Foreign Service Day
As I write these words, 16,000 active-duty members of the U.S. Foreign Service are serving our country around the world. America’s diplomats and staff professionals help prevent the spread of conflict, open markets for U.S. business, assist Americans abroad, negotiate agreements to protect and promote American interests, report on threats to the U.S. homeland and work alongside our military colleagues on a wide range of missions, from stabilizing Iraq to earthquake relief in Haiti.
Very few of my fellow citizens realize how challenging and important the work of the Foreign Service is to our nation. I should know. I served 39 years with the State Department, including Seven tours in Eastern and Western Europe, two tours in Asia and one in Africa. As the former deputy assistant secretary for overseas citizens services, I directed an annual caseload of thousands of American citizens falling in four categories: dead, destitute, detained or disappeared.
Most people are unaware that in 1996 the U.S. Senate designated the first Friday in May as American Foreign Service Day. On this day, members of the Foreign Service at home and abroad come together to recognize and celebrate the thousands of people who commit their lives to serving the U.S. abroad and the impact their work has on all of us.
Maryland is home to 5,500 active-duty and retired Foreign Service members and their families. I hope that America’s diplomats, and the important work they do, will be in the minds of my neighbors today. And I would hope that my fellow countrymen and women take this time to get to know the Foreign Service, to learn about what we do, and realize the indispensable role that these patriots play in protecting and serving America’s people, interests and values.
VERNON D. PENNER
Annapolis
Editor’s note: The writer is a former ambassador to Cape Verde.
Use of jail
All residents of this county have the right and obligation to ask questions and receive honest answers regarding Steve Schuh’s 287(g) plan application, under which the Ordnance Road detention facility will be used to hold undocumented immigrants until deportation or a hearing.
The average stay would be three months. The very idea of earning revenue by detaining people who have done nothing more than be here without a current visa is disgusting.
Before Mr. Schuh signs any agreement with the federal government, we deserve to know:
*Who will be trained? Police officers? Detention officers? Do they volunteer for the training or just assigned? Do we know if they are psychologically suited to this type of work?
*Who does the training? Where? Who pays it?
*Will they carry weapons?
*Will the trainees wear Immigration and Customs Enforcement jackets? Or their usual uniforms? Will this erode trust on the part of the immigrant population toward the police?
*Where would they pick up the immigrants? From traffic stops or by stopping people on the street? Do they have addresses for the undocumented?
*What legal liabilities are there for the county?
*Will they separate mothers from their children? And, if so, will the children be left alone? Who will provide for the children if there is no other parent?
*Will they take away fathers who work to support their families? What happens to the family then? Will the county need to then provide support?
There are many more questions to be asked of Steve Schuh before the county signs any agreement. But for now, the big question is whether he will answer them.
RACHAEL LEMBERG
Annapolis
Cartoon
To say the political cartoons that are posted on your editorial page are partisan and one-sided would be a gross understatement, but the one published on Sunday, April 9, really goes over the line.
The image of our president is purposely grotesque and insulting. Something similar posted during the past administration would have appropriately been condemned as racist. Alas, President Donald Trump is white, and so is fair game for such ridicule.
Aside from that, it wasn’t the least bit humorous.
ARTHUR MENSCH
West River
