Gary Bennett

The Legendary Gordon Lightfoot to Visit Frederick

Gordon Lightfoot performs at the Weinberg Center for the Arts on Thurs., Feb 10, 2022.

By Gary Bennett

This article appeared in the Frederick News-Post, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022.

It’s difficult to overstate the impact Gordon Lightfoot had on popular music in the 1970s. Along with artists such as James Taylor, John Denver, Harry Chapin and Jim Croce, he came to embody the sensitive, singer-songwriter movement of that decade.

He is perhaps the most accomplished musician of that group. In his day, he was widely regarded as a first-rate 12-string guitarist, top-notch writer of both music and lyrics that attracted the attention of music giants such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Barbara Streisand and Glen Campbell, and a near non-stop live performer. Unlike many pop artists, Lightfoot actually reads music, arranges his songs and scores them.

Lightfoot makes his first appearance in Frederick on Thursday, February 10 at the Weinberg Center for the Arts. Limited tickets are still available. He was actually scheduled to appear in August but was forced to cancel due to a minor hand injury. He is in the early stages of a 44-date tour spanning December to June that will take him up and down the East Coast and Midwest. He is backed by his long-time four-piece band.

Lightfoot is now 83 years old and not what he once was, of course. His rich distinctive baritone voice that took listeners on exotic adventures and let them in on the most personal of secrets has been replaced by a raspy, reedy vocal that nevertheless imparts a truthfulness that’s not always apparent in music today. If ever there was an artist not named McCartney who should be allowed a valedictory final curtain call late in life, it is Lightfoot.

His songs have a timeless quality to them. Several topped the charts in the ‘70s. He gained wide recognition in the ‘60s as a writer for others with songs such as “For Lovin’ Me”, “Early Morning Rain”, “Steel Rail Blues” and “Ribbon of Darkness” – a number one country hit in 1965 for Marty Robbins. But it wasn’t until the unforgettable 1970 ballad “If You Could Read My Mind” that chronicles the sad ending of his first marriage that Lightfoot established himself as confident singer of his own material.

My wife and I saw Lightfoot in concert at Wolf Trap in Virginia in 2016 and “Mind” stoked the most heartfelt sing-along I’ve ever heard at a concert. Lightfoot commented that “Nobody dreamed it would become a hit; the album [Sit Down Young Stranger] was out seven or eight months before the song emerged, and I was glad it did. It’s about peace through acceptance. It’s stood the test of time, about 30 years, and I never get tired of doing it.”

In 1974 through 1976 Lightfoot unleashed a string of four consecutive number one folk-rock songs that put him in the same echelon as Elton John, John Denver and Barry Manilow in public consciousness. Lightfoot and his band knew that “Sundown” would be a number one hit when they recorded it in 1974. Sultry and bluesy, it tells the story of unrequited love with some infidelity thrown in for good measure. Lightfoot sings, “Sundown, you better take care, if I find you’ve been creeping’ ‘round my back stair.”

The follow up to “Sundown” – “Carefree Highway” vividly tells the story of “Ann” that Lightfoot says “…knocked me out when I was about 20 and then left me standing there.” He escapes her memory on this carefree highway.

Then came “Rainy Day People” in early 1975, which seems to be about those friends you can always count on to provide a shoulder to cry on and sympathetic ear to tell your troubles to but is really about, according to Lightfoot, “the person waiting in the wings for a relationship to subside, so he can move in.”

In 1976 Lightfoot delivered what is perhaps his most famous but least likely number one hit song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” He read a Newsweek article in the fall of ’75 about the shipwreck of this huge freighter on Lake Superior. A slide guitar provides the haunting sound of melancholy and despair the song calls for. The intricate wording and storytelling bring to mind an Irish sea chantey. Incredibly, it is documented the song was laid down in just one take with all the lights of the studio dimmed except for Lightfoot’s scribbled lyrics. Lightfoot says “I’m proud it’s been written. It’s been a very educational and interesting experience, for sure. I have gotten to meet a lot of the people who were related to the men on the Edmund Fitzgerald; periodically they have functions, which I attend whenever I can. It’s been a real-life experience for me.”

