Editor’s Letter James

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Interestingly, we also planned the feature article “Financial Spring Cleaning for 2020” into this issue, which is chock-full of advice from fiduciaries and tax professionals about investment strategy and tax law, with an eye on the future. I think you’ll find reassuring words to help weather what’s probably the beginning of a bear market.

s I type this letter, I’m receiving update after update about COVID-19’s effect on our communities. All schools just announced a two-week closure; major events have postponed or cancelled altogether; my beloved Washington Capitals and

the NHL have suspended games indefinitely; ditto for the NBA, MLB, and NCAA, among other sports leagues. The list grows hourly.

If you’re reading this, then certainly the worldwide pandemic and local situation have evolved. I sure as heck hope for the better.

So, as we entered our final week of production on this April issue, we knew that our approval of files and the content within would include dated information. Do we pull the plug? Of course not. We move forward. We adjust and adapt. We’re human. And we hope you understand that as a monthly publication, we can’t control every evolution of every detail that we cover—especially event-related and date-specific intel. We did decide to remove all pages of event-related content because most, if not all, local events in the month of April have been postponed or cancelled. If you’re yearning for anything sports, we did happen to catch up with Caps alum and NHL Hall of Famer Rod Langway, who reflects on his playing days and the team’s recent Stanley Cup championship. A fun read in lieu of live games. Our Year of the Woman celebration continues with an in-depth look at the suffrage movement’s sometimes fractured approach to political action 100 years ago. I think the lesson is that there’s no singular, one right way of doing things—it ultimately took a village to make progress. Health-wise and somewhat coincidentally, writer Kelsey Casselbury delivers a feature article, “A Battle with P.A.N.D.A.S.” about a bacterial infection and subsequent condition that’s every bit as scary (more so?) as the viral COVID-19. On this article’s heels is our first installment of 2020’s “Best Of” series, beginning with the Best of Medical, Dental, and Veterinary winners as chosen by you, our readership.

And what would be April without the year’s most recognized environmental event, Earth Day? As the spring season, well, springs up and greens our gardens and landscaping all around, we acknowledge Earth Day’s 50th anniversary with writer Frederick Schultz’s enlightening article “Interpreting Our Carbon Footprint Today.” It’s a read that will leave you thinking twice about your individual environmental imprint. The health of our planet is every bit as important as your own health and wellness. And if you think otherwise, then perhaps you didn’t notice a winter without snow or hear about a worldwide pandemic. Something is afoot…Mother Earth is saying something. What that is…is becoming increasingly apparent.

L I V E O N , B U T L I V E R E S P O N S I B L Y .

What we can control are the overarching messages and storylines that we present in our feature articles and many of the columns. Just before our deadline, and by design, we received our economics column written by Anirban Basu— he evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on our worldwide, national, and state economies. Maryland, it seems, just can’t catch a break in the first quarter. For three years running, our state has been hit with slowdown events (weather, Federal shutdown, and now this virus). There are several silver linings though, and Basu reveals them.

James Houck, Editorial Director

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