Kindness

T here are some things we will never understand. Death, for one. I overheard a woman in the drugstore say, "He went in to the hospital yesterday and he was eating his supper and then he fell asleep and then he died. I don't get it." She didn't seem grief-stricken, just uncomprehending. (Why did it have to happen now?) The paranoia that has seized the Republican Party is beyond my understanding. So is the physics of cord entanglement: how two power cords set separately in a briefcase become so complexly intertwined in only a few hours.

The IRS has been granting more leniency to struggling taxpayers through a program called Fresh Start. Now the agency says it is expanding this effort by offering more flexible terms in its Offer in Compromise program. This is the program where the IRS agrees to settle for less than what's owed because it knows it can't squeeze anything more out of a taxpayer. The IRS says it has changed the financial analysis used to determine whether a taxpayer qualifies for the program. For example, when the IRS calculates how much it can collect from you, it will base that on 1 to 2 years of expected future income, rather than the usual 4 or 5 years.

As readers of this column know, I was recently the victim of a random act of kindness. An unidentified mensch in a vehicle ahead of mine paid my $5 toll at the Perryville booths on Interstate-95. (Some days it pays to leave your E-ZPass at home.) I reported feeling odd about the gesture, wondering what the point was. Several readers - more than I had anticipated - understood my reaction; they agreed that random generosity doesn't seem nearly as meaningful without the giver of the gift knowing who the receiver is, if not by name then at least by need.

Etan Patz, Madeleine McCann, Phylicia Barnes, Jaycee Dugard: four children who were declared missing and whose cases have had different outcomes so far. What knits their families together is that they all experienced loss, though of different types. Etan Patz, missing since 1979, was 6 when he vanished and was declared dead in 2001. A recent search for his remains was started and stopped. Madeleine McCann, presumably abducted at age 3 while on vacation with her parents in Portugal in 2007, may still be alive, according to new police reports.

There are many headline stories that can get your readers attention, but what happened in Baltimore last weekend to a group of teenagers needs to be told, if for no other reason than to urge us all to see the good that can happen in Charm City. On April 24, a group of eight teenagers on their way to their senior prom at M&T Bank Stadium decided to begin their evening with dinner at the Rusty Scupper at the Inner Harbor. All dressed in gowns and tuxedos, it was an evening they vowed never to forget, and truly they won't.

FOR CHILDREN at Patapsco Middle School, a recent benefit of the Random Acts of Kindness Club was the chance to paint the faces of their teachers and their principal, Carol Mohsberg. Fourteen youths painted the grown-ups red, white and blue this month as part of Project Penny, which raised money for the victims of the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. The 10 adults who volunteered to be painted spent the day with decorated faces. For Project Penny, members of the club placed donation jars throughout the school.

Barbara Mikulski had a little red wagon as a kid, and with it, her father taught her a first lesson about the importance of kindness. It was a lesson that later coalesced into one of the guiding principles of Mikulski's political career after she saw the classic American film, To Kill a Mockingbird, for the first time. "My father ran a little grocery store in Highlandtown, and if times were hard -- if there was a strike at the steel mill and people had no money -- he always extended credit," says Mikulski, now a U.S. senator.

Inspired by the enthusiasm of a woman who has reaped the benefits of her community's kindness, Carroll County residents and businesses have donated tons of items to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Seven tractor-trailers are bound for Louisiana and Texas with clothing, linens, medication, food, furniture and bedding. One is pulling a fully equipped camper that can sleep eight - also a donation. Rosalind Blakey, who resides in Westminster with her two children in Carroll's first Habitat for Humanity home built last year, started the drive for relief supplies about two weeks ago. The campaign quickly outgrew a spot on a shopping center parking lot and moved to the Carroll County Agriculture Center, where dozens of volunteers sorted, packed and labeled the donations.

We dread looking back on the events of May 3, 2010 and pray for the strength to get through each day. Time has not made us miss Yeardley any less, in fact quite the opposite. It is truly devastating to wake up each day and realize that she is no longer here. Yeardley's contagious smile, kind spirit and gentle touch have left this world but we know that heaven has an angel like no other. We will continue to keep her spirit alive by performing works of kindness in her name. We would like to thank the Commonwealth and particularly Dave Chapman for his tireless efforts on our behalf.

Volunteering is the kindness of helping others.Call it what you like, giving, volunteering, helping, philanthropy or support, the bottom line is that volunteering is the kindness of helping others.An old woman cuddles a visiting kitten, brought to her by a volunteer; a man needs help to repair his house and his neighbor pitches in to give him a hand; a hungry man finds comfort, food and clothes from volunteers in a shelter.Volunteer help continues everywhere. An abused woman finds peace in a home where her children are welcome and where volunteers offer friendship and more; a volunteer picks up a stray, hungry animal on the street taking it to safety; and an awakening of all awakenings, a volunteer teaches another to read.

