Village Green/Town²

It’s going to rain today. Local weather reports suggest there may be flooding. For most of us, the thought of heavy rain and possible flooding makes us wince. Please protect Old Ellicott City. Flooding has become personal for us in Howard County, most especially for those in Ellicott City who have seen livelihoods washed away and mourned loss of life in rushing floodwaters. Many of us care about Main Street in a general way; they have lived the horror we can only imagine. Please protect Old Ellicott City Plans to make devastating flooding less likely have moved forward under current County Leadership. While it may be going as quickly as could be expected, I know it isn’t fast enough for those who live and work in the heart of areas at risk. I know there are strong differences of opinion on the best approach. Please protect Old Ellicott City . We live in such a technologically advanced culture that it feels quite the opposite to live daily with a fear of a natural catastr...

A teenager from Howard High School posted racist content on social media. The response from other teens was swift: to call her out, to shine a light on her racist behavior. The principal of  Howard High School has issued the usual statement. Here we go again. All those folks out there who claim there’s no racism in Columbia/HoCo, have you talked to your kids lately? Because they might be able to tell you a few things. Sure, it’s hard to be a teenager under a life-changing quarantine situation but that wouldn’t expose something that wasn’t there before. It was there. I have absolutely no preaching in me this morning. None. I’m heart sick by the everyday, “everybody knows it” kind of racism in our community, combined with the angry, self-righteous denial that anything is wrong. One of the teens who responded on Twitter asked why they were going to “ruin a girl’s life for something everybody says anyway.” She doesn’t really know why it’s wrong. She wouldn’t have made a ra...

One year ago came the first local glimpse of the kinetic sculpture we know now to be Azlon. Here is the photo shared briefly on Columbia Patch before it abruptly disappeared. (I still don’t know the backstory on that.) Of course, now this “towering kinetic sculpture” has been installed as an artistic centerpiece to Howard Hughes Merriweather District area of downtown development. Here is what I know: It’s big. It moves. It squeaks. I’ve never seen it. That’s right. I’ve never figured out how to get over there. And I have had no particular reason to be “in that part of town.” Now, of course, I’m not going anywhere. But I’ve been thinking about it nonetheless. One of the things I have been told over the years in my quest to understand Columbia history is that Rouse’s original plans were derailed by a recession in the mid-1970’s. Some things never got finished. Think of the area called the Crescent where the new Merriweather District is forming. It was always meant to be...

What is the difference between me and my family and the hundreds of people who come out six days a week to gratefully receive food and other needed supplies from the sites operated by Columbia Community Care? As time goes by I have been thinking about this a lot. Of course, first and foremost comes White Privilege, which has guaranteed that generations of my family, leading up to me, could get decent jobs, a good education, buy houses in safe neighborhoods, and have enough to leave a little for their children. I didn’t get here by myself. Next, my husband and I have jobs that allow us some stability. We are not “wealthy” by any stretch of the imagination. And yet, at least for now, we continue to be able to work from home and get paid. In this regard, we might as well be wealthy in comparison to so many of our Columbia/HoCo neighbors. We live in a house we can afford to live in, and we have jobs that pay enough for the basics and a few extras. It is a very small house and we a...

We’re going to do a bit of this and that today, friends. It’s just that kind of day. If you live in Harpers Choice I am so jealous that you got to have online voting in your Village election. When can we get that Columbia-wide? And yet, Harpers Choice residents didn’t reach a quorum in their election so voting has been extended until May 12th. Do you live in Harpers Choice? Do you know someone who does? Tell them to VOTE! Ahem. I can’t believe that I failed to mention our beloved library system during National Library Week. What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking that I have a big post in the works about local institutions supporting the community during Covid-19, so I’d get there eventually. Oops. Sorry I missed your big week, Howard County Library! (And look for something on the blog, soon.) One last thing. I’m listening to the interview on Elevate Maryland with School Superintendent Martirano and he touched on something that’s of personal concern to me. In discussing th...

I’ve been doing a bit of world travel this week courtesy of a new group on Facebook called  View From My Window.  It is just as it sounds: photographs from around the country and around the world of what can be seen from the windows of our companions-in-quarantine. Many of the views are picturesque, but some are quite ordinary. There are beautiful vistas, suburban landscapes, city buildings crowded together. The message, as basic as a Disney musical: we are all in this together. We may not eat the same food or speak the same language but we are committed to staying home and slowing the spread of an illness which is ravaging our neighbors, both near and far. It’s an odd concept, which we don’t talk about enough in the US, that everyone in the world is our neighbor. It has become popular in some circles to focus only on what “makes America great” and the rest be damned. I find this to be at odds with many of the world’s great religions that, for example, preach love of n...

