greer said she did not think that the current Oxford voters should be allowed to vote on the issue of whether to expand the voting pool on local issues to non-residents. She did not think that it was Democratic to let the people who live and vote in Oxford to decide a significant Charter change. WHAT?

It is our right and duty to vote on issues of this importance. Next, she will say we should allow people who don’t live in Oxford to run for office. Perhaps she would like to share why no other government entity in Talbot County, the MidShore, or the State lets people who are not domiciled there to vote there. We are talking about people who have another residence that is their primary residence – they pay their income taxes there, vote there.

The Oxford Town Board of Elections views the change unfavorably.

And on April 11, 2025, Oxford Town Attorney Lyndsey Ryan pointed out”…It is consistent with the ruling in Tobin v North Beach, that permitting non-resident property owners to vote in a town election violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by diluting the votes of town residents.”
So, what is the benefit to our town, our Oxford, to allow non-residents to vote here? Who stands to gain? It is not the residents of Oxford.

Susan Delean-Botkin
Oxford

David Montgomery’s outburst at the recent Town Council meeting was revealing — not about the Talbot Family Network, but about himself.

Presented with hard data on hunger, housing insecurity, childhood poverty, and mental health, Mr. Montgomery chose not to engage with the suffering of nearly 40% of Talbot households struggling to meet basic needs. Instead, he attacked the representative of TFN for acknowledging racial disparities and for daring to include transgender people in the human conversation. That is not leadership. That is projection.

Mr. Montgomery accuses others of “bias,” yet he arrives with his own rigid ideological script already written. He dismisses community data as “progressive,” while advancing a singular moral theory that poverty can be solved simply by promoting traditional family structures. That view conveniently ignores economic reality, healthcare access, wages, housing costs, disability, addiction, and the countless circumstances that families do not choose.

And let us be honest: Montgomery has made a pattern of singling out LGBTQ people — especially transgender residents — as symbolic villains in his culture war. It is a familiar political move: punch down, then claim neutrality.

What is especially jarring is the timing. We enter the holiday season — a time supposedly dedicated to charity, humility, and care for the least among us — yet the message from Mr. Montgomery once again seems to be that only one type of family, one type of identity, and one type of life experience is worthy of recognition in Talbot County.

The subtext is impossible to ignore: if you are not part of the privileged, straight, cisgender, religious conservative-leaning power structure, your struggles are suspect, your data is “biased,” and your existence is political.

Which raises a fair question: if this is how Mr. Montgomery spends his political capital now — attacking food security networks and DEI book clubs — what comes next? A renewed push, perhaps with like-minded allies like Lynne Mielke, to once again restore the Talbot Boys monument to the courthouse lawn under the banner of “heritage” and “neutrality”? The pattern suggests that symbolic grievance matters more than material suffering.

Mr. Montgomery is entitled to his opinions. But the people of Talbot County are also entitled to ask whether those opinions reflect compassion, reality, or simply comfort with a world where power already looks like him.

And when one public figure recently sneered that certain minority citizens “garbage,” many of us recognized the sentiment immediately — because for too many residents, that is exactly what this kind of politics feels like.

Talbot County deserves leaders focused on solving hunger, housing, and hardship — not manufacturing cultural enemies while real families suffer and fall further behind.

Keith Alan Watts
Tilghman

There are multiple reasons for the dramatic increases in our electricity rates; the demands of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are potentially the most egregious consumer of electricity. AI electricity consumption may be exponentially higher than residential customers’ needs.  

A recent article in the Economic Times, attributed to a forecast by Morgan Stanley, provided the following AI summary:

“AI power shortage warning: America may soon run out of electricity as AI data centers drain the grid, Morgan Stanley warns. The bank projects a massive 20% U.S. power shortfall through 2028 — about 44 gigawatts, enough to power 33 million homes. Surging AI demand from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon is pushing the grid to its limits. New data centers, nuclear plans, and gas turbines are racing against time. The AI boom is real, but without power, “

The solution to the problem lies with the electricity generators, grid operators, and the various utility commissions. Whether or not they are positioned, motivated, and conscientiously inclined to manage growth is the real issue. The Electricity Industry is not well prepared to address the service demands of AI. Closely related problems are aging generation facilities and the inability to rapidly adapt and integrate newer technologies.  Couple all of these issues and hurdles with a political environment that favors carbon-based fuel sources and one that is inhibiting the growth of wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear solutions. 

