OTHER VOICES
Defeating Trumpism
Although I am personally disappointed Democrats did not retake the Senate and stop the appointment of white supremacists to the judicial system, there is hope that we will regain our greatness in 2020 with the total defeat of Trumpism.
Democrats need to maintain the momentum and our progressive directions to defeat the prejudice and unjustifiable hatred that Trump evokes. Post-election statistics show Trump support leans heavily with under-educated whites and hypocritical Christian evangelists.
The reason conservatives hate higher education so much is that once people are exposed to other races, religious, LGBTQ, and Hispanic communities that irrational fear and hatred disappear and the common desire of a better life and community becomes apparent. Education defeats Trumpism as it loses the irrational hate that feeds it.
Democrats need to expose the outright criminality of President Donald Trump regime so the people, not consumed by Trump's fear-mongering, will see his entire persona for the sham it is. Democrats need to forego talk of impeachment and show Americans that the House can pass legislation beneficial to their constituents in healthcare, environment, and tax fairness.
The House should pass a constitutional amendment to rid the election process of gerrymandering as Democrats have nothing to fear from fair redistricting. The next two years will still be dangerous times as an irrational, child-like Trump, along with his anti-democratic Senate, tries to impose their religious and prejudicial laws upon the rest of the country. We need to continue to provide pressure to limit these unconstitutional edicts.
ALAN McALLISTER
Severna Park
Retiree benefits
Well, the Maryland state retirees finally received the letter from the Department of Budget and Management stating our drug coverage will continue into 2019. How far into 2019? It didn't say.
No legislation was introduced during the 2018 General Assembly session to help undo what Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration did to us. Will a legislator have the guts to introduce a bill during the upcoming 2019 session to keep our drug benefits permanently? Like Social Security, we earned it!
JOYCE MASTERSON Annapolis
Mail delivery
Back about 20 years or so ago, mail delivery in Anne Arundel County stopped being a one-day affair after many years of having overnight delivered. It suddenly had become two-day delivery anywhere in the county.
The Capital took an aggressive approach attacking the postal service. The Annapolis Post Office, which had been sending all mail to Baltimore for sorting, started keeping Annapolis mail and sorting that mail locally so it could be delivered the next day.
I receive a lot of mail and usually check the postmark because I receive a lot of checks in the mail, as well as other business mail.
For at least 20 years, local (Baltimore City or Anne Arundel County) mail almost always arrived in one day.
However, around two years ago, I noticed it changed to two-day delivery. And, last week, a check from Glen Burnie took three days to get to Davidsonville. I am guessing that is the new normal.
An interesting aspect of this is that for years our families have sent a lot of personal mail to/from Moscow, Idaho, which is an out of the way place with no airport. It has always been a two-day trip either way.
That doesn't make much sense. Back over 50 years ago, when I was in Vietnam, mail to/from there and Kansas was always three-day either direction. And with all the modern equipment they now have, they can't continue to give us overnight delivery here in Anne Arundel County?
FRANK RUFF Davidsonville