When do Republicans like Hogan take responsibility for mistakes?
The recent letter writer bloviating that Mayor Brandon Scott should take responsibility for the gunfight on Brooklyn Day seems more interested in spewing a partisan rant (“In Baltimore, the buck must stop with Mayor Scott,” Sept. 11).
Two can play this game.
I never heard Gov. Larry Hogan ever take responsibility for three material shortcomings that affected my household. During his closing days in office, it was revealed that on his watch the Maryland 529 program could not meet its financial responsibilities. My son was an affected beneficiary of the 529 program and attending college during the 2023 spring semester. (In contrast, the 529 program worked splendidly for us this semester. Thank you, Gov. Wes Moore).
Similarly, during the summer of 2021, the Maryland Unemployment Insurance website was unable to pay legitimate claims and had no personnel inside their offices. My wife had such a claim and went months without employment or an unemployment check, and was never fully compensated.
In December of 2021, the Maryland COVID-19 website inexplicably collapsed without any backup data from Dec. 3 to
Dec. 24, 2021, when the omicron variant did its worst. Unaware of this, I was singing in multiple church services during the holidays when the positivity rate was 30%. Three people in my family caught COVID as a consequence.
The point is that the writer who urged Mayor Scott to embrace Harry Truman’s mantra of “the buck stops here” was, I strongly suspect, nowhere near the Brooklyn Day celebrations that concluded with shell casings from as many as 12 different firearms. Meanwhile, I wonder if it it’s fine with him that Teflon Larry, who is now being touted as a presidential candidate by certain individuals from both sides of the political aisle, chose not to take any responsibility for screw-ups that directly affected my loved ones.
My suggestion is that folks at least demonstrate they were materially harmed before they try to milk a catastrophe for political advantage.