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A Dreamer Dreams of a New Future: A Chat with High School Senior Sheily Bartolon-Perez

January 27, 2020 by Dave Wheelan

The Eastern Shore’s own Harriet Tubman once said that “every great dream starts with a dreamer,” and that is certainly the case with Easton High School’s Sheily Bartolon-Perez. In her case, she is dreaming of attending Washington College.

The first of her family to apply to college, Sheily, with the help of Mid-Shore Scholars, has carefully navigated the often intimidating college admissions process and now waiting to hear from WAC, her first choice. Being accepted in the class of 2024 is not only a big step for her and her family but, as she tells the Spy in our recent chat with her, it’s the beginning of a new life that promises a much better life.

In our conversation, Sheily talks about the unique challenges she faces as a first-generation American but also the extraordinary opportunities that lay ahead as she takes her first steps to enter into the health field.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about Mid-Shore Scholars, please go here.

Jim Lehrer, Life as a Standard by Al Sikes

January 27, 2020 by Al Sikes

“I am not in the entertainment business.” Jim Lehrer, formerly of the Lehr NewsHour.

Jim Lehrer died a week ago. The obligatory obituaries have been published. The next obituary was written seconds after the one about Jim Lehrer. Life is like that. His death might have drawn more attention than the next one but in my view not enough attention.

Journalism schools should create prizes with his name on them. Each person who is privileged to be a journalist, especially on the hard news beat, needs to be able to recite Jim’s principles—the principles that shaped his conduct in digging and digging until he found the truth and then reporting it in a clear understated manner.

Allow me to digress. Jim Lehrer was graciousness in a town known for the opposite. I met him shortly after moving to Washington—he was on most invitation lists, I was not. We compared notes—among other things both of us had degrees from the University of Missouri. He was one of the few persons I could talk to who cared whether its football team won or not.

And he was one of the only people I talked to who cared passionately about journalism as both a profession and calling. Importantly he was one of the only broadcast journalists who both Republicans and Democrats agreed was evenhanded. He moderated “twelve presidential debates between 1988 and 2012.”

In the larger news organizations, print and electronic, there is a news editor. The editors make important decisions regarding what is included, where it is positioned and how it is written. At some point most editors yield to influences that compromise their profession and the public’s trust. In broadcast news many became intoxicated with performance elements—often looks and theatrics. Some become intoxicated with the fumes emitted from the conference room where opinion writers shape editorial direction.

In the last several decades, journalism, the most important link in a democracy has been compromised and the falling trust of the American public is the result. I offer this link to the Pew Research Center if you would like to go beyond this column. https://www.pewresearch.org/2019/06/05/an-update-on-our-research-into-trust-facts-and-democracy/

Jim Lehrer, you will remain a beacon. Hopefully as the distance lengthens from your work there will be conservators, educators and activists who will repeat and repeat your standards so the next generation of news reporters will go forward by looking back.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.

Snapshots Of Daily Life: Shadows by George Merrill

January 26, 2020 by George R. Merrill

The other day I was out walking. As I went up the driveway, my shadow extended before me at a remarkable length, twice, maybe three times my height. I could not believe that I looked so tall. I enjoyed the feeling that, at least for the moment, I was ten feet tall. The feeling was short-lived. I must confess I was enthralled with my own shadow.

I’ve seen my shadow this way hundreds of times in my life, but perhaps it made a greater impression on me now because at my age I’m growing shorter.

There’s a little boy living in me who does not want to grow up. He doesn’t want to grow shorter either. On my walk that day I met this little boy once again in my shadow, and although I’ve aged, I knew right away my little boy wanted to play. So, I began playing. I tried to get the shadow to look like Darth Vader, the character from Star Wars.

The challenge was to position my body with the sun at my back to produce a shape like his; particularly to replicate the helmet on his head that identifies Darth Vader. Raising my arms near my head I could get the bottom part of the helmet visually contained within my shadow, but suddenly, postured this way and that, the entire shadow became a monolith with two burning eyes created by the light escaping from the raised arms near my elbows. I got into the game, but couldn’t get my shadow to do my bidding. My shadow had a mind of its own.

I’ve been wondering recently about the shadows we cast, but shadows of a very different kind.

I watched a Trump rally once. For an hour, he relentlessly vilified a host of perceived enemies. He denounced them as, liars, cheats, fakers, schemers, traitors, bad people, crooked, dishonest, conspirators, spies, despicable but to quote some. Trump, of course, was describing his own character traits.

The shadow knows.

Attributing to others our own undesirable traits is an ingrained human characteristic. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, identified the phenomenon naming it our ‘shadow side,’ that darker side of our personality that we unconsciously disown.

