Last night I got it into my head to put together a Halloween-esque post. What I had in mind was a compilation of Columbia-HoCo Horror Stories of years past. With a twist. I just may have been inspired by the Spirit Halloween costume meme going around.
So, here goes: the scariest tales in town (since I’ve been here, anyway.)
The Mysterious Disappearance of the Garlic Knots.
Some say their disappearance marked the beginning of the end for a popular Lakefront restaurant.
The Dreaded Aquaplan.
Columbia Association’s proposed overall of the local pool system caused nightmares and gnashing of teeth.
The People Who Might Move Into Your Neighborhood.
This horror story has grown ever more powerful in recent years. Some say it came from out of town.
The Bad Element.
Residents of one Columbia village lived in fear of The Bad Element that a new Walgreens would attract to their neighborhoods.
The Colonel Who Hated Geese.
What motivated that strange man in the old-fashioned military uniform to haunt Gateway and war with local wildfowl? We may never know.
The Year Without a Poinsettia Tree
Don’t tell this one right before bed. Many still shudder at the awful memory of the cars in the fountain bed and the appearance of the fiendishly evil Santastic.
*****
Okay, I’m done with the fun and games for the day. Here comes the real horror story.
In this year’s Board of Election Race we have two candidates whose positions on LGBTQ+ students and families in our school system could cause actual harm. That is scarier than any Halloween horror story I know of.
It is the mission of the school system to lift up and support all children. There can be no fudging on that, no qualifiers, no exceptions to the rule because certain parts of the community make you uncomfortable. We must not accept Board of Education candidates who say in both word and deed that all students are equal but “some are more equal than others.”
Read this piece by Howard County Progress Report to get a clear picture of what’s at risk.
Leave all the lights on. The thought of schools where LGBTQ+ kids are erased and unsafe is terrifying. These are the students who are most likely to be rejected by family, bullied at school, and are at greater risk for substance misuse, self-harm, and suicide. If anyone’s already lying awake imagining unknown horrors, it’s them.
When Halloween is over we put away the spooky and creepy things, the decorations and the scary stories. When this election is over, let’s make sure that we have put away any possibility of turning school into a house of horror.
Vote.
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Last night of CCC Restaurant Week! Today’s location is Eataliano in Phelps Luck.
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