In the four-year silence between elections for the Maryland General Assembly, could any of us identify our own three state delegates or our one state senator? If this were the million-dollar question on a game show, I?d lose.
When brochures to start trickle into my mailbox and signs appear on my street, I cheat and peek at my voter?s card wrapped in a plastic cover. I?m still confused ? District 11 for the House of Delegates and District 42 for state Senate. What?s the difference?
My representatives hang together and know what they?ve accomplished in four years. They?ll tell me soon in their pamphlets. The long-ago promises of good legislation on our behalf all run together in my head like a watercolor landscape left out in a rainstorm.
Last February, I received a surprise letter from my delegate, Bobby Zirkin, who wished me a happy 65th birthday and offered his assistance. Reading between the lines, did he mean ? “my condolences, welcome to the messy world of Medicare”? I don?t indulge myself. But many of my good friends, all strong women, would rush out for a Botox treatment if their delegate knew their age.
Now, just when I?m reminded of who he is, Zirkin is vacating his seat to run for state senate, District 11. So there?s one seat of the three up for grabs. I looked online, expecting a couple of hopefuls. Not counting the two incumbents, Jon Cardin and Dan Morhaim, 14 challengers vie for Zirkin?s third seat: 11 Democrats, two Republicans and one Green candidate. No other district in Maryland boasts 14 candidates for one seat.
I scanned the list hoping to recognize a name. I did ? Dana Stein, Democrat.
Was this the same Dana Stein, who since 1991 has pushed me, my offspring and about 25,000 other volunteers out of our complacency, insisting that we work in partnership with close to 250 outside agencies in Civic Works? projects which shape our own communal destiny?
Dana Stein?s background impresses: raised in Baltimore County, then Harvard, Columbia Law School and a Masters from Princeton. He joined a prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, but anti-trust, banking and international trade, “? just wasn?t fulfilling enough. I had to do something that benefited people and communities more directly,” he said.
He left the firm in 1991 to found Civic Works, a nationally recognized nonprofit “urban Peace Corps” that transforms the lives of young adults ages 17 through 25 with community service. Participants rehab homes, build parks and gardens, tutor and mentor students and teach disaster preparedness.
At the heart of Stein?s candidacy is a plan to expand the Civic Works concept and create a “Community Corps” across the state. The corps would employ few and would enlist an army of volunteers. His vision includes encouraging citizens to volunteer with schools, public safety and health agencies. Residents would commit to volunteering a certain number of hours in return for an education award, good for 10 years. The award could be transferred to a family member to offset the rising cost of college. My favorite is a proposed program that allows seniors, with volunteer help, to remain independent and “age gracefully in place.”
The symbol of his platform on the brochure is an oversized wrench. If he?s elected, over four years you will remember Dana Stein. He will be at your house with his oversized wrench getting you involved.
Stephanie Esworthy was director of Media and Public Relations and the Baltimore City Film Commission for former Mayors William Donald Schaefer and the late Clarence “Du” Burns and served as head of Baltimore City?s Bureau of Music in every city administration since Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin. Her personal experiences in local politics started in the early 1950s as the daughter of state?s attorney and chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Anselm Sodaro, now deceased. She can be reached at [email protected].
