Skip to main content

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

Take a look at the photos from Saturday's rally for the old (Cy Paumier) Symphony Woods park plan. As the old controlled vocabulary readers would say,

Look, look, look!

See, see, see!

Are you ready? Who do you see? No, really. This is a test. Look at the pictures. I'll wait.

*****

These photographs are shocking in their complete absence of generational diversity. To give you an idea of what I mean, I'm going to run down a list of the kind of people I know and hang out with in Columbia:

  • Kids under the age of five.
  • Elementary aged kids.
  • Middle school kids.
  • (We don't socialize with many high schoolers, but my husband teaches them daily. Same with college-age kids, the ones we know are primarily my husband's former students.)
  • Twenty-somethings making their start in Columbia.
  • Folks in their thirties and forties: parents, bloggers, community activitists, school volunteers, some getting involved in politics.
  • Folks in their fifties--more of the same but perhaps less school stuff and more politics.
  • Active, involved sixty and seventy/somethings who love Columbia and are excited about its future.

These are my friends. These people are Columbia. And NONE of them are in the picture. What kind of a plan for the future of Symphony Woods doesn't include them and doesn't care?

If you care, speak up. One narrow slice of the community wants to take away the voice of diversity that the People Tree was meant to represent. If you don't speak up, you are giving your voice away.

Vote in your Village Election, and vote for the candidate who advocates for all generations in Columbia.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
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

What Kids Are Thinking

  It’s a Monday in February, and if you guessed that a lot of Howard County students have the new cell phone policy on their minds, you’d be right. It will mean big changes and it will be stressful, no matter how much good we hope it will do in the long run. But on this particular Monday cell phones might not be top of mind, as amazing as that seems. Some kids will go to school wondering if they or family members will be seized by ICE. Some will fear that their parents’ employment will be purged by the ongoing rampage of Elon Musk and his cronies through Federal Government. Some fear heightened and renewed racism as programs that supprted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are vilified and destroyed.  Some worry that it soon won’t be safe for them to use the bathroom in school anymore. It goes without saying that some kids fear going to school every day because of the prevalence of school shootings.  And look! Here’s something new to fear. That old hate group, Libs of TikTo...
1 comment
Read more