Things I am good for this morning:  bringing my husband coffee. Things I am not good for this morning: writing. I tanked up on caffeine yesterday afternoon to make it through a two hour Zoom professional development course and then I couldn’t sleep. When I finally did get to sleep, I had teaching nightmares about a job I left when my younger daughter was two. She’s now in college. Some jobs just stick with you. If you live in Oakland Mills, your ballot for this year’s Village Election must be postmarked by today.  Harpers Choice has an online voting process that must be completed by April 24th. And Long Reach requires mail in ballots to be received by April 24th, so you may have missed the boat there. In my relatively sleepless state this morning it was far easier to find this information at The Merriweather Post blog than at the Columbia Association website. Here’s the deal: if you can vote in your Village election, do it. I refer you to last year’s most excellen...

Two minutes. Two minutes that made me uncomfortable.Stuck in my brain since February 29th. Episode 88 of the Elevate Maryland podcast, beginning at around eight minutes, thirty seconds in. Co-host Tom Coale takes a stab at the dynamics of the upcoming Board of Education race. It begins, “...and here’s the context that I’m thinking about: the Howard County Board of Education race.” It concludes, “....they’re going to eat that lunch; it’s going to be served to them” at ten minutes thirty seconds. It’s two minutes. Episode 88 Elevate Maryland   (8:30 - 10:30) The gist of what is said is this: while local Democrats are reticent to act, the Republican Party is actively supporting candidates for the Board of Education. When I first heard this segment this it troubled me. There’s an edge to Coale’s voice that could be anger or frustration. And, to be honest, I’m very likely the sort of person that he is angry or frustrated with. I sincerely want the Board of Education ra...

Yesterday Twitter directed me to a thread of things people have been saying since the start of the Covid-19 quarantine. The only one I can remember at the moment went something like this: If you’re going to eat lo mein on a Zoom call, at least mute yourself. There’s something I’ve been hearing a lot of lately amongst the locals, and it’s something I don’t  think many were expecting to ever say: I didn’t vote for Governor Hogan, but... I don't usually agree with the Governor, but... I voted against Hogan both times, but... ...he’s doing a good job in this crisis. ...I’m grateful for his leadership right now. ...I think he’s making responsible choices to protect Marylanders. Truth in advertising: I am one of those people. I think we are incredibly fortunate to have a governor  who takes this medical crisis seriously when, in other states, the response has been wholly inadequate. Yesterday the announcement of a deal to bring 500,000 testing kits to the state was...

Local liquor stores are pushing out delivery after delivery each day. Restaurants are now permitted to sell you drinks with your dinner. Jokes appear online about the perfect quarantine cocktail, or at what time each day it is appropriate for Mom to switch from coffee to wine. How about you? Are you quarantining with or without? For me, it’s without. I don’t drink at home. It’s a “going out”, special occasion thing. I don’t judge anyone else, and some of those creative libations look mighty good, really. But it’s just not my thing. The sale of liquor generates tax money for the state, which must be helpful in a time like this. And, for restaurants, the ability to sell alcohol for pickup/delivery is a lifeline, because that is where most of the money is made. On the drinks. It almost feels as though one is supporting the community by drinking. And yet. Drinking alcohol isn’t for everyone. And the prettiness of fancy drinks and artfully designed bottles by local distillers ...

Once upon a time I wrote a little piece about how the social media team of Maryland State Comptroller had a habit of wandering a little bit too far over the line when responding to those who disagreed with them. Smackdown Yesterday, one of the members of that team, the Comptroller’s Chief of Staff Len Foxwell, experienced a smackdown of his own. A statement he made using his own personal social media account about anti-quarantine protestors made a far bigger splash than I am guessing he had intended. Now Republicans around the state are calling for his dismissal. His boss Peter Franchot felt concerned enough about the situation to address it on Facebook last night. The Comptroller expressed support for Mr. Foxwell in his position of Chief of Staff, labeled his online comments as satirical, and reminded readers that those remarks were posted on a personal social media account, not an official one. If you want to read screenshots of what has caused this firestorm, or how peopl...

This morning feels like the time for a light hearted post. There’s a kind of rise and fall to the posts I write. I try to vary them. Too much of one thing can be off-putting. Heavy hitting issues day after day become a burden. So I follow an inner sense of the flow of topics. There should be a feeling of balance over the long haul. Well, we are all experiencing a very long haul together but today I’m feeling a decided lack of balance. In scanning the news for a good local story I found word that there are Marylanders who actually think that congregating in Annapolis to protest the quarantine and social distancing is a good idea. Please come to this protest in Annapolis Saturday. Remember to leave your facemask home and do NOT practice #SocialDistanacing Remember you are making a point... #Covid_19 #ThiningTheHerd (sic) This is not a light hearted story. It is not a feel good story. It is jam packed with ignorance, selfishness, and downright stupidity. When one is dealing with...

