Skip to main content

Mood Indigo

A former choir director had a wry expression which has stuck with me to this day. When faced with in-house 'political' drama and uncharitable behavior in the workplace, which for him was the church, he would smile and say, "See how we Christians love one another."

His expression came to mind when I read this article from the Baltimore Sun this morning about the political race for the House of Delegates in District 9B. It appears to say that the Democratic Central Committee went out to get a "real" Democrat to run because the other candidate, Tom Coale, isn't "Democrat" enough for them.

I find that kind of disgusting.

I make no secret of the fact that I am a friend of Tom's, and this blog is a friend of his blog, if there is such a thing. But my rather visceral response to this isn't about that. It is about how I feel about being a Democrat, and how I feel about political discourse, generally.

Haven't you had discussions where you wished that the other person could completely hear you out, understand, and change their point of view? How often does that happen in real life? It is pretty rare, especially when it comes to politics. So, here we have someone who listened, who thought, who evolved. And changed.

And he's not Blue enough? Sheesh! Isn't having an intelligent, hard-working, committed, thoughtful person coming over to your side enough? This is right up there with older Pioneers refusing to yield power to anyone who hasn't been here long enough to be a "real Columbian". It's small-minded, and short-sighted, to boot.

You can tell a lot about an institution by how they treat their converts. I don't like what this is telling me. And I am a life-long Democrat, a died-in-the-wool Liberal. I don't know anything about the other candidate, but I truly wish someone in that camp would have one of those, "Duh! I could've had a V-8" moments and join forces to support Tom Coale's campaign.

At the heart of what I believe about the Democratic party is that it is NOT the party of small-mindedness. That is what I want to see, and that is what I will support, with my words, my time, and my funds.

How about you?

 

hocoblogs@@@

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more