If you only know Gordon Lightfoot for his huge hits, treat yourself and listen to two fairly obscure but incredibly beautiful love songs. “Song for a Winter’s Night” is folk-rock at its best, telling the story of unrequited love set in the dead of winter with snow lightly falling, windowpanes iced over, an empty glass and forlorn love letter. “Beautiful” on the other hand tells the story of love fulfilled with an economy of words and simple melody that is almost breathtaking. He makes a point to always sing this song in concert.

His impressive discography includes 19 studio albums, three live albums, 16 greatest hits albums, and 46 singles. He has sold more than ten million albums worldwide.

Gordon Lightfoot was born near Toronto in 1938. He began his career by fronting various rock and roll bands around Toronto when he was still a teenager. At 20, he relocated to Los Angeles where he took classes in music school and wrote jingles for TV commercials. He returned to Toronto in 1962 where he became a fixture in the city’s folk music scene. He wrote successfully for others and then signed his own record deal in 1966. In the late 1960s he scored several minor hits on the Canadian pop charts before striking it big in the ‘70s.

Lightfoot has not had an easy life. Like many artists, he has battled substance abuse. In his case it was alcohol that nearly derailed his career. He also suffered through a couple of health scares. In 1972 he was stricken with facial paralysis when he contracted Bell’s Palsy. In 2002 he suffered a near fatal ruptured abdominal aortic aneurism. He spent six weeks in a coma, endured four surgeries and two years of extensive rehabilitation. In 2006 he suffered a minor stroke that limited use of his right hand that he has since regained. A heavy smoker since age 15, Lightfoot has emphysema.

Among Lightfoot’s honors include five Grammy nominations, 17 Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammy equivalent) induction into the U.S. and Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and Officer of the Order of Canada. He even appears on a Canadian postage stamp.

Lightfoot is reportedly worth about 40 million dollars so he certainly doesn’t need to be on the road as much as he is. But he remains singularly focused on the stage and vows to continue performing as much as he is able for his faithful fans. “I’m 82 years of age now [now 83]. That feels very important to me. If health permits, I’m happy just to be able to continue to perform in one way or another.”

Cover of his 1974 top-selling album Sundown

Unvaccinated are holding us hostage

By Gary Bennett

This article appeared in the Frederick News Post on January 13, 2022.

So, after all this time, only 68 percent of Frederick County residents are vaccinated against Covid. It seems to not matter that Fredrick Health Hospital has over 100 Covid patients, three-quarters of which are not vaccinated, and is under such intense strain that it instituted “crisis standards of care,” which removes optimal care to patients with serious but more chronic conditions. It seems to not matter that our doctors and nurses are pleading with us to do the right thing. It seems to not matter that with serious outbreaks in nine county schools we’re probably going to have to go back to virtual learning, thereby further harming our children and throwing a wrench into the vexing parental conundrum of working or staying home and caring for their children.

Why do the unvaccinated hold the rest of us hostage like this? The efficacy of the Covid vaccine cannot be disputed by any reasonable person. There are millions of us who have been vaccinated with few or no side effects and have avoided severe disease. What more proof do they need? It’s sad but I’ll admit it’s becoming increasingly difficult to feel bad for wantonly unvaccinated people who are now dying of Covid and are begging for the vaccine. I will also call out people who are not wearing masks in public spaces. We should all do that. It’s the patriotic thing to do. It may be uncomfortable but perhaps these people will think twice next time if there is some shame involved.

We should have conquered Covid by now and relegated it to being a still dangerous but mostly seasonal nuisance like the common flu. But the selfish, inconsiderate, and yes, under-educated portion of our citizenry—the very ones who complain the loudest about wearing a simple mask and who must contend with empty store shelves and closed eateries—have prolonged this crisis with their recalcitrance.

At this point, as the virus continues to mutate, it’s hard to see how we’ll ever put it in our rear-view mirror until, as in 1918, the virus simply runs out of viable hosts to infect. That could take years and mountains of sorrow because of our fellow selfish citizens. My elderly aunt is right. If these selfish, unpatriotic people were around in her day, we’d still have smallpox, polio and countless other communicable diseases.

