All Things Great and Small

I’ve written before about how much I appreciate the regular newsletters from my county council representative, Calvin Ball. The combination of frequent communication from his office plus the high level of constituent service has served to keep me engaged with the important goings-on in my community.

Well, sitting in my email inbox right now is the pièce de resistance of newsletters. It is the annual, back to school edition.

The Calvin Ball Bulletin, Back to School Edition

All the schools. All the things you need to know in one place. And it even includes information about Howard Community College!

A few things you’ll find:

• School supplies
• PTA info
• School closing links 
• BOE cluster assignments
• Kindergarten registration 
• Redistricting updates

But, as they say in the infomercials, that’s not all! Wait, there’s more! 

Take a look for yourself. These annual education-focused newsletters go back to 2013, lest you think this is an election-year gambit. If you want to be really impressed, take a look at the newsletter page of Dr. Ball’s County website at all the newsletters he’s been sending out as a part of his service to the community while on the County Council. It’s mind-boggling.

Why is this important to me? These newsletters are a part of a record of constituent service and community engagement that have made a meaningful impact throughout Dr. Ball’s years of service on the Council. Seeing one’s council member at a council meeting or at a political function is such a thin slice of what they do. Leadership is not about going places to see and be seen, although the burden of being obliged to do so weighs heavily upon public servants and candidates. 

Often the most accurate measure of leadership is that quiet, unglamorous work that goes on behind the scenes: listening, bringing people together, educating, informing, responding. Howard County blogger Bill Woodcock of The 53 blog talks about innovation and courage as crucial qualities in the upcoming County Executive race.  I agree.

But innovation and courage need roots to be meaningful and successful.

I’d add that those aren’t stand-alone qualities when it comes to Calvin Ball. They are inextricably linked to his years of getting to know his community and making constituent service and constituent education a priority. This means a lot to me. I’ve always known that I can trust him in the big things because, time and again, he has done his homework on the small things.

Music to my Ears

Anyone who knows me well is aware that I’ve long been promoting a certain idea for a local playground: musical play equipment. The idea first came to me when the Columbia Association was looking at possible plans to revitalize Symphony Woods.

Facebook memories reminded me that on this date in 2011 I suggested this for the park that was being planned in Symphony Woods: a musical playground. I still want this!

My interest in musical play equipment was sparked when my sister used a company called Freenotes Harmony Park to provide a piece for a garden in memory of our mother at a new preschool started by her church. As a musician and an early childhood teacher I loved the idea of adding a musical component to outdoor play.

From that moment on I have been harping on adding pieces from Freenotes to anyone who would listen. Many’s the social media post or email from me that contained the link to Freenotes. 

Last week I read the article in the Howard County Times on groundbreaking for the latest section of Blandair Park. 

Blandair’s next phase has a focus on inclusive play , Janene Holzberg

I was excited to see that the majority of the equipment will be special needs-friendly. This is an excellent and much-needed addition to outdoor play choices in our community. And then, these words leapt out at me:

She also noted that musical instruments called Free Notes comprise a feature that sensitivity experts say will relieve stress and soothe park patrons. These include cymbals, chimes and drums.

I could not have been more surprised and delighted. I’d love to think that my continued public hints had something to do with this, but that’s probably not the case. I didn’t have any contact, as far as I know, with the planning committee on this project. So I can’t take credit. I’ll just have to settle for being tickled pink.

Now the hard part will be waiting for construction to be compete. I’ve waited since 2011, what’s two more years in the grand scheme of things?

The official groundbreaking for this phase of the park is Wednesday morning at 9 am. The public is invited to attend.

It’s Broke, Part Two

Like many privileged white Americans, I started looking at police violence against people of color only very recently, probably during the summer of Ferguson. And then came the Baltimore uprising in response to the death of Freddie Gray. Once I saw it I couldn’t unsee it.

While I have never liked football, and it was easy for me to see beyond the hype, I had been raised to believe that police were good and fair and there to protect me. And to protect everyone, I thought. It has been more difficult for me to overcome that mindset and see beyond it.

