Skip to main content

Women Worth Knowing


The other day I featured a photograph which was taken at a kickoff event of the Howard County Historical Society’s “Year of the Howard County Woman.” Here’s more about that.



 I must admit that I was wondering what put them in mind of making this particular year “the year of the Howard County Woman.” Thank goodness it’s right there in the promotional piece above:

...to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote.

Ahem. Not all women. That should read, “giving white women the right to vote.”

I’m looking forward to seeing who they have chosen to feature and learning more about women who have shaped Howard County. You can learn more about the Historical Society and what they are up to at their website.

Their upcoming membership meeting will feature former Howard County Executive Liz Bobo, who will speak on “Reflections from the 1st woman elected as County Executive in Maryland.”

 

You can see from the notice above that there will be a potluck luncheon.  Here is where I am going to give a bit of completely unsolicited advice. If this is truly “The Year if the Howard County Woman” then the men should be bringing the covered dishes. And doing the serving, and cleaning up. 

Does that seem like an awful lot to ask? I don’t see why. Women in Howard County (and everywhere else) have been doing it for generations and no one thought it strange. 

Happy “Year of the Woman”, Howard County.



Comments

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...

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...

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...