Long Reach Dreams

It looks like something artsy is happening in Long Reach. Of course the Columbia Art Center has long been in residence there, so it makes sense that other arts endeavors are joining it. Recently I’ve  seen several announcements that sound like a new Long Reach Village Center is taking shape:

• African Art Museum of Maryland relocating to LRVC
• Howard County Arts Council offering studio space for artists 
• ManneqART to create new location 

Call me crazy, but all of these announcements made me wonder if the Safeway space could be renovated and transformed into a perfect Toby’s location. Yes, I know, there’s some other plan for that which is more Downtown-centric, but this is my blog and I can pretend all I want. I don’t mean to cast aspersions on the plans in place. I simply like to dream.

“What if’s” are fun. What if Toby’s could be reborn in Long Reach? There’s plenty of parking. They are already a successful, well-known brand in the region and people would definitely come there. And that would mean a lot more people with expendable income visiting Long Reach. And that might mean that other businesses would begin to find Long Reach more worthy of investment.

I’m not a city planner. But I can dream, can’t I? After all, I’ve always wanted to see creative re-use of the Columbia Flier/Patuxent Publishing Building, and this past year we’ve seen glimmers of that. So, who knows?

At any rate, I’m excited at what’s happening in Long Reach. I remember attending the event to re-imagine Long Reach that invited community members to give input for the future of the center. Even then, a desire for more arts space was apparent.

I’m looking forward to a vibrant future for the Village Center and the Long Reach community.

Sixes and Sevens

SABINA: Oh, oh, oh! Six o'clock and the master not home yet. Pray God nothing serious has happened to him crossing the Hudson River. If anything happened to him, we would cer- tainly be inconsolable and have to move to a less desirable residence district. The fact is I don't know what'll become of us. Here it is the middle of August and the coldest day of the year. It's simply freezing; the dogs are sticking to the sidewalks; can anybody explain that? No. But I'm not surprised. The whole world's at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn't fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.

The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder

I woke up, gave a glance at the news, and this is what popped into my head: the Antrobus family trying to maintain normalcy as chaos and an ice age bears down on them.

To be sure, there’s plenty of interesting local things to note, and I’ll talk about them tomorrow. But this morning the state of our nation has put me smack onstage with Wilder’s characters who huddle together burning furniture to keep warm, while making sandwiches and reciting snippets of the worlds great thinkers. 

It’s a very profound play to rehearse, because those epic questions come up as you work: Is humanity resilient? It’s a really dystopian look at the American experiment, and I think that’s what we’re all kind of waking up to. We assumed we would be inheritors of this great ideal, and now we realize how completely fragile it is. Carey Perloff, “Why Thornton Wilder Matters in the Trump Era” New York Times

Fragile, indeed.

Wilder closes his play with a bit of hope. I’m struggling to find some today.

This is where you came in. We have to go on for ages and ages yet. You go home. The end of this play isn’t written yet. Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus! Their heads are full of plans and they’re as confident as the first day they began,—and they told me to tell you: good night.

Good News

The best news of the day is that the State of Maryland does not use the caucus method to decide political contests. And, as proof of just how wonderful that is, today you have the opportunity to vote to narrow the field in the 7th district special election to fill the seat of the late Elijah Cummings.

Schools are closed in order to be used as election sites. Community members will be working the polls. This is a “one day only affair“ and you are invited. I know I’ve been seeing a lot of you talk about the importance of voting lately. Will you be voting today?

I keep reading that voter turnout is expected to be low. Prove them wrong, Howard County. Take a little time out of your day to exercise your right to be an active participant in our democratic system. Don’t leave it to somebody else.

It will take an exceptional person to follow Mr. Cummings to represent Maryland. Whoever eventually wins this seat has an opportunity to grow and learn and become the kind of seasoned, deeply committed public servant that he was. No one will begin there. But someone has the chance to become.  That person will represent you, your family, friends, neighbors, colleagues. Shouldn’t you be a part of that choice?

Here’s a link to the League of Women Voters Election guide. Most of the folks in my immediate circle have already made up their minds. If you are still weighing options, I’d like to put in a good word for Delegate Terri Hill. I’ve heard her interviewed several times on the Elevate Maryland podcast and I’m impressed both by her knowledge and attitude towards public service.  I’ve heard so many positive reports of her work since she was elected as a state delegate. I feel strongly that she would be an able and committed representative to all the residents in District 7.