The story of a football player dying because of heatstroke caused by a conditioning drill is the story of a system that failed to protect its most vulnerable. The story of a man viciously beaten by a police officer while his partner failed to intervene is the same. The abuse is not in the hands of one person, but rather is perpetuated by the system as a whole.

In the case of Baltimore, the locations where people live and how they are treated by police are deeply rooted in the Redlining of the 1930’s. The end result is what is called locally, the White L and the Black Butterfly.   And redlining was steeped in racism, pure and simple.

What happened to Freddie Gray was not an anomaly. It was the way the system works. It doesn’t take much effort to find other examples of systemic abuse. The criminal activity of officers in the Gun Trace Task Force. The murder of Detective Suiter and the subsequent shutting down of a black neighborhood in the name of an investigation.

Another shared thread between the two stories is the movement amongst football players to take a knee against police violence. They are asking us to look at the systematic brutality which targets people of color and they are using their status as football players to highlight their message. Not surprisingly, the “system” of football is uncomfortable, if not downright hostile, to their actions.

Never do you see one person acting alone. It is the whole organization at work. The same can be said of football. If you put certain ingredients together and reward certain outcomes, this is the system you will create. And once established, the organization will move to preserve itself at all costs.

Can we be brave enough to look at broken systems and call them out for what they are? What if we see what they are and we still just don’t want to let go? That’s probably a sign that we aren’t the ones who are suffering.

Not Helping

From former police officer Larry Smith @kid_lawrence :

Arresting addicts doesn’t help address addiction. Arresting drug dealers doesn’t either. Sending an armed cop, or several, to deal with someone having a mental health crisis isn’t an answer to anything. The cops shouldn’t be involved.

Baltimore needs ACTUAL social services. It needs to address homelessness and unemployment. It needs to provide children with hope and opportunity. Or we could start small and heat and air condition the schools

All of these things cost money. HOW ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR ALL THAT??  Oh.... look at this 500 million dollar police budget. 

We (the USA) incarcerate people for petty nonsense. Jails are full of people who are addicted to drugs, are too poor to pay some arbitrary fine, who committed non-violent drug offenses. Oh, not to mention the scores of people wrongfully convicted or talked into a plea.

People need to think outside of the box. Police departments in so many cities operate like an occupying force. In certain neighborhoods at least. The people in Baltimore who live in Roland Park or Guilford aren’t asked for their ID whenever they leave the house.

They aren’t pulled over on a nightly basis for driving a “nice car.” The BPD is not serving the community. It is harming it. And no matter how many therapy dogs they buy or how many pictures of cops playing with kids they post on social media, that reality won’t change.

And before I get the cop trolls (the ones I haven’t blocked) YEP. I did it too. I bought into this shit hook, line and sinker. I locked up addicts for my quick and easy stats. I pulled cars over for headlights out, brake lights, etc.

I made trespassing arrests for guys chilling on the steps of vacants. I was a complete prick most of the time. That shit will eat away at your soul after a while but so many cops don’t realize it or won’t acknowledge it. 

I thought the “war on drugs” was real. I thought I was helping. I wasn’t. Cops don’t help society. Killing unarmed people, tasering 11 years olds and 87 year olds isn’t helping. Things need to change.

*****

Think it over. I’ll be back tomorrow with part two of “It’s Broke”.

You can read more from Larry Smith here .

Judge Not

Apologies to my readers. I’m still working on Part Two of “It’s Broke”. Look for that tomorrow,

Something to think about today: this response from writer Melinda D. Anderson:

This data refutes a widespread (and ignorant) belief in schooling that Black families “don’t value education.” Instead, what most educators value (signing forms, checking homework, room parents, etc.) is not a valid measure of importance of education for Black parents & families.

Black parents are out here taking their children to plays, visiting museums, going to the zoo, and engaged in all kinds of education-related activities. Yet y’all will still say “They don’t care about education” because a Black parent missed teacher conf. held during the workday.

Here’s the data, a report released by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics.