Jung tells us that the ‘shadow side’ contains all those ugly attributes we possess, but we cannot admit them to our own consciousness. Instead, we impute them to others.

For people who may be influential, like high-profile celebrities or others who may enjoy social status and public confidence such as clergy, care givers and political leaders, their shadow can be very destructive. Here the matter of an unacknowledged shadow side becomes potentially ominous because such people are widely recognized and have credibility and authority. Their shadow side, if they are unaware of it, can wreak havoc on all those others upon whom this shadow might fall.

Recent disclosures of sexual abuse perpetrated by both Protestant and Catholic clergy disturbed Americans. How, we asked, could men sworn to virtue and commissioned by the church to serve others faithfully, maintain a façade of moral righteousness while actively engaging in sexual abuse? Even though the clerics may have turned their back on their shadows, the shadows never went away. Know thyself is more than a cliché. In the human family, this knowledge of self can avert a lot of pain and suffering.

Frederick Douglass wrote about his experience as a slave. He mentions two ordained clergy who were his slave masters. They were preachers and followers of Jesus Christ. They had spiritual authority invested in them by their denomination, and enjoyed the economic and social status the state granted them as land owners.

“All the slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst.” Douglas writes. “I have found them the meanest, basest, the most cruel and cowardly of all others. It was my unhappy lot not only to belong to a religious slaveholder, but to live in community with such religionists. Rev. Daniel Weeden owned a woman slave . . . this woman’s back was literally raw, made so by the lash of this merciless religious wretch. Rev. Rigby Hopkins was even worse than Mr. Weeden. Both ministers were ordained in the reformed Methodist Church. The peculiar feature of Rev. Hopkins was that of whipping slaves in advance of ‘deserving it.’ He always managed to have one or more slaves to whip every Monday morning. He did this to alarm their fears and strike terror in those escaped.”

What would Jesus do? He certainly wouldn’t do that. What did these ministers think Jesus would do, anyway? I don’t imagine they gave it much thought. If they had, Weeden and Hopkins would have to know that Jesus made it clear how he didn’t want anyone to be his servants or slaves, he wanted them to be his friends. It’s right there in the Bible, in the Gospel of John.

Their shadow side had been successfully hidden from them. They kept it behind them and out of sight. To acknowledge their shadow side would jeopardize business. Free labor (slave holding) was a money maker, labor was costly to get (slaves weren’t cheap) and slaves were very hard to keep (they often ran away.)

We all have a shadow side. Our own shadow side contributes to many of our petty prejudices and aversions. In the normal course of events, it causes no great harm.

About my own shadow, then?

In this column, I choose not share the shadow side of my personality that I’m painfully aware of. The reason is simple enough; it’s embarrassing. To redeem myself some I will say this: I have given serious consideration to its nature and have tried diligently not to let my shadow side intimidate my better angels. Of course, I’m talking only about the shadow I can see, like the shadow falling in front of me on my walks. I know I’m sure to be blindsided by the one I can’t see behind me.

Certain shadows we cast may lead us to believe we’re bigger than we really are. For those of you who see just such a shadow and believe it’s an actual portrayal of you, I offer this caution. Tell those closest to you about it; a spouse, partner, especially your children, the older they are, the better. Be careful not to intimidate them, and they will tell you, not what you want to hear, but what you need to know.

Nothing but a passing cloud makes that long and grandiose shadow disappear as quickly as when your kin tell you how they really see you . . . including your shadow.

Columnist George Merrill is an Episcopal Church priest and pastoral psychotherapist. A writer and photographer, he’s authored two books on spirituality: Reflections: Psychological and Spiritual Images of the Heart and The Bay of the Mother of God: A Yankee Discovers the Chesapeake Bay. He is a native New Yorker, previously directing counseling services in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Baltimore. George’s essays, some award winning, have appeared in regional magazines and are broadcast twice monthly on Delmarva Public Radio.

Making a Small Difference by Angela Rieck

January 24, 2020 by Angela Rieck

After despairing about the world that we are leaving our children, I vowed to change the only thing that I could…myself. I began with my environmental habits.

My first mission: reduce my use of plastic. When I mentioned my mission to friends, many were interested and suggested that I write a column about it, to share what I have learned.

The first step was to educate myself…and I learned a lot, all the good that I thought I was doing, I wasn’t doing so good.

It quickly became clear that with a few simple changes I could reduce my plastic use by 12 pounds a year. Doesn’t sound like much does it? But when you think about how little plastic weighs, it actually is a lot…and imagine the impact if everyone did it!

