Village Green/Town²

  I searched “Maryland” on Twitter this morning just for fun, wondering what’s going on outside our immediate bubble. What I found was that there are a whole lot of people out there who care about UMD football. Yesterday’s game truly dominates the feed. Alas, I’m neither a football fan nor particularly knowledgeable on University of Maryland rivalries so there’s no story there for me. I started seeing the first Christmas adverts on television this week.  I’ve been trying to tune them out but yesterday’s drop in temperature softened my resolve a bit. My older daughter has already raised the issue of what we should serve for Thanksgiving dinner. Can Christmas be far behind?  Every year I see a pitch go out to shop small and shop local for the holidays. This year seems more crucial than any before it, as local establishments are struggling during the pandemic. I have often vowed I would do more local shopping, but then the demands of work plus home overcame my good intention...

  In every large group there exists a smaller core of those who are intensely committed and active. It could be at your place of worship, the school PTA, your neighborhood association. Sometimes they are motivated by pure devotion, sometimes one sees hints of desire for acclaim or a need for control. At any rate, we all know the phenomenon. I once went to a small church where the same seven or so people did everything. They lamented the fact that other people didn’t step up. On the other hand,they were fiercely invested in being “in charge”. Over the last few days I’ve been reading about happenings at the Wilde Lake High School polling place. It occurs to me that if you are in the inner circle of Columbia/HoCo’s political world, you may have been opining about this nonstop. You’ve read and discussed every nuance on social media. If you aren’t, it could be completely invisible to you. In short: one candidate’s signs were vandalized. Also, the behavior of a person electioneering was ...

  Oh how the mighty have fallen. The New York Times is running an online quiz that asks, “Can you tell a ‘Trump’ fridge from a ‘Biden’ fridge?”  Oh, brother. Truth in advertising: I have not read much of the accompanying article nor participated in the quiz. I have read responses on Twitter, from people who have, saying that the quiz essentially reinforces the stereotypes they had already. Great. We definitely needed more of that. As this is a local blog, I wondered if there could be a local version of this quiz, as ridiculous as I think it is. So far, this is what I have come up with: Interesting things to note about what’s in the refrigerators of people in Columbia/HoCo: Grocery store affiliation: Whole Foods? Food Lion? Foods made by local businesses like Neat Nicks, From Momma’s Kitchen, Althea’s Almost Famous, Farm Boy Pickles, etc. Foods from one of the Howard County Farmers Markets, local purveyors like Jenny’s Market or Breezy Willow, or a CSA. Locally made beer v...

A postscript on yesterday’s story about the earliest of early voters, Armon Wilson. A friend reached out with some addition info: I just thought that I would share that Armon was the student who performed CPR during that car accident last year. Do you remember that story? It was an elementary school student. I did remember, vaguely. So I did some digging around. I found this on the Timberlane Facebook page. This kid right here! We are soooo proud of him! Armon is a senior in high school who lives right here in Timberlane!  He is also in the EMT training program sponsored through the school system here in Columbia, MD. The students were on a bus yesterday returning to the school from the training program when an accident occurred a few blocks away from the school, Armon Wilson and Macayla Miles, 2 EMT students on the bus.  A truck hit a young mother and her 6 year old son as they were crossing the street.  The bus driver witnessed the accident, jumped off of the bus with p...

The best thing about yesterday for me was the story of Armon Wilson. We know about him because of the local reporting of Ana Faguy. ( Baltimore Sun/Howard County Times ) Armon Wilson, 19, was first in line to vote at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. He woke up at 4:00am and walked an hour in the sprinkling rain to be in line at 5:15 am.  Photo by Ana Faguy, Baltimore Sun/Howard County Times * It didn’t take long for the folks at Wilde Lake High School to claim Wilson as a 2020 graduate. I don’t blame them for being proud. This young man’s dedication to cast his vote inspired a lot of us in the area. As it turns out, the last person of the day at the WLHS polling site was also a WLHS alum: D’Angelo Jackson, class of 2014.  I looked at this yesterday and felt a sense of communal pride: This is Howard County. On the same day that the story of a civically-minded WLHS graduate made the local news, this post turned up on Instagram. (Shared by @HoCoProgressRpt.) Posted by what loo...

