Village Green/Town²

What do you know about this building? I don’t know much, other than that it served as the backdrop to an outdoor event I attended this weekend. I know it is called the Curtis-Shipley Farmstead, and is surrounded by the Shipley’s Grant development/community. A quick Wikipedia search shows it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. While I was at this outdoor event I had a conversation with a friend who is concerned about another historic place in Howard County: Lawyers Hill. She directed me to this recent piece from WBAL  . The Lawyers Hill community is also on the National Register Of Historic Places.(1993) What happens to our historic places as development unfolds in Howard County? This is not even remotely my area of expertise and yet it touches on so many things we are discussing every day in Howard County: land use, developers, community input, choosing what gets preserved.  I love history. My parents took me to many historic ...

Last night I found myself reading an article about singer Billy Joel and his family.  This paragraph stood out: To escape Europe, Billy Joel’s grandparents and his father “secured places aboard a cruise ship called the  Andora Star , for a 1939 passage across the Atlantic to Cuba, where they resided for two years before the United States — strictly limiting the immigration of Jews to protect  “the ideal of American homogeneity” — allowed them entry.  What on earth was “the ideal of American homogeneity”?  That took me on a journey which included the Immigration Act of 1924, The Asian Exclusion Act, and the National Origins Act. Also, a quick visit to Google ensued. ho·mo·ge·ne·i·ty noun the quality or state of being all the same or all of the same kind. "the cultural homogeneity of our society" Not very far from the article on Billy Joel was this tweet from MoCo blogger Dan Reed.  ( Just Up ...

There was a time when it was the fashion for bloggers and tweeters to have a “handle” or monicker and leave it at that. That was quite a while ago. Most folks put their real names out there this days, and I think that’s a better idea. When you trade in opinion, people should know you are willing to stand by your work. In a similar way, there was a time when people writing about the goings-on at the school system felt it necessary to protect their identities. Former leadership was known to be punitive and retaliatory. Deviation from the tightly controlled “message” was not to be tolerated. Communicating a differing point of view during those times felt dangerous. To my knowledge, that is not the case anymore. All of  this is merely a prelude to my making the following request: Come out, come on out. Put your name on your work. I think our community would benefit from knowing who you are. Here’s a list of accounts I’d like to see step out of their anonymity. Some may be k...

Another installment in the ever popular series, “Other people’s Tweets”: Columbia Maryland, where people come to breed and die. I’m attending a wedding there in October so that's.....breeding related? Columbia is where I grew up and I can confirm when you’ve given up on fun it is where you go. Where cows go out to pasture. RIP Well, alrighty, then. That’s quite a reputation to break free of. We have arts festivals, cocktail crawls, multiple live music venues, a Hops and Harvest festival, but, really folks, this is where you go to breed and die. I don’t intend to cross my arms across my chest, shake my head and say, “What do these young people want?.”  It would be interesting to know what fun is for them and if Columbia is truly lacking. We certainly could be. If their concept of fun involves easy walkability between locations, that remains a challenge here. One of the most sincere local boosters I know moved to Baltimore post-college be...

The story goes something like this: A local activist was asked what advice they would give to the new superintendent of schools. Their response? “When he picks the people who will work directly around him, it’s important that he choose some who won’t always agree with him.” This is such good advice, and not only for the Superintendent. I know that I have at least one friend who will reach out to me if my blog goes astray and will challenge me to do better. To be honest, that kind but persistent probing to consider possible shortcomings often makes me feel uncomfortable. But over time I have come to realize how precious it is to have people who will be that honest and who want to remain in a relationship whether times are good or bad. I certainly hope that the Superintendent has trusted colleagues who will disagree with him. The same goes for the County Executive. The Chair of the County Council. The Board of Education. The President of the HCEA. Heck, let’s throw in l...

I must admit that I have a rant in me pertaining to Monday night’s Board of Ed meeting and its aftermath on social media. However, I don’t think that the world is in need of one more hot take on this subject right now. It can wait. Meanwhile, I‘ve got a serious eye roll for the man who went on the County Executive's page to troll a post wishing HoCo Muslims best wishes in their Eid celebrations. What Holiday is this?  Never heard of it. Is that English? I do find it odd that this gentleman is internet savvy enough to be loitering on the County Executive’s Facebook page but wasn’t able to find Google . Speaking of social media, here’s a novel approach for candidates for public office:  Today I had every prior tweet deleted. I instructed the same for my political Facebook page as well. There's been so many distractions from our messaging. It's not fair to my supporters who are already working so very hard to see us win in 2020!  - LP, 6/4/19 9:16 PM EDT ...

The alarm caught me in the middle of REM sleep and I just can’t get my head on straight this morning. Add to that the fact that I slept on wet hair and I resemble a disgruntled cockatoo. It’s shaping up to be a challenging day. I hope anyone who is considering running for the board of education was watching last night’s work session. It ain’t all fun and games, you know. A tip of the hat to former BOE member Cindy Vaillancourt who was following the proceedings on Facebook and interpreting them for the uninitiated. She continues to be a faithful public servant, even out of office, Apparently the Columbia Association has released its schedule of summer concerts but, at this very moment, I can’t find it. More on that tomorrow. Make sure your zigzag crochet afghan is lawn ready and your dancing shoes are in good shape. Update:  http://columbiaassociation.org/lakefrontfestival County Executive Calvin Ball has kicked off Pride Month in Howard County, I am so thrilled that HoCo ...