Why is this important? Our plastics crisis has reached scary proportions. There are now 3 islands of plastic floating in the oceans, one island, dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Path is two times the area of the state of Texas. Every year 12.7 million tons of plastic enters the ocean. Our seas, rivers and landfills are choking. Here are some of the sickening numbers:

2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
More than ½ billion plastic straws are used daily.
More than 480 billion plastic water bottles were sold in 2016.
500 trillion plastic cups are used per year.

The plastic isn’t going anywhere. It takes 1,000 years to decompose. My first inclination was to say that this problem was too big for me…but of course, that is the reason to do it.

So, I have simplified reducing plastic use into 3 basic areas; all easily “doable” without a major lifestyle change.

Reduce single-use plastic. Single-use plastic is just what it sounds, plastic that we use once and discard. Imagine if we reused all plastic, definitionally that would reduce our plastic use by half.

So, how to do it? Well we all know about bringing our own grocery bags, not using bottled water. But there is a lot more. I challenge you to walk down the supermarket aisle with an eye toward finding single-use plastic. You will be amazed at how much there is.

I now choose products that use the least amount of plastic. There are simple choices, for example, I don’t buy pre-bagged produce; I select my own and use re-usable produce bags (available through Amazon or any environmentally focused website). (You can also just bring in the produce bags that you used the last time and re-use them.)

Here is a simple example. Raisin Bread. I noticed that one brand was cellophane wrapped and then sealed in a bag, the other was directly sealed in the bag without the cellophane wrap. I purchased the one without the cellophane wrap. Then I reused the bread bag. Yea, it can be that simple.

There are opportunities at home as well. Rinse out plastic storage bags and re-use them. Use containers to store leftovers instead of plastic wrap.

I would love to hear other suggestions from readers.

Increase Demand for Recycled Plastic. There is also a recycling crisis. The amount of plastic recyclables dramatically outstrips the demand for recycled plastic. China is now refusing to take our plastic recyclables.

Let’s face it, most containers are plastic. I look for products sold in recycled plastic containers (e.g., shampoo, laundry detergent, frozen dinners). I also buy toilet paper, paper towels, etc., made from recycled paper. My goal is to increase the demand for recycled products.

Be Smart about Recycling. The last step is being smart about recycling. In the past, I tried to put everything in the recycling bin, only to find out that they were not properly prepared, so they were headed for the landfill. Our recyclables vendor, Republic, has a simple mantra—empty, clean, dry. Make sure that recyclables are empty, rinsed out and dry (I now put them in the dishwasher before I put them in the recycling bin). Here are some sites that help:

What can be recycled in your area:

Recycling locations on Kent County
Recycling locations in Talbot County

There is a lot more, of course, I bought shoes made of recycled plastic (that’s right, Rothys!). I use durable plastic storage bags (that can be cleaned in the dishwasher); beeswax cloth to replace plastic wrap (not loving it yet); containers to store leftovers rather than plastic wrap. It is easy to get creative.

WARNING: if you drank the “reduce plastics” Kool-Aid, do NOT throw out plastic containers, plastic bags, etc. that you already have, they are going to the landfill anyway. Just replace them with eco-friendly products when you run out.

There is a lot of information available on the Internet and online stores that offer eco-friendly products. More good news, eco-friendly products are available on Amazon.

It has been a fun learning experience. I am enjoying the challenge. I hope that you can be inspired to join and help make this right.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

At the Visionary Art Museum with Founder Rebecca Hoffberger by Jim Dissette

January 21, 2020 by James Dissette

Recently, the Spy crew trekked to Baltimore in search of a pigeon skeleton. Yes, really. But there was a method to our madness: the skeleton was on loan from Chestertown resident Pat Trams Hollingsworth and placed as an iconic symbol greeting visitors to the new environmental exhibit at The American Visionary Art Museum.

American Visionary Art Museum Founder and Director, Rebecca Hoffberger noticed the skeleton while visiting Hollingsworth’s home in Chestertown and knew instantly that she wanted it to be part of the new 25th annual exhibition she was curating.

“Rebecca saw the bird skeleton —a learning tool I once used to prepare for a dreaded veterinary tech exam—and off she went with it. It was one of those eureka moments, and she has lots of them. I was fascinated with how she was going to include it,” Hollingsworth says.

The Spy team found the bleached and brittle armature accompanied by a porcelain pigeon in a glass case installed along the entry corridor to the amazing American Visionary Art Museum. The placard above it recalled Hamlet’s existential question, “To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question”, an elegant choice given that AVAM’s new exhibit, “The Secret Life of Earth: Alive! Awake! and (Possibly Really Angry!),” challenges visitors to engage in critical questions about our relationship to the environment that sustains life on Earth.