Here’s more about Ms. Anderson:

Why am I sharing this? As we head into back to school mode, I think it’s important to make sure we examine our attitudes about parenting and education. One size doesn’t fit all. It’s a mistake to see everyone through the same lens. It’s wise to take a look at that same old lens you have been using, too. Does it seem to tune out people who are different than you are? (Sorry, that’s a mixed metaphor beyond repair.)

The parent who does not come to a conference during the work day may not be disengaged from their child’s education. They may not have the ability to leave work. Being able to do so is a privilege not everyone has. Or they may be responsible for the care of very young children or an elderly relative and have no back up to fill in for them. 

Can you think of other ways we make assumptions about parents that may show a lack of understanding? How do we shortchange students and families by jumping to these conclusions? How can we do better?

It’s Broke, Part One

Two separate stories are vying for attention in my brain. And it seems to me that they are the same story.

Story number one: the death of a college football player from the University of Maryland and the subsequent focus on the toxic culture of football in College Park. The coach has been placed on administrative leave. A member of the training staff has been fired.

Story number two: the video of a Baltimore Police Officer viciously beating a man on a Baltimore street while his partner does little to intervene. The officer was suspended with pay. (He has since resigned and been criminally charged.)

The world of football at UMD and that of policing in Baltimore are steeped in a culture of violence. The particulars are not exactly the same, but the sickness goes deep, to its core. I don’t believe, in either case, that it’s a few bad apples that ruin it for everyone else. Both are deeply and thoroughly infected by destructive attitudes. It’s not a bug in the system, as they say. It is the system. It’s baked right in.

I have not come to this conclusion overnight.

Football has long been a hotbed of toxic masculinity. In high schools football often takes precedence over many other aspects of school life. Often schools and parents look the other way at incidents of alcohol or drug use and sexual assault by players. 

Look at what happens when we combine that with all the money involved in college football.  It drives a motivation for winning at any cost and we see, time and again, what those costs really are. College players whose well-being is sacrificed, whose education is secondary. 

In the pros the players’ bodies are destroyed and their right to exercise free speech is mocked and sanctioned. The powers that be will tolerate a certain amount of substance abuse, violence against women and sexual assault, but often draw the line at being gay or speaking out against police violence.

On top of all this, the ongoing research into traumatic brain injury and the many human examples who bear it out are reason enough to declare this a broken system.  

I was in an online discussion about the UMD incident where one man said,

All of football has got to go. NFL, college, high school. Shut it all down.

The response to his comment was, essentially,  “Dude! Let’s not go that far.”

He went on. (Shared with permission)

You can't keep running a system where coaches are paid huge sums of money, which forces them to take a game so super-seriously that they wind up pushing children to the point of exhaustion or death. The only good solution is to stop being a Division I football school. Hire a less intense coach for way less money, and make it clear that, as a school, we don't really care about wins and losses. We just want the children to have a healthy and balanced experience. If you do anything short of that, you're just signalling that you're okay with a system which is intentionally designed to chew up and destroy young bodies and brains. 

I have been struggling all week with how to fit this into one post, and now I have reached the conclusion that I can’t.The second part of this story deserves its own post. 

Today, football. Tomorrow, Baltimore Police and what connects the two.

Getting Lucky With Dinner

We couldn’t figure out what to do about dinner last night. So we fell back on our old standby: Lucky’s China Inn, located in the nearby Oakland Mills Village Center. It’s possible I was influenced in this choice by reading this comprehensive piece by The Unmanly Chef.

Inside Your Local Chinese Restaurant - Hunan Legend

It’s well worth the read.

Do you have a favorite local Chinese restaurant? Who are they, and why do you like them? Is it proximity to your home or a particular dish they do well? It seems that, at least in Columbia, the purpose of Village Centers was to give everyone their own Chinese take out place. How does that work beyond the Columbia bubble?

My apologies for over-sleeping this morning. I’ll set an alarm tomorrow!

