No Matter the Verb, Hostility is the Word

A reader sent me a picture he snapped while out and about in the County. It looks like Embrace Hostility has a little competition in the bumper sticker market...



That's ok, though. I hardly earn anything for each bumper sticker sold at the Embrace Hostility store. So long as people are doing something with Hostility, then we're in business.

This Movement Has Reached Ridiculous Proportions

Somehow, I got on television for this junk. Recently, I was interviewed by Kathleen Cairns of Fox 45 in Baltimore about this blog. She and I talked for 25 minutes or so, and I got about 20 seconds in the piece. It's TV - that's how it works.

I found my part of it hilarious that was the 20 seconds that she chose. Seriously, it was A Current Affair and The Daily Show at once - but on LOCAL NEWS. It reminded me of the Simpsons episode in which Homer is charged with sexual harassment, when really he just took the gummy Venus de Milo off of the butt of the babysitter. He went on "Rock Bottom" (think Hard Copy) to tell his story. The story was wildly edited to mince his words. The funniest part was that there was a clock behind Homer during the taping. So when the re-edit was done, it moved wildly against the actual time sequence of what Homer said. Too bad I said nothing even remotely "controversial." This was all they could do or they would've wasted 25 minutes of their lives. It that way, it was symbolic of Choose Civility.

And I thought it was equally entertaining that Kathleen was willing to put Choosing Civility to the test. I suggested in our interview that civility is so much more than just 25 rules. She demonstrated it in her piece, though in a way that wasn't really civility. I mean, there are kind homeless folks that wash windows. In New Jersey, people have to have their gas pumped by someone else. It was nice to see an attempt, but proved that the idea of what civility is and what is better behavior than that is easy to miss.

Anyway, if you want to watch the video, here's the link. If you came here because of the story, welcome and I hope you enjoy it. And, if you don't, then be like other people who have scratched their head about this and be civil about it.

Choose Civility, Howard County Citizen!

Choose Civility in Howard County is no longer. Now, you are being directed to Choose Civility. Instead of showing a geographical preference for where civility should be, the HoCo Library has chosen a directive approach by renaming the program "Choose Civility, Howard County, MD." Personally, I would have preferred an exclamation point at the end. It would look a lot less dictatorial and more inviting.

And then there's this nugget:

The new magnets also will have a logo, a circle of people celebrating that resembles a snowflake or a star.

Oh no. Did they not see the post about the OBX stickers? Now I have to redo the banner of this blog! C'mon!

Also, I was quoted in the piece as the only idiot in the County dumb enough to challenge the civility standard. The HoCo Times acknowledges my existence, but Choose Civility's website still doesn't have any of most posts under their "What People Are Saying" links. :(

You Know About Those OBX Stickers?

If you've ever driven on the east coast of the United States, you're bound to have seen one of these:

They're the universal sign that you have visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  And they're also the universal sign that you think you're ultra cool for having visited the OBX.  And it's the universal sign that you are definitely, absolutely not cool at all.  As someone who lives there full time told me once:

No one who actually lives in the OBX and knows the OBX has an OBX sticker on their car.

So, that slogan should probably carry over to Choose Civility.  After all, most people who have the car magnets can't seem to drive very well.  They may or may not be civil.  Perhaps, then, the credo should be:

No one who drives well or is truly civil has a Choose Civility car magnet on their car.

Embrace Hostility (Sort Of) is Catching On

Again, stuck in a rut in the Columbia Flier's opine page, I saw a great letter to the editor from Heather Vaughn called "I'll take safety over civility on county's highways." Basically, she takes people to task for having a Choose Civility magnet and then driving like crap.

I wondered, when you decide to go to the Howard County Library to pick up your Choose Civility literature and car magnet, do you also choose to drive like a complete moron once you slap that sticker on your bumper? I understand being conscious of your driving and trying to be civil to others while on the road, but does that sticker magnet make your car go only 35 miles per hour on Route 29 in the left-hand lane, or swerve to cause being cut off on Broken Land Parkway, or run the red light on Harper's Farm Road?

Heather's dead on here. But it also brings up another good point. Basically, people in the county are associating Choose Civility with driving smarter. Was that really the point? Is this money well spent?

If You're Going to Complain, Make It Worthwhile

I was poking around Explore Howard and the Columbia Flier's editorials the other day. I saw one from December 31, entitled "Time for developer to clean up undeveloped property." The writer, Jay Bonstingl of Wilde Lake, complained that WCI hasn't done anything to beautify the lot where the Plaza Residences were going to be/might not be in downtown.

Visible to all who come to Town Center, this large lot has languished for many months as a blemish in the heart of our otherwise beautiful city. Ground moving equipment was parked there for what seemed like years. Adjacent sidewalks are still torn up, and large strips of ugly black plastic attached to the chain link fence still flap in the breeze, day after day, week after week. The scene is reminiscent of an abandoned inner-city lot.

You gotta be kidding me. I live in downtown, run on the loop around the mall frequently, and pass this lot everyday. I don't even notice it. It's a nicely mowed, grassy lot with a plastic fence around it. Obviously, Jay hasn't spent a lot of time in the more abandoned parts of Baltimore.

What more do you want?

A forest? Then people would complain that their view of the mall is obstructed.

A playground? Oh no, that'd be a hazard for children.

This is one of the few cases where Dr. Forni's very obvious rules for behavior needs some reiteration.

A Civil Curtain Call for Embrace Hostility?

Well, on another blog, I was accused of going too comformist. Really, talking about real estate development issues will make anyone sound like a square - even if it does interest me. I took the roast in jest and embraced the hostility. Didn't think too much of it.

But, then, I saw today that I got a curtain call from I'm not dead yet.

