Voices or Tunnels?

The best show in wintry Annapolis is not usually at the taverns, colleges, or even the Ram’s Head. Instead, many a day it is the voices outside the State House in the area know as "Lawyer’s Mall."

Generally speaking, the Assembly goes into session Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 a.m., Fridays at 11:00 a.m. and Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. Members walk from their offices on Rowe Boulevard, through Lawyer’s Mall and up the State House steps.

Regulars call this walk "the gauntlet." Lobbyists and special interest members string themselves out along the Mall to catch up with a Delegate or Senator on a quick matter, or to say hello, or to seek support on a bill. The conversations are filled with the language of the legislation. Words like "Amendments," "Second Reader," and references to bill numbers, "JPR" and "ECM" tumble out in a torrent. These conversations continue up the steps, into the State House halls, and only end when the members escape into the House or Senate Chambers.

This carnival is often augmented by public supporters and protesters. On Wednesday March 9, the House took up same sex marriage legislation (SB 116). The Senate debated in-state tuition rates for illegal/undocumented (pick your term) aliens (SB 167). The street was a cacophony of sound; ardent pleas mixed with anger, name calling, scorn, or in isolated incidents, support.

These supporters and protesters waited on Lawyer’s Mall to greet/condemn, encourage/ discourage, attack/defend their progressive/conservative, liberal/Neanderthal friends/enemies/ supporters (again pick your favorites) with bullhorns, signs, and shouts as members walk to the State House.

It didn’t end there. On the agenda is a bill raising gas taxes, and protesters against that bill also assembled, augmenting last week’s show when tractor trailer drivers drove their rigs through town in opposition to that bill. If you were a legislator, your ears and your eyes were under assault.

Say what you will about the legislative process, but in Maryland real citizens have real input every morning. Your Delegate or Senator is right there, hearing your voice even if not always embracing the message. It is an extraordinary show.

Why so extraordinary? Because what most visitors don’t know is that there is a tunnel under Lawyer’s Mall connecting Delegates and Senators offices directly to the State House. The members do not have to walk through the Mall’s angry crowd or pleading lobbyists. They can go under it in total peace.

Voices or tunnels? Despite it all, they continue to choose the voices.