Early voting starts today in Maryland. In Howard County there were already lines before the polls opened. I voted by mail, delivering my ballot to the drop box at the Board of Elections. Whatever your plan is, please vote. I’d like to suggest that, no matter how you do it, you take one important thing into account when you fill out your ballot: don’t vote for dead people. The governor of the State of Maryland made the news recently by announcing to the world that he had written in the name of the late Republican president Ronald Reagan when he voted. This immediately raised two questions: 1. Why would anyone do this? 2. Why would he tell on himself? Choosing a write-in candidate (especially a dead one)  in this election is the choice of someone who believes he has enough privilege that he will be fine either way. There are a whole lot of us out here in Maryland and beyond who don’t have that kind of privilege, and we are not impressed by such a stunt. It occurs to me that Governor ...

It’s darker and darker in the mornings now. This is the time of year when I realize how dependent I am on that morning light to wake up and get going. In the words of the old saying, “my get up and go has got up and went.” Today’s post might best be described as looking for the light.  Ever a local leader on shedding light on things, the Howard County Library is hosting on event tomorrow night to help community members learn more about the new Equity Policy in the Howard County Public Schools. Understand and Engage the New HCPSS Equity Policy   (Register at the link.) Learn about Howard County Public School System’s new  educational equity policy (Policy 1080) and hear a panel of community leaders reflect on the need for more educational equity in Howard County. Explore ways to stay involved with policy implementation and educational equity issues more broadly. Includes time for Q&A.   Click on the link above to see more on who will ...

  Today seems like the perfect time to take another look at a post I wrote in 2013. Yes, really. There’s a New Sheriff in Town  August 23, 2013 It’s about comments. Yesterday I had some visitors to the blog’s Facebook page who were unfamiliar with the rules of the house. In fact, it was pretty clear that they believed that any such boundaries for acceptable behavior did not apply to them.  Professional news sites set a policy for comments. (n.b. - - since this was written, many have eliminated the comment function.) But we, as individual bloggers, have to set our own boundaries. And that is completely appropriate. If you comment on my blog, you are a guest in my house, so you have to obey house rules. In the disclaimer posted on my blog are the following words: I encourage discussion in the comments section but I have no patience for trolling, or really any kind of nastiness.  Over the past year I have been moved, more than once, to remind commenters that they are we...

  Apparently there was some sort of protest at Central Office out on Route 108 yesterday. It seems that some folks are all fired up about the how the school system is handling education during the pandemic.  I took a gander at some of the photos taken at the event. They’re not my photos, so I won’t share them here. Some observations: mask use inconsistent, physical distancing inconsistent. It’s not surprising that we’re having trouble lowering the spread of the coronavirus when I see behavior like this.  But here is what jumps out from these photographs: whiteness. According to the HCPSS website, our student population breaks down as follows: Race/Ethnicity FY19 Asian – 22.7% Black/African American – 24.2% Hispanic/Latino – 12.0% White – 34.5% Other – less than or equal to 5.0% Two or more races – 6.3% Out on Route 108, carrying signs and displaying empty lawn chairs, it was white, 100 %. Well, to be completely accurate, I didn’t see any Asian protesters but they very wel...

Reasons to get off social media and read a book: You find yourself in a Twitter conversation and have the sneaking suspicion that two of the participants are actually the same person, animating two different accounts. The announcement of a new grocery store in the Long Reach Village Center is met by an nasty accusation that the County Executive is inviting “a plane load of illegal Somalis” because the store will carry Halal meats. Facebook doesn’t think that smearing Islam and Somalis is hate speech. You “like” an advert for maple cotton candy and your timeline is suddenly filled with a multiplicity of candy companies.  Your news feed temporarily freezes and Facebook suggests the reason is that you don’t have any friends. Well, alrighty, then. Back to my book. Fast Forward, Play, and Rewind is by local photographer Michael Oberman. It’s a collection of his columns for Washington’s Evening Star when he was working the music beat in the sixties and seventies. And by music I mean pop,...