Response to Reader on My Proposal to Reform Office of Sheriff

Editor’s Note: This article is in response to a Frederick News Post reader who took exception to my call to reform office of sheriff. His comments can be found here: https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/no-need-for-change-with-the-sheriffs-office/article_f075f972-8934-5e5d-9df7-db067336a9f1.html

By Gary Bennett

I told you the hue and cry from the current sheriff’s backers would be loud.

I would like to ensure Rick Godfrey and those of like mind that I have no partisan stake in my proposal to scrap the sheriff’s office as lead law enforcement agency in Frederick County in favor of a county police force. This may come as a shock but I can assure him that I would feel the same if Karl Bickel were sheriff right now. (I wonder if Mr. Godfrey’s position would change if progressive Bickel were to be elected sheriff in 2022?)

Mr. Godfrey worries about progressives ending such scourges as no bail arrests and looking the other way on public urination. (Public urination, really?) But right now, any sheriff, conservative or progressive, can publicly denounce any law he or she disagrees with and pledge not to enforce it. This happens all over the country particularly with gun laws and there is very little anyone can do about it including the governors. We should all shudder at that.

Mr. Godfrey makes the classic mistake of assigning traits to all progressives that are held by those on the fringe. Most progressives do not believe all conservatives are racists or insurrectionists, so why can’t the same benefit of the doubt be given to the other side on crime? I’ve written in this paper before that we’d be better off if we tune out the fringes on both sides and I believe that.

It’s preposterous to think that the five largest Maryland counties have high crime rates because they have county police departments. Does anyone really think that if the sheriff’s office were in charge in these five counties that crime rates would be any different? The biggest driver of crime is population density and these counties have more than their share.

I am accused of being naive in asserting that a county police department would not get bogged down in day-to-day petty politics like a sheriff often does. I would like to ask this paper’s readers when is the last time you heard the Frederick City police chief take to the airwaves to rail about something an alderperson did or about the scourge of illegal immigration? Exactly, you haven’t. There is no reason to believe the same would not hold for a county police chief. What happens behind closed doors would obviously be another matter.

Voters of Frederick County make their political wishes known when they vote for a county executive and county council. These leaders serve the people on a myriad of issues and should have their say on public safety, too. Unfortunately, the outdated county sheriff model removes that almost completely.

It may be only a matter of time before the political nature of our current law enforcement model gets us into deep trouble. Just ask ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona who has nearly bankrupted his county with lost lawsuits due to profiling of Latinx drivers during traffic stops. We’ve started down that road already.

Time to Reform County Office of Sheriff

By Gary Bennett

Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry would be appalled at that has happened to the office of sheriff.

This article appeared in the Frederick News Post, November 24, 2021

Ongoing political sniping in this newspaper between current sheriff Chuck Jenkins and previous and probable future candidate Karl Bickel should remind us all that it doesn’t have to be this way in Frederick County.

It is clear to me, and I hope to you, too, that Frederick County has outgrown the increasingly outdated policing model of county sheriff.

In Maryland, the office of sheriff is an elected one required by the state constitution. There are 23 counties and Baltimore City, and 24 politician/sheriffs serve each one.

And therein lies the problem. Do we really want elective politics playing a day-to-day role in professional law enforcement? That is what we have here in Frederick County and I submit it does not serve us well.

Sheriff Jenkins has made it clear he is not shy about pushing back forcefully at his critics at any time. It is chilling to listen to him rail against fellow politicians Karl Bickel and Kai Hagan, who are in fact Frederick County citizens he swore an oath to protect.

Karl Bickel seems to think that an honest discussion of the merits of a county police force is a red herring at this time. He sounds more like a politician who thinks he has a pretty good shot at becoming sheriff in 2022 but would have very little shot at winning a nationwide search for county police chief. He is probably very right about that.

As a constitutional officer, there are relatively few checks on the power of a sheriff. The popularly elected county executive and county council have no authority whatsoever over the sheriff. They do have some say in setting the sheriff’s overall budget but it is severely limited and can not be itemized to, for example, defund our county’s participation in ICE’s 287(g) program.

If he or she wishes, a sheriff can publicly denounce any law they disagree with and pledge not to enforce it. This is done all over the country particularly with gun laws, and there is very little anyone can do about it. This is an extraordinary amount of power to be placed in one person, and it must end.

While the Maryland constitution requires each county to have a sheriff, state statutes allow counties and municipalities to form local police departments. This is the path Frederick County needs to start down.

