Senator Clarence K. Lam to Receive DRM's Public Policy Leadership Award

 

Disability Rights Maryland (DRM) will present its Public Policy Leadership Awards to Senator Dr. Clarence K. Lam, MD, MPH, FACPM, who represents Howard and Anne Arundel Counties in the General Assembly, at DRM’s 2024 Breaking Barriers Awards Gala. The gala will be held on Thursday, September 26, at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. To register for DRM’s Gala, go to DisabilityRightsMD.org/Breaking-Barriers-Gala.

DRM’s Public Policy Leadership Award recognizes individuals who have shown outstanding dedication and creativity in shaping and advancing legislation that helps create a more inclusive and just world for people with disabilities.According to DRM: "Senator Lam showed people with disabilities that he is a true ally. His integrity, courage, and commitment to justice exemplifies the essence of this award."

Senator Lam was a strong advocate for people with disabilities during the 2024 legislative session. He spearheaded critical anti-discrimination bills and educated the Senate Finance Committee on the need to focus on disability rights in the policy making process. He also sponsored the Self-Directed Mental Health Care bill and opposed assisted outpatient treatment.  

Lam serves on the General Assembly's Senate Finance Committee and the Executive Nominations Committee. He chairs the Howard County Delegation, the Joint Committee on Audits and Evaluations, and the Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel Oversight. He is also a member of the Anne Arundel County Delegation and is the chair emeritus of the Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. He is currently the only physician and the only Asian American legislator in the Senate of Maryland. In October 2023, Senate President Ferguson appointed him to become the first Asian American chair or vice chair of a Senate committee. He previously served in the Maryland General Assembly as a state delegate from 2015-2019. Lam also serves on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He leads the school’s preventive medicine residency program as its program director and practices clinically as the medical director of occupational medicine at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He is board certified in preventive medicine and occupational medicine. 

Read the July 30, 2024 DRM announcement.

 

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At 34th Anniversary of the ADA, Advocates Cite Some Progress for People with Disabilities

The ADA - signed into law on July 26, 1990 - was a significant achievement, guaranteeing civil rights protections to people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. For example, parking lots now have the familiar blue-and-white signs designating accessible parking spaces and where curbs and sidewalks have cuts and ramps to accommodate those in wheelchairs or with other mobility issues. Most new buildings are now designed with ADA-compliant doors and elevators and hallways and bathrooms. There are also required accommodations in classrooms and public spaces, nondiscrimination in employment, and more accessible housing.

On many metrics of ADA compliance, Maryland stands above other states. The law, which guarantees equal access for people with disabilities, has lived up to its promise in many ways in the state. Over 1.1 million adults in Maryland had a disability of some kind - almost 25% of Marylanders in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some 16% had disabilities in 2021.

Maryland's major remaining disability-related problems are in the delivery of needed services. Advocates for people with disabilities believe that there has definitely been progress since the ADA's passage, but see the need for some  improvements. The executive director of the Arc Maryland said acceptance of people with disabilities has increased and the negative stigma has declined, but not consistently. She believes that Maryland “has a reputation of treating people with respect and having services” to help people with disabilities, factors that draw families to the state. A Disability Rights Maryland spokesperson said “It’s possible that more people are comfortable with acknowledging or self-identifying as a person with a disability.”

Maryland was third best for its health care among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and eighth best overall for someone with a disability in the April 2024 report from Policygenius, an insurance broker organization, which rated the best states for living with a disability. With major medical centers in the region, such as the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland has become a destination. Maryland also is a leader in equal pay for people with disabilities, after the General Assembly in 2016 phased out 14(c) certificates, which let employers to pay subminimum wage to people with disabilities. As of 2020, employers must pay the same minimum wage to workers with disabilities and those without.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) recently signed an executive order requiring state agencies to use “plain language,” in documents and on websites. This will especially benefit persons with disabilities, who sometimes have trouble accessing state websites to receive available support and services. The transition to plain language on all state documents and sites probably will not happen until early 2025, according to Information Technology Secretary Katie Savage.

Maryland has other problems that face people with disabilities. In 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office notified the Maryland Transit Administration that its paratransit service - MobilityLink - was not in compliance with ADA protections. The major issue is long delays for service.

Also, people with disabilities are “still an underserved population” because there are waitlists to receive services and administrative turnaround time for services, as well as many restrictions and limitations that mean years of waiting to access services.

