“It’s just too much.”
Those words were texted to me by a local elected official after hearing that Aaliyah Gonzalez, an eighteen-year-old recent honors graduate of Glen Burnie High School, was one of 20 young people sprayed by bullets at a block party just across the county line in Baltimore City’s Brooklyn neighborhood, and one of two to lose her life. I felt the same way.
Mass shootings, youth attacking town government buildings all across France, Ukrainian soldiers inching their way across minefields while being bombed from the sky to take back their country from Russian invaders, loss of the biodiversity that makes life sustainable on earth, global warming, test scores in schools plummeting, and leadership in the United States House of Representatives beholden to a radical fringe that seeks to dismantle the public institutions that are working to confront these challenges.
It’s no wonder that most Americans choose to avoid the news and immerse themselves in what makes them happy.
Being County Executive is no different. There are ups and there are downs, and there is the occasional moment when the national or global news leaves me wondering if our local progress matters.
But I always conclude that it does, just as the good work of every single human being on the planet does. Progress, compassion, and goodwill are contagious. They get noticed. They get replicated. So we do our best in the arena we’re placed in, and it raises the bar for humanity.
On Monday night, the County Council passed the school APF bill that I raved about last week. No amendments. Seven to zero. A bipartisan solution to a problem that’s been plaguing our county for years.
We likely averted a teacher hiring crisis this fall with a final-hour budget amendment and good-faith support from the teachers’ union to bump starting salaries up to the level of our nearby jurisdictions.
We prevented closure of the grain elevator that local farmers rely on to sell their product by taking ownership last week.
We busted a major drug distribution network last month that was destroying the lives of families all across our county.
These are the things that make my job worth doing, even when the big picture is “just too much.”
But you know, that overwhelmed feeling in the face of the news, the questioning of purpose and meaning, it’s something we all feel at times and it has a purpose. It’s what inspires us to solve problems, and it’s been part of the human condition for as long as we’ve been on this planet.
“It’s just too much,” for any of us alone, but when we return to our arenas, find our paths, and deliver the goods, together we do make progress.
Steuart Pittman
Anne Arundel County Executive