Saturday Sampler

Are you ready for some weekend fun? Here goes:

The OMCA annual plant sale in Oakland Mills is this morning from 9 am to 11 am at The Other Barn.

HC Drug Free’s Medication & Sharps Disposal is from 10 am to 2 pm at the Wilde Lake Village Center.

Jazz in the Woods at the Chrysalis, 11 am - 6 pm at Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.

Little Portion Farm is holding a plant sale from 9 am - 2 pm, 12290 Folly Quarter Road, Ellicott City

Wilde Lake CARES will be doing cleanup at the Snowy Owl Adopt-a-Spot location from 9 - 11 am.

Coffee Run & Fun from 2 - 4 pm at The First Presbyterian Church of Howard County.

This one merits some explanation:

For the 15th year in a row, we will be holding a fundraiser for the Coffee Microgrants Project, inviting everyone to participate in an afternoon of games, fun, and fellowship - including a chance to try your hand at pickle ball right inside the church! The event will be held at First Presbyterian Church of Howard County on April 27, 2024, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to participate in games, food, and fellowship.

All proceeds from this event go to fund coffee plants, fertilizer, and other essentials that enable members of the Union Boca Costa Maya Quiche Presbytery in Guatemala to cultivate coffee on small plots of land that they own - building assets and creating life-changing economic opportunities in a remote part of Guatemala.

The NAACP of Howard County’s annual Freedom Fund luncheon will be from 1 - 3 pm at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve.

Clark’s Ace Hardware will be sharing its excitement about the upcoming grilling season at their Columbia location from 11 am - 2 pm.

Book signing event at Second Edition Books on Dobbin Road from 3 - 5 pm with Dana Klosner, author of Beatlemania Lives On: Superfans of the 21st Century.

Of course these are not all the HoCoLocal events happening today, but more of a sampling. If you have one you’d like me to share, let me know.

And here’s one now, courtesy of Phillip Dodge, Downtown Columbia Partnership:

Rock for a Reason, Color Burst Park, 5:30 - 8:30 pm.

Village Green/Town² Comments

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Teacher Gifts

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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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