Read the July 26, 2024 Maryland Matters article.

Montgomery County Board of Education Strongly Criticized by Congressmen for Allowing Antisemitism

 

The president of the Montgomery County Board of Education (MCBE) was strongly criticized by members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education during a hearing focused on antisemitism in K-12 schools alleged within county schools, and as the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into the district earlier this year.

In defending the district, the MCBE President said they do not “shy away from imposing consequences for hate-based behavior, including antisemitism.” She said the district’s policy is to “initiate an investigation each time the school system receives a complaint or we witness particular antisemitic, hate-filled or racist language or actions.” She said county school officials have not fired anybody but have “taken disciplinary action” against some teachers. She also cited efforts the school system is taking to combat antisemitism in its schools, such as imposing mandatory hate-based training for all staff starting this summer and enhancing the curriculum in K-12 schools to expand on topics surrounding the Jewish experience.

The hearing also featured testimony from two other school district leaders, including David Banks, chancellor for New York City Public Schools, and Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of Berkeley Unified School District in California.

U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Florida), subcommittee chair, said what has occurred since the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th “has revealed some of the ugliest, most depraved ideas once marginalized from polite society, and our education system has failed to stop it.” He said all three leaders “represent public school districts that have allowed vile antisemitism to spread unchecked.” The school officials all rejected allegations that they tolerate antisemitism within their districts.

In addition, Montgomery County Public Schools is at the center of a federal Title VI investigation started in February, 2024, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The investigation was based on an opinion piece posted on a hyperlocal news site. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal funding.

Last month, the Zionist Organization of America filed a civil rights complaint against the district over allegations of “severe, persistent and pervasive antisemitism in the schools that district officials have failed to address.” The complaint alleges intimidation and harassment.

Read the May 8, 2024 Maryland Matters article. 

ADL Alleges Philadelphia School District has not Protected Jewish Students from Antisemitism

 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights alleging that the Philadelphia school district has failed to protect Jewish students from “a virulent wave of antisemitism” that swept through classrooms after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th.

The district, among the largest public school systems in the U.S., has ignored persistent harassment and bullying of Jewish students, some of whom have been forced to drop out, lawyers wrote in the complaint. Some teachers and administrators have spread inflammatory anti-Jewish and anti-Israel messages on social media and even in the classroom without repercussion, the complaint said.

The ADL asked the Office of Civil Rights to order the district: (1) to issue a statement denouncing antisemitism, and (2) to take disciplinary action against teachers and students who engage in discrimination and harassment. The ADL also argued that it was necessary to provide training for faculty, staff, and students and the removal of antisemitic posters, flags, and other material on school property.

A school district spokesperson declined to comment on an active investigation, but said in a statement Tuesday night that the district “seeks to create safe learning spaces while navigating diverse perspectives and how students and staff are experiencing complex current events.” 

A recent congressional hearing on antisemitism in K-12 education, with the leaders of New York City Public Schools, the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and the Berkeley Unified School District in California all denying they had failed to address hostility toward Jewish people.

 

Read the July 23, 2024 AP news article. 

Maryland Attorney General Establishes Online Portal To Report Hate Crimes

The new portal has been established in response to the continued increase in hate crimes and bias incidents in Maryland, according to Attorney General Anthony Brown. The Maryland Attorney General's Office recently launched a new online portal residents can use to report hate crimes and bias incidents. According to Brown, 465 hate crimes and hate bias incidents were reported in 2022 compared to 388 reports in 2021. This is over double those reported 10 years ago.

According to Brown, "For too long, hate crimes have been underreported and underestimated, but victims don’t have to suffer in silence. I am listening. This new portal is a safe place to speak up. It will help us all understand how widespread these incidents are, so we can better address them."

The portal's reporting form will be used to track hate crimes and bias incidents in Maryland and to help identify trends. The information collected through the portal will also help officials better respond to hate crimes in the state. All reports can be submitted anonymously. Residents should use the portal only after reporting the incident to the police. The portal also contains information to help Marylanders identify hate crimes and resources for victims. Whether victim or bystander, residents are urged to report the hate crime or bias incident.

The Attorney General's Office has released a video to show residents how to use the portal. The portal can be accessed at nohomeforhate.md.gov.

Read the June 14, 2024 Baltimore Patch article.

