Whatever happened to, ‘Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds’? Last week, Baltimoreans were lucky to get three-day delivery.
WHILE AT THE SAME TIME
LEGALIZING MARIJUANA
‘We the Folks’ replaces ‘People’?
SPRING TRAINING, TIME FOR OPTIMISM
By David Maril
While wondering, with the U.S. Postal Service having so much trouble delivering mail, how some Washington politicians can consider proposing that the system offer banking services in branches… it’s interesting to note the following:
Don’t assume that the U.S. postal system lost the battle to cut service back.
While its cost-cutting proposal to eliminate Saturday delivery was rejected by Congress, the Post Office may be having the final word. Through much of this snow-dominated winter, many residents of Baltimore have been fortunate to get mail delivered just three or four times a week.
Whatever happened to: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”?
There are no simple answers to explain why mail delivery gets worse each year. The problem relates to cuts in the wrong places, spending in the wrong places, dysfunctional and bureaucratic upper management, unwise policy decisions in the system’s history, and, most importantly, interference and absence of leadership from Congress.
When customers complain about lack of service, they are given a wide series of reasons and excuses, ranging from road conditions to shortage of manpower.
When service is rendered, deliveries often take place late into the evenings, probably running up huge overtime wage totals.
Sometimes, even on clear days when temperatures are above freezing in most parts of the state, a decision during delivery hours will be made by an upper management bureaucrat in a remote location to pull all trucks off the roads because one area has slippery conditions.
The result: Mail service is finished for the day and many customers go without a delivery.
A DIFFICULT WINTER FOR MAIL SERVICE
While there’s little doubt that this has been a difficult winter for mail service because of hazardous roads and slippery walkways, it doesn’t help that most of the trucks seem ill-suited and poorly designed for use in snow.
Overall, mail delivery efficiency is a national, system-wide problem, and it would appear too many daily decisions and judgment calls are made by people in locations too far from the scene.
There’s no doubt raising the current $7.25 an hour minimum wage is an issue that needs to be addressed.
But does it make sense to raise and designate one new minimum wage — of $10.10 — on a national level when so many parts of the country have different cost-of-living standards?
For example, what might seem a reasonable hourly rate in Baltimore would resonate much differently if you were struggling to make ends meet living in high-priced New York City.
Legalizing marijuana is another issue that should be open to a vigorous and thorough debate.
Strict regulation of the sale of pot for use in medical treatment makes sense. It is also reasonable to argue for decriminalizing the use of marijuana so it no longer is treated as a severely punishable offense.
Lobbyist Bruce Bereano, who represents tobacco interests in Annapolis, last week cited the irony of local jurisdictions con- sidering smoking bans as some state law- makers attempt to decriminalize recre- ational use of marijuana. ‘It’s going to be OK to smoke that weed,’ Bereano lamented. ‘The hypocrisy is rampant.’
However, there seems to be something very contradictory about some state politicians lobbying to make smoking pot, in general, legal.
Before the issue is even considered, we need objective research and information on the effects of smoking pot on our lungs and overall health. Just as important is a report on what the impact of secondary marijuana smoke would be on the general public.
We are living in an era where we are doing everything we can to make it impossible for people to smoke cigarettes.
FINES FOR SMOKING TOBACCO
In Maryland, proposed legislation would impose a $50 fine in Baltimore County and $500 in the city for lighting up a tobacco product on playgrounds, athletic fields and other areas in public parks, such as dog parks and within 30 feet of recreation buildings.
Anne Arundel, Harford and Howard Counties have already imposed such bans, Howard County’s having been in effect since 2011.
Which raises the question of why, with this focus on health and clean air, should we be so quick to open the door to make it easy for people to light up marijuana?
My cynical side can’t stop from thinking the main reason legalization of pot even has a chance in Maryland is because many of our elected officials are drooling over the thought of tax revenue coming in from the sale of marijuana products.
The debate over the causes and severity of climate change is another issue begging for objective, scientific facts. Too much of the discussion is being driven by political views and agendas from both the left and right.
Grocery stores and big discount chains are starting to annoy me with their self-checkout stations. Even if it means waiting in a long line for cashier checkout service, I refuse, on general principles, to pick the self-checkout option.
First of all, the purpose of self-service lines is for the store to eliminate jobs. The more people who serve as their own cashiers and grocery-baggers, the more jobs will be eliminated.
Do we really need to be supporting that?
The other issue is if we are going to go to work, saving these corporate entities money, shouldn’t we be compensated for our labor? How about a five percent discount off the grocery total if you check-out your purchases and bag them yourself?
Both Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of shameless patronage and appointing donors and friends to important positions of responsibility.
OBAMA APPOINTS BOOSTERS AND FRIENDS
President Barack Obama seems on the verge of setting a record for appointing boosters and friends who are poorly prepared and unqualified to serve in ambassadorial posts around the world.
One of the most recent examples on the Republican side, of this type of nonsense, relates to the George Washington Bridge traffic controversy and the unprofessionalism of Port Authority supervisors Gov. Chris Christie appointed to represent New Jersey.
If Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is dismayed by the embarrassingly low ratings he is getting in early national polls and wants to jumpstart his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he should offer positions to publicity strategists connected to both “Downton Abbey” and “House of Cards.” Never have two television shows received so much day-to-day and week-after-week coverage in newspapers, magazines, TV news shows and on the Internet.
Just curious, but when did the word “folks” replace “people” in speeches, newscasts and regular conversation? Listen the next time Obama gives a speech and count how many times the President uses “folks” instead of “people.”
Many network news anchors made the word-switch quite a while back. NBC’s Brian Williams is always referring to us viewers as “folks.” It seems to be a result of trying to make things sound more informal and friendly in our corporate culture.
Will ‘We the Folks of the United States’ replace ‘We the People’ in the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution?
I’m just waiting for “We the People” to be replaced by “We the Folks….”
Spring training is a time for hope and the realization that the snow melting during the day and freezing overnight on our streets and walkways will soon be over.
The Orioles regained the credibility of being a serious contender by making four-year, $50-million headlines last week signing free-agent pitcher Ubaldo Jiménez.
I have a feeling, however, that if the Orioles reach the playoffs the big story will be the continuing development of their promising young pitchers and the emergence of Zach Britton as a reliable starter.
This 2014 Oriole team is reminiscent of the Baltimore ball clubs from the early 1960s when the franchise developed into a respected yearly contender. The early foundation for the World Championship successes in 1966, 1970 and 1983 began with the staff of “kiddie corps” pitchers.
The organization had a roster with young pitchers like Chuck Estrada, Milt Pappas and Jack Fisher, and then a few years later Dave McNally, Jim Palmer and Wally Bunker.
Hey, spring training is a time for optimism.
davidmaril@hermanmaril.com
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.
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February 23rd, 2014 - 10:56 AM
The fact that nicotine products are simply way more unhealthy than marijuana is why we should be much more strict with our tobacco laws. Of course only the foolish fail to realize that tax money is what is driving governments to consider legalizing pot.