Increasing capacity cannot be accomplished overnight, and it should not, or need not, be diverted to AI use at the detriment of traditional customers, especially residential users. One needs to measure the value and benefits of this new technology as capacity is increased.  Increasing capacity should recognize the alternatives to carbon-based fuels and the environmental impacts and benefits that can be derived from nuclear, solar, wind, wave, thermal, etc. With the advent of AI, the tech-industry giants seemingly expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon and start shoveling more coal or pumping more gas and oil! Currently, alternative fuel sources provide miniscule amounts of added capacity relative to carbon-based fuels.

The operation of new data-storage facilities, which house the volumes of data essential for AI applications to provide “meaningful” information responses, are significant and possibly disproportionate to the demands for residential customers. In many instances the size of these “data-centers” is being expressed in Acres vs. Square-Feet! The jargon de-jour is “AI Factories”. Often these factories are encroaching upon suburban, residential communities and having a degrading effect on the quality of life, in terms of aesthetics and noise levels.   

Countering the increasing demands, being attributable to data-centers, are recently completed studies that identify the requirements to upgrade and/or replace ageing grid components such as wiring and poles. (Reference: Washington Post, 10/26/25, page A13).

In addition to the resource issues, there are other important factors that should not be ignored. Some of these factors are: quality and depth of the AI response, cognitive decline (aka dumbing-down), and unemployment.  There is a growing body of literature regarding the societal impacts of AI, and the great majority of it is negative.  These elements should not be ignored or minimized.

Electricity Utilities (generations, grids, and commissions) hold the keys to the kingdom! They need to aggressively manage the growth of the AI providers in terms of overall capacity and they need to establish methods of service allocations and pricing for residential, industrial, commercial, manufacturing, AI processes, and AI queries. 

The capabilities of the electricity providers are inextricably linked with politics, government, public service, self-interest, profitability, and stockholders.  The challenge is to find the “middle ground” where providers can manage the industry’s growth with confidence and sound judgment.  

At this juncture, it seems that the majority of companies are implementing AI interfaces with their application systems. One might question the need to do so and companies should assess the benefits to their company and to those using the system. For example: Often seen are opportunities to summarize an article or document: to what avail and/or purpose? What was left out, overlooked, minimized, etc.? The summarization process may inadvertently add employee time and electricity usage to ensure important details were not omitted. Would you sign a contract after having read a summary rather than the fine-print? Companies need to properly asses the value of applied AI.

The big-4 AI Factory developers are Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. Each of these privately managed corporations is developing its own chip designs and is partnering with AI software developers with tightly coupled relationships and funding.  Notable AI language models are Anthropic, ChatGPT, and Gemini. 

These tools can be used for real-time queries, work processes, and for fun.  There is a high probability that a significant AI load will not be business-related but a form of entertainment, often in poor or bad taste and offensive. There are a number of such examples: many directed at actors, pop musicians, celebrities, and the like.  The most offensive one I have seen was a Trump flyover at a No Kings demonstration on Saturday, 10/19 (origin unknown, but attributed to White House staff).

Users of AI should pay for the services they receive. A comprehensive system for managing AI usage and billing is an essential requirement and should be based on the various types of usage. Traditional electricity users (e.g., residential customers) should not have to incur the expenses of AI operations.

The employment reductions envisioned and the impacts that will inevitably occur need to be addressed concurrently.  Who will be prepared to address the problems AI may exacerbate on the working population of our country? The societal, social, and economic impacts may be well beyond our comprehension. There are many far-reaching concerns that need to be addressed now!

Calvin Yowell
Talbot County

A definition: civility – noun: formal politeness and courtesy in behavior or speech.

Another definition: skewer – verb: to criticize (someone) sharply.

As I was watching the President call a reporter “piggy”, it occurred to me that it seems we have lost something – a sense of civility. I think that it may be long gone, but if we are going to raise (lower?) ourselves to insulting and name-calling, at the very least we should strive to elevate the boorish fifth-level sniping to the gentle art of skewering.

For example, the “fourth estate” has of late been called “failing”, a “disgrace”, “fake news”, and more – all very droll!. But Spiro Agnew managed to impart the same disdain with a simple sentence: “the nattering nabobs of negativism”. What a fantastic alliteration – simple, yet it gets the point across.

One of the most famous of course is Winston Churchill’s retort to the Lady, commenting, “ If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee”. To which Winston replied, “If I were your husband, I’d drink it”. Whether or not the great statesmen actually said it has been the subject of debate, but in any event, it is a classic in the gentle art of skewering.

And in response to George Bernard Shaw’s “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend – if you have one. Churchill replied, “Cannot possibly attend the first night; will attend second, if there is one”.

Mark Twain was also a master. Some classics:
Of a much praised book by Henry James: “Once you put it down, you simply can’t pick it up”. Or, suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you work in Congress, but I repeat myself.