Individual choices aside, the important thing is to show up and let your voice be heard. From an article in the Baltimore Sun highlighting Elijah Cummings‘ famous speeches:

Cummings recalled how his mother, a sharecropper, had witnessed Americans harmed and beaten while seeking the right to vote, he said.

“Her last words were ‘Do not let them take our votes away from us,’” he said, punctuating each word.

“Voting is crucial, and I don’t give a damn how you look at it,” Cummings said. “There are efforts to stop people from voting. That’s not right. This is not Russia. This is the United States of America.”

Cummings called voting the “essence” of democracy and pledged to “fight until the death” to make sure every citizen had access to the vote. Those without it, he said, cannot progress with the rest of society nor control their destiny.

Reciprocal

Do you remember learning about the Law of Conservation of Mass? You know, the scientific principle that matter is neither created nor destroyed*. Believe it or not, it actually came to mind today as I was driving around in Columbia.

I was passing the old Krispy Kreme when it struck me. Columbia now has a bank (well, a credit union) that used to be a donut place, and a donut place that used to be a bank. The latter would be the Oakland Mills Dunkin’ Donuts that used to be the Columbia Bank.

Pretty trippy, huh?

Perhaps there is a corollary that the bank-to-baked goods ratio must be maintained. The transformation of matter must be reciprocal.

A similar local example might be the Burger King that folded on Center Park Drive, only to be recreated several years later, less than half a block away.

“I’m sorry, a Burger King just won’t work in this location.”

“Okay. How about a few doors down?”

Back to my original premise. Since we now have a grocery store that used to be the headquarters of the Rouse Company and its successors, it seems that we are long overdue for corporate headquarters located in what used to be a grocery. Hmm...Long Reach, I’m looking at you.

While we are at this game of hardly scientific whimsy, I’ll field suggestions. What else around town seems likely? How about these hypothetical trade-offs?

• school/concert venue 
• mall/housing
• library/restaurant 

It’s Monday. I’m definitely open to some silliness of a local nature. Remember, it has to work both ways to fit the premise. Give it your best shot.

*The law implies that mass can neither be created nor destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space, or the entities associated with it may be changed in form. (Wikipedia)

Fickle

Yet again I bring you “not verified news but an interesting tweet”. It’s timely, it’s local, and it’s something to think about.

Just because a Asian lady is wearing a mask DOES NOT MEAN she has the #Coronavirus
SHAME ON the people who verbally assaulted her inside the grocery store in Howard County #Maryland this morning.   SAD

Seeing this made me think about how fickle acceptance is in our white-centered culture.

It wasn’t that long ago that Asian parents were being heralded as valued members of the anti-redistricting coalition. Their presence amongst the opposition was used as “proof” that the groups were multi-ethnic and not racist.

Could it be that the coronavirus might be the thing that comes along and destroys all that multi ethnic, non-racist solidarity? Is that how shallow our cross-cultural connections are in Howard County?

When one is not considered “white” in a white-centric culture, acceptance is hard to come by and there is no assurance of keeping it once granted. One day you are inside the circle, the next you are not. Anyone who is white has the power to extend that golden ticket. You can do everything in your power to “earn” it but it is truly not a thing to be earned. It will never be more than a capricious and demeaning obstacle course, repeated daily.

There is no end.

Some folks wonder why I continue to write about issues of race. This is why. One day you are a valued member of a community group and the next you are nothing but an outsider carrying a disease.

“Look! Non-white people agree with us!”
“Beware! Non-white people will infect us!”

I can’t imagine how that would feel, to have worked so hard for acceptance only to be quickly tossed away like something dirty and perhaps even malevolent.

A certain troll on the County Executive’s Facebook page keeps telling him there is no prejudice and racism in Howard County, accusing him of making it up for nefarious political purposes. There's no need for him to make it up because, sadly, there are people in Howard County who are living and breathing and thinking and acting within the confines of systemic racism every day.

No one deserves to be treated like this. I hope that this kind of incident does not become an accepted way for people to deal with their fears of a little-known illness.

And, while I have you here: get a flu shot.

Nonsense

Here we go again. Governor Hogan’s commitment to interfere with (usurp?) local control of school calendars continues into a new year. It now looks like this.

