For years, our community in Perryman has been fighting against unchecked industrial development, with much of our concern centered on the Perryman wellfield. Over the past decade, more than 10 million square feet of industrial development has been added to the Perryman Peninsula, where the wellfield is located, further stressing our environmental resources. This critical source of drinking water, which supplies 30% of Harford County’s residents, is under threat from contaminants originating from Aberdeen Proving Ground and outdated studies that fail to reflect current conditions.

The studies in question include the Perryman Wellfield Study, last updated in 2000, the Bush River Watershed Characterization, last revised in 2002, and the 1997 Hydrogeology Report that documented significant contamination risks, including elevated levels of nitrate and trichloroethene in the water supply. These studies are now over two decades old, yet they continue to serve as the basis for decisions about water safety and land use. Given the changes in environmental conditions and industrial activities over the past 20 years, it is imperative that these studies be redone to ensure the safety of our water supply.

Despite assurances from the county executive in December 2023 that a new study of the Perryman wellfield had been authorized, we have yet to see any evidence that this study is moving forward. The absence of updated, independent studies is particularly concerning given the documented health risks associated with PFAS exposure, including an increased risk of cancer.

Harford County currently ranks first in Maryland for breast cancer rates among women, according to the state health department, and the Perryman area has some of the highest rates of cancer in the county. It is past time for our county to take seriously the potential link between these alarming health statistics and the quality of our water. The Environmental Protection Agency’s new regulations on PFAS provide a clear mandate: we must act now to protect our water and, by extension, our health.

The students at Harford Technical High School and Fallston High School should not have to bring bottled water to school to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals. Likewise, 30% of Harford County residents, including those in Perryman, should not have to worry about contaminated drinking water. The entire county is at risk, and it’s crucial that we act to protect our children and our communities before more harm is done.

Ron Stuchinski
Perryman

The gunman pumped bullets into a fellow man he knew, over an altercation.  The big cats hunt and kill when they’re hungry.  Men kill when they’re angry. Human anger is a danger to self and others, and it is often fueled or preceded by nasty rhetoric and lack of reason and logic.  This incident of violence was described as isolated.  There is no joy in that.

Guns bought or stolen, guns 3D printed or assembled from ghost parts pervade America, and human anger spurred by substance abuse or bullying or sexual abuse or mental illnesses under the radar and untreated due to health gaps and social injustices too numerous to enumerate are some of the subterranean causes of the violence convulsing America. Until every man and woman commits to nonviolence across America no man or woman will be free.

Nonviolence means abjuring guns and rage.  It means embracing the language of peace and compromise.  It means refusing to settle scores.  It means what Jesus preached and Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi practiced.  It means kindness and mercy even toward those who would harm you.  It means patience in the face of folly.  It means de-escalation of tension.

The tenets of nonviolence should be taught to children in homes and schools, and that education should continue into adulthood and beyond.  Nonviolence should be a subject for credit in colleges.  It should be inculcated and practiced.  Gandhi died from a gunshot wound.  MLK the same.  Medgar Evers was shot by white supremacists.  If they could be brought back and asked if they regret not carrying guns for self-defense, I have no doubt they would say that guns are for the fearful, the bullies, the killers, the gangsters, the warriors, the hunters and the police, but guns are not for those committed to the ideal of nonviolence.

How much worse it would have been in the Harford Mall if the man who was shot also had fired his own gun or if a visitor to the mall fired off some rounds.  How much worse for the police who rushed there to put an end to the violence.  I’ve heard people say they own guns to fight government tyranny, that freedom is earned at the barrel ends of guns.  But freedom is also lost at the barrel ends of guns.

Usha Nellore, Bel Air

The Aegis published my May 24 letter to the editor regarding the quality of life in Harford County and the reliance of the county’s leaders on revenue from their developments, fancifully called mixed-use, as a cause for that erosion.

