Getting There

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 phone in hand calling 911 for help. Armon and Macayla did not see what happened but they jumped off of the bus to support the bus driver.  When they got off of the bus they found the mother with injuries but her child was in very bad shape. Armon jumped into action administering CPR to try to help the injured little boy until the ambulance arrived. We learned that the little boy passed away at the hospital about an hour later. My heart breaks for the young mother and her family.  We are so proud of Armon and Macayla for their leadership and courage.  We love you beyond words!  The Superintendant of Schools and a Board of Education member paid a visit to the school today to provide recognition to Armon and Macayla for their courageous act!

Timberlane is a neighborhood in Clary’s Forest, which is turn is a part of the Village of Hickory Ridge, which explains why it was such a long walk to Wilde Lake High School to vote.

What about you? Will you be walking to your polling place or driving? I’ve seen people talking about the convenience of being able to chose from different locations during early voting depending on how crowded they are. That freedom of choice is completely dependent upon having a car. You’d hardly walk to figure that out, and it wouldn’t make sense by bus or taxi, either. 

When ballot drop boxes and polling locations are selected, I would think that those making the decisions take into account areas where voters are less likely to have cars. I’m sure they look at higher vs. lower population density. What about higher vs. lower car ownership? Is there a way to know this?

It makes a difference for those who are older, or in poor health, or parents with very young children. Owning a car should not be a prerequisite for exercising one’s right to vote. Of course, in Columbia/HoCo, owning a car is just about a prerequisite for survival. Transportation, or the lack therof, impacts everything.

I’m curious about this. I’ll see what I can find out. In the meantime, if you can’t get enough of WLHS grad Armon Wilson, here’s an entire follow up piece about him by Ana Faguy.