Let’s hope the O’s turn it around

Can the Orioles’ bumpy start to the season bring motivation come this fall? The baseball schedule is long and we’ve seen this young team squander confident early starts down the stretch. A sign of maturity is learning from one’s mistakes to strive for improvement.

Last Friday’s win was a good one for the fans. Let’s hope they can string some more series victories together, as they recently achieved with the division-leading Yankees. Hot baseball and steamed crabs are what make Maryland summers special.

— Eric Greene, Annapolis

Blaming gun violence on mental health is cynical

The claims by President Donald Trump and his acolytes in Congress that our nation’s gun violence crisis is caused by mental health issues, not the proliferation of guns, are belied by the recent U.S. Department of Education cuts for school mental health programs. This patent hypocrisy is hard to swallow.

Common sense dictates that students of color engage more effectively with counselors of similar backgrounds, and the Trump administration’s claims of race-based recruitment quotas for counselors as a reason to cut mental health funding are disingenuous and counterproductive, especially when there is a severe, nationwide shortage of school psychologists. Cutting $1 billion in school mental health resources presents a challenge for state and local governments to backfill the lost funding and may well cost the lives of more school shooting victims.

— John R. Leopold, Stoney Beach

This vet wants to keep it Veterans Day

As a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran who enlisted at age 18 and served during the Vietnam War, I am appalled that President Donald Trump has the nerve to attempt to change Veterans Day to any other name. This is a total insult to all veterans of all wars or those who served during peacetime. Trump has never served even one day in the military! To have to call him commander in chief is a joke!

— James Lutz, Lutherville

What it will take for the Democratic Party to win

The Democratic Party faces an uphill battle when trying to win over the working class in America, so we have to find a way to find candidates who can communicate with them on their turf in their language. Don’t put them down, but find plans that work for both them and America.

We have to admit our error on the border but at the same time inform them of our need for workers in agriculture and hospitality.

We need to get midterm candidates who can sell our plans, and we need party unity behind moderates. Although progressives have energy and a following, they turn off conservatives, so we have to abandon wokeness, racial preferences — the things and policies that workers despise.

And we most desperately need a dynamic party leader who can excite all corners of the population.

— Howard Kahn, Pikesville

Release of activist accused of antisemitism is alarming

It was reported that Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student activist who led demonstrations in support of the terrorist organization Hamas and advocated for the death of Jews at Columbia University, was released by a judge (“Judge releases Palestinian student activist arrested at US citizenship interview,” April 30). Having an individual like this at large within our community is downright frightening. Additionally, the U.S. code of law specifies that promoting and supporting a terrorist organization is against the law and subject to imprisonment. It is astounding that this individual was allowed to return to society. He should’ve stayed in jail.

— Jack Kinstlinger, Towson