A brief note to Howard County parents who enjoy virtual choir postings on the internet: Don’t ask our HCPSS teachers to make any. These requests, pretty much nationwide and who knows how far beyond, are the bane of music teachers everywhere. Let me tell you why. Rehearsing a musical ensemble in one location is an interactive learning event. Each musician is responsible not only for playing their part, but paying attention to the director, and playing with their fellow musicians. Musicality is not merely playing the notes on a page. It is a collaborative endeavor. A live rehearsal is not possible using Zoom or other similar platforms. If you don’t believe me, trying singing Happy Birthday with your online group of choice. It does not sync up. As a musician I find this maddening. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try if you are having a purely social gathering. Singing is a deeply human way of communicating. But a true musical rehearsal or concert coming from many individual ...

When the national conversation began to turn to the advisability of wearing masks in public in order to halt the spread of the Covid-19 virus, it wasn’t greeted with enthusiasm by everyone.  Black men fear homemade coronavirus masks could exacerbate racial profiling     - - NBC News For Black Men, Fear That Masks Will Invite Racial Profiling   - - New York Times  Yesterday Governor Hogan announced that he is ordering masks to be worn in public places such as retail stores and public transit, along with other requirements to support social distancing and heightened sanitary practices in places of business. From eveything that we know about spread of the virus, this is a sound decision. From everything we know about institutionalized racism in this country, it will also have unintended consequences. On April 4th, at the LA Mart in Oakland Mills, a Muslim man was (allegedly) tasered and restrained by a security guard because he would not ...

Early on in my stay at home quarantine existence I realized how lucky I was compared to others in our community. I didn’t have to work, I had a little money in the bank, and I had a safe place to live and a secure family unit to “hunker down” with. At that point I decided that I would give a little bit of money each day to causes focused on helping others through this crisis. One of those causes is Columbia Community Care . Founded by Wilde Lake High School teacher Erika Strauss Chavarria, the group sprang up almost immediately with a goal to support vulnerable families by providing food and other essential supplies in conjunction with the Howard County Schools Grab & Go meal sites. What started with Ms. Chavarria’s ideas and determination has grown into an ever-growing team of volunteers who do everything from donating groceries, ordering from the group's Amazon Wish List , working the tables at school sites to assist families, doing porch pick ups of other people's...

My thanks to the faithful reader who responded at length to yesterday’s post about why we elect judges. If the rest of you are still working on your answers, that’s fine; I won’t take off any points for lateness. I happened upon an online discussion yesterday about voting by mail, in particular, the Special Election in District 7 to fill the seat held by the late Elijah Cummings. As I watched the familiar arguments unfold, I had an unusual epiphany. It seems to me that the two dominant political parties start at the same place when it comes to voting but where each goes from there is indicative of their respective world views. The statement might begin: Voting is so important that.... And one party finishes it like this: we must put in place careful restrictions in order to make sure that none of the unqualified and no bad actors can sully this important process. The other party:... we must do whatever we can to remove barriers so that all citizens may participate in this ...

Good morning, Columbia/HoCo! I slept in this morning on account of the rainy weather. Perhaps I need to start setting my alarm again. I’ll make this brief. I have a question today: why do we elect judges? I find it odd. Then again, I still don’t really comprehend why we elect the Howard County Sheriff, either. I’m not looking for testimonials from candidates here. I’m hoping that some of my politically savvy readers will come out of the woodwork and explain this. Perhaps you are a student of judicial history. Fill me in. Is electing judges, rather than appointing them, the best way to go? What should citizens look for in a judicial candidate? What makes for an informed voter? Since I have all this extra time on my hands, I might as well use it to educate myself.

Children across the state of Maryland must have been thrilled on Friday at the news the Governor Hogan had declared the Easter Bunny an essential worker, just in time for the ‘legendary’ hare’s hoppy weekend activities. I had a similar thrill on Friday when I learned to true identity of the Easter Bunny. It turns out she goes to my church. Of course, I had long suspected this was the case but couldn’t be sure. Every year this mild-mannered parishioner creates an extraordinary Easter Egg Hunt for all the children of our church. When the bigger kids ran roughshod over the little ones, she created two separate Easter Egg Hunts to level the playing field. If she saw anyone was disappointed in their haul, she took note to make things even better the next year. Of course the Easter Bunny doesn’t put her feet up all the other days of the year. You always suspected there was more to the story, right? How could anyone with such a giving spirit work only one or two days out of the...