Mr. Ed Garono of Havre de Grace replied and made many misstatements in his reply.  He seems to have relied on the title of my letter, “Greed of developers, leaders cannot mask corrosive income disparity” for his ad hominem.  I highly doubt he read the substance of my letter.  If he had, he would have read that about the juveniles who stole a car in Edgewood and gave chase to law enforcement, I said I was angry that their parents had not supervised them.  I did not say that their violation of the law directly came from developers.

I did say though, that the county was not building enough affordable housing for the poor, for one-income families and fixed income senior citizens.  I said that these people who desperately need affordable housing are being priced out.

I also noted that Harford County did not have the infrastructure for the overcrowding and traffic congestion that would ensue from its rapid growth in unaffordable housing for many groups, except rich retirees and high income families.  I then noted such thoughtless and untrammeled development would not only degrade the environment it would cause essential workers to seek affordable housing elsewhere, much to the detriment of county residents who continue to live here.

The overcrowding would also cause a breakdown in the education infrastructure at a time of grave teacher shortage.  I said that teachers and law enforcement officers too may be priced out of affordable housing if mixed use, expensive developments continue to proliferate, built up by big named developers, some local and others national. This would set up a vicious cycle of walled off affluence versus priced out and desperate poverty, a disparity that would lead to more crime and degradation.  I also said that the rich too commit crimes as do their children and overcrowding the county, without the necessary infrastructure for folks rich or poor is not the way to go.

Mr. Garono has made my letter a blue versus red, a Democratic Party versus Republican Party partisan issue.  He says if fewer houses are built the cost of existing houses will rise.  But the issue is not only about the number of houses being built, it is also about the cost of houses being built, if the unhoused in Harford County or those waiting for affordable housing will be housed after these houses are built and if the delicate balance between nature and humans will be maintained if the types of houses being built are allowed year after year.

The housing lobby is extremely potent all over the country in places red or blue.  Oklahoma City will be getting the tallest building in America thanks to a developer from California and that city’s residents are divided about the arrival of this skyscraper in their midst.  While Mr. Garano says he went broke being a developer, developers of today are not struggling, local builders.  They are mega corporate builders, both international and national with an outsized influence on our politicians, looking avariciously for land with no stake in the places they are building up.

These folks are not going broke because they have multiple building projects in disparate places all happening simultaneously.  Like big ag and big oil there is big development.  Profit is their only motive.  Unless their feet are held to the fire by local politicians they will build willy nilly and leave.  Local politicians whose ethos is to try and balance the budget with real estate revenues are not invested in the impact of development on nature or on climate change.  They allow buildings to rise expeditiously for monies earned from real estate taxes.  Big development, knowing this ethos, enters every undeveloped and underdeveloped place in America dangling real estate taxes as a lure.

My letter was about striking a balance, between housing for the haves and the have nots, housing that will erase nature and change climate versus housing sensitive to such existential matters and

housing by local builders, a few and affordable at a time, versus housing by national builders, many and exorbitant at a time.  Mr.Garano has written a letter without context.  He uses his rebuttal to me as a venue to spew his antipathy for Democrats, liberals, blue states and blue cities.  He also suggests, although discreetly, that looking at the pictures of the thieves of Harford County is verboten because that would make one a racist.  That would only be racist if it is not recognized, realistically, that the crimes in Harford County are not the exclusive domain of any one race.

Go to the courthouse in Bel Air and view those coming in and out.  They are a diverse group of individuals, criminals and their victims, black, white and brown, male, female, non-binåry and trasgender and the only common denominator is that they’re human.

Usha Nellore, Bel Air

No indoctrination universities

It is not often that I agree with Ed Garono (“Letter got it wrong about Harford quality of life,” May 29), but I strongly support one point. No, not the one insisting that developers are my best friend. However, I do concur that parents should “not send your kids to indoctrination universities.” We have all seen the tragic results of putting elitist Ivy League graduates in positions of power. The parents of Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, and Donald Trump should have been warned.

