Congratulations, Kudos, and Thanks

First order of business: congratulations to our friends whose long-anticipated baby arrived safe and sound yesterday. Truly a bright spot in a dark time for all of us who know them. Welcome to the world! You have a great big village welcoming you.

Kudos to actor and hometown-raised Edward Norton for his recent pointed and perfectly crafted statement on Twitter about post-election Trump machinations. There’s quite a few Columbians on Twitter proud to rep Norton’s Columbia connections.

Thanks to everyone who stepped up last night to provide information for an upcoming blog post on job benefits. Between responses on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve gotten a wealth of information. My immediate take: I’m thrilled for the people who have had awesome and creative benefits and I’m sad for the few who checked in to say they have never received any. Interestingly enough, I’m not angry that some folks have more than I ever have. I wonder why that is?

A post-script: over the summer we expanded our bubble of three to include our older daughter and her husband, who live near us in Oakland Mills. Due to to spike in cases, we have closed back down to our in-house unit. Since it’s only three of us now for Thanksgiving, I asked my younger daughter if she wanted to order takeaway. She said, “Where are the Black-owned restaurants in Howard County?”

When I was 20 this is not a question I would have had and I am glad she asked it. We have started looking around and I shared her question on Twitter. Local writer (and former blogger) Candace Montague offered:

Anegada’s Caribbean Delight, Rise, Tigis Ethiopian, Sidamo Coffee, and 18th & 21st has Black investors. Not sure what they offer for Thanksgiving but check them out.

Someone else suggested I check out @eatokratheapp. I will, but I must admit I had an extremely bad experience with okra once...

Don’t forget that today and tomorrow are the last two days to place bids in the Community Ecology Institute’s Silent Auction for the Maker Space at Freetown Farm. I found two things to bid on; now I wait. Here’s the link.

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Teacher Gifts

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F ³: We Are Not Entitled

A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word. Days passed. They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts. Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public. So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that. But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

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 ...

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