The Weight of Womanhood

The other day I read a comment from a man who took issue with the qualifications of a local political candidate based on her physical appearance. Are you kidding me? The candidate, already a public servant with a documented record of service, clearly had a major thing going against her here: she’s a woman.

Women continue to be held to a ridiculous standard as regards physical appearance. In all cases it has nothing to do with their qualifications or ability for the task at hand. Yet time and again they are judged by how appealing they are to the male gaze, as if that is their primary reason for existing.

Then there are the perennial questions about “how will you balance your career with your role as a wife and mother?” that never seem to be asked of men. These questions shift the focus from women’s ideas and goals to being forced to go on the defensive as somehow derelict in their “womanly duties.”

Oh, wait! I almost forgot: “she should smile more” “she’s too directive” “difficult” “unpleasant” and, you know...”b****”.

We have quite a few women running for office in Howard County right now. I happen to think that’s a good thing. I wonder how they feel every time their message is derailed by sexist questions and remarks. I know how I would feel. I would want to be taken seriously and I would feel frustration that, merely because I was a woman, many people didn’t feel I was worthy of that.

A man strides into a room and speaks his mind.

A woman, wearing a peacock blue cocktail dress, married to this man, mother of these children, speaks in a strident tone about something. I don’t remember what. She was emotional.

That is quite a bit of garbage to be forced to carry around, don’t you think? Other people’s stereotypes and expectations are foisted upon any woman who seeks to be a leader. And it’s not only in politics, either. In the private sector, in non-profits, and elsewhere women must fight to be taken as seriously as a man.

But then they are chastised for putting up a fight.

Let’s All Go

The talk of the town yesterday was this photo shared by Black Flag Brewing Company. A tip of the hat to Elevate Maryland’s Tom Coale for bring it to my attention.

The caption reads:

 This sign was put up about the same time as we released a 13.1% beer... not saying its our fault but someone clearly didn’t share their bottle of Double Barrel Black Mage... #SharingIsCaring #LetsGoToTheMallumbia

Yes, I just had to know if this was real or photoshop, so my daughter and I went down there to check. And it is the real deal. Located in a cross street to the right of the Metropolitan, the sign proudly announces, The Mallumbia in Col”.

What the heck? Has it always been wrong or is this the result of a prank? It appears that the sign must be made up of three sections and they were assembled incorrectly. But why would this have escaped notice until now?

I am wondering if this sign will now draw eager locals hoping to take their pictures with it for a bit of fun. Will Mallumbia become a hashtag? A trending topic? Will people write letters to the editor of the Columbia Flier complaining about the shoddy implementation of Downtown Development?

If there is any more to this story, rest assured that I will bring it to you. In the meantime, I just had a thought. Could the”in Col” be a hint that the perpetrator of this mix up is none other than Col Gateway? Has anyone seen him lately?

Hmm...

Fair Wanderings

Thursday night I went with my family to the Howard County Fair. I was extremely grateful that it wasn’t as hot as the first time I went several years ago. Maryland’s heat and humidity in August just does not agree with me. But Thursday night was manageable.

My husband and I spent time looking at animals, floral displays, awards for jams and jellies, and so on. We talked to a friend from church who comes with her needlework group every year. We observed families of all sorts out for an evening of fun. We stopped to listen to a visiting brass group playing a medley from “Jersey Boys.” We feasted on food from the St. Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church booth, as recommended by blogger Annierie.

I took a boatload of photos but, after much consideration, I’m going to share just one.

These two, in separate pens, snuggled as close as possible and nuzzling eachother through the bars. I wonder what the fair experience is like for them? 

Down But Not Out

The last time we had WiFi at home was some time Thursday evening. Today Verizon is sending someone out and I suspect a new router is in our future. When we lost internet a few weeks ago I jumped to the conclusion that there had been a nefarious takeover of social media. This time I just felt irked. 

Things I have done since our internet went haywire: washed and sundried a large quantity of stuffed plush animals that I am hoping to rehome in the near future. (Need any? Contact me.) I’ve read more of my assigned summer reading from work, but it’s slow going. I watched Coco with my family. (My husband hadn’t seen it yet.) It’s highly unlikely that we would have done that if internet had been an option. 

