EASTPORT SHOOTING - The recent shooting in Eastport demonstrates the depth of the problem involving youth violence in the public housing community. It also demonstrates the difficulty in overcoming it.
A 20-year-old man, banned from public housing property and charged with possessing drugs, was shot by a 15-year-old. That someone so young is carrying a weapon shows the infiltration of violent crime in public housing's youth culture.
The teen-ager will be tried as an adult and may end up in jail - before he's even had a chance to get a driver's license, job or diploma. What chance does he have in life?
His mother, to her credit, turned her son into the police. By doing so, she took the responsibility that so many other mothers have ignored.
But our point remains the same: how can police ever hope to reduce violent crime in public housing without addressing the more difficult, societal issue of stopping youths from turning to crime?
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BAY GRASSES - It may be hard for you to get excited about the submerged vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay. Unlike fish, it's not something you can eat and, frankly, it makes swimming more difficult.
But it's those grasses that create a healthy habitat for the fish we do eat and they keep the water clean so we can swim. If you are not excited about the decline of bay grassses, then you should be.
Declines in bay grasses were reported in 2007 for parts of the Chesapeake Bay - including the Magothy, Chester and the Seven rivers. The West and Rhone rivers have no grass beds and the South River went from zero to a scant 8 acres. It isn't getting better.
The grasses were impacted by last year's drought. Less rain water means higher salinity and higher salinity means less grass. Less grass means fewer places for juvenile crabs to hide from predators and dirtier, less oxygenated water.
We can't do much about droughts, but we can work on the pollution that leads to algae blooms and other influences that harm grasses. Maybe this spring's abundant rain isn't so bad after all.
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AIR POLLUTION - If bad water isn't enough, now we find the air quality isn't any better.
In fact, Anne Arundel County again ranks as having one of the nation's worst air pollution. According to a report from the American Lung Association, the county got an "F" for ozone pollution and a "D" for soot pollution. Can the county take that class over again?
It is hard to believe that an area with such natural beauty can be so plagued by pollution in the air and the water. Wasn't that a circumstance once confined to industrial cities in the Midwest?
Our county's poor environment is a result of our wasteful lifestyles. We want green grass - so we pollute the water with fertilizer - and we want clean air - so we pollute the air when we drive our cars.