Glenn Gall, Bel Air

Greedy developers and income disparity are the headline of this letter to the editor. It wouldn’t be the juvenile’s awareness that there are few consequences for getting caught stealing in Maryland or that their juvenile culture encourages bad behavior, or that these juveniles are unsupervised by parents. No, the problem couldn’t be the child’s responsibility; crime is caused by greedy developers “and the crimes these mixed-use developments promise” the writer claims.  You have to have an especially warped ideology to believe that. And don’t look at the pictures of the thieves, they will make you racist.

I noticed in the last Harford County election that we have more Democrats in leadership positions than we have had in a while.  As Maryland becomes a bluer state, we can expect the ills of blue cities will come out to the counties and as county leaders continue to allow fewer houses to be built, the cost of existing housing will continue to rise, further driving out the working class. I was a developer once, until I lost so much money on my last project, I gave it up.

The writer complains of longer wait times and high costs for home repairs. I suggest you not send your kids to indoctrination universities; send them to trade schools where they can learn a trade, make good money and build or rehab a home for themselves or others.

Ed Garono, Havre de Grace

At one level I was astounded that children were up and about, unsupervised, stealing a vehicle that they are not allowed to drive and that is not theirs, yet doing it anyway because they either did not have knowledge of the consequences or they did not care about the consequences. At  another level, I was angered that they were not supervised by their parents who are not taking that duty to heart, and they weren’t taught by the same parents to have a moral compass, emphasizing the difference between right and wrong.

In this context, I want to say the quality of life in Harford County is deteriorating and fast.  This is because county leaders have been bought out by developers,, and they see expansion of housing as their biggest source of revenue.  Every time I read about a new development in the county, new buildings, new apartments and condos, the excuse from our leaders is the demand for such development. Really? Who is demanding the growth of Harford County? Developers and people not yet here?

Developers are the best friends of our county leaders.  We have an upcoming development where Harford Mall now stands.  We have another on Bond Street in Bel Air.  Then there is the 109-acre mixed-use development off Route 543 and Creswell Road in Bel Air called “The Valley at James Run.” More trees will be dashed down for a valley where the highlights will be a nearby gas station, a Chipotle, a Starbucks and a Tropical Smoothie Cafe plus a yoga studio.

Drink up at Starbucks, you don’t have to go far if you live at the Valley at James Run, or eat up at Chipotle, then pay up at the yoga studio as you see your middle expand. If that fails to reduce your middle, there’s always Ozempic or Mounjaro. Go to the University of Maryland Endocrine clinic at Upper Chesapeake Hospital to get those two drugs and beat the eating excess so easily available within the confines of your mixed-use community, brought to you via the kindness of Ryan Homes, Chipotle and Starbucks.

Is that the insane ethos?

Funny thing about all of this busy bee housing activity: I checked out  the Havre de Grace low income housing website and read there that most apartments have waiting lists and most of those lists are closed out for years.  You tell me who needs housing, the homeless and the poor or those with moola to spend, seeking a second living quarters or a high-end property to rent to their own ilk?

The expansion of high-end housing in cities like San Francisco, Miami and New York, have outpriced even the middle class and slowly emptied those cities of essential workers like teachers, police, construction and other blue collar workers, even garbage collectors, without whom no place can run smoothly.

These workers cannot afford to live where they work. They are in high demand and the rich folks who priced them out of decent and affordable housing cannot find them for emergency repairs.  Also, in these cities the number of homeless have increased as have open air drug markets and crime.

The wait times are long to find a good plumber or a good repairman or roofer and the cost of hiring one is exorbitant in these premier American cities.  The rich ultimately do pay the price in labor costs for pricing essential workers out of home and hearth, and they richly deserve that fate.  That said, American counties, like Harford County, have misplaced values, when it comes to housing and development and the buzz words “mixed-use housing” is part of their misplaced values because it entails expansion of concrete at the expense of oxygen-producing trees and expansion of housing without any thought given to essential workers who are kept deliberately underpaid so  that they cannot afford the expanded housing.