The five largest Maryland counties – Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince Georges – have all created professional county police departments that report directly to the county executive or county council, much like the Frederick city police chief reports to the mayor. They are the primary law enforcement agencies in these jurisdictions, charged with enforcing all laws and investigating all crimes. In these counties, the office of sheriff remains but is limited to enforcing orders of the court such as evictions, seizing property, serving subpoenas, summonses, and warrants and running the county jail.

Frederick County ranks right below these top five in population. We are not the sleepy backwater we used to be. We are a metropolitan county that demands good government. We are the largest, most diverse Maryland county without its own police force. We’ve seen fit to join other large Maryland counties in establishing a county executive and county council. A county police force is the next natural progression.

A professional Frederick County police force would have several benefits:

Political sniping and grandstanding would no longer have an effect on day-to-day law enforcement policy.
We can be secure in the fact that law enforcement policy would be in tune with the overall political wishes of a majority of Frederick County citizens who vote for the county executive and county council who, in turn, campaign on their public safety stance and hire the county police chief.
With a likely nationwide search for the best possible candidate, the overall quality of the county’s chief law enforcement officer would surely increase.
Frederick County policing would be subject to better accountability and oversight. The chief of a county police department would serve at the pleasure of the country executive and county council with appropriate oversight especially in budgetary and big-picture matters such as 287(g).
Training and professionalism would increase. In Maryland counties with their own police force, money spent on training has more than doubled over what was spent by the respective sheriff’s office.

Creating a professional county police force won’t be cheap, of course. New officers will be needed along with new cars, equipment, and office space to name a few. Some of these items can reasonably be drawn from the existing sheriff’s office, but not all. Funding of the sheriff’s office must continue, too, albeit at a lower level. But Frederick County is in excellent financial shape and can afford to take this bold and necessary step.

A change such as I am proposing would take an extraordinary amount of political will and courage. The hue and cry from the incumbent sheriff and his backers and sheriff wannabes would be debilitating. But progressive Maryland can get it done.

This change in policing model could and should be timed to not adversely harm any incumbent, challenger, or upcoming election. The election for sheriff should and will go off as planned with other county office holders in 2022. After appropriate study, the legislative request to create a county police force and reform the office of sheriff in Frederick County could then go to the General Assembly in 2023 with a target date of enactment in 2026. Even for government, this timetable should be doable.

Progressives, like conservatives, want safe communities and the laws to be enforced. The difference comes in the policies to make this happen. Politics should not play an overt role in such an important endeavor.

Current Frederick County (MD) sheriff Chuck Jenkins (2021)

The Difference Between Democrats and GOP

By Gary Bennett

This article appeared in the October 9th, 2021, edition of the Frederick News-Post.

If you are not paying close attention and wonder what really is the difference between the two political parties, I offer this: Democrats want to govern, come to consensus, negotiate, and try to do something positive for the American people while the Republicans are more interested in the raw accumulation of power and have a continuing unhealthy interest in what goes on in our bedrooms.

Don’t think so? How then do we explain the fact, not opinion, that Democrats are on board with investigating what went wrong in Afghanistan while Republicans cannot even be bothered to want to investigate the attempted overthrow of our government on Jan. 6? How is it that Democrats voted to raise the debt limit seven times under Donald Trump, even though he ran up record deficits, while Republican refused to raise the debt limit under Joe Biden and risked government default?

These are just two examples and I could go on and on beginning with the brazen appointment by the Republicans of a ultra-conservative Supreme Court justice during the last election while a Barack Obama appointment was not even provided a hearing an entire year before the 2016 election. The power-hungry desperation of the Republican Party is maddingly there for all to see and I hope independents will remember that when they next go to the polls.

Where Does All This Selfishness Come From?

By Gary Bennett

Protesters against a COVID-19 mandate gesture as they are escorted out of the Clark County School Board meeting at the Clark County Government Center, in Las Vegas.

I’ve been thinking a lot about selfishness lately. It’s been in the news.

The refusal of many people to get the Covid vaccine or to even do the bare minimum and wear a mask to protect themselves, their children, and the rest of us has certainly brought this ugly trait forward.

But it’s always been there. Unfortunately. Maybe without such deadly consequences, but still there.

