Hyperlocal Micronews

In area micronews, I have seen the vehicle used for repainting stripes in area crosswalks and it is adorable. It looks rather like a ride-around mower. It was paying a visit to the Oakland Mills Village Center the other day so I expect our crosswalks there are now all spruced up and easy to see. For that matter, I finally caught a glimpse of the mini-vehicle used to clear debris from the bike lane on Oakland Mills Road. I wonder if they are the same vehicle with different attachments?

Two stories I cannot offer any in-depth coverage of: a clown parade at Lake Elkhorn and a chicken found in the Merriweather District. They are both the kind of stories that make my heart sing but I don’t have much more than that at the moment. If you do, let me know.

I stopped by the Columbia Association table at Howard County Pride to let them know I enjoy the weekly newsletter. I was introduced to Ashley, who is responsible for CA’s social media. I told her I wrote a community blog and she said, “Are you Julia?” which was unexpected and, honestly, kind of nice. If you’re interested in staying current with Columbia Association activities, scroll down to the bottom of this page and subscribe.

There’s a high school marching band extravaganza tonight at Hammond High School beginning at 6:00 pm. Recommended donation is five dollars. Nine Columbia/HoCo schools are participating.

The Community Ecology Institute is holding their big annual fundraiser tonight at Freetown Farm. Tickets to the event are already sold out but you can support them by bidding on items in their Silent Auction.

There’s a Housing Resources Fair today beginning with a Housing Rally at 4 pm at the Nonprofit Collaborative on Patuxent Woods Drive. Apparently there’s going to be a Big Announcement but I have no idea what that is and it would probably be cheating for me to ask to be told in advance of the event.

Do you have any micronews to share? Did someone on your street repaint their house? New business in your Village Center? Kerfuffles in your cul-de-sac? Keep me posted.

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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...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

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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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