I’ve already posted this on my personal social media accounts but it bears repeating: You’re not a teacher. You’re not an administrator. You have no idea how a school system of almost 59,000 students operates. But somehow you are an expert at knowing what a transition to distance learning looks like for students from k-12, some in poverty, some who don’t speak English, and special needs students. All this during an ongoing international pandemic!!! You think you are an expert because you have this deep-seated feeling that people like you are not getting good service. That you’re not getting your money’s worth.  You are breaking my heart, Howard County. Some folks out there are having a hard time understanding what their responsibilities are during a time of crisis. And I’m not talking about mask-wearing and social distancing. I’m talking about what it means to be a parent when your community is weighed down by the effects of a quickly spreading and lethal virus. I can’t ...

Who sustains my existence right now? The people who work to keep the grocery and drug store running. The people who make sure food and medicine get to the stores. The people working a skeleton crew at restaurants to provide carry-out options. The people who make home deliveries of all sorts. The people who pull the orders at the stores or in warehouses. The people who deliver mail for the US Postal Service. The people who collect trash, recycling, and yard waste. The people who process those materials once they are collected. The people, the people, the people. The people whose jobs in many cases do not pay a living wage. The people who struggle to make ends meet in Howard County because housing costs are exhorbitant and residents fight the kind of housing density that would make it more affordable. During the pandemic the work of these people has been identified as essential. It’s too bad we have not recognized that before now. My social media feeds are full of t...

In Monday’s post I took a look at the timeline of local LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations. Today I’ll focus on CARY and their BOE Candidate Survey.   Since CARY was founded specifically to address the needs of LGBTQ+ students, it makes sense that they would place a high value on finding out the knowledge and commitment of potential board members on issues that directly impact those students. I invite you to read all of the responses , or, at the very least, the ones that apply to the candidates you will be choosing from. I’ll be blunt here. Issues that impact LGBTQ+ students are life and death issues . Bullying, the experience of minority stress in school situations, and elevated risk for homelessness due to parental rejection all contribute to an increased risk for suicide. Incidents of suicide and attempted suicide for Transgender students are linked with whether or not young people are supported by the use of their correct name and pronouns. Numerous scientific studies bear ...

On Saturday a local organization called CARY (Community Allies of Rainbow Youth) released responses to a set of questions they had posed to candidates for the Board of Education. The reaction from the public has been, shall we say, varied. In addition, many people aren’t familiar with the group itself. Before I write about the BOE Survey I want to address what CARY is and where it comes from: a genealogy of sorts. In the beginning there was PFLAG , whose roots trace back to 1972 and whose first meeting was held in 1973. From their website: In the next years, through word of mouth and community need, similar groups sprang up around the country, offering "safe havens" and mutual support for parents with gay and lesbian children.  In Howard County, the first meetings of a group with similar goals were held in 1995. The resultant group became a local chapter of the national PFLAG organization:   PFLAG Howard County.  Here is the PFLAG Columbia-Howard County Mission ...

I’ve been thinking a lot about the times when then-Council Member and now County Executive Calvin Ball took flak for addressing ways that the current president of the United States could impact our lives here in Howard County. He got a lot of the “stay in your lane” criticism, along with suggestions that his concerns were nothing more than political grandstanding. It’s pretty clear to me that everything coming out of the White House daily has a direct connection to Dr. Ball’s ability to do his job protecting and supporting the people of Howard County. We can see how that’s an issue not just for the County Executive but also for the Governor Of the State of Maryland. When citizens don’t believe there is a serious health crisis, their subsequent behavior is a risk to themselves and others, and puts an unnecessary strain on an overworked healthcare system. When hospitals can’t get the medical supplies they need to provide adequate care, people die. I don’t know how anyone could lo...

I see you, budding gourmets. I see your photographs of spectacular yeast breads, succulent slow-cooked masterpieces. I don’t know how you happened to enter quarantine with a supply of marinated figs or phyllo pastry.  I felt fortunate that our quarantine found us with with adequate supplies of ketchup and Ranch. I don’t judge you. But neither can I emulate you. I have found myself applying the kind of weird creativity to my cooking that was common when I was young and broke: things like adding that last sliced up hot dog to a bowl of ramen noodles. I counted myself quite the chef when I mixed one container of McDonald’s honey mustard with one packet of hot mustard leftover from Chinese takeout. Perfect with chicken tenders or as a dip for hard pretzels! Last night a friend posted that the leftover bits at the bottom of a bag of kale chips make a great topping for pizza. Another friend is refilling her soy sauce bottle with her stash of soy sauce packets. None of us is down...