One only has to consider what we see every day: trash littering our highways, parking in fire lanes when perfectly good parking spaces are only yards away, playing music too loudly in public, taking a basketful of groceries through the express line, not using turn signals, cutting in line during merges, and billionaires going off to space but not paying their employees a living wage. I could go on.

Those of us who care about others and actively work to improve their lot look on in disgust at the depths others are willing to sink to satisfy their own needs. Under the guise of patriotically battling government tyranny, a certain segment of our population has proven they don’t give a blip about the rest of us. I’m not buying their crocodile grievances and faux patriotism. Actions speak louder than words. Recurring tantrums at school board meetings, on airplanes, and in convenience stores roar with selfishness. Don’t think so? When’s the last time you heard an anti-vaxxer or anti-masker talk about the legitimate concerns of others?

Where does all this selfishness come from?

It is tempting to write off all these selfish people as simply toddlers in adult clothing. Not so, say most scientists. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they don’t believe we are born inherently selfish. Selfishness appears to be mostly learned behavior, not instinctive. The implication is that our rational mind makes selfish decisions consciously. We see it working for some people, at least in the short term, and decide we want some of that.

Happily, the same learning process holds for altruism. Scientists have learned that kids display altruistic behaviors from a very young age. At first, children learn to care only for their needs with little empathy or consideration for others. We see this all the time. But gradually, children begin to learn that other people have emotions too and develop empathy. What’s more, other research suggests altruistic behavior may be the default option in our brains.

So, if selflessness is rooted in the brain, why do some people have such a hard time with it? The answer lies in emotional intelligence or lack thereof. Most psychologists agree that emotional intelligence exists on a spectrum, and some individuals are simply higher on it than others. One symptom of low emotional intelligence is the tendency to be self-absorbed, or exclusively concerned about what you’re thinking, feeling, needing and wanting, instead of the thoughts, feelings and needs of others.

After stumbling in the beginning, science quickly reached consensus that masks help. Even if the science wasn’t clear, wouldn’t common sense tell you that covering your face will provide some modicum of protection to both you and others from this airborne and highly contagious disease? If I were wavering, that would be enough to convince me. Even harrowing accounts of packed ICUs and exhausted doctors and nurses pleading with us to do the right thing fail to move some people. This infuriating ignorance is another form of selfishness.

Businesses are beginning to once again post signs that highly recommend masks. Some even require them. Even though this should be common sense in any small, enclosed space, I applaud their courage to make such a call anyway. But this doesn’t stop a sizable segment from thumbing their noses. “Don’t tread on my rights” and “government can’t tell me what to do” are the usual tired refrains ignoring the social compact that we each have a responsibility to look after one another.

The most jarring excuse, though, is the one that insists we must not hide our faces because we are made in God’s image. This would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. The Jesus I know would be the first to put on a mask to help protect others and urge others to do the same.

When it comes to the vaccine, I let out a sad, knowing sigh when I read in the Frederick News-Post about many local schools recently receiving STEM grants. I believe one of the great dichotomies of today is why so many of us want our children to pursue careers in STEM but then ignore—or worse, disparage—them when they grow up and provide their expert opinion. Anyway, where did all these lay people get their medical and scientific knowledge to know better than scientists who’ve been studying infectious diseases for years? That smugness and unreasonableness is another form of selfishness.

The typical responses used to discredit the vaccine is that it was rushed, there is not enough data available yet for me to commit to it, or (inexplicably) it doesn’t work.

The vaccine was not rushed. To its credit, the former administration put the vaccine on a very fast track because we needed it to be. What people don’t understand is that the infrastructure to get the vaccine out quickly was already in place. The world is bedeviled by infectious diseases every single year and science has become good at responding. AIDS, SARS, smallpox, polio and countless other communicable diseases have been highly eradicated or wiped off the face of the earth because of vaccines.

The efficacy of the Covid vaccine cannot be disputed by any reasonable person. There are millions of us who have been vaccinated with few or no side effects and have avoided severe disease. What more proof do you need? It’s sad but I’ll admit it’s becoming increasingly difficult to feel bad for wantonly unvaccinated people who are now dying of Covid and are begging for the vaccine.