Chestertown’s Trams Hollingsworth’s pigeon skeleton to illustrate the core message of the new environmental exhibit.

But first: if you have never visited the American Visionary Art Museum, it’s unlike any museum you’ve experienced. You won’t find the trained classicists or hear the reverential whisperings of art admirers. Instead, AVAM is dedicated to art that is rowdy, poignant, haunting and joyous, a collection of unschooled masterpieces from the hearts and minds of individuals who worked out their visions with materials at hand. For example, a centerpiece for the permanent collection has a detailed 15 ft. replica of the Lusitania made out of 200,000 toothpicks as two human figures shaped out of hundreds of wood and felt piano hammers convene silently together.

Johanna Burke’s “Another Green World” mixed media of dry plants, seeds, beads and glass was originally designed for a window at Bergdorf Goodman’s New York store and donated to AVAM.

However, the new environmental exhibit is not a bludgeon wielded by political or environmental activists. It is a collection of personal visions by individuals who would not even consider themselves artists, using materials at hand. It is an invitation to explore our environment through alternative perspectives and along the way to muse over the simple scientific facts of the challenges we face if we continue to ignore the ecological emergencies at hand. Even the ramp to the exhibit begs a fundamental question—hundreds of plastic items collected from a single beach in California are suspended from the corridor ceiling. On the wall, a text panel history of plastic. How will we deal with with an ocean choked by discarded plastic and drinking water suffused with hidden threat microplastics now being detected in humans all over the world?

The Spy was lucky to have as their guide Founder, Director and curator of the exhibit, Rebecca Hoffberger whose knowledge about each of the “artists” and their works reveal the depth of her dedication to the exhibit at hand and the overall mission of AVAM. Hoffberger led us through the labyrinth of exhibits describing their origin, the artist, and how she felt it shaped the conversation we must have about our environmental crisis.

But what are we looking at when we see giant green gorillas fashioned from fiberglass, beads, and plants, or a wax rubbing of a crosscut of a tree compared with a human fingerprint, and why does it move us so different from the art spaces of other museums?

Understanding AVAM’s mission is to understand Hoffberger’s original interest in creating a space for art created outside the classical world of classically trained artists. In her mission statement, she wrote, “Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself.”

In the mid-eighties, Hoffberger was employed as the Development Director of People Encouraging People, a program of the Department of Psychiatry at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, and it was there she became impressed with patients’ elaborate imaginations. She wondered how she could showcase these alternative visions, not as an illness but as a strength. Were there galleries or museums showcasing this kind of personal vision? She and her future husband and museum co-founder LeRoy E. Hoffberger decided to visit French artist Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut Museum in Switzerland where the largest collection of anti-cultural Art Brut (raw art) was exhibited, including the intense and intricate work of psychiatric patient Adolf Wolfli. Impressed with the collection and its simple exhibition style, the two returned with ideas for a museum that would widen and redefine the “outsider’ genre to include “intuitive creative invention and grassroots genius.”

Adolf Wolfli’s “General view of the island Neveranger,” 1911. Wolfli, a psychiatric patient for most of his life was championed by French painter Jean Dubuffet and became one of the first artists associated with the Art Brut or “outsider art.”

Intense fundraising efforts were begun. The City of Baltimore helped with acquiring a place, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Bob Dole were early supporters of the effort including getting a Congressional resolution designating the museum as America’s official national museum. The museum design was created by architect Rebecca Swanston and artist and designer Alex Castro who later became Director of Washington College’s SandBox project in Chestertown. AVAM held its grand opening in 1995 and the accolades have poured in ever since. CNN described the museum as “…one of the most fantastic museums anywhere in America…”

“The Secret Life of Earth” exhibit of 88 artists is a perfect manifestation of AVAM’s mission. Johanna Burke’s mixed-media “Another Green World” shares equal billing with every other artist from Brian Pardini’s found driftwood sculptures to Santiago Navila’s video installation “Untitled” and Julia Butterfly Hill’s journal entries from her 738 consecutive days perched in a California redwood tree to defy a lumber company and its threat to clear cut old-growth redwoods. There is no promotion of gender, race or ethnicity, and Hoffberger is adamant about keeping it that way.

The Spy found the delicate pigeon skeleton from Chestertown and it pointed the way to an extraordinary and personal journey guided by visionaries whose directness and self-taught raw talent stunned us into a visceral connection to the primal network of life we threaten with our abuse and denial.

Pioneer in time-lapse cinematography Louis Schwartzberg once said that “beauty and seduction, I believe is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.” The American Visionary Art Museum’s “The Secret Life of Earth” exhibit is no less than an illuminated path to the heart of our environmental dilemmas. It’s a braid of science and raw vision without sermonizing and dedicated to the awakening of all who long to curate, protect, and love the world we need to survive.

