Drawing Red Lines

Posted on October 6, 2020October 28, 2020 by Jenny

The esteemed moderator of Howard County Neighbors United, who is locally famous for his verbosity and pedantry, recently posted this uncharacteristically terse criticism of District 4 Board of Education candidate Jen Mallo. He took issue with Ms. Mallo’s statement in a recent candidate forum that “During redistricting, we saw groups that wanted to draw red lines around certain communities,” his objection being that the use of a phrase that describes racist housing policy perpetuates the “divis...

It’s Time to Vote, Howard County

Posted on October 2, 2020October 28, 2020 by Jenny

Ballots are beginning to arrive in mailboxes, and ballot drop boxes are in place. It’s time to vote, Howard County, but please read this first. Today, the League of Women Voters of Howard County held a candidate forum for our local Board of Education candidates, a prime opportunity to watch all the candidates as a group debate several important topics. The candidates’ performances so perfectly embodied what I’ve been saying about them all year, so I’m going to present a debate analysis and...

Who Are We Really Policing?

Posted on September 14, 2020September 14, 2020 by Jenny

If you haven’t seen Ava DuVernay’s Netflix documentary 13th, and if you haven’t read Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, they’re both excellent, eye-opening resources for anyone looking to form an opinion on police officers in Howard County public schools. Some of you may be wondering why I didn’t suggest resources having to do with Columbine, Sandy Hook, or Parkland. That’s because I don’t necessarily believe that school shootings are the reason why there are police officers in HCP...

(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...