We should have conquered Covid by now but the selfish, inconsiderate, and yes, under-educated portion of our citizenry—the very ones who complain the loudest about masks and vaccines—have prolonged this crisis with their recalcitrance. At this point, as the virus mutates, it’s hard to see how we’ll ever put it in our rear-view mirror until, as in 1918, the virus simply runs out of viable hosts to infect. That could take years and mountains of sorrow because of our fellow selfish citizens.

FSK Lions’ Canines on the Creek Back for 2nd Year

By Gary Bennett

One of many contestants in the doggy parade and costume contest.

This article appeared in the Frederick News-Post July 1, 2021.

Francis Scott Key Lions Club, in conjunction with Downtown Frederick Partnership and Leader Dogs for the Blind, is hosting its second annual Canines on the Creek event, Saturday, July 3, 3 – 5 pm in the trellis area of Carroll Creek.

The event features a dog and owner patriotic-themed costume contest and parade, a dog training demonstration from Sit Means Sit of Frederick, speakers, giveaways, and discounts from exhibitors. Some of the dog-friendly exhibitors scheduled to attend are Sit Means Sit, Camp Bow Wow, Pet Smart, My Pet Store and More, Happy Dog Groomers, Green Canine, T and L Company, Viatoris Dog Training, Megan Purtell Photography and Frederick Friends of Our County Animal Shelter. Businesses serving dogs and their owners that wish to exhibit should contact FSK Lion Gary Bennett at 301-606-3012 or gabennet01@comcast.net.

Last year’s event was held on March 7 and featured a St. Patrick’s Day- themed costume context and parade. Due to Covid, this year’s event was moved to July 3 and will kick off the long Fourth of July weekend.

According to event chair Lion Gary Bennett, the highlight of the day’s activities is the costume contest and parade. “Watching the parade is free but if you wish to participate, we ask for a small donation to the nonprofit organization Leader Dogs for the Blind,” said Bennett. Dog owners can sign up at fsklions.org/canines. “The costume contest and parade are loads of fun. We judge the entries and have prizes for best owner and dog look-alikes, best small breed costume and best large breed costume.”

Along with the costume contest, parade and demonstrations, attendees will have the chance to speak to vendors that provide services to dogs and their owners and can take advantage of event discounts. The event will take place rain or shine.

“Frederick’s dog friendliness is well known and observed everyday downtown,” Bennett said. “And since Leader Dogs for the Blind is a key organization that Lions support, the idea for this event seemed to be a no-brainer. We hope it takes off in years to come and becomes a draw for Carroll Creek and downtown Frederick and at the same time helps support this worthwhile organization.”

Leader Dogs for the Blind raises and provides leader dogs for blind and low-sight individuals all over the world at no cost to the recipient helping them live a life of independence and mobility. FSK Lions Club serves the Frederick community through eyeglass donations, free used medical equipment lending, and sponsorships.

For more information on this event and to sign up to participate in the costume contest and parade, visit fsklions.org/canines.

Wilson Should Go

By Gary Bennett

{Editors Note: Roger Wilson is a democratic member of Frederick’s Board of Alderman. He has been accused of sexual misconduct by several female acquaintances.}

This article appeared in the Frederick News Post, May 21, 2021.

A couple of years ago, I ran into Alderman Roger Wilson in the audience at a Frederick County Council meeting. He noticed my Virginia Commonwealth University-logoed hoodie and explained that he attended that Richmond, VA school, too. He was there in his then role as the director of government affairs and public policy for the county. The exchange was pleasant enough but mostly unremarkable.

Fast forward two years and now Alderman Wilson finds himself in political turmoil for what he terms “flirting” and the independent investigation calls “unwelcomed sexual advances.” I do not know if the charges against Alderman Wilson warrant his expulsion from the city council. I do know, however, that we must demand his resignation from the council. Not because he necessarily did anything illegal, but because he should be ashamed of his lack of judgement and self-control when he should have known better.

Politicians must know, even in a small town, the spotlight is always on them. When they accept public office, their lives to a large extent become public, too. Shame used to be a powerful motivator but now, unfortunately, it seems to be a quaint relic of days gone by. Now, politicians only leave if they have no other choice, kicking and screaming “political hit job” as they go even after the charges have been proven. See Anthony Weiner, Denis Hastert, Tim Murphy, John Conyers and now, possibly, Florida republican Matt Gaetz.

