Marylanders must band together in fight against climate change

I’m proud of Gov. Wes Moore for sending the Maryland Army National Guard to help survivors of the Hurricane Helene climate disaster (“Gov. Wes Moore mobilizes Maryland’s National Guard to aid in Helene disaster relief,” Sept. 30). I often feel depressed about the state of the world, but Governor Moore’s act of solidarity reminds me that we can all help each other in these hard times. As climate change progresses, there will be more extreme weather events and more need to provide aid.

However, we don’t need to wait for another disaster to take action. We can work together to reduce the impacts of climate change. We can support nonpartisan climate groups like Citizen’s Climate Lobby, which pushes Congress for climate legislation. As individuals, we can adopt greener lifestyles to reduce our carbon footprints. Most importantly, we can vote for candidates who not only say “climate” out loud but propose real-world solutions.

It’s important to recognize that our efforts can save lives. The governor sent aid last weekend because it was the right thing to do. We don’t need to be governors or National Guard soldiers to follow the golden rule — it is just what we should all do. Addressing climate change is about caring for others as we would wish them to care for ourselves.

— Andrew Hellerstein, Silver Spring

Rodricks understands folly of Harborplace plan

Well, it took Dan Rodricks to lay out the coherent and well thought out argument against privatizing public space at Harborplace (“Dan Rodricks: Harborplace does not need 900 apartments to be a ‘great good place’ again,” Oct. 1). He also busted open Mayor Brandon Scott’s claim that opposition was due to the developer being a Black man. Opposition back in 1978 was with a white developer.

A common last-ditch effort to stop something is to bring race and inequality into the argument. I hope that Gov. Wes Moore and Mayor Scott both read the column. The governor is more of a businessman than a governor, and the mayor usually just goes along with the general consensus of the “big money block promises” in Baltimore.

Again, thank you, Dan, for putting much more thought into the Harborplace situation than the governor or the mayor. Thank you for speaking out for the people of Baltimore and Maryland and not big business. Thanks for being our voice.

— Stas Chrzanowski, Baltimore

We had a chance to act on immigration

I am tired of hearing from JD Vance and other Republicans asking why Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t do more about immigration (“Who won the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz? 5 takeaways,” Oct. 1).

Keep on fooling some voters who may not realize that vice presidents perform whatever presidents asks them to do. Vice presidents don’t initiate a policy unless presidents make it their own. What did Vice President Mike Pence do?

And let’s not forget that Biden and Harris favor the new, stringent bill put forth by a bipartisan committee that Donald Trump asked House Republicans to reject.

That bill would increase border agents and provide additional scanning equipment to identify fentanyl. How could any citizen be against that?

What Trump did during his term was separate parents from their children, and where are these children now?

Too bad that the Republican Party of the past does not exist now.

— Angela Beltram, Catonsville

Have a conversation, not a debate

Why is the first question after a political debate about who won (“Who won the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz? 5 takeaways,” Oct. 1)? Shouldn’t we ask instead who elucidated the issues best? Who made the most sense? Who demonstrated competence? Who demonstrated character consistent with the political office at stake?

For that matter, why have a debate at all? Holding office does not require debating skills. It requires mastery of the issues, negotiation skills, leadership and courage. Why not have a public conversation instead of a debate, dialogue instead of combat?

— Michael Friedman, Baltimore