Skip to main content

Show and Tell

 


Oh my. I am truly sorry I missed this event.


From the Rotary Club of Columbia/Patuxent: 

JOIN US this Friday, September 23rd, 2022 @ 7:30 a.m. at The Periodic Table - Columbia. Our guest, Wayne Robey, Clerk of the Circuit Court shares everything you'd like to know.

As you may have guessed, this post isn’t about Wayne Robey or the Rotary. It’s about qualifiers. In this event posting, there aren’t any.

Our guest, Wayne Robey, Clerk of the Circuit Court shares everything you'd like to know.

Everything.

Everything?

Most people would be able to read this and keep on going. You already know I am not most people. The thought that Mr. Robey was tasked with “sharing everything you’d like to know” set off the wheels of my imagination. My first thoughts were, shall we say, less than serious.

  • Boxers or briefs?
  • Best recipes to get dinner in the table in twenty minutes?
  • Pet Peeve?
  • Favorite restaurant in HoCo?
  • Where does the Tooth Fairy get her money?
This is why the world is better off that I don’t attend such events, and why you really should use qualifiers and say precisely what you mean. 

But, since we are here - - and completely unrelated to the local rotary organization or the Clerk of the Circuit Court - - I present to you a few things I’d like to know:

Why are people complaining that the County Executive is doing a lot of flashy things for the sake of his re-election compaign when they are the very same people who’ve complained at every one of his initiatives for the past four years? He can’t possibly have saved them for the last minute (and they know this) because they’ve been criticizing his leadership ever since he got elected, specifically that he had too many initiatives. 

Just say you don’t like him and be done with it. Don’t make up a whole new way to not like him that’s completely disingenuous. 

Why are people agitating for “parent voice” on the Board of Education when we already have Board Members who are parents of children in the Howard County Schools? Or perhaps a better question would be, why do some people think “parent voice” means “only my voice will be heard and heeded”? Having a voice means the ability to engage and participate. Not dictate.

Public schools are not meant to be the playgrounds of one faction with one set of ideas. 

Last one: 

Why do some people want to talk about food insecurity but refuse to include housing insecurity and inadequate wages in the conversation? It’s all interconnected. Who does it benefit to focus solely on one issue without taking into account the others? Certainly not the people who are struggling to get adequate food.

If you force people to pay too much for housing, or to commute from elsewhere, and if you keep their wages artificially low, they will not have enough money for food. It’s not a mystery. We could fix it in a more meaningful way if we wanted to.

Do you feel like asking any questions? 

I can’t promise I’ll share everything you want to know. 




Comments

Post a Comment

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...
Post a Comment
Read more