Outrage

I was recently shown a picture from one of the Occupy protests taking place across the country. It featured a young woman surrounded by police. She was the only protester in the picture, but she didn't seem intimidated. All by herself, up against the police barricade, she held a handwritten sign saying simply, "I am a born again American. " I've never met this woman, but I think I know exactly what she's feeling. I had my first "born again American" moment 30 years ago, when I was moved to outrage and action by a group of hate-preaching televangelists who were trying to claim sole ownership of patriotism, faith and flag for the far right.

A Maryland family making more than $175,000 will pay at least $254 more in income taxes this year under a revenue-raising plan the Maryland General Assembly is expected to take up when it convenes for special session on Monday. The same family of joint tax filers with two children reporting more than $1.1 million in gross income would pay an extra $3,269 — a larger hit to the very rich. The tax proposal would target the state's more affluent — pleasing liberals because it spares everyone in the lowest tax brackets and ensures that education and other programs won't be cut. Conservatives, however, warn it would turn away wealthy residents and hurt small businesses.

As an Inner Harbor resident, I'm outraged that on a day that saw a procession honoring the late William Donald Schaefer pass through the area, hooliganism and stabbings occurred there that very evening. The people who live and work there should be concerned. Until folks who live, work and own businesses in this community take a greater interest, such disgraces will continue. It's only April, and summer is fast approaching. The apathy of those who call the Inner Harbor their home or place of business is shocking.

The once venerable and respected NBC was exposed by Fox News to have edited the tape of the telephone call between George Zimmerman and the police by eliminating pertinent portions of the conversation to make it appear that the unfortunate killing was race-based ("NBC: 'We deeply regret' edits on Sanford 911 call," April 4). Then to add insult to injury, NBC, in its apology, called this deliberate act calculated to deceive and mislead its viewers "an error. " Where is the outrage from the liberal establishment over this perversion of honest reporting of the news?

Where were the Rev. Cortly "C.D. " Witherspoon and Marvin "Doc" Cheatham when a rabbi was assaulted by a group of black youth or when a 14 year old Jewish boy had his arm broken by a black youth? Where was the outrage? Where was the call for a meeting between blacks and Jews ( "Jewish, black leaders hold closed meeting on the community," Dec. 9)? Where were their comments published in the paper and news media? Why the double standard? What does a situation in Baltimore have to do with Crown Heights New York?

When Elizabeth Taylor left this world — with instructions that she be "fashionably late" for her own funeral, a diva to the last — she took with her a list of Hollywood epithets that may never again describe a leading lady. With her bird's egg-sized diamonds, she was glamorous in a way that will never be used to describe any other actress. Cameron Diaz looking sweaty and ripped after a workout with baseball boyfriend Alex Rodriguez? Elizabeth would have handed him a martini by the pool.

Once again there is outrage for the senseless killings of two innocent citizens on the streets of Baltimore. The outrage will last about two weeks before Milton Hill and Stephen Pitcairn will be replaced with other victims. Nothing will change in the city of Baltimore. The State's Attorney's office will blame the police department. The police department will blame the judges, and the judges will let the offenders off with not much more than a warning. Wasn't there a three-strike policy implemented in Baltimore?

So let me understand the logic of this farce. On the front page of Saturday's Baltimore Sun, you reported, as part of an ongoing series of similar stories, the shooting of two people and a stabbing. The total of people now murdered in Baltimore has reached 200 this year. No outrage from any part of the community, black or white, was reported. No acts demanding the disbanding of any organization were issued. Fast forward to the editorial in the Sunday edition of The Sun ( "Tension in Park Heights" discussing an altercation between a black teenager and a member of the Shomrim group who help protect and defend the community from ongoing attacks, assaults and other criminal mayhem directed toward innocent citizens in this area, and this provokes a barrage of verbal assaults from both the black and Jewish community leaders that reflect the total disproportionate response to the following reality, which is this: the black teenager making the charges has a criminal record, and the white Jewish man who has been charged in the case has a clean record of absolutely no previous convictions.

Once again, an out-of-towner has been cut down in their prime in Baltimore's crime wave. A student learning to be a physician. There will be mayoral, police and community outrage, but nothing will be done because the courts have our hands tied. These two vermin should have been in prison, yet they walked free to prey on someone again. How can a city get so upset over a 2-cent bottle tax, but do nothing about human life? I live in the suburbs and would not come downtown for any reason whatsoever.