As a lifelong democrat, I applaud the many democrats and the Frederick County Democratic State Central Committee who are calling for Mr. Wilson to resign from the city council. Mr. Wilson may indeed be innocent of any serious wrongdoing, but that doesn’t mean he is entitled to be a public figure. Serving in office should be a temporary honor, not a long-term career goal. Just as with Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) of New York, we must expect a higher standard of behavior from our leaders, not just enough to stay out of jail. We should demand better.

Gary Bennett
Frederick

Maryland’s Quiet Senators

By Gary Bennett

Maryland’s two mostly reticent U.S. senators, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen.

Quick, can you name Maryland’s two democratic U.S. senators? If you came up with Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen without much effort, then you have better recall than me. And I’m a lifelong democrat who voted for both of them—and in Cardin’s case, multiple times.

There can be no doubt that neither Maryland U.S. senator goes out of his way to seek the limelight. It is difficult to recall the last time either was interviewed on the network news or even prime time cable news, which has hours of content to fill. Van Hollen has been a bit more vocal than Cardin, especially lately, but not by much. Even a search of this newspaper, the respected daily that covers the second largest city in Maryland, yields very little news coverage of either. And surprisingly, despite Frederick County slowly turning blue, neither Cardin nor Van Hollen currently has a Frederick office.

While Maryland’s other statewide office holder, Governor Larry Hogan, has dominated the local airwaves and print media with his management of Maryland’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Senators Cardin and Van Hollen seem to be satisfied to stay in the background. Indeed, the pandemic and opposition to former President Trump has raised the visibility of Governor Hogan to levels not seen for a Maryland governor since Spiro Agnew in 1968 who was on his way to becoming Richard Nixon’s vice president.

Certainly U.S. senators are not responsible for administering policy at the state level like the governor, but it is perplexing that neither have provided a more vocal public stance in helping to convince Marylanders to do the right thing with masks, social distancing and vaccinations.

And, there hasn’t been much of an opportunity for either senator to shine during the last two years of the Trump presidency. During that time, not much got accomplished in the Senate except the nomination and approval of federal judges. A look at Cardin’s and Van Hollen’s 2019 and 2020 day-by-day voting records shows a series of no votes for almost all federal judges nominated by Trump and not much else. With a new democratic president and a democrat-led Senate in place now, there should be more opportunity to legislate and lead, but we’ll have to see.

With his unobtrusive and low-key persona, it is surprising to find that Ben Cardin is rated as a very effective U.S. senator. According to research conducted by the Center for Effective Lawmaking at Vanderbilt University in 2018, Ben Cardin was ranked as the sixth most effective democratic senator out of 45. At the other end of the spectrum, Chris Van Hollen ranked forty-second, owing mostly to his relatively short time in the Senate and junior status. The democratic senators rated as most effective are Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Gary Peters (D-MI).

To be sure, ranking the effectiveness of U.S. senators is at best a subjective exercise that you are free to discount. After all, the rankings did not take into account important but hard to measure activities such as constituent pride in having them as a senator, loquaciousness, leadership qualities, combativeness toward the other side, constituent service and performing oversight of the executive branch.

But what the study did attempt to do was evaluate the effectiveness of each senator in moving their agenda through every step of the legislative process. The resulting effectiveness scores were based on the number of bills a legislator sponsored, how far each of those bills advanced, and its relative substantive significance. Full rankings, methodology and an executive summary may be found at thelawmakers.org.

Without a doubt, Mr. Cardin’s longevity in the Senate drives his perceived effectiveness. He has been a U.S. senator since 2007. Unless he retires—Mr. Cardin is currently 77 years old—he’ll stand again for reelection in 2024. He is chair of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and a senior member of the Foreign Relations, Finance, and Environment & Public Works Committees. Among his accomplishments are helping to write the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), sponsoring laws guaranteeing dental care to children under CHIP and prohibiting racial profiling at all levels of law enforcement.

