Interconnected

The little things are the big things. 

That’s how the evening began last night at the APL Kosiakoff Center, where County Executive Calvin Ball was presenting the State of the County address. The event began smoothly, but, shortly after Dr. Ball began to speak there was a bit of a glitch. The teleprompter was causing words at the edges to be cut off. What followed was a few moments which could have been incredibly stressful (and maybe they were for the folks up front) but you wouldn’t have known it from the audience.

Dr. Ball calmly communicated with his team about what was going on, even inviting one up to the podium to get a better view. He took a brief pause while they were working on it and then made the executive decision to continue from his notes. The speech continued, enhanced by a visual presentation on the big screen, and Dr. Ball merely moved forward with the occasional glance down at the text.  

I was so focused on the visual presentation that I didn’t notice until much later that the technical issue had been resolved and that the County Executive was now able to look directly at the audience (both in person and virtually) as he spoke. It wasn’t magic or a some kind of party trick. It was people working together to address an unexpected challenge. Now, just how people do that can be very telling. What I saw last night inspired confidence. 

It could have been a disaster. How they all handled together it made a big difference.

Now that I think about it, the entire State of the County speech highlighted how true that has been for us in Howard County over the last year. To call the COVID-19 pandemic an unexpected challenge would be a colossal understatement. It naturally influenced every aspect of Howard County life. I found it very telling that Dr. Ball took every opportunity to lift up the good work of others, honor collaboration, and express gratitude for those in public service and in the community.

I walked away from the evening feeling how profoundly interconnected every bit of progress has been and how important it is for us as citizens to know that. Good government is only possible through partnerships and persistence. You keep at things until they get fixed. Good leadership shows in those who easily give credit where it is due.

I can’t remember his exact words, but, at some point in the speech County Executive Ball said something very much like Michael McCall’s statement that “progress has many parents.” It said a lot to me that the overall theme of the evening (to me, at least) is that it takes all of us to make things happen. 

What a challenging, terrifying, heartbreaking year it has been. It frankly seems unlikely that we could be making any progress at all. There are many in our community who are struggling and many who mourn. Yet, in the midst of that, we have people in local government, community service, and ordinary citizens who’ve kept on showing up, kept moving forward, giving their best work to make our county and its residents safer and more whole.

Last night was, to me, a celebration of how every little thing they did became the big things which benefit us all and make us proud. And how important it is to say that and honor it.