Skip to main content

pi·o·neer

 

noun
  1. 1.
    a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.
    synonyms:settler, colonist, colonizer, frontiersman, frontierswoman, explorer, trailblazer, bushwhacker
    "the pioneers of the Wild West"
verb
  1. 1.
    develop or be the first to use or apply (a new method, area of knowledge, or activity).
    "he has pioneered a number of innovative techniques"
    synonyms:introduce, develop, evolve, launch, instigate, initiate, spearhead, institute, establish, found, be the father/mother of, originate, set in motion, create

Yesterday, at long last, I became a pioneer. Not the well-known Columbia Pioneer with the capital P, but an entirely new kind of pioneer. Lower-case, maybe, but every bit as proud. Look at that second definition above. It is Columbia as a verb. You'll see words like instigate, launch, spearhead, develop, set in motion.

(Photo by Dave and Ilana Bittner, HoCoMoJo)

That's me with the bright green, Chrysalis-green umbrella, just right of center. Almost two hundred people showed up yesterday--in the rain--to participate in the ground-breaking event for the Chrysalis amphitheater. This is the beginning of Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods. We have begun.

You've heard about the Inner Arbor plan? Maybe you signed a petition to get an amazing park started for our community. Perhaps you've been to their website to see the plans. Or did you stop by the booth at Wine in the Woods? Yesterday speaker Michael McCall reminded us that progress has many parents. And in that moment I realized that I had become a pioneer.

I've been blogging about this park since at least January, 2013. I signed the petition, wrote letters to the editor, spoke at CA Board Meetings (multiple times), spoke at the Planning Board hearing. I volunteered at the Inner Arbor booth at Wine in the Woods. I say this not to boast, but to show the path by which I became a pioneer. And I didn't really even know it was happening.

If Columbia is to survive into the future, it must have second-wave pioneers. The fact that nearly two hundred people, including young children and teens, came out to celebrate the beginning of something new, says that there's a pretty healthy wave shaping up in our little town. We will not die. We will not be a footnote in the history of well-meaning planned communities.

Yesterday representatives from the State, County, and leaders from Columbia came together to make something happen. This was quintessential Village Green/Town²: where Columbia and Howard County intersect. County Executive Alan Kittleman spoke about bringing young people back to the park. County Councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty talked about the importance of art within our community and as a focal point in the park. The representative from the Howard Hughes Corporation described how the park will be part of a vibrant Downtown Columbia.

In case you ever thought that the golden age of Columbia had come and gone and that you missed it, think again. It's never too late to become a pioneer.

Catch the wave.

 

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

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...
2 comments
Read more

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 ...
1 comment
Read more