Coming back to the minors who stole cars in Edgewood and gave a chase to law enforcement, do the Bel Air Police and the sheriff’s department have the manpower to cope with the traffic infractions and the crimes that these mixed-use developments promise or does the county leadership think that high-end luxury apartments will inoculate against crime and degradation?

Criminal tendencies hide within luxury apartments, too, as do drug use and family dysfunctions that can lead to crimes, keeping our law enforcement officers overworked and underpaid.

Despite the increase in real estate revenue the county leaders drool over, I am sure year after year we’ll hear of budget shortfalls and not enough money for quality-of-life issues, like education, road repairs, traffic calming and pay increases for sheriff’s deputies and teachers.

I weep for the natural beauty of Harford County, gone to seed, lost to greed as I also weep for the single-income families and retirees living on a fixed income, who are increasingly out of luck when it comes to affordable housing, not just in cities, but in suburbs across America.

Usha Nellore, Bel Air

Reader Aaron Poynton is quite correct in his letter (“Education mandate is blueprint for disaster,” April 24). The report on education entitled “Maryland Blueprint for the Future,” which was funded by the legislature over the governor’s veto represents an ideal world, where we have unlimited funds.

Yes, we all want a good education. But we also want police and fire protection, civil infrastructure, welfare, road and highway maintenance, water, gas, electric and sewer service, aid for the homeless, better veteran care, and more. The Blueprint looks at only one issue and ignores other pressing issues.

Government has limited funds and we need to balance our spending and priorities with realism. We simply cannot afford to fund the Blueprint and ignore other real needs for funds. Legislative priorities seem out of line with reality; perhaps we need a comprehensive study on veteran care and support, as maybe that would be a wake-up call that would grab legislators’ attention and cause them to fund that problem.

Our legislators need to know how to take a realistic approach to budgeting and funding, not a knee-jerk response to a report on a single topic.

Bob Rasa, Fallston

Appreciate the support for First Harford Square

Thank to The Aegis for its support of First Harford Square, providing coverage and printing an article on behalf of our Community Connection Day last Saturday, April 13.

With your support, we serviced over 150 residents during the event.  Additionally, on April 16, the community voted in the new Homeowners Association Board of Directors, which includes me and three additional people who helped plan and volunteer for this event. The residents of First Harford Square are vibrating with excitement and enthusiasm for changing the negative stigma on our community.  We appreciate all that you do to support Edgewood and Harford County.

Karmin Jones, Edgewood

Recent polling indicates a broad-based endorsement of Maryland’s Blueprint for the Future, but beneath the surface, questions and concerns about this ambitious plan are mounting.

The Blueprint, designed to revamp Maryland’s education system, holds appeal in its promise to improve public education. The issue, however, isn’t with the idea of better education; who doesn’t want that? The real problem is with the Blueprint’s high cost and inadequate funding structure, leaving taxpayers and county governments grappling with how to foot the bill.

Gov. Larry Hogan’s initial veto of the Blueprint, which was overridden, foreshadowed the fiscal challenges we’re seeing today. With a Maryland General Assembly session that ended without substantial action to address these concerns, the looming question remains: How will we pay for the Blueprint? This is a question that state legislators and policymakers have yet to satisfactorily answer.

The Blueprint’s financial burden is being transferred to counties, which are forced to make cuts to crucial programs to meet the new mandates. In Harford County, this translates to reduced funding for safety and security, special education, magnet schools, class sizes, world languages, arts and music, athletics, and extracurricular activities. Harford County is not alone. Counties across Maryland are struggling to maintain these cherished education programs as limited resources are redirected to support Blueprint initiatives.

