Village Green/Town²

Maybe you’d be happier in Columbia. It’s a paraphrase. Those aren’t the exact words. But the intent was clear. Someone had posted the link to the petition to end the agreement between HCPSS and the Howard County Police Department, looking for signatures. The response? Maybe you’d be happier in Columbia. As Racism Watch Dog says, I don’t think there’s much of a jump between that response and, “maybe your kind doesn’t belong here.” Clearly the writer is drawing a line. Suggesting we don’t need police in our schools? That’s not a Howard County sentiment. “Maybe you’d be happier somewhere else...” Hmm. What could possibly be the rationale for this response? What makes Columbia different ?  I maintain that there still plenty of folks who believe that Columbia is not really Howard County, but more like a separate entity unto itself, which perhaps had no reason to be there in the first place. This is of course, a generalization, and doesn’t apply to all. And I’m sure some people aren’t e...

It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump over the Howard County line to Montgomery County where: Hundreds Of Muslims Attend Drive-Through Hajj In Maryland   It’s a quick, three minute listen from NPR by Daniella Cheslow. For those of you who don’t know, and I myself didn’t know all that much, Hajj is a time of pilgrimage each year where Muslims are encouraged to make the journey to Mecca to visit the Kaaba, the “House of God”. It is both a physical and a spiritual journey. All Muslims are supposed to make this trip at least once in their lifetime, if they are able. Hajj 2020 began in the evening of Tuesday, July 28th, and ends in the evening of Sunday, August 2nd.  This year’s Hajj is different than in years past because the coronavirus has prevented travel. A Muslim community in Montgomery County took a creative approach and made a drive-through Hajj. You’ll note in the radio piece that the event is held on the grounds of Sandy Spring Friends School, which is a Quaker institution....

Columbia Community Care continues to serve our neighbors who are struggling due to the pandemic. The demand for food assistance remains high. Community members donate food and personal care items, give funds, or shop from the group’s Amazon list. Volunteers stock and operate two pantry centers, “shop” and deliver for families, run food giveaway sites five days a week in the crushing heat. The energy with which this initiative began is still strong. Community support, however, has shown signs of waning. We are all so tired of this. We want to go back to the way our lives used to be. It is hard to sustain the dedication for an effort like this over the long haul.  We are used to responding in a crisis. It’s a finite experience. We see the need, we give the gift, and then it’s over. The need that Columbia Community Care is addressing is far from over. The Coronavirus is far from over. And the underlying issues that place so many in Howard County right at the very edge of being able to...

My apologies, as yesterday’s post seems to have been the kiss of death for the baseball season.  I’m almost reluctant to write about anything else lest I have the same effect.  On my mind this morning: Josh Kurtz’ review of Governor Hogan’s new book. (‘Still Standing’ is Hogan’s Paean to Hogan, Maryland Matters ) The local discussion about a petition to end the relationship between the Howard County Schools and the Howard County Police Department. This news from a meeting of the Howard County Board of Elections: Director Guy Mickley says he only has 102 election judges for 800 spots to staff early voting in Nov. He says that's "very troublesome." Right now each judge would have to work all day for 8 straight days. (Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun ) In the meantime, please keep wearing a mask, washing your hands, and observing physical distancing. Stay out of the heat if possible and drink plenty of water. Donate to causes helping those who are in crisis and please refrain fr...

Orioles baseball is back. You know the drill. When they lose, you’re sad. When they win, you’re ... startled. In a good way, of course.  At my house we celebrated the return of baseball with our traditional baseball meal: hot dogs, chips, soda, ice cream in little Orioles caps. My husband watches baseball while making music. He’s done it as long as I have known him. This weekend we’ve had guitar and banjo. (In previous seasons we’ve also been treated to harp, lyre, mandolin, electric bass, and tuba.) He is able to follow every detail of the game while simultaneously choosing the right fingering and strumming to whatever tune he is playing. I don’t know how he does it. In some ways it seems crazy to me that baseball is returning into our pandemic world where every day is marked with concern for illness rates, hospitalizations, and death. On top of that: national political turmoil, protests for social justice, fear that our upcoming election could be compromised. How does baseball fi...

Today’s post comes from James Cecil, most recently a candidate for the Board of Education in District 2, and a continuing member of the Columbia Community Care volunteer team. His words are a response  to this article from Propublica Illinois : Judge Won’t Free Michigan Teenager Sent to Juvenile Detention After Not Doing Online Schoolwork Mr. Cecil responds to this story with empathy.  His words move us from the realities of the individual case to the immediacy of our own challenges in Howard County. He gives us a lot to think about. ***** This absolutely breaks me.   Grace is a child like so many of our own or those that we know.  She struggled with the transition to distance education.  She was deprived of the support services known to help her through her challenges.  She missed one of the requirements for school.  She has been incarcerated for over two months.   When we talk about the school to prison pipeline, this is it. When we talk about s...