For those of us who remember living through this the last time, the actual mass confusion was what happened when the Governor dictated opening and closing dates without fully comprehending how the whole school calendar thing works. (See yesterday’s post.)

But today I want to focus on a different aspect of this issue which has troubled me for quite some time. The way that Governor Hogan frames his personal priorities here is a bald-faced attempt to delegitimize the authority of the General Assembly. I find that dishonorable and dangerous.

Both Mr. Hogan and Mr. Franchot, whose brainchild this initiative was originally, have engaged in media campaigns to spread the word that their plan is supported by “overwhelming majority of Marylanders”. I don’t believe that any of the surveys or polling they have done are comprehensive enough to provide this kind of incontrovertible evidence. I’m pretty sure that the kind of folks who are most negatively impacted by the later start dates are not the ones included in their data.

Here’s my objection: the Governor is clearly saying that only he knows what the people of Maryland want and the Maryland General Assembly doesn't. No, let me refine that. He is saying that the Maryland General Assembly knows but they don’t care, because they don’t act in the best interest of Marylanders.

Apparently a little known fact in the Governor's Mansion: both the Governor and members of the General Assembly are elected by popular vote. They all have a legitimate reason to be doing the work they do. And it’s actually more likely that legislators are going to be hearing from and responding to their constituents on a regular basis. After all, when you have a concern about a particular issue, do you reach out to the Governor or your legislator?  On the whole, legislators cast their votes with an eye to representing their constituents. But, to hear Mr. Hogan talk about it, the Maryland General Assembly is some kind of unelected body has no contact with citizens and takes no action in response to their needs.

This is nonsense. It is a patently dishonest framing of the issue. And it is a kind of executive overreach that threatens to undermine actual representative democracy in the State of Maryland.

The Governor is free to disagree with the State Legislature on this issue. He does not have the right to suggest that the entire State Legislature is somehow illegally occupying the statehouse without any charge or authority. How does he think they got there? The Tooth Fairy?

Truth be told, he knows. He just hopes that his base doesn’t and can be moved by the notion that only he knows and cares for them. Yes, it’s paternalistic, and a little bit creepy.

I am not saying that the State Legislature is always perfect. But they are an elected body. Elected by us. Their members are there to make the best choices they can for their constituents and the state as a whole. If their constituents do not feel adequately represented, they will be voted out. Attempting to compromise the validity of their work is more than just a cheap shot.

It’s an insult to to the citizens of Maryland and an attack on a form of government whose roots can be traced back to before the American Revolution.

It’s Baaa—aack!

Since the Governor has brought back his “schools shouldn’t have local control of their calendars” bill, its only fair that I bring back what I wrote about it last time. Mr. Hogan describes it as “common sense legislation.” Before we watch his rerun, let’s take a trip down memory lane to see what happened last time he used his authority to force this issue.

Train Wreck 

(WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018)

“Let summer be summer,” the gentlemen said.

Meanwhile, in Annapolis...

Yesterday, the State School Board rejected Howard County’s Request for a waiver and that means that, despite giving up their Spring Break, students and teachers will be going beyond the June 15th date decreed by the Governor. There’s eight million reasons why this is a bad idea and you probably already know them.

Let’s look at the players:

• The Governor and the Comptroller, who thought it would be a simple thing to start school after Labor Day and end it June 15th to benefit Ocean City merchants 

• The State Board of Ed, who intends to adhere religiously to 180 days of instruction

• Local school systems throughout the state, each with their own particular calendar needs and requirements

• Parents, students, teachers, and staff

Oh, and let’s not forget Maryland weather, which looks at this entire scenario and says, “hold my beer.”

This just feels like a classic example of what happens when men come in saying, “I’m going to fix this for you; it’s no big deal” and then proceed wreck 

the whole thing. And then, while surveying all the broken pieces, they say, “Hey, maybe this had more moving parts than we thought...”

School calendars are complicated things and there are actually people whose job it is to understand them and do the very best they can to make them work. If one does not have that kind of expertise it takes a special kind of hubris to come in with some scissors and scotch tape and “fix” them.

Local school systems are left holding the bag and parents, teachers, students, and staff are both inconvenienced and ill-served.

As an educator, I’m hoping that somebody somewhere has learned a lesson from all this. I know I’d like to send a couple of fellows in Annapolis to summer school this year based on their lack of mastery in this subject.

*****

I’ll be taking a fresh look at this tomorrow,