A fiscal briefing released in January by the state Department of Legislative Services paints a stark picture. It predicts that Maryland will confront a structural deficit commencing in fiscal 2025, which will skyrocket to nearly $2.93 billion by 2029. This aligns with the projected cost of implementing the Blueprint, which is set to surpass $4 billion by 2029. Maryland’s ranking of 46th in the 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index underscores the severe repercussions of raising taxes to meet these demands. Further tax hikes potentially could drive both businesses and residents out of the state, exacerbating the financial predicament.

The Blueprint is an unfunded mandate that strips local boards of education of their autonomy, imposing a one-size-fits-all approach to education that doesn’t consider the unique needs of different counties. It also risks bankrupting local governments and undercuts community-driven initiatives that could offer more tailored solutions to educational challenges.

As much as we all desire to enhance public education, the Blueprint in its current form is not the solution. It jeopardizes the very essence of local control and poses a significant financial threat to the state’s future. Maryland legislators must scrutinize this plan and strive to restore control to local boards of education. Otherwise, we will confront a much graver crisis in the future, with irreversible harm to both our education system and our economy. It’s high time for Annapolis to reevaluate and devise a blueprint that is sustainable, adaptable, and respects local governance.

— Aaron Poynton

Poynton is the president of the Harford County Board of Education. The opinions expressed here are personal and don’t necessarily represent the views of the board or Harford County Public Schools.

Dangers of tianeptine

“They’re selling that stuff at the smoke shop near us,” Bryan, my coworker said. “I’ve been told it’s highly addictive, causes seizures and many bad side effects, and overdoses, even death.”

Bryan taught me about tianeptine.  Marketed as a dietary supplement and energy drink (which means the federal Food & Drug Administration can’t regulate its sales), it’s sold in smoke shops, convenience stores, gas stations, and online right here in Harford County. Brand names include Za Za, Neptune’s Fix, Pegasus, Tianna Red, White Magic, and at least a half dozen others.  It’s sold in fancy flavors with appealing colors.

Outlawed in Florida, Ohio, Michigan and six other states, tianeptine pills and liquids are sold in Maryland.  There’s no age restriction to purchase, no health warnings on the labels and no warning signs at stores where it’s sold — often in boxes of 12 bottles each.

The FDA has issued alerts and press releases warning about the dangers of tianeptine.  Poison centers in many states report a dramatic increase in the number of calls from users and families about the life-threatening incidents of its use.

I purchased a 15-capsule bottle of Za Za in Aberdeen.  It cost $32.  A .338 fluid ounce of Neptune’s Fix costs $19.  Like most addictive substances, the more a person uses, the more tolerance he develops and has to use more the next time.

The encouraging news is that two of our delegates — Teresa Reilly and Steve Johnson — co-sponsored H.B. 1230, the “Tianeptine Consumer Protection Act.”  It passed the House and Senate and now awaits Gov. Wes Moore’s signature.

Our county and city councils, health departments, and all policymakers should consider immediate action to ban or restrict the sale of any tianeptine products.

— Don Mathis, Havre de Grace

Mathis is a certified peer recovery specialist at Voices of Hope in Aberdeen

In his letter to the Aegis, Sheriff Jeff Gahler rails against letter writer Patrick Wallis as having written a sleazy hit piece against him. (“Harford County government devolves into a sleazefest,” March, 15).

I read the Patrick Wallis’ letter and loved it. It was incendiary, not sleazy. It was not a “hit piece” but a “wit piece.” Sheriff Gahler didn’t seem to understand that Mr. Wallis is a letter writer and not a journalist. He did not have to call the sheriff before he wrote that letter. Mr. Wallis concluded from his observations of the interactions between County Executive Robert Cassilly,County Council member Aaron Penman, and Sheriff Gahler that these men are wasting county money and time on fractious nonsense and power plays. They all belong to the dysfunctional Republican Party, where internecine warfare is front and center, and competing interests and agendas clash without a peaceful resolution or accommodation.