  And, in today’s episode of Other People’s Tweets: Yes, typos can strike us all, but Ms. Klacik’s campaign does appear to be struggling with them.  (Screen shot taken from Baltimore Sun article) In addition, from the department of anecdotal evidence, I submit that the most illegally placed signs in Columbia/HoCo are from the Klacik campaign. Put there by out of towners who didn’t bother to learn local laws, no doubt. So 2020 is the year when it is possible to raise over six million dollars to run for Congress without learning how to proofread your work or follow local laws. Or live in the actual district for which you are running. None of this will likely put off folks predisposed to blame the Democratic Party for everything that is wrong with Baltimore, or chase away the wealthy in Howard County who enjoy her campaign of blame and shame that doesn’t require them to take a hard look at themselves. It’s no big deal to them. Is it a big deal?  Well, my concern is that, if...

I feel the need to inject some positivity into the mix this morning. We all know that there’s plenty to be concerned about. Why not pause for a moment to talk about some good things? This weekend we ordered take-away from Grille Chick’n Pollo in Hickory Ridge. It was delicious. My husband is a huge fan of the white sauce that accompanies the orders. He maintains that a similar sauce is served with fries in the Netherlands. Who knew? Even though cole slaw is probably not a Peruvian staple, theirs is delicious and pairs well with the Peruvian chicken flavors. And the portions are so generous! You will definitely be enjoying leftovers the next day. I’m happy to see that this mom and pop business is chugging along during the pandemic. Yesterday my new recliner from La-z-boy arrived. They had a bit of trouble locating our house (doesn’t everybody?) but since they were in communication with my husband via text, I was able to go outside and flag them down. The gentlemen who handled the deliv...

Let’s start with a statement we can all agree on: people are not cows. A bit of background information: during my recent post-operative recuperation I found myself drawn to veterinarian-themed television programs. After watching numerous visits where the vets were called to farms to assist ailing cows or give routine treatment, I began to think a lot about cattle chutes. Wikipedia defines a cattle chute as follows: ...a narrow corridor built for cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals to travel through when being herded from one location to another that is nearby. A conventional race consists of parallel panels or fences with a space between them just wide enough for one animal to pass through comfortably without being able to turn around, thus forming the animals into a queue that only allows them to go forward. It is used for routine husbandry activities such as drafting (sorting) or loading animals via ramp or loading chute into a vehicle; placing them one at a time in a cattle crush ...

Dropping temperatures and the fiery colors of the leaves on the trees have been alerting me to the change in seasons. But adverts from Dollar Tree in my inbox are heralding the start of the Christmas shopping season. Of course, Halloween is still almost two weeks away, but, roll on toys and tinsel! One truly good reason to plan ahead for the holidays is the Homewood School’s 17th Annual Treasure Sale. From event organizer Suzanne McMurtray: More than 60% of Homewood's alternative education students qualify for Free and Reduced Meals and we do not have a PTA. We need new items to stock our socially distant Treasure Sale so our kids can choose holiday gifts for their loved ones. Thank you for helping our #HomewoodFamily! This year we need our friends, families, and community more than ever. We have a goal to collect over 1,000 new items using the   Homewood Treasure Sale Wish List . Amazon will ship your donation directly to the Homewood Center. Thank you for looking at our list and ...

I have been known to look backwards a year or so to see what I was writing. This one stopped me in my tracks: A Better Place (October 11, 2019) I  saw this sentence in an inspirational meme this morning: In six months time you can either be in the same place or a better place. Where are we going to be in six months, Columbia/HoCo? A friend of mine shared with me that she is trying to imagine a time on the other side of the redistricting decision. I admitted I had a hard time doing that. I would imagine that many folks are so consumed by what’s happening right now that they would find it hard to envision something beyond  it. We are not going to be in this place forever. This issue isn’t going to be the only issue forever. What are we doing to make sure that in six months we are in a better place, and not the same place? I’m going to spend some time this weekend trying to picture what March, 2020 could look like if we were in a better place. ***** Wow. Well, we certainly had no...