My husband and daughter took a big bag of clothing I had decluttered from the bedroom over to Goodwill and came home with a few treasures of their own. Funny how that works. I’ve been sorting though the photos I took at the Howard County Fair Thursday night, trying to decide how to use them in a blog post. My daughter is working on vocal arrangements for her school a cappella group. My husband is building St. Basil’s Cathedral from a Nano Bricks kit.

Occasionally I check Facebook and Twitter from my phone on LTE but the battery runs down pretty quickly. I see a controversy about local politics and I feel strangely detached. I am reminded how dependent I am on electronic devices and how I need more hobbies.

I’ve cleared out the bookcase next to my bed and I’m organizing all my children’s books in one place, so I can find them for work. If I get truly ambitious, the craft books will be up next. We have a box near the door for books to take down the the Little Free Library at the Village Center. Maybe we’ll do that today.

The occasional emails from coworkers remind me that vacation is fast coming to an end. There’s still a few home projects and doctors’ appointments to accomplish. Perhaps a jolt in the Internet was a good reminder that I have other things to do and that it’s good to have more than one way way to look at my world.

I’m still irked though. 

No Comment

Big news! I learned it in a tweet:

The Baltimore Sun has closed the comment section on its articles and my satisfaction with life has already significantly increased.

Yes, it’s true.

Certain local folks, especially a particular former BOE member, are going to have to get a new hobby.

I shut down the comments section directly attached to the blog a while back. I was no longer willing to tolerate trolls who could easily create false identities to say things they’d never dare say in daylight. I direct all my commenters to the blog’s page on Facebook. It may have cut down on the overall quantity of comments, but it has made a difference for the better. 

In order to comment here, you have to be willing to stand behind your words with your identity. I don’t think that, in the case of a small, local blog, that this is an overly burdensome hurdle to clear. 

The ability to post under pseudonyms can be extremely useful for protecting privacy. I get that. These days an employer can scan your social media for unsuitable opinions. And there are crazy people who will trace your name to your location and do you harm. 

Be that as it may, a very dark side of humanity turns up in the comment section. And these people are “why we can’t have nice things” as the saying goes. This is the second recent change to the BaltSun comment policy. Clearly the structure they put in place to monitor the problem was not as successful as they had hoped.

I have read the occasional insightful comment on the Baltimore Sun website. On the other hand, I also learned to my surprise that I was married to a wealthy Howard County developer and that I was a moron. And that’s mild compared to what other locals have endured. 

You may be able to get a refund for your “points”, whatever they are, but you will never, ever, get back the time you spent reading the comments. In the meantime, feel free to comment here:

https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=bookmarks

Good Stuff

Congratulations to Tom and Cindy Quick, of Cindy’s Spirits, who have, at long last, received the license for the Loft. This is truly a testament to their persistence. I was also heartened by the folks who gave testimony on their behalf at the Liquor Board hearing. The Quicks have clearly earned a trusted place in their community and I feel good about the work they will do in Columbia in their new venture.

Congratulations, too, to Dan Medinger who has purchased the Baltimore Business Journal from owners Becky Magnus and Cathy Yost. I’m all in favor of anyone who believes in local newspapers these days.

I see that the Howard County Library is bring the Undesign the Redline exhibit to their Central Branch. I highly recommend it. Beginning August 16th you will be able to tour the interactive exhibit, which:

...explores the history of structural racism and classism, how these designs compounded each other from redlining maps until today, and how we can come together to undesign these systems with intentionality. (Taken from HCLS event announcement)

I had an opportunity to visit the exhibit when it was at the Enterprise Foundation’s headquarters, and it is truly fascinating. The library is hosting it as a part of its Choose Civility initiative. Please go and tell me what you think.