If Mr.Cassilly thwarted Sheriff Gahler’s wish for a new and expanded training facility for sheriff’s deputies and against his own previous pronouncements, that shows things between the two men have devolved into personal animus and Patrick Wallis is right.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Or, Mr. Cassilly’s obduracy about denying the sheriff a new training facility or Sheriff Gahler’s obsession with a new training facility? The more it is denied by Cassilly, the more gargantuan the need for it in Gahler’s mind. Who knows?

Notwithstanding such profound philosophical questions, both are at an impasse, and three members of the fractious Republican family are at bullfights goring each other rather than at bull roasts, camaraderie overflowing.

That was the general message from Patrick Wallis’ facile typing fingers. Picking the man’s letter apart with picayune particulars may be Sheriff Gahler’s privilege, but it was more of the same sandbox argument: “He did it first, not me, mommy.”

The whole matter is puerile, and Sheriff Gahler should accept he’s met his match in Cassilly. He will get no training facility. After all, Cassilly is following the Republican ethos of balancing the budget, and he thinks he can do it on Gahler’s back while getting Gahler’s goat.

As Sheriff Gahler writes, the First Amendment does not have an honesty requirement. If it did, Donald Trump would not be the nominee of the Republican Party in 2024.

You reap what you sow, locally and nationally, dear Republican Party.

— Usha Nellore, Bel Air

Let’s join together and celebrate, uplift trans lives

International Transgender Day of Visibility is March 31. It is a day to recognize and celebrate the achievements of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people worldwide and in our community.

We recognize the bravery of our trans siblings, friends, family, and co-workers as they continue to fight for equality, inclusion, and the full recognition of their human rights, all while balancing life’s responsibilities and navigating a society that very often is attempting to discount their existence and disenfranchise them.

The Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride Foundation’s first event of 2024 was supposed to be a lighthearted happy hour to celebrate the new year. Instead, on Jan. 2 we hosted a remembrance service for Meghan Lewis, a local trans activist who was killed outside of her home in Bel Air. In 2023, the Human Rights Campaign reported the violent deaths of 32 transgender people nationwide, two of them in Maryland.

Transgender people are also more likely to consider suicide; 81% of trans adults and 50% of trans and nonbinary youth have thought about suicide. But that has not stopped some of our Harford County delegates from sponsoring legislation designed to ostracize trans people, legislation that failed in previous years and would again fail during the 2024 session. They’re joined in their bigotry by some members of our Board of Education who are more focused on banning pride flags and pronouns than making schools safe for all students. When will it stop?

To all of the trans members of our community: We see you, we love you, and we will continue to advocate for you. During this International Transgender Day of Visibility, we call on the many allies in our community to amplify trans voices, speak out against proposed anti-trans policies and legislation, and ensure that trans folks know that they are supported. One trans death in our community is too much. This is not what Harford County should be known for.

— Kurt Doan

President, the Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride Foundation

I watched the rebroadcast of the County Council meeting of March 5. Aaron Penman withdrew the Accessory Dwelling Unit bill. I appreciate his decision.

When it was time for remarks from council members, however, I was prepared to hear about functions they attended or projects they were working in their district. Yet, when Penman, who represents District B, began his remarks, I was shocked. His remarks were not about how he spent time addressing issues in his district. In my opinion, Mr. Penman, seemed argumentative and that led to “a darker terrain”, as quoted March 13 in The Aegis (“Charges of ethical lapses, wiretaps embroil council”).

I don’t believe any of our elected officials are always right. When a discrepancy is discovered, it needs to be addressed.
The County Council meeting was not the place for Mr. Penman to address his issues. He accused the county executive of improper actions, abuse of power, unethical and bizarre behavior, conflict of interest, weaponizing the ethics board, and waging war on law enforcement.

Mr. Penman’s remarks contained some serious accusations that are between the Sheriff’s Department and the county executive or he and the county executive. They should be addressed through appropriate channels.

