Village Green/Town²

I once had what I thought was a delightful idea that a group like HoCo Rec & Parks should devise a camp where all activities would be reached by riding local public transportation, so that learning how to ride the bus was an integral part of the experience. If you want to change behavior, start with kids, I reasoned. This admittedly off-beat suggestion did not meet with an entirely positive reception.  In fact, one reader retorted that learning how to ride the bus was something children should be learning from their parents and that local government should have nothing to do with it. Well, then. I’m back today with somebody else’s idea. This one is aimed at adults. Baltimore resident Brian Seel is inviting you on his Brews and Bus Tour.   Seel, who had a recent brush with fame when he detailed how he manages to commute to Howard County without a car, posted the following on Twitter: Interested? Click on the Brews and Bus Tour link above. Basic details: ...

A friend of mine posted the following the other day: PSA: if you need to preface the thing you're about to say with, "I'm not a racist, but..."- don't. There's a reason you feel the need to qualify your remark, and that reason is the thing you'll be wanting to examine. Carefully. Honestly. We all need to be doing this work, it is the work of our time. I think she’s right. And there are plenty of future blog posts in that statement alone. I do believe it is the work of our time. I’m going to take the liberty of riffing on that theme to look at a similar turn of phrase, one that appears to be quite popular in Howard County: I do support affordable housing, but... A current example: Robinson Overlook . It’s causing a big stir on the Internet right now. I have come to the conclusion that, for some, the line of reasoning about new housing goes like this: These dreadful, expensive McMansions aren’t affordable to anyone. We really need more affor...

I came across, and then just as quickly lost, a post by Howard County teens on Twitter calling out the online behavior of students from Mount Hebron High School. They were making fun of a special needs student for not graduating. The conversation they had provided (via screenshot) went from ordinary mocking to vile in moments. (Found it. It’s from May 29th and the exchange took place on Instagram. I’m not going to share the screenshots because I don’t particularly want to give them a wider audience.) A few thoughts: *****What is it with Mount Hebron? *****Do we do enough in our schools to create an atmosphere of inclusion that extends beyond educational placement? What about social acceptance? *****At least there are students who see this happening and know it is wrong. I know that my daughter received multiple lectures during her schooling about how her online behavior could negatively impact her opportunities for higher education and employment. She’s tremendously consc...

I have been stewing about the right way to share this article and I’ve finally decided to jump in and just do it. Columbia parents vote with their bus; Believing older schools are inferior, they send children to newer one   by Gady A. Epstein and Erika D. Peterman for The Baltimore Sun This turned up in my Twitter feed as a reference from an author and it just blew my mind. This article is from 1999, the year I moved to Columbia. I had no idea. Why on earth did the school system allow this? And do we believe for one moment that the parents choice to “self-bus” their children was about the age of the facilities in question? “ We had fliers posted on our mailboxes: Your house values are going down beca use your kids are going to Wilde Lake Middle."  It’s not race, they say, pulling white children and sending them to a white school. “Concentrated poverty.” “Low test scores” “Unruly students” This was apparently an example of school parents using the no...

Let it hereby be known that, in the year 2019, I finally made it to the Lakefront to see the fireworks. Since moving here in 1999 I have gone through many stages in my relationship with the iconic Fourth of July event. Ooh, there are fireworks? But where are the fireworks? That’s got to be really crowded. That must be a thing for “real Columbians”. There probably won’t be any place to park. A few times I was invited to go down by real-live, genuine locals, but I chickened out. Maybe it was too hot, or rainy. It just never happened. In the meantime I enjoyed our local fireworks display from afar. When I first arrived it was still possible to see them from the top of our hill, or from a bedroom window. But then the trees got taller and blocked our view. So, for several years we enjoyed a pretty good view with some friends who had an “undisclosed location” for their Independence Day viewing. (I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. Sworn to secrecy.) Like most people, we did spend ...

On Sunday evening I sat in the audience at the Columbia Orchestra concert at the Chrysalis and I cried. I cried for my country. I cried for what we have become. And I cried for the injustices that we have always had and yet ignored. I cried because this man, Sola Fadiran, a graduate of Glenelg High School, introduced me to a song that rocked me to my core. From the Inner Arbor Trust website: This song is from the Broadway musical “ Ragtime ”.  Mr. Fadiran’s performance reached inside me. The words and music set visions churning of children in border camps, frightened and suffering, of Muslim families separated by travel bans, of Black families mourning deaths at the hands of police too quick to resort to tactics of violence and brutality.  I felt my face, hot with anger, as I thought about how so many go about their daily lives without concern for those who suffer. How could this country bring forth such people, who shrug at injustice because it d...

Looking for that tiny thread of inspiration this morning. I have a junk drawer of possible ideas (virtual, of course) but nothing looks good to me. Too heavy, too much research needed, too much “same old, same old”... Hmm. What about this? The Horizon Foundation asks: What's your BIG IDEA to spark social change in Howard County? It’s possible that I have a few ideas myself. But, since I’m looking for inspiration this morning, what do you think? Good old Wikipedia tells us that social change: ...involves alteration of the  social order  of a  society . It may include changes in  social institutions ,  social behaviours  or  social relations . What’s your big idea? Description