James Dissette a contributor to the Chestertown Spy and Talbot Spy, a Washington College graduate, and was awarded the school’s Sophie Kerr Prize for Literature in 1971.

“The Secret Life of Earth” special exhibit will be available until September 6, 2020 For hours, ticket prices and more information about The American Visionary Art Museum, see their website here. The Spy and the Academy Art Museum will host a lecture by Rebecca Hoffberger on February 21th starting at 6 pm. For ticket information please go here.

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Out and About (Sort of): Founding School Head Leaves Lasting Legacy by Howard Freedlander

January 21, 2020 by Howard Freedlander

Up to six years ago, I knew little or nothing about children with learning differences. I didn’t understand their travails at public schools. These young people were distraught. So were their parents.

Previous school experiences were sadly unsuccessful.

Saddled with dyslexia—a learning disorder that causes people to find use of letters and words difficult, though their intelligence level is as high as others—and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), commonly linked with inability to concentrate or impulsive behavior—young folks and their parents often face academic and social despair. Some young people might be on the autism spectrum.

Chrissy Aull, founding head of Wye River Upper School (WRUS), now located in the wonderfully renovated Maryland National Guard Armory in Centreville, joined with her friend, Patricia McGlennan, to establish a special place for high school students with few good choices, to use their good brains and learning differences to succeed and move on to college.

WRUS is more than a school. It provides a safe, welcoming environment where students unaccustomed to feeling good about themselves, find that others share their academic challenges.

Chrissy Aull is retiring in June, 2020. In a letter sent last week to the WRUS community of alumni, parents, faculty, donors and friends, Alexa Seip, board chair, wrote: “Timing is everything. Wye River Upper School is in a position of strength. Enrollment has increased. Budgets have been balanced. A faculty team is delivering transformative education.

“Chrissy Aull, founding Head of School, has announced her retirement will take place in June, 2020…thank you, Chrissy, for giving us this school that has given so much to many.”

My first meeting with Aull left a lasting impression. She was enthusiastic, dedicated and dogged about a school that changed the lives of hundreds and hundreds of young people and parents justifiably discouraged about the education and treatment they were receiving in public schools hampered by lack of qualified, though well-meaning teachers and administrators.

Chrissy cared, deeply. She and Patricia McGlennan had sons who needed a curriculum geared to their learning differences. It was their mutual concern about their children that motivated them to found a school originally situated in a classroom at Chesapeake College.

Aull wrote in her letter explaining her retirement: “Few people are blessed as I am to wrap up a lifetime of professional experiences with the knowledge that persistence and passion can result in a legacy such as this one. That is a gift with no equal as I hand over the key to the front door(s).”

Through Tom Seip, who co-chaired the capital campaign for the renovation of the old Guard armory, I learned about the struggles experienced by parents trying mightily to divine a way for their children to succeed and achieve a level of self-esteem that might have seemed unachievable at some point.

I met some of the WRUS students; I was impressed by their abilities to navigate their learning differences and contribute to a safe, comfortable environment.

It’s not easy for a founder of any organization, private, public or academic, to step away from something to which he/she gave birth and nurture. I suspect that in Chrissy Aull’s case, her service as school Head was more a calling than a job. The school she co-founded has provided hope to so many.

Godspeed, Chrissy Aull, on your retirement journey. As you said, you leave an invaluable legacy, one that has enhanced the lives of so many students and parents.

Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.

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Writing a Novel by Jamie Kirkpatrick

January 21, 2020 by Jamie Kirkpatrick

It’s hard, writing a novel. There are so many things to take into consideration: the title; the names, physical descriptions, and backstories of the characters; the pace of the story; the plots and subplots; historical accuracy. Yesterday, I wanted one of my heroes to drive a Citroën 2CV—a deux chevaux—but the year was 1942 and the deux chevaux didn’t come into production until 1948 so my man had to drive a Fiat 500 Topolino instead; not nearly as good! And what about sex and violence? Sex and violence sell books and you’ll never get your novel turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts and Ryan Gosling if you don’t have at least a little sex or violence or both! I’m telling you: writing a novel is hard; it’s like being a one-armed juggler without a helmet!

It’s hard, writing a novel. Things keep getting in the way: going to the grocery store, making dinner, changing the laundry, taking out the trash, playing golf. Especially playing golf. Everybody thinks it’s easy writing a novel but it’s not. Life keeps coming at you head on and life isn’t always conducive to the discipline of writing a novel. I should know. I’ve started three and finished none.