A little-known physicist, Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, had earned the nickname “Wrath of God” for his cutting judgments.

Such as chiding a colleague as “so young and already so unknown”, and commenting on a paper as “it’s not right, but it doesn’t deserve to be called wrong either”.

And of course, the Master – Shakespeare. There have been volumes written about his slurs and insults. There are classics such as:

“ Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant” (The Taming of the Shrew)
“ You are not worth another word, else I’d call you knave “ (All’s Well That Ends Well)
“ Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?” (Othello)

And of course, so many more.

Finally, because we live in a world of AI, I asked Gemini for some “subtle and sophisticated insult”. It came up with a few. Some samples:

“It’s truly endearing how you’ve maintained such a fresh perspective, unburdened by the complexities of actual experience.”

“You possess a delightful kind of unshakeable confidence, especially considering the objective results.”

“I’m always impressed by your ability to immediately grasp the simplest aspects of any difficult situation.”

But given all that, I would ask, forget the skewering, and just be civil. At the very least, say please and thank you, and be kind.

But failing that, if you absolutely must insult someone, please do so with a bit of class.

Or else, as Shakespeare also wrote: “In civility thou seem’st so empty”!

John Stumpf
Talbot County

So, two councilpersons walked into a bar. The bartender asked, “What’ll it be?”

They replied, “We’ll take a tall glass of overregulation, a side of bureaucratic confusion, and—if you’ve got it—something with absolutely no supporting data.”

The bartender blinked. “So… Bill 1622?”

“Perfect.”

And that, unfortunately, is exactly what this legislation feels like: a punchline in search of a setup.

Bill 1622 is an overbuilt, overreaching, and astonishingly under-supported attempt to regulate short-term rentals where no real, measurable problem has been shown to exist. The sloppy drafting and vague requirements would create more headaches than solutions, introducing new fees, investigations, and procedural hurdles while doing nothing to address demonstrable community needs—because no such needs have been identified. Even the Planning and Zoning Commission has effectively said, “This doesn’t make sense,” and they’re not known for slapstick.

The legislation reads as if it were written to fix a crisis but forgot to include the part where the crisis actually exists. Instead, it piles on inconsistent standards, new compliance burdens, and contradictory provisions that would confuse both those who must enforce it and those forced to comply with it. If governance by guesswork were an Olympic sport, Bill 1622 would medal.

Talbot County deserves better than a policy drafted on a cocktail napkin. The community overwhelmingly opposes this measure, and it is not too late for its supporters to step back, look at the facts (or the absence of them), and recognize that this bill is not a solution—it’s legislative theater.

For these reasons, I urge you to vote NO on Bill 1622 and return to a more reasonable, data-driven, and community-supported approach to regulation.

My uncle’s medals; wasn’t he fighting nazism in WWII? Was he and my uncle at Guadalcanal, and my father in communications, Antifa, and wasn’t the country proud and grateful for their service? When did being anti nazi go out of style? When did the heroes of The Greatest Generation become the enemies of the present political environment? When did Antifa become a dirty word? Weren’t we all anti-fascist?

Antifa and proud of it.

Judith Nora Fauntleroy
Talbot County

Today is Veterans’ Day. Like most older people, I recall all the parades and other forms of remembrance I observed and participated in growing up.  

That annual day of appreciation for the sacrifices our veterans have made for all of us has taken on more meaning since my father, a Navy veteran, died in 2000.

My Dad served in WWII and Korea and then served in the Naval Reserve for another 20 years after he left active service.  I know virtually nothing about what he experienced during those wars.  Like many other veterans of his era, he never talked about it.  When WWII ended, he came home and got on with his life.

Born in 1946, I was a charter member of the post-war baby boom.  I knew little about WWII because my American history courses never quite got to it before our school year ended.   However, a river cruise my husband and I took last summer reminded me of why we had to fight World War II and why we had to win it.  The cruise went north from Paris to Normandy, the site of the invasion that turned the tide of that war.

Our group visited one of the excellent museums in Normandy that shows visitors the horrors that led up to the war and what people suffered while it was being fought.  We also visited the American cemetery where over 9000 people who participated in the Normandy invasion are buried.  They are just some of the people who never came home.  When they left the ships that brought them to Normandy, they knew they might never go home again, but they went in anyway. That’s what we call sacrifice.

Many men and women since then have fought in other wars and served during peacetime, trying to prevent another world war like WWII.  We owe every one of them a debt of gratitude for keeping us all safe. If you see someone wearing a veteran’s cap or sporting a bumper sticker identifying them as a veteran, thank that person on behalf of all of us.  They have all earned our gratitude.

Linda Cades
Easton