Mr. Van Hollen was elected in 2016 and will stand for reelection in 2022. He has not reached chair or senior member status of any Senate committee yet. He is a member of the Appropriations; Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs; Environment & Public Works; and Budget Committees. He has been unable to make much headway into his stated priorities: ensuring more and better jobs, strengthening small business, and increasing educational and job training opportunities. But there is potential for him to be successful in the Senate. A member of the House from 2002 to 2016, he is credited with pushing through substantial legislation in areas such as protecting the Chesapeake Bay, fighting childhood cancer, and assisting families of children with disabilities.

It’s too early to see what the future holds for either Cardin or Van Hollen. While some senators run for president to simply raise their profiles, it seems unlikely that Van Hollen and especially Cardin will mount such an attempt in the near future. Cardin is 77 years old and may retire at the end of his term in 2024. Van Hollen is 61 and very ambitious. But relatively unknown democratic presidential candidates from Maryland tend to not get too far. Just ask Martin O’Malley and John Delaney.

It seems more likely that Van Hollen will face Larry Hogan in an epic match up for senator in 2022 even though Hogan has said publicly that he is not interested in running for that office after his term as governor ends. After flirting in 2020, he seems more interested in a longshot run for president in 2024. But with his ability to win democratic votes in an overwhelmingly blue state, the pressure for him to run for Senate to help tilt it red may be too strong to turn down. As for Cardin, if he does retire in 2024, the odds-on favorite to replace him has to be our new rising political star, Representative Jamie Raskin, fresh off his star turn in the second Trump impeachment trial.

H.R.1 – For the People Act — “Yad Sloof Lirpa Yppah!”

By Gary Bennett

Voters patiently waiting in line in Wisconsin on Election Day 2020.

As seen in the Frederick News-Post, Thursday, April 1, 2021

By Gary Bennett

In a recent FNP letter to the editor, the writer made a gallant attempt to explain H.R.1 and S.1, For the People Act of 2021, the controversial bills winding through both Houses of Congress. They address voter access issues such as automatic and same-day registration, vote-by-mail, and early voting among other things. The writer can’t be blamed for missing one important item, because like a lot of bills written by deep-state, congressional staffers, the devil is not in the details but in the footnotes!

A close reading of footnote 8371.4/3.5 in H.R.1 allows that citizens showing fealty to the former Confederate States of America, including actions such as displaying the confederate flag and protesting the removal of confederate general statues, be hereby flagged for voter registration review. To be fair, this doesn’t mean that said people cannot vote, only that they could be effectively tied up in review well past Election Day 2022. This is outrageous, but I’m sure the deep-staters use this logic: “Trump sympathizers, some parading the confederate flag through the capitol on Insurrection Day 2021, were hellbent on changing the presidential election result to one more to their liking. Same thing happened in 1860. Let’s not let this happen again.”

Rioter proudly carrying the confederate flag in the U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021.

This development, bad as it is in general, is particularly troublesome for the poor white folks of West Virginia and at least some western Maryland counties, who believe they are part of West Virginia. (Before you say that my characterization of West Virginians is racist, may I say in my defense that I was not only born in West Virginia but was raised in Allegany County, MD—aka eastern West Virginia. Plus, I’m only making generalizations like I was taught.) Luckily, statistics are on my side—West Virginia is 93% white and ranks near the bottom of the 50 states in personal income. So, there’s that.

The problem for West Virginians, unlike citizens of the southern states, is that displaying the confederate flag not only calls into question their loyalty but also their intelligence. During the Civil War, the northern and western counties of Virginia were allowed to leave the confederacy for the union because they could not stomach what the confederacy stood for. (No doubt, irony is now lost.) And just like that, for better or worse, we had West Virginia. But particularly worrisome are those that display their confederate Stars and Bars right beside Old Glory. After all, who in their right mind roots for both Ohio State and Michigan?

So, watch out for this nefarious bill and fight tooth and nail against it. By one count this new law, if passed, could disenfranchise up to 600,000 confederate flag waving, right-leaning West Virginians, which would be enough to turn the state blue! If West Virginia falls, who’s next, Arkansas?

This whole sordid affair is best summed up in this Yiddish phrase my great-grandmother taught me, which lawyers love to use and often appears in court briefs and, unfortunately, the laws of the land—Yad Sloof Lirpa Yppah! This roughly translates to Happy April Fools’ Day!

Gary Bennett
Frederick, MD