An outraged reader of The Baltimore Sun wants to know why the trial of twin brothers accused of burning a dog received so much attention — indeed, it made national news — while the plea bargain of a woman accused of killing her baby and burying him in Druid Hill Park received Page 6 treatment. Furthermore, why did the allegedly evil twins, Tremayne and Travers Johnson, face three years in prison if convicted of animal cruelty while Lakesha Haynie, the mother who buried her baby, received only probation?

The Trayvon Martin story is a tragedy justifiably causing outrage among thousands of citizens, including President Obama ("A show of solidarity on 'Hoodie Sunday,'" March 26). Yet on the same day that story appeared there was just a single paragraph about another young man only a few years older than Trayvon who was killed in front of his home in Baltimore ("Man, 18, fatally shot outside home in West Baltimore," March 26). No speeches or condolences from the president were mentioned in that story, and none are likely to be forthcoming because this is an almost daily event in Maryland that draws little attention.

When U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican, recently called the House transportation bill the worst such measure he's seen in 35 years of public service, he was being kind. Surely, it's among the worst, most cynically partisan bills to ever threaten U.S. highway and transit infrastructure in all of recorded history. That's because the serious business of building and maintaining roads, bridges, rail systems and other vital transportation assets is usually among the most bipartisan of Congressional actions.

Earlier today I published a post on the singular they which contained this sentence: “No one ever suggests that they do not understand the meaning of singular they constructions.” To date, no one has objected to this supposed violation of grammatical propriety. I can only assume that (a) the singular they in this context is so natural and widespread in English that even many sticklers read over it without registering outrage, or (b) the readers who did register it remained silent because they have concluded that I am beyond hope or help.

I was recently shown a picture from one of the Occupy protests taking place across the country. It featured a young woman surrounded by police. She was the only protester in the picture, but she didn't seem intimidated. All by herself, up against the police barricade, she held a handwritten sign saying simply, "I am a born again American. " I've never met this woman, but I think I know exactly what she's feeling. I had my first "born again American" moment 30 years ago, when I was moved to outrage and action by a group of hate-preaching televangelists who were trying to claim sole ownership of patriotism, faith and flag for the far right.

The head of a Baltimore County public employees union says workers are outraged over the lucrative pension deals of County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and former councilmen Sam Moxley and Vince Gardina. An amendment to a 2010 pension reform law allowed employees, including the three men, to return to work for the county and accrue new pension benefits while earning their salary. The overall package reduced government workers' pension benefits. "General county employees have all made great sacrifices to help ensure the health stability of the county, not to just go into someone else's pockets," John Ripley, president of the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees, said this week.

"Balanced. " "Fair-minded. " Showing "great personal integrity. " These are some of the terms a bipartisan group of 37 state attorneys general used to describe former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, President Barack Obama's nominee for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Add to that list "good public servant," the phrase Ohio Republican Sen. Robert Portman used to describe him just days ago. Sounds like a radical, doesn't he? If he's not, how else do we explain last week's move by 45 members of the U.S. Senate to block his appointment to that post?

Last week, the conservative outrage machine tried to chew up Shirley Sherrod. You are familiar with that machine if you have access to the Internet or Fox News. As the name implies, it exists to stoke and maintain a state of perpetual apoplexy on the political right by feeding it a never-ending stream of perceived sins against conservative orthodoxy. While the machine will use any available fuel (health care, immigration, Muslims) to manufacture fury, it has a special fondness for race.

The once venerable and respected NBC was exposed by Fox News to have edited the tape of the telephone call between George Zimmerman and the police by eliminating pertinent portions of the conversation to make it appear that the unfortunate killing was race-based ("NBC: 'We deeply regret' edits on Sanford 911 call," April 4). Then to add insult to injury, NBC, in its apology, called this deliberate act calculated to deceive and mislead its viewers "an error. " Where is the outrage from the liberal establishment over this perversion of honest reporting of the news?

There's really no excuse for Congress not to pass the American Jobs Act. The unwillingness of the House majority leader and his "can't think for themselves" crew is downright ludicrous! This is not a time to present more foolishness into this country, it is time for some serious thought to rescue this country from a financial downturn. The world is watching the strongest country in the world indulge in petty and childish acts of self-destruction. Believe me when I say others are just waiting and biding their time to overtake and rule this country.

I have no beef with the student Republicans. Oh, I disagree with them about affirmative action, and probably a dozen other things as well. But I am not troubled - amused, but not troubled - by the way they've expressed their view. Unfortunately, others have been less sanguine. The story goes as follows: The GOP student group at the University of California at Berkeley wanted to illustrate its opposition to pending legislation that would allow state universities to consider race, gender, ethnicity and national origin as factors in admission.