Mr. Penman’s remarks on March 5 made this County Council meeting uncomfortable, even embarrassing, to watch.

— Janet Hardy, Abingdon

Public attacks are not the work of a public official

Arguing in public is neither warranted or pretty.  To be honest, I am not too keen on responding to Sheriff Jeff Gahler’s recent commentary, but perhaps those reading this response will concur that it has value and furthers healthy discussions of the public’s concerns over political infighting.  The back and forth is a slippery slope, yet I will endeavor to remain on the high road.

Describing my comments about back-and-forth bickering and the public tirades between elected officials (“Harford County Devolves Into A Sleaze Fest,”, March 15), you label my words as a sleazy political hit piece (“Letter writer misrepresented sheriff’s positions”, March 19).  Beginning your article in this manner unfortunately colors your own comments as sleaze, and there is simply no need for that.  Character attacks are cheap, sophomoric gestures.  The words I have written in ‘Sleaze Fest’ and past articles attack the very public behavior of nastiness that we have all witnessed.

Due diligence in reading my article would show that I am not attacking anyone.  I have the utmost respect for my public officials, whether I agree with them or not.  Each one of you have studied, trained and worked hard to get where you are.  Voters believed in electing this current slate of leaders, and that’s where we go from here.  The challenge for you, sheriff, and for all public officials, is to be supportive, encourage discussion, work hard to find common ground and get the business done.

What is not a job requirement is calling the county executive out for allegedly defunding the Central Precinct and Training Academy (County Council Budget Session, April 25, 2023).  Defunding the police is a vitriolic phrase that insinuates many things, and when you made that remark, you clouded any notion that you and the county executive were working together.

Instead of saying that you had disagreements and were working to resolve the issue, you have spent precious time fighting your battle in public, trading insults and turning up the heat.  I am not excusing the county executive of innocence in this matter of respect either.  Both of you have leveled pot shots at each other.  Perhaps your own words define your stance:  “I’m to the point where I’m not sitting down and talking to him because I know I’m not being treated honestly.”  Perhaps out of context, but if every elected official believed that way, we’d be in a mess.

Genuinely though, I must apologize for my poor choice of words in describing this training academy as your pet project.  Reading back, pet project sounds derogatory, although that was not my intention.  In the context that I said it, pet project is meant to describe your passion and desire to get this project approved.  I did not express this clearly, and you are correct in calling me out for it.  You strongly believe that this facility is what the public needs and that is admirable.

Yet, as far as my words being a sleazy, political hit, nothing could be further from the truth.  I am not interested in personal attacks, I am not aligned with any candidate or any side of an issue.  I don’t make insinuations and my imaginative stories, as you call them, are my perspective and opinion on what I and many others are witnessing from our local public officials.

In your recent commentary, you mention the many meetings that you’ve had with the county executive’s office.  This is newsworthy and the first time we’ve heard this.  Still, you characterize Bob Cassilly at those meetings as having “unprofessional behavior and unhinged and dishonest commentary and attacks.”  The gist of each and every news report on the ounty executive and the County Sheriff’s Office has been all about trading insults, not working together.  In that sense, sensationalism has won the day.

I challenge both you and County Executive Cassilly (and others) to dial back the vitriolic barb trading and ease up on the personal attacks.  If you want to show the public that working through disagreements together can be a positive thing, get to it.

Addressing your confusion regarding my statements about Councilman Aaron Penman and you being notably upset, I believe I am right.  Deputy Penman works under your command, and you saw no conflict with him being on the County Council. I would be notably upset, too, if an employee I felt was a good employee had to resign because of a conflict, especially if I felt the conflict was an unfair ruling.  The courts reversed that prior decision and Penman gets to work for you.  Hopefully, if he, too, refrains from derogatory comments, he can be productive at his other job.

That whole wiretapping incident replete with everybody holding press conferences and trading insinuations was an exercise in pettiness at the taxpayer’s expense.  From all who were involved.  With all due respect, it isn’t what any of you believe in that’s an issue, it is how you conduct the battle that makes the public nauseous.