It’s hard, writing a novel. People think you can write anywhere, anytime, but you can’t. The light’s not good here; this chair is uncomfortable; it’s too noisy; it’s too quiet. Some people think you can take your laptop to Starbucks so you can write your novel while drinking a no-foam latte, or they figure you can write while you’re on vacation, but is it really a vacation if you have to write while you’re on it? I don’t think so!

I’ve heard people say that writing a novel must be good therapy. I suppose there’s some truth to that because it’s kept me from committing homicide. So far.

Then there’s the question of money. There’s always the question of money. Unless, of course, you happen to be Danielle Steele, John Grisham, David Baldacci, Doctor Seuss, or any one of those other Philistines (not you, Doctor Seuss) who turn out bestsellers like Christmas fudge and make it look like it’s easy to write a novel. Maybe it is for them, but I am an artist. I walk a higher, narrower path.

It’s not easy, writing a novel. You can’t tell your friends what you’re working on because then they want to hear all about your novel but you don’t really want to talk about your novel because after all, you’ve started three and finished none and that’s not a very good track record. I realize these friends are just trying to be helpful and supportive, but let’s face it: writing is not a team sport. It’s the loneliness of the long-distance runner, a solitary pursuit. It’s the stuff of introspection, not Martini Night.

It’s hard, writing a novel. It’s relatively easy writing these Musings—it will be four years next week and I haven’t missed a deadline yet!—but my novel weighs on me like an elephant on my chest which is how people describe a heart attack. A novel is a heart attack, day after day after day.

It’s hard, writing a novel. My wife wants to know what I’m going to do today and I tell her I’m working on my novel and I know what’s she thinking: he’s going to sneak out and play golf or take a nap or watch the next episode of The Crown without me! She wants me to go get some real exercise. I tell her writing a novel is good exercise for my mind and she just stares at my belly.

I’m just saying: it’s hard, writing a novel. Ideas come screaming like a firetruck in the middle of the night when all I want to do is snuggle up next to my sweet baboo, but instead I have to get up quietly in the dark and go downstairs where it’s cold and then stare at my computer screen for an hour or two. I might as well go back to bed but I’ve just downed two cups of coffee while writing an entire paragraph so what’s the use?

Believe me: it’s hard, writing a novel. You try it. On second thought, don’t you dare: the competition is stiff enough as it is.

I’ll be right back.

Jamie Kirkpatrick is a writer and photographer with a home in Chestertown. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Washington College Alumni Magazine, and American Cowboy Magazine.

Two collections of his essays (“Musing Right Along” and “I’ll Be Right Back”) are available on Amazon. Jamie’s website is www.musingjamie.com.

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Tall Cotton by Al Sikes

January 20, 2020 by Al Sikes

Is there a top? There has to be if there is an “over the top.” If there is an “over”, what is its definition? The dictionary says “excessive.”

At the risk of abstraction, let me push this inquiry a bit further.

My Dad used the phrase “tall cotton”. He meant better than should be expected, as in “son, you are in tall cotton” when I went to work in New York City. He was right.

New Yorkers are always looking for an experience that exceeds their expectations. But then how do you beat The Sound of Music on Broadway or a jazz set at the Village Vanguard featuring Wynton Marsalis? The truth is you shouldn’t expect it. Great effort, creativity and at least some luck might, just might, draw even.

The ambition to exceed is often debilitating and that is where much of the world finds itself today. In the media, which I know best, exceeding often translates to copying the original but throwing in something outrageous.

Kim Kardashian, the new Marilyn Monroe? Let’s see what iPhone number are we on? Can the Snickers bar get any longer to justify another price increase?

Marketing is awash in “over the top.” As is life; better abs, sex, looks, relationships! The travel Ads write of “unspeakable beauty” and then after hours of unnerving travel you find yourself among the hordes taking selfies to show they have been there. I take no selfies amidst unspeakable beauty or for that matter any time.

Speaking of life, is stability possible? Jobs? Relationships? Family? Books, Ads and Apps are always promising yet more excitement or satisfaction just up the road. Doesn’t seem to be working, as the real growth is about a longing that is often both desperate and elusive?

We certainly know there is growth in new diets for both ourselves and the climate. Both suffer from “over the top.” And we know there is continuing deterioration in civic cohesion and church attendance. What is the cause and effect? Do we spend enough time working toward the answer?

Sometimes when the cotton is tall it is, well, too tall—too much plant, not enough cotton. As the new decade begins, I am looking for understatement and over-delivery. I, we, will have to look hard and not get our hopes up too high. If we find that sublime moment, it is likely to be close to home and with friends and family.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.

