(River Hill) Money Makes the World Go ‘Round

Posted on August 31, 2020November 1, 2020 by Jenny

I updated this piece on October 24. In an election year, scrutiny of campaign finance reports is nothing new. People want to know who is donating cash and gifts to candidates and why. This year, a small subset of Howard County residents, still upset about last year's school redistricting process, are convinced that greedy real estate developers are pumping cash into Board of Education campaigns in exchange for influence. The conspiracy theory is that the $650 donated by Howard Hughes is b...

District 4: Say No to Sezin Palmer (Part 3)

Posted on August 27, 2020August 29, 2020 by Jenny

Sezin Palmer is an unsuitable candidate to represent District 4 on the Board of Education in Howard County. This is the final post in a multi-part series discussing the reasons why. In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I presented Sezin’s own words and behaviors as evidence that she is not the benevolent, non-partisan candidate she makes herself out to be. This evidence revealed her to be a right-wing, conservative candidate, fueled by anti-redistricting senti...

District 4: Say No to Sezin Palmer (Part 2)

Posted on August 19, 2020August 27, 2020 by Jenny

Sezin Palmer is an unsuitable candidate to represent District 4 on the Board of Education in Howard County. This is a multi-part series discussing the reasons why. See Part 3 here. I recently saw a home in District 4 with several signs in the front yard. Signs for “Hate Has No Home Here,” Black Lives Matter, a rainbow flag, Joe Biden... and one for Sezin Palmer. This baffling incongruity demonstrates how successful Sezin is in misrepresenting herself to heavily Democratic and liberal Distr...

District 4: Say No to Sezin Palmer (Part 1)

Posted on August 13, 2020August 19, 2020 by Jenny

Sezin Palmer is an unsuitable candidate to represent District 4 on the Board of Education in Howard County. This is a multi-part series discussing the reasons why. See Part 2 here. I don’t know about you, but I had never heard of Sezin Palmer until last fall, when she and many other Howard County residents had a collective aneurysm over the idea of redistricting to better integrate our schools by socioeconomic status. The first time I saw her name was shortly after Howard County Public ...

Let’s Talk Redistricting (Part II)

Posted on July 17, 2020August 19, 2020 by Jenny

This is a two-part series reflecting on the 2019 HCPSS redistricting process. In Part I of my series on redistricting, I explained my position on the 2019 HCPSS redistricting process, and I stated that I while I supported the plan, I understood much of the opposition to it. Today, I’m going to discuss opposition that had a different, distinctly malignant flavor. This opposition was at best disingenuous and at worst covertly racist, characterized by vitriol filled with half-truths...