The 53

Participate in National Night Out Tonight!

Good Time Tuesday continues!  Besides now, my third, yes THIRD, positive post of the day, I also gave kudos to HoCo Rising guy's post being mentioned by the Sun, and I'm trying to make diet Coke come out the nose of a Planning Board member as he walks through a theme park.  Good times, people, good times!!!

So tonight is a really great night of the year.  It's National Night Out.  Communities all over the county, including several parts of Howard County, hold events in support of public safety and community awareness.  You can see Da Patch's article about it here.

You can certainly attend a NNO event in your community, or in a nearby community, or, just take the opportunity to spend the evening outside, possibly at the mall or a local restaurant or whatever!  The point is to support your community.  So DVR the tape-delayed Olympic highlights and get to it!

Congratulations to Councilman Ball

Wow-- two feel-good, positive posts in a row from good ol' MM!  What is this world coming to?  Although, if I ever start to adopt the attitude of ineptitude of others, and start writing banal posts about rainbow-colored unicorns that poop jellybeans, I will authorize someone (most likely Batgirl) to just euthanize me.

So what has me feeling good this morning, among other things, is this article by the uber-talented Lindsey McPherson.  Our very own Councilman Dr. Calvin Ball (that's PhD, mind you-- don't any of you go running to him to have him check out your oozing rash) is starting a statewide caucus of county-level minority elected officials.

Of course, it may be a good idea if efforts to bring more minority representation to the local level start, well, how about in our own backyard?  Council District 2, which is seen by many as a dedicated minority district (a belief I humbly think is a load of crap) has been the only council district to ever elect a non-white member.  And we have never had a nonwhite County Executive, State's Attorney, Sheriff, Clerk of the Court, or Register of Wills.  Those are only the highest countywide elected offices there are, people.

There have been minority elected members of the Judges of the Orphans Court, and, much has been said and written over recent years about issues related to minority representation in the School Board.

So, in a world where we think our land of milk and honey called Howard County, and Maryland, are colorblind, I would suggest that election results may state otherwise.  Councilman Ball's initiative is therefore timely and very much needed.