Focus on Talbot: The STR Problem–Two World Views by Dan Watson

January 20, 2020 by Dan Watson

At a two-hour work session in mid-December, the County Council discussed and took “straw votes” on almost twenty relatively small changes to the County’s short term vacation rental (“STR”) law. Most of those administrative changes were non-controversial, with support or no serious opposition from citizens and STR business interests alike. However, the big policy issues that many members of public had really come to hear were not taken up, but deferred to a work session being held at 6:00 PM this coming Tuesday evening, January 21st at the Wye Oak Room. Interested citizens should definitely attend.

I believe there are two conflicting world views in play.

MINIMAL STANDARDS, BUT NO LIMITATIONS

First is the belief that it is undesirable to limit the number or location of STR’s in the County in any manner, beyond ensuring each is physically safe and meets some modest operating and design standards.

So long as those criteria are met and an application is properly filled out, every single-family residential property in the unincorporated portions of Talbot County–no matter how zoned, no matter in what type or density of neighborhood, no matter if it shares a private drive with others, no matter if other STR’s are right nearby—should be eligible for an STR license as a matter of right.

Furthermore, the conversion of homes in our neighborhoods to this highly profitable commercial use should not be restricted to Talbot citizens, but is an opportunity purposefully extended to all outside investors, including corporate investors, who do not pay income taxes here, raise families here, or vote here.

Obviously, the primary rationale for this position is economic development (though marginal benefits are what matter), and in any event “economic development” is what must be balanced against other major impacts on the County. As well, it would be good to be clear-eyed as to just who benefits and who is harmed.

The primary proponents of this world view are the local STR property management firms, the Mid-Shore Board of Realtors and a few of its agents working the STR market, and some current STR owners frightened (unnecessarily) that existing licenses are under direct threat. [See recent Spy Article “Follow The Money.”]

RATIONAL LIMITATIONS ON NEW STR’s:

The other point of view is that while STR’s have a place in our community, issuance of new STR licenses must be rationally limited in one fashion or another—otherwise, before it is too late the entire fabric of our residential neighborhoods (and therefore Talbot’s “character and quality of life”, in the language of the Comprehensive Plan) could be eroded.

Why? Because of these new realities that did not exist 10 years ago: Internet marketing; the highly profitable Airbnb/VRBO business model; the sudden emergence here of property management firms aggressively promoting and facilitating this use (the largest not even locally owned); the rise of outside investors focused strictly on this for-profit use; and the high impact a concentration of transient STRs can have on a local neighborhood.

Primary proponents of this world-view are residents of local communities, already affected by STRs, supported by a number of civic organizations, and operators of B&Bs, hotels and motels trying to stay profitable with transient lodging facilities in areas properly zoned in the County.

LIMITATIONS ON NEW STR LICENSES:

There are innumerable ways to rationally limit (but not eliminate) new STR licenses in Talbot County; as Walt Kelly’s Pogo said, we’re surrounded by insurmountable opportunity. The next column will discuss some of these alternatives.

If you read the news, you know the onslaught of Airbnbs and VRBOs all over America, from the largest cities to the smallest hamlets, have caused communities to demand increased regulation of this new phenomenon. Talbot is no different in that respect, though better off than some in that we are ahead of any crisis locally. But remarkably, the Talbot County Council is considering relaxing some existing regulations.

INCORPORATED TOWNS:

Fifty-two percent of the residents of Talbot County are completely unaffected by the STR law; they are the residents of Easton, St. Michaels, and the other incorporated towns, each of which regulates its own STRs. In St. Michaels, STR’s are restricted to commercial zones. And STR’s are appropriately limited in Easton too, as only a citizen whose home is a principal residence is eligible for an STR license. (All five Talbot County Council members live in Easton, and thereby enjoy this protection.)

Attend Tuesday evening’s work session and hear directly from the County Council on STR issues. Six PM this coming Tuesday evening, January 21st at the Wye Oak Room of the Community Center, Ocean Highway.

Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years.

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Running Around Race in the Justice System by Angela Rieck

January 16, 2020 by Angela Rieck

Columnist’s note: I am writing a series of columns in anticipation of the February 2020 publication of Margaret Andersen’s book, Getting Smart about Race: An American Conversation.

After my first column, I learned about two organizations that are hosting conversations about race right on the Eastern Shore!

In this column, I want to gain more insight from Margaret about the justice system. As a psychologist, I know that perceptions are facts to people…period.

Historically the justice system was complicit by enforcing Jim Crow laws, looking the other way at lynchings, disproportionately enforcing laws for blacks vs. whites, handing out longer sentences for black people and disproportionately targeting blacks at road stops.