As far as I go, in the future, the less you hear from me, the better you’ll have been at doing your job.  You’ve insinuated things about me and called me a few names as well, and that’s fine by me.  I’m not an important figure in the political realm and have never run for office.  I’m wrong a lot (ask my wife!), but my perspectives and opinions are not imaginative stories, and more voters than myself are weary of the less-than-above-board behavior from you or any of our elected officials who choose that route.

I’ll close with a statement from one of my earlier articles that should have resonance not only with the County Sheriff’s Office, but the County Council, county xecutive, town commissioners, and anyone else who got elected to serve:

Trading swipes, bellyaching online and maneuvering injustices to lay at someone else’s feet in a public forum are sophomoric traits that do nothing but parade incompetence.  Sit down at the table with your opponents and figure out a professional way to do the job you were elected to do.

— Patrick Wallis, Bel Air

Trump’s baggage far more damaging than Biden’s age

I read Armstrong Williams’ opinion about President Biden. He is aging like everyone does. But in the case of the other party’s presumtive candidate, he is a liar, was found guilty of sexual abuse, and is a fraudulent tax evader.

He is heading toward trial for trying to steal the 2020 election. Joe Biden, 46th president of the United States, is doing the job for all citizens, not just the ones who voted for him, and he derides no one.

— John Farmer, Havre de Grace

I see the flag fight in Harford County has turned into a food fight. This is so idiotic, it makes me both laugh and cry.

The Harford County school system wants to restrict the flags that can fly at respective schools in the county, thereby effectively excluding Pride flags from the array of flags that can be flown outside schools. The school authorities claim that policy will promote unity, but from the cries for equity at the meeting where school authorities proposed their restrictions, it is clear there was nothing but disunity at that flag-focused county school board meeting.

Flags are merely symbols. Though there is a lot of emotion vested in those symbols by various concerned parties with varying beliefs and agendas, when they become cause for flag fights I say it is time to bring down all the flags, or time to allow all the flags except the Confederate Flag, because the Confederate Flag is a symbol of hate for many in this country and it should not be flown with impunity anywhere.

Avoid a civil war about flags. Hoist them all or don’t hoist any and, remember, unity cannot be forced on people by flags flown on poles. Unity in diversity cannot be extracted from people who must feel this unity inside themselves, who must submit to it in actions of tolerance, acceptance and civility for and toward people who are not like themselves in color, race, languages spoken, abilities, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Usha Nellore, Bel Air

Our country has abandoned its neediest people

Knock, Knock.

That was the sound, back in the 1940s when traveling “tramps” (read “homeless” today), would ask to perform a chore – chop wood, weed the garden, pluck a chicken – in exchange for a meal, a glass of sweet tea, and a 15-minute “sit” in a rocking chair on our porches before heading out to roam the roads, looking for nightly shelter, the next town  or the next railroad where they could hitch a ride to the next town while looking for work.

I was only 4, as I remember, asking my mother why these polite men had no homes, jobs, and walked the roads across the country. She replied, “Ever since the Depression in 1929 our country hasn’t recovered and there is no work for them. So, they leave their families to try to find work.”

Is it any different today? Homeless everywhere, with drug and alcohol addictions, except – everyone is afraid to open their doors and demand solutions.

Kudos to Gov. Wes Moore and political analyst Armstrong Williams for the article by Williams “Moore, Bates, Braveboy call for accountability, reform” (The Aegis, Feb. 28). They get it. We  have a demolished infrastructure that doesn’t provide for its populations; until American citizens wake up our nation will continue its downward slide and may lose its democracy.

It is not sustainable to have a few wealthy at the top, a middle class that is now lower class, and a Congress that cannot do its job and is accountable to no one and is not required to live up to any standards of care toward its country.

Celie Hanauer, Darlington