Village Green/Town²

  Village Green/Town² is on what I hope will be a limited break. Sending love to all my readers and hope for a way out of the darkness. - - jam

 

  We are close to one of the well-known rituals of the Columbia year: the Fourth of July fireworks. We all know they are at the Lakefront. We know they are sponsored by Howard County and that all are welcome. There will be announcements about when it is permissible to come down to the Lakefront and stake out one’s spot with a blanket. There will be folks who disregard this.  Afterwards there will be complaints about the traffic or the parking or something or other that was displeasing and inconvenient. Perhaps this is why there are alternative viewing spots around town that provide a good-enough view without the hassle. Many are shared by word of mouth. Some are whispered only among close friends, like the secret knock at a speakeasy. In my neighborhood the elementary school nearby has been such a gathering place over the years. (I don’t think it is anymore since the reconfiguration of the school’s footprint.) It has taken on its own personality, its own festival atmosphere wh...

  Friends, watching people cheer suffering is breaking me.  I have entered a new phase of doubting the world can go on. And yet…and yet. People are getting up today and going to work. Bookstores and libraries will be inviting us to read. Childcare workers will nurture children, restaurants will feed people, hospitals will treat the sick, and people will keep going to work. Except the people who have no more jobs because of DOGE. Or those who have been kidnapped and disappeared by ICE. Or those who need to work but are afraid to leave their homes because of same. People work in most cases because they must. And the more desperate they become (and/or the more ignorant) the more easily they will be conquered. Not by a foreign adversary but by native bigotry and greed.  Because in desperation you have no choice. Those of us who still have a sliver of choice are called to take on more. I’m moved by local examples and I suspect there are plenty we don’t see.  People in our...