Long before ecdysiast Blaze Starr became the reigning Queen of The Block, there was the legendary Bettye Mills, who arose from humble Pigtown origins to become one of the tenderloin district's more memorable characters and nightclub owners — which in those days The Baltimore Sun politely called "cabarets. " What brought Mills' name back in the news was the death earlier this month of her son-in-law, James Thomas Lee "Jimmy" Stubbs, 95, who in the late 1940s was day manager of Mills' Stork Club, whose name was later changed to the Bettye Mills' Club.

Hate speech is a form of vandalism. It defaces the environment, and like a broken window, if left untended, signals to other hoodlums that the coast is clear to do more damage. But unlike the proverbial broken window, which urban police departments and criminologists urge us to repair to maintain the aura of social order, nobody seems to be in much of a hurry to nip hate speech in the bud. That's because since the ill-fated attempt by several universities to regulate hate speech in the 1980s and 1990s, any discussion of reining in racist taunts inevitably degrades into charges of political correctness and ends abruptly with the invocation of the First Amendment.

Coming unstuck in time, Pamela Regis was investigating the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime. When the clocks struck 13, she dreamt she went to ... to Manderley? — no, McDaniel. Strange as it might seem, Regis' dream of jumbled-up literary genres will come true this August. In a manner of speaking. Aided by grants totaling $200,000 from the Nora Roberts Foundation, McDaniel College in Westminster is about to launch what is possibly the nation's first academic minor in genre fiction: horror, sci-fi, romance, fantasy, mystery and Westerns, as well as graphic novels.

Democrats living in Maryland's Sixth Congressional District have a rare opportunity in their upcoming primary. There's a different kind of candidate running for the seat held by longtime Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett. His name is Milad Pooran. Dr. Pooran is a 35-year-old Iranian-American physician and veteran of the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps — not the profile of a typical congressional aspirant. He's a long shot to win the nomination; even if he does, and despite the fact the district was gerrymandered last year to make it more favorable for the Democrats, a victory in November is no sure thing.

Since Maryland has not been known this season for aggressive post play, I think we all anticipated what would happen when you matched the Terps against long, athletic Tyler Zeller and John Henson. Factor in that Zeller was playing his final home game in front of a loud, adoring Senior Night crowd. It didn't take Dr. James Naismith to figure out what would transpire. I said in my updated game story that the dominant sound at Smith Center was that of Maryland beiing whistled for fouls on Zeller.

We dread looking back on the events of May 3, 2010 and pray for the strength to get through each day. Time has not made us miss Yeardley any less, in fact quite the opposite. It is truly devastating to wake up each day and realize that she is no longer here. Yeardley's contagious smile, kind spirit and gentle touch have left this world but we know that heaven has an angel like no other. We will continue to keep her spirit alive by performing works of kindness in her name. We would like to thank the Commonwealth and particularly Dave Chapman for his tireless efforts on our behalf.

The headline this morning in the Baltimore Sun depicts a surge of violence in the city. But this we already knew. We sent our children to you from a small, sleepy town to follow their career goals. Within a short period of time, they knew they were not at home anymore and experienced a crime firsthand. We sent them with hopes and dreams, college degrees and kindness. You provided insecurity and a sense of fear. Baltimore is a beautiful, thriving city but it can not be a city of dreams under these circumstances.

On Saturday, September 20, 2003, of Arlington, VA, at Inova Fairfax Hospital, TODD MULLINS, age 38, battled severe juvenile rumatoid arthritis for 36 years since age 2. He was a strong advocate and volunteer for the Arthritis Foundation, an intern for Fairfax County Alcohol & Drug Services, and a very active member for 16 years in DATEABLE, Inc., a dating organization for people with disabilities. Dearly beloved son of Florine Mullins and the late Brig. Gen. William H.L. Mullins; loving brother of Maj. Daniel Mullins and sister-in-law Lisa Mullins, of Colorado Springs, CO; wonderful uncle to Zachary and Ian Mullins; kind and generous companion to his special lady, Lynda Mullinax.

As concern grows over child identity theft, Maryland is considering legislation that would make the state the first in the nation to protect a youngster's credit report. Minors aren't supposed to have such reports because they're too young to get credit. But the Maryland legislation would allow parents or guardians to create a credit file for a child and then immediately freeze it. This would prevent a thief from opening credit under the child's name. "It's a great step in the right direction," says Bo Holland, chief executive of AllClear ID, an identity protection company in Austin, Texas.

What did the Ravens get for lunch after their playoff win against the Texans? Pretty much the same thing they got after that dismal loss to Seattle. The Ravens may be A-list athletes, but the lunch menu at their Owings Mills training facility is made up of familiar foods served in cafeterias across the country. Well, maybe slightly better. The soups and pastas are homemade, and one of the chefs was trained at Johnson & Wales University. And if, like health-conscious running back Ricky Williams, you bring in special ingredients, they'll cook them.