A belated congratulations to local podcaster extraordinaire and friend of the blog Candace Dodson Reed on her appointment as Chief of Staff at UMBC. You may recall she spear-headed the HoCoForward slate for Democratic Central Committee, which swept the primary. This week she announced her resignation from the DCC, which I know will be quite a loss for the team. I very much admire her ability to make this wise choice in the face of her new job assignment and not overextend herself. It can’t have been easy.

Tomorrow evening I will be braving the wilds of Western HoCo to attend the Howard County Fair. Please send me your suggestions as to what I should see and do.

Lighten Up

I can’t remember what the subject was, but one of my oldest, dearest friends recently responded to something I said by replying, “Lighten up.”

Boy, did that ever tick me off. For some reason I don’t appreciate being told to lighten up. Perhaps that is a sign that I take myself too seriously. Perhaps I have a good reason. Who knows?

At any rate, as an attempt to follow this sage advice, I am opening a completely unofficial search for new topics for the Howard Readers’ Poll. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

Best local place to get out of the house with an infant if you are just losing your mind:

Target

______ write-in vote

Best local place that doesn’t exist anymore that you are still mad about:

Welcome Center

______ write in vote

Best Columbia pool to go to if you hate kids:

_______ (not my wheelhouse)

_______write-in vote

Best Non-traditional place to watch Fourth of July Fireworks:

Talbott Springs Elementary School

______write-in vote

Best local Bouncy Castle:

Do they even have bouncy castles any more or have they been replaced by trampoline towns?

So, there you have it. Can you think of some addditional categories that would make you and your friends burst out laughing if you saw them in the Howard Readers’ Poll?

Submit them here:

https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=bookmarks

Category 61

Ahhh...category 61. It sounds vaguely mysterious, like Area 51. It’s actually quite straightforward, though. Category 61 is the newest incarnation of my annual attempt to put this blog in the win column in the Howard Readers’ Poll sponsored by Howard Magazine.

This is the link to the poll.

This is category 61.

  

I can’t explain why I continue to pursue this particular accolade. It has become my yearly Charlie Brown/Lucy/Football experience. Perhaps that should have taught me that some things are not worth caring about, but, here we go again.

I care deeply about the work I put in on the blog. I value the opinion of my readers. It’s that simple.

You can vote once per device, so it won't be a major time commitment. While you are there you can vote in plenty of other local categories as well. At the end of the poll you have an opportunity to write in your ideas for a new category. I have a suggestion: how about best Howard County Podcast?

The Most Precious Thing

I have not led a perfect life. I didn’t do particularly well in school. My first marriage crumbled. I had extreme difficulty making ends meet during my years as a single parent. My house is not ready for visitors at all times, shall we say. I’m not the best at going out and socializing.

But I have my good name.

People who know me from blogging, or teaching, or my work in the community have heard generally positive things about what I stand for. I feel good about that. I have worked hard in my career and in the community to be helpful, honest, supportive, trustworthy. I’m constantly trying to improve, but at my core I feel good about what I do and why I do it.

What happens when someone steals your good name?

Imagine that you woke up to discover that you were falsely accused, those accusations were leaked to the press, and everyone in town was reading about them. Imagine that these accusations negated everything you had worked for years to stand for. Imagine that there was no way to refute the claims without violating the terms of legal agreements and confidentiality concerns.

Got that? Do you feel that hot shame of seeing horrible and untrue things about yourself in the newspaper? Do you feel the sense of helplessness at being unable to defend yourself?

Probably not. If we are lucky this will never happen to us. But, thanks to whomever leaked a confidential (and highly unprofessional) report to the Baltimore Sun, and to the reporter who shared it without adequate research, Board of Education members Cindy Vaillancourt and Christina Delmont-Small are doing just that. Everything about this smacks of careful direction from a former disgruntled employee whose hallmark was bullying and spreading falsehoods about perceived adversaries. Anyone who has done their homework and put this into the context of the much bigger picture sees this.

The stories that ought to be all over the pages of the newspaper are about misappropriation of funds, bullying of staff, mistreatment of special education parents, coverup of mold in schools that was causing chronic illness for students and staff. Now that would be real news based on actual facts. The reason you aren’t reading about it is that 1) the Board of Education entered into a non-disparagement agreement with the former superintendent, and 2) their priority is doing their actual job taking care of the school system.