The justice system has improved since the 1960s especially in the south. But it is still not a justice system for African Americans. There are hundreds of statistics showing disproportionate treatment by race. Here are just a few (and not the most egregious). Black American men are six times more likely to be incarcerated in their lifetime than white or Hispanic men. Black Americans are jailed on drug charges 10 times more often than whites, despite similar drug usage rates.

There are half a million people incarcerated because they cannot afford to make bail, most of them are African Americans. Sixty percent of the people in jail have not been convicted of the crime but are jailed because they cannot afford bail. Most have been charged with misdemeanor crimes; riding a bicycle on the sidewalk (yes!), driving without a license, petty larceny, bar fights, resisting arrest, etc. To avoid prison stays of up to 18 months while awaiting trial, 90% plead guilty. For those who ARE able to POST bail, only 2% of the cases result in a jail sentence. To recap, of those who cannot make bail, 90% plead guilty but of those who can make bail, only 2% end up being incarcerated.

These are statistics. The human stories that have sparked the “Black Lives Matter” movement are painful. The most disconcerting to me was the Sandra Bland story: A police officer pulled her over for failing to use her turn signal when she moved over to allow him to pass. After refusing to put out her cigarette, he arrested her using brutal force. Unable to make bail and overwhelmed with depression, she committed suicide in jail.

There are dramatically different perceptions between the blacks and whites about law enforcement. Black parents feel they must “give the talk” to their children about how to stay alive if they are stopped by the police. Yet, whites believe that these incidents, while reprehensible, are isolated and reflect only a few “bad apples.”

Question: How can we have a conversation about these different perceptions?

Dr. Andersen: The first thing I would say is that whites need to be aware that the high rate of incarceration for people of color, men especially, is based on the longstanding stereotype of criminality among Black (and now, Latino) men. Since slavery, black men have been perceived by whites as threatening—a painful irony, given that white men engaged in far more horrid violence against black people than black people did against whites. This is all too easy for people to forget (or, worse, be unaware of). The stereotype of men of color as a criminal threat continues to influence the discrimination that black and Hispanic men face in the criminal justice system. At every stage of the criminal justice process, men of color are discriminated against–likelihood of arrest, discrimination in sentencing, discrimination in administration of the death penalty, and so forth. Even starting early in school, research finds that young, black and Hispanic men are more likely to be disciplined–even for the same behaviors that young, white men engage in.

Question: Why are black rates of incarceration so much higher than for whites? What can be done to fix this?

Dr. Andersen: Social policies that incarcerate people for rather minor offenses (three strikes, you’re out and mandatory sentencing for drug offenses) have contributed to the mass incarceration of people of color–including women of color whose incarceration rates have been increasing. One way to alleviate this problem is to offer alternative forms of sentencing. Sentences such as community service can be more effective and are less likely to result in repeat offenses.

Question: What can our society do to reduce racism in the justice system?

Dr. Andersen: We desperately need policies that offer jobs for those with a felony record. To permanently disenfranchise people because of past mistakes leads to a potential lifetime of unemployment–which can then force ex-felons into the underground economy and, potentially, more crime. I wish we had a culture that was more forgiving, especially considering that so much of the behavior that lands people of color into jail and prison is youthful misjudgment. Ask yourself if you would want some misjudgment in your younger days to change the entire course of your life! To deprive young people of opportunities for work (and participation in voting and other civic behavior) only invites further problems.

To me, the criminal injustice system is one of the most heartbreaking issues of our time. Last year the Chesapeake Film Festival premiered The Sentence. Now an HBO documentary, it told the story of Cindy Shank, a mother of 3, who received a 15-year mandatory prison sentence. In her youth, she fell in love and lived with a drug dealer. Although she never did or sold drugs, she was convicted for NOT reporting him to authorities. Six years after the incident, the authorities arrested and convicted her. The film chronicles her story as a mother of three young children (one of them, six weeks old). It shows the extraordinary damage to her and her family.

There is hope. There are movements to reform the justice system. The movie Just Mercy chronicles the work of Bryan Stevenson, a native son of the Eastern Shore, who has dedicated his life to defend those wrongly condemned and those who did not receive proper representation. One of his first cases was Walter McMillian, who was sentenced to die in 1987 for murder, despite eyewitness testimony proving his innocence.

Other organizations have been created to help. One of my favorites is the Bail Bond project, which posts bail for minor offenses (less than $2000); 50% of those lucky recipients get their cases dropped and only 2% receive jail time.

In the meantime, the more we know, the more we can understand. Dr. Margaret Andersen’s book, Getting Smart about Race: An American Conversation will be published this February 2020.

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