Often Overlooked

My apologies. For some reason my body is craving sleep more than blogging this morning.

One local story that interests me is this one by Baltimore Sun’s Christina Tkacic:

The Rathskeller to bring German food and drinks to Elkridge’s historic Main Street

We’re used to seeing articles almost daily about Ellicott City’s Historic Main Street. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one referencing Elkridge in this way. Is this just another way that Elkridge generally “don’t get no respect” in Howard County?

Is the goal to make Main Street Elkridge a destination in the way that Ellicott City is? Is there a well-defined “Old Elkridge”?

Years ago I wrote a piece in which I expressed the desire to be given a tour of Elkridge by a knowledgeable local. It still hasn’t happened, but maybe someday.

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Teacher Gifts

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They Can Wait

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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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