Keeping your word and doing your job aren’t front page news, apparently.

I have to believe that the truth will come out and that Ms. Vaillancourt and Ms. Delmont-Small will be thoroughly vindicated.

But where do they go to repair the damage to their good names?

The Neighborhood of Make Believe

I wrote a tongue in cheek piece a while back about what fun it would be to have action figures of the People Tree. It’s safe to say that not everyone thought that would be a good idea. I still think it would be cool to be able to collect one’s own Neighborhood of Make Believe play set which included the People Tree, a few other Lakefront Sculptures, The Chrysalis, Merriweather, the Rouse Building, and perhaps even the Mall. And a little Colum-bus as the Trolley? Exquisite.

Clearly my recent viewing of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, which is a documentary film about the legendary children’s program creator Fred Rogers, has influenced my view of Columbia as the Neighborhood of Make Believe. Sometimes it feels as though we are living in that sort of stylized Make Believe world and just moving the pieces around to see what will happen.  Although I’d say that most of the time we do this with far too much seriousness and no where near enough of a sense of play.

Mr. Rogers knew how important play was in the life of children. He understood the value of creating a pretend environment where children could safely examine their feelings about new or challenging happenings or ideas. I’d argue that adults need to allow themselves the same opportunty. We all become so serious about our particular issues and it is hard to be flexible or have a sense of humor about them.

Oh how difficult it is for grown ups to take ourselves less seriously. To allow for other points of view. To imagine other solutions.

We don’t play enough. Adulthood doesn’t encourage it. We need to push back and make room for it. People who allow for the “what ifs?”and “what would happen if we?” are the great creators we all admire. Rouse, for instance. Or Disney, his well-known contemporary. But folks like that seem to do better being admired in retrospect. When we bump into someone in the here and now who is trying to bring joy into the picture and challenge the status quo we hardly give them the hero’s welcome.

All of this is a rather roundabout way of saying that, if you want a People Tree Action Figure, you will have to use your imagination and make your own. I saw a few possibilities at the new Home Sense store in Columbia Crossing.

Classic:

Rustic:

 

If you want to be a part of a better Columbia you will need to use your imagination to make that, too.

Trying Trifecto

I was headed home from a meeting at work and thought I might pop in the Dunkin Donuts in Clarksville for a large iced coffee when I remembered that there was a new place in town that I had wanted to try.

Trifecto.

It’s a part of the new Common Kitchen concept going in at Clarksville Commons. One of the owners is a graduate of Howard County Schools, I hear. I knew I could get coffee there. I checked their website to see if I could perhaps get something to go along with it. Hmm...grilled cheese wasn’t really what I had in mind. Maybe some kind of pastry?

I decided to go and find out.

When I walked in it didn’t much look like anything was open. There’s construction going on in the space at the front, but I spied what looked like a shop in the background, so I kept going.

A friendly fellow greeted me and I was happy to see a case of scones on the counter. 

  

He directed me to a menu. They clearly intend to specialize in a few things and do them well.

 

I chose a mocha chocolate chip scone. It was just right. Not too sweet. I decided to stay right there instead of taking it with me.

 

I had a nice chat with my server about the other spaces that will be going in the Common Kitchen. It sounds amazing. I can’t wait to see it all in action. I’ve been impressed by all the activity in Clarksville Commons: farmers market, school groups performing, live music nights, movies in the courtyard and so on. I love their commitment to community place-making. It is shaping up to be what I think a real Village Center ought to be.

Trifecto is getting foot traffic from the other businesses in Clarksville Commons, but they are looking forward to getting the word out to the larger community. I’m thinking that once school starts Trifecto will see an influx of River Hill students looking for a cool new hangout.

Give Trifecto a try. Let me know what you think.

It’s Not in the Article

We all love the the press until they write something we don’t like. I certainly read something that I don’t like this morning.