Baltimore's nonprofit Parity Cited as an Example of a Fruitful Approach to Reducing Vacancies

The study, A different approach to boarded-up houses and devalued homes: Catalysts for community-led renewal in Black neighborhoods by Andre M. Perry and Manann Donoghoe, is featured in the latest edition of the Brookings Institution's website research section.

The term "hyper-vacancy" refers to a neighborhood with an excessively high rate of unoccupied homes. The Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance's "The Costs of Baltimore’s Vacant Housing" study found that in Baltimore about 15,000 residential properties in the city were unoccupied in 2022, and had been 7-8% of the housing stock for more than ten years. In 2010, older cities - e.g., Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland -  have had large population declines due to the loss of industrial jobs and high rates of hyper-vacancy. In Baltimore, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy found that 29.5% of all census tracts were hyper-vacant in 2010 compared to 7.5% in 1990.

Many vacancies in a neighborhood can lead to devaluation (when a property’s value is lower than its worth) and displacement, producing cycles of disinvestment. In a 2018 study, Brookings found that homes in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the US are valued 21% to 23% lower, on average, than similar homes in white neighborhoods with the same socioeconomic demographics.

When devaluation is coupled with hyper-vacancy, the damage to neighborhoods increases. A reduction in the quality of neighborhood amenities, flight, social decline, and less investment lower property prices, attracting investors, and paving the way for gentrification that displaces low-income residents. This was the case, for example, in the Middle East neighborhood of Baltimore, where legacy residents moved out when more affluent residents moved in. What could otherwise have been a beneficial process of renewal instead excluded the original residents from affordable housing in what had been their own neighborhood.

Revitalization is more difficult in these neighborhoods as investors find it harder to get proper financing. The assets of low-income and older residents who remain as their neighborhood continues to decline lose value. They are stranded in a blighted area.

The Brookings study cites a few nonprofit efforts across the US as examples of positive approaches to solving these problems:

(1) Parity, founded by former financial analyst Bree Jones and headquartered in West Baltimore, acquires and rehabilitates abandoned properties by the block. The process fundamentally upends the traditional approach to home purchasing. The organization, run and operated by Baltimore residents, is a direct response to the city’s high rates of gentrification.

(2) The Fitzgerald Revitalization Project, is another example. Operated by the City of Detroit, the project is transforming 400 publicly owned vacant land and buildings into community assets, including park lands and recreation areas. The core concept of the project is to work in partnership with residents and local stakeholders to guide redevelopment efforts. Importantly, the project emphasizes civic assets, like parks, neighborhood centers, and locally owned businesses. Members of the local community have an active role in choosing how to revitalize these neighborhoods by helping to decide where and what types of infrastructure and businesses to invest in.

(3) Other nonprofits, like The Works in Memphis, are pursuing a slightly different strategy to combat gentrification: leveraging existing community assets to create a more economically diverse and prosperous neighborhood. It uses a mix of tools (e.g., shared-equity) to subsidize the cost of home ownership in Klondike, a historic Black-majority neighborhood, to keep the neighborhood affordable.

Read the July 8, 2024 Brookings study.

Book Review: "The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving Our Neighbors" by Dr. Emily Smith

 

The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger about Loving Our Neighbors by Dr. Emily Smith. Zondervan, 2023. 288 pages. $19.99 trade paperback.

This is an excellent book that explores what it mean to love your neighbor in today's divided world. Written by Dr. Emily Smith, global health epidemiologist and host of the popular Facebook page Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist, examines what loving your neighbor - as illustrated in the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan - really means in actual day-to-day practice. According to Smith, “truly being a neighbor goes way beyond simply donating food or money... it’s also [about] changing our hearts and posture to match those deeds.”

Smith's perspective in this book is as a scientist and a Christian. She uses examples from her own life: growing up in a small Texas town to studying at a prestigious university. The book also includes interesting stories from the lives of other inspiring people in multiple cultures to show the reader how to:

• Find shared values with people from different backgrounds, faiths, and cultures than our own
• Reach outside our immediate circles to bring in those on the margins
• Redefine our concept of "neighbor" and love our neighbors in more practical and global ways
• Bridge the gaps of society's disparities and inequities.

In short, this is a very practical guide/essay on how to "help reimagine and create a better world - and it all starts with authentically loving your neighbor." Recommended.

Source of photo: Amazon.com.