AMERICA 250 HITS BALTIMORE COUNTY: THE CELEBRATION IS OVER, IT’S TIME TO GET TO WORK
By: Adam Reuter
The America 250 party is officially in the rear-view mirror. Across Baltimore County, thousands of residents braved a 110-degree heat index and severe evening thunderstorms this past weekend to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra blasted patriotic hymns across Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville over two packed nights. Down in Middle River, Martin State Airport hosted the SAIL250 flight line while the U.S. Navy Blue Angels tore open the skies above county waterfronts. Residents around the County marched in their annual Fourth of July parades before pyrotechnics lit up the storm-cleared skies over Fullerton and Middle River.
We threw a great birthday bash for the country. And due to bad weather, part of the official party isn’t fully over. Plus amateur fireworks displays are expected for weeks to come, no doubt. Now it’s time to sober up and fix the broken machinery driving the United States. Here is The Baltimore Informer blueprint for the next 250 years.
End the Red vs. Blue Distraction
Political parties need to stop the theatrical warfare and find unity on basic economic survival. The biggest divide tearing this country apart has nothing to do with party labels. We are fighting a ruthless class war between the haves and the have-nots. The wealth gap — sitting right now at an all-time record high — crushes working families and demands immediate correction.
According to data from the Federal Reserve (Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S.), wealth concentration at the very top is currently at its highest level since the Fed began consistently tracking it in 1989. The top 1% of American households now hold over 31% of all national wealth—amounting to roughly $55 trillion in assets. To put this in perspective, the wealthiest 1% hold roughly the same amount of wealth as the entire bottom 90% of Americans combined. This gap drastically accelerated following the COVID-19 pandemic due to surges in stock prices and asset valuations, which disproportionately benefit the wealthy, while the middle class holds most of its wealth in housing.
Import Global Education Standards
Maryland schools waste millions trying to reinvent the educational wheel. It’s well past time to rip the script from successful European countries and implement their curriculum standards right here for Maryland’s students. Global academic models already work. We just need to execute them for our kids with less bureaucratic delays.
When measuring global educational success, researchers look to the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scores. Several European nations consistently outperform the U.S. using models that sharply contrast with the American approach:
Germany (The “Dual System”): Germany seamlessly integrates classroom learning with paid vocational apprenticeships, ensuring students graduate high school directly into highly skilled, well-paying careers without college debt.
Finland: Often cited as the gold standard for education, Finland does not use standardized high-stakes testing. Teachers are required to hold master’s degrees, and the profession is highly respected. Their system focuses on equity, play-based early learning, and minimizing homework.
Estonia: Currently the top-performing European nation in PISA scores. Estonia focuses heavily on digital literacy (teaching coding from a young age) and maintains incredibly high equity, meaning a student’s socioeconomic background has very little impact on their academic success.
Parents will need to step up and not rely on government or even private education to ensure their children’s success. It’s the Information Age. Public libraries are free/taxpayer funded. There are no excuses left. When you decided to have kids, you signed an unwritten contract to make sure they were prepared for the tough world.
Do the Simple Math on Immigration and Cost of Living
Cost of living is crushing the middle class. A massive part of that equation ties directly to immigration policy involving both legal and illegal entry. This involves simple math. When you dump thousands of new people into a given location, you subtract housing, healthcare and public resources from the residents already living in that location. We must stabilize local populations to bring living costs back to reality. Over the years, what used to be an American issue (immigration enforcement) became a divisive issue. Just look at Democratic President Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union Address as an example. It’s time to use logic and reason to address these COL and crime issues.
Rebuild Decaying Infrastructure
Our foundation is literally crumbling beneath our tires. The Baltimore County Department of Public Works (DPW) and state transportation officials must make physical infrastructure their absolute highest priority. We need aggressive overhauls of our aging bridges, cracked roads and failing underground sewer systems before catastrophic failures force our hand.
Push Trades and Workforce Development
Baltimore County Council members and local politicians need to get off their asses and actively drive workforce development on a weekly basis. We need aggressive promotion of trades education, job postings and affordable post-high school vocational training. Give young people the practical skills required to earn money immediately without shackling them to decades of useless college debt. Yeah…I said it and it needs to be said a lot more often. If a college presidents are offended by my remarks, they are welcome to come on the Baltimore Informer Podcast.
Treat Crime and Mental Health with Realism
When you fix workforce development, education and cost of living, standard economic crime rates drop naturally. For the remaining violent element driven by psychological crisis, we must handle mental health with serious medical intervention. We need to look outside the domestic box and adopt proven European mental health treatment frameworks instead of cycling disturbed individuals through county jails.
The dirty little not so secret? Crime prevention starts by taking public school discipline seriously.
Arm Citizens with Financial Literacy
Financial literacy remains the ultimate weapon against personal poverty. This issue was a central platform when I ran for political office and I’m still doing my part on the ground. I’m currently writing a secret book on the subject that will hit the streets before the end of summer. Stay tuned for the announcement once it’s available for sale.
Kill Out-of-State Campaign Cash
Elections need to be fair, transparent and free from corporate hijacking. Working-class candidates without personal fortunes/connections to rich donors deserve a fair shake in local media coverage instead of getting blacklisted as “unviable” by legacy newsrooms.
Look at this past election right here in Baltimore County. Too much out-of-state money flooded our local ballot races. You can thank the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling for that disaster. That landmark decision opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate and PAC dark money to buy local elections. Why should candidates who receive tons of out of state money be featured front and center in big media?
There’s nothing we can legally do to stop that cash flow except expose it through independent media outlets and demand that voters share the truth. My number one question remains: why the f*ck do people in New York give a sh*t about what is going on in Baltimore County? I’ve asked the PACs who interfered in our local elections repeatedly via e-mail and these out-of-state bankrollers refuse to answer my simple questions.
The Belt-Tightening Future
I maintain a positive outlook for the USA. We have been stuck in an economic doldrum since the 2007-2008 bank bailout era and the 2009 recession. But this country can get back on track. We have massive national belt tightening ahead and a massive amount of hard work to finish, but I hold high hopes for the future of the United States of America.
Happy Birthday America!