  I was disappointed this morning to see that the Columbia Flier/Howard County Times did not see fit to publish Oakland Mills resident Jonathan Edelson’s letter to the editor on skewed coverage of local neighborhoods. The issues he raised are valid and the letter is worthy of a wider audience. Not if you’re the HoCo Times, I guess.  I am beyond disappointed with people who continue to spread misinformation about teachers and the reopening of schools. Teachers would much rather be in schools than creating and sustaining distance learning programs. They’d rather be connecting with students in real life rather than through a screen. But they also want the appropriate safety protocols put in place. Those protocols would protect not only teachers, but also their families, and students, and students’ families, and staff, and... Get the picture? In order to reopen schools safely we need a workable plan. And enacting that plan will take money. It will take significant investment to s...

  In the spirit of my belief that hard times require great art, I present to you a new song by area musician Alan Scott.    I became a fan of his work through two of his previous songs, “ You Only See Me When I’m Gone” and “ Colors in a Dream ”.  Inspired to pay tribute to Lewis following his death, Scott composed “John Lewis Lives (Good Trouble)” and raised the funds via Kickstarter to record it professionally. During a pandemic. That’s pretty impressive, when you think about it. Alan Scott is a working musician whose primary livelihood comes from playing gigs and teaching private lessons. I can only imagine what the last seven months have done to his ability to make a living.  Yesterday I was feeling disheartened about many things. Seeing the link to Scott’s finished song and listening to it was a moment of pure joy in a dark day.  Where there is hope  where there is freedom  where we fight for justice  John Lewis lives. Where you build a ...

Yesterday Howard County observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The official change from a day that was instituted to honor Christopher Columbus to one that honors America’s indigenous peoples was made by Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. It is part of a growing movement across the country to face the truth about early colonizers whose actions included genocide, rape, enslavement of natives, and wholesale land theft.  It is also meant to educate. History lessons in the United States have generally distorted or outright erased the stories of indigenous peoples. It is long past time for Americans to learn the rich history of Native American tribes and cultures. They are not a footnote. Ignoring them makes us less as a nation: small-minded and proud of our ignorance. Speaking of small-minded and proud of one's own ignorance, Howard County has a fair share of those. They were on display yesterday on social media, complaining loudly about the change. Some just showed up merely to shout “Ha...

 This recent announcement from the Columbia Association piqued my curiosity: On Saturday, October 10 at 9am, CA's Board of Directors will discuss ways to better understand and respect our individual values, while also increasing collaboration to reflect the values of Columbia and CA. If you'd like to listen in virtually, please email Ginny Thomas at ginny.thomas@ca-board.org. I reached out to Dannika Rynes, Senior Manager of Media Relations and Communications,   for a bit more of an explanation. She was kind enough to get back to me right away: In the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, the CA Board has decided to carve out some time to take a deep look at their own individual values as board members and their perceived values for the organization as a whole. This meeting will provide an open opportunity to discuss those ideals with the hope of reaching a better understanding of shared goals and perspectives moving forward. In a time when it's tough to connect, the Boa...

  Today is National Coming Out Day. Begun in 1988, it’s an LGTBQ awareness day started by Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary. From Wikipedia: The foundational belief is that  homophobia  thrives in an atmosphere of silence and  ignorance , and that once people know that they have loved ones who are lesbian or gay, they are far less likely to maintain homophobic or oppressive views. National Coming Out Day is meant to be a positive and celebratory event. Since 1988 it has spread to all fifty states and seven other countries besides the U.S. 1990, NCOD became a part of the initiatives sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign. This quote from co-founder Robert Eichberg speaks to the heart of the purpose of National Coming Out Day: Most people think they don't know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact, everybody does. It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes . (1993) Over the past week I learned that a gr...