Howard County human rights investigator accuses some school board members of discrimination, homophobia by Tim Prudente

Here’s the thing. It’s not “Fake News”.  It’s not all of the news. It certainly appears that Mr. Prudente has had certain people driving the narrative as his work progressed. I’m sure he did the best he could. I’m trying to be charitable here.

The flaw in these accusations against board members Christina Delmont-Small and Cindy Vaillancourt is, quite frankly, the two witnesses themselves. I’m not going to name names because you can read the article for yourself and I don’t want anyone to sue me. These two individuals have proven themselves to be anything but credible witnesses. They have a body of work in the community that proves otherwise.

I know this, and a lot of other people close to the school system know this, but apparently the human rights investigator doesn’t know this and neither does Mr. Prudente. Let me put it this way: if I wanted to go up against the Board of Education and the school system, these are not the people I would want championing my cause.

As to the Board members themselves, well, how can you look at this accusation against Cindy Vaillancourt in a vacuum? Where is the connection between this example and all the other examples of the former administration and its allies alleging impropriety or malfeasance? This is a thread sadly neglected here. (Condoms, anyone?)  Time and time again Ms. Vaillancourt was the target of false accusations and the record of them is probably in the Howard County Times.

But it’s not in this article.

As for Ms. Delmont-Small, I suspect her real “crime” is persistently pressing the former administration for a financial transparency that they had no intention of providing. The record shows that her concerns for the finances of the school system were well founded. It also shows that those  who were running the school system during this time period did everything they could to thwart Ms. Delmont Small’s efforts to re-establish Board oversight.

But that’s not in this article.

It is my personal opinion that there are things that occurred during the former administration at hcpss that are very likely actionable. But a part of the severance agreement with the former superintendent stipulated that both sides would cease all litigation. The Board has moved on and is addressing the many challenges left on its plate.

It looks to me as though the former Superintendent has found a way around the “no litigation” requirement. After all, it probably doesn’t say anything about allies, co-workers or friends.

It’s not surprising to see the past administration come back into the news to make false claims about Board members. This action is right out of the playbook that marred our school system and damaged relationships with teachers, parents, and students. This is how people who disagreed were treated. This behavior is not new.

But that’s not in this article.

Again, it’s not “Fake News”. But it is absolutely not “all the news”. These accusations do our community a disservice. I sincerely hope to see them discredited thoroughly.

And then I’d like to read all about it in the newspaper.

Breakdown

CNN’s Jim Acosta posted a brief video clip of crowd reaction to media coverage at a recent Trump rally.

https://twitter.com/acosta/status/1024467940257738752?s=21

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy.

Closer to home a member of the Republican Central Committee has been wreaking havoc on the Howard County Facebook page, encouraging a confrontational social media “takedown” of a group member whose opinions differ with his own. The attitudes between the group Mr. Accosta shows us and that of the locals who consider it their mission to troll the Howard County Facebook page seem frighteningly similar.

But there’s a difference to me. And that difference is proximity. The fact that we have folks who are willing to go on the attack right here in Howard County is horrifying. It means that, wherever we are in our community, we may be sharing community space with people who are filled with hate, who want to destroy instead of build up. 

Angry and narrow-minded people have always existed but social media and the current presidential administration seem to have weaponized them to such a degree that the normal boundaries for accepted social behavior have disintegrated. When that happens, bullies seize control. 

Whether a working journalist or a long-suffering admin of a social media group, a person taking a stand for the rights of everyone to be heard without fear or persecution becomes a target for these bullies. They’re angry that their perceived truth is not accepted as the only truth, and they laugh at accepted social boundaries because they see them merely as tools used by the “losers” who disagree with them.

Respect for and kindness to our fellow creatures is for everyone. This is not some artificial construct designed for the purposes of social control. It is a way of living that allows people of many differing views to live and work together. It is a thread that runs through our Democracy, whether on a large scale or small.  

When we lose it our Democracy is threatened. Journalists work in fear and neighbors turn on neighbors.