About a year ago I wrote a piece called “ Careless ” , describing a situation in which I came face to face with the thoughtlessness of my own white privilege.  The other day I opened my front door to a young man who was making the rounds telling people about the Streets for All initiative. It was a punishingly hot day. When we were done talking I said, Try to stay cool! You shouldn’t be out in this heat ! And he looked back at me, tired, and said, Ma’am, I have to make a living.  This post seems, if anything, more painful today as I contemplate who is being forced to go out in the workplace while others are afforded the freedom to work from home. Essential workers: hospital workers, restaurant workers, sanitation workers, cleaning crews, transportation workers. A high percentage of these jobs are held by people who are Black or other people of color.  They are working because they have no choice. They are put in the way of catastrophic illness because they have no choice....

Once upon a time, I wrote a blog post about my mish mosh drawer. Really.   Here it is, in all its glory. Our mish mosh drawer. Do you have one?   Maybe you call it a junk drawer. It's in the kitchen and it holds any manner of one of a kind items, gadgets, coupons, missing pieces, and more. The mish mosh drawer pictured above could be a carefully constructed photograph for an I-Spy challenge. But it's not. This is our mish mosh drawer in its natural habitat, with no alterations. I remembered this post yesterday as I went through the contents of our current mish mosh drawer, which is a good deal smaller. It turns out that the original was prime real estate and its contents were evicted to make way for new occupants. This is the size of the new one. As my time in self isolation has lengthened, my willingness to tackle long-neglected household chores has increased. When this skinny little drawer stopped closing, I knew it was time.  First, a purely unscientific rendering of ...

For someone who writes about community issues seven days a week, I don’t get very many press releases. That’s okay. I’m perfectly capable of finding my own stories. This one, though, came to me via press release, from Matthew Vaughan-Smith. Mr. Vaughan-Smith is the president of Anti-Racist Education Alliance which was founded with the mission of: .. . upholding the vision of a public school system where all Black and Brown students achieve their fullest potential and where educators of color are valued, supported, and given space to use their power.  We will do this through service to our community, through advocacy, and through building relationships. (Vaughan-Smith, June 4th, 2020) Here is the release in its entirety. I’ll add a few words of my own below. The Anti-Racist Education Alliance, Inc. Endorses Police-Free Schools  AREA says No to SROs (School Resource Officers) Baltimore, MD- July 9, 2020- The Board of Directors of The Anti-Racist Education Alliance, Inc. (AR...

Several times a week we hear an ominous “thunk” sound which tells us that yet another bird has flown into our front window. I don’t have any scientific evidence, but I think it has happened more often since we changed the color of our drapes from multicolored stripes to pale blue. I have been pondering whether that change in color has made our window appear more like “sky” to neighborhood birds. We don’t think these incidents are fatal in our case (very small yard, no bird bodies) but I know they can be. Years ago I worked at a school in downtown Baltimore whose second floor was flanked on both sides by tall windows. I was regularly tasked with scooping up the remains of misbegotten birds off of the preschool playground before the children might happen upon them. All of this serves as an introduction to this news:   Howard County becomes first Maryland jurisdiction to pass legislation for bird-friendly design standards   Ana Faguy, Baltimore Sun Now this bill doesn’t pertain t...

Meanwhile, back to Saturday’s protest in Old Ellicott City. I’ve received some positive feedback from readers who were there. In reading Ana Faguy’s article in the Howard County Times, I noticed that a coalition of groups worked together to coordinate the event: The protest was organized by a number of local social justice organizations including  HoCo for Justice , CASA, Howard County Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Indivisible HoCo and Audelia Community Response Team. Saturday’s event was the culmination of a number of similar actions held over the past months to call attention to this issue. Recently, two representatives from the County Council have lent their voices to the cause: Deb Jung and Liz Walsh. This got me thinking. I noticed that the young people of HoCo4Justice published a list of demands in advance of Saturday’s protest.  It’s fairly comprehensive and speaks to far more than the Howard County ICE contract. Something on this list jumped out at me. Item number ...

I spent most of yesterday mourning the passing of Civil Rights warrior John Lewis, and learning more about him. It was a sad day. Our country is in a perpetual state of loss. Losing this deeply good and brave man right now is almost too much to bear.  I read many John Lewis quotes yesterday. This one spoke to me as I was wallowing in a sense of hopelessness: I regret to say that I took a screenshot and didn’t write down exactly where this comes from. In searching for more information this morning I found this quote, which is similar but not identical: But we must accept one central truth and responsibility as participants in a democracy: Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. ―  John Lewis,  Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and ...