I would like to plead and beg for the writer of the Embrace Hostility In Howard County blog to start it back up again. We need some power, some force to fight all the "Choose Civility" individuals out there. Bringing back this blog would really be the Civil thing to do.

I can't fight a good idea. Ok, I won't close up shop. What's it matter anyway? If you've read this blog or Columbia Now, you know who's doing the writing. So, consider Embrace Hostility in HoCo back up for business. Sorry, Columbia Talk - I've been talked out of retirement.

I only posted like twice a month anyhow. I can definitely do smartass twice per month.

Embrace Hostility Forum?

I've been thinking about this and I think it would be kind of fun to get people together from all parts of Howard County (and beyond) to talk about the Choose Civility stuff. I don't mean that I'm going to host a forum with someone exclusively holding my point of view - cough, cough, Howard County Library - but rather an open forum where people who are advocates and naysayers of Choose Civility in Howard County could talk. With or without booze. Maybe with pumpkin carving, like they're having at Merriweather. So, what'd'ya say?

There Is a Line Between Civility and Stupidity

The Howard County police are advising people to take the valuables out of their car thanks to a recent string of car break ins.

What are people leaving in cars?

The thefts continue in part because valuables are left in cars, according to police, including such items as GPS units, laptop computers, stereos, portable music players, purses and briefcases.

I know that Howard County is a nice place to live, and crime is low, but even I would at least have to consider stealing some of that stuff if it was in plain view in a car.

As Jimbo Jones said on The Simpsons, "Five finger discount!"

Heavily Democratic HoCo is Very Civil

It's election season and there's nothing like a good political fight to completely ruin any level of civil discourse, action, or livelihood. Elections really tend to reduce us to petty children arguing over things that most of us really don't grasp all that well. And, like chimps, what do people do when they don't understand? Throw shit everywhere. Vandalize political signage.

From the Columbia Flier:

As the presidential campaign enters the final month, local Democrats and Republicans are complaining of repeated vandalism to their campaign signs.

Howard County Republicans reported that 12 4-by-8-foot signs, valued at $125 each, had been either pulled down or vandalized in some way since the party began putting them up Sept. 13.

Howard Democrats have not yet erected larger signs, but a party leader said Oct. 6 that in the previous week alone, 38 yard signs, valued at about $1 each, have been vandalized.

Both parties appear to be the victims of the vandalism, er, political expression. But, nothing like using this as an opportunity to take a shot at the other side!

Michael McPherson, chairman of the Howard County Democratic Central Committee, said Democrats had not filed a complaint with the police. “Democrats don’t believe in burdening the police with this kind of activity,” he said. “I’m worried about muggings and purse snatchings and people being killed.”

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

How Do You Make Kids More Civil?

Imprison them in school for longer! That's what the county may be looking at doing by shortening Spring Break.

Typically, the system's spring break is a full week, beginning the Monday before Good Friday and extending through Easter Monday, both of which are state-mandated holidays.

However, several Maryland counties have a shorter spring break that begins the Thursday before Good Friday and lasts through Easter Monday.

Proponents say a shorter spring break is preferable because it allows the school year to end earlier in June and also allows for more days of instruction before high-stakes state assessment tests, administered to students in the spring.

Board member Sandra French said it would be her preference to "frontload" as much instructional time as possible before the state tests are administered.

Yes, the kids would get out a little sooner and enjoy some more of June without school. But are we doing this merely because of standardized tests that really don't prove anything except the schools that we know aren't doing well? Has the concept of teaching to the test and its drawbacks not caught on with educators?

I would much rather my kid have a few nice spring days off, away from the grind, than score 5 points better on a state assessment that is probably poorly written anyway.

[EDIT: last sentence, score was school - I could've pawned it off as edumacational irony, but I didn't.]

HoCo Police Announce DUI Checkpoint

The Baltimore Sun has the news today that the HoCo Police will be setting up a DUI checkpoint this week.

Howard County police plan to conduct a sobriety checkpoint this week, though they did not say where.

Police said in a news release that eight people died in alcohol-related crashes last year and that 1,340 people were charged with DUI in Howard. So far this year, police said, eight people have died and 801 have been charged.

In publicizing checkpoints, "police hope that by promoting awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving, the number of drivers under the influence will decline," the release said.

I do not endorse drunk driving. It costs lives needlessly when there are a lot of options out there.

In Maryland, though, officers must provide an opportunity for drivers to turn around and avoid the sobriety checkpoint. Further, an officer at said checkpoint cannot use that action as grounds to pull over a car. (Not true in some other states.) So, people could see the lights and signs and just turn right around - causing more damage.

Add to that the fact that they infringe on 4th Amendment rights, despite William Rehnquist's findings in Michigan State Police v. Sitz (1990). The SCOTUS remanded the decision back to the Michigan State Supreme Court, which eventually deemed checkpoints illegal. It does not seem that the SCOTUS has made a ruling on the legality of sobriety checkpoints since - at least of real significance.

Interestingly enough, I had found a number of examples in which the number of DWI/DUI arrests has dramatically increased because of these checkpoints. There is a critical balance to keep in mind, though - the obvious civil desire to stop drunk driving while not violating civil liberties to act without suspicion.

This is an aside to the larger point that the police have told you that they're coming to get you some night this week. So, in the spirit of Embracing Hostility Against Your Civil Liberties, if you're going to get smashed, make sure you can either walk, bicycle, or cab it back home. This way, you don't maim anyone, and you don't get arrested through Draconian law enforcement tactics.

Just to Show The Movement Has Heart

This picture is fully endorsed by Embrace Hostility in HoCo. It is impossible not to find this picture from the front page of Explore Howard cute. (But, if you don't, that's ok.) To boot, the animal - I think, a cow - could not appear more disinterested by the child sleeping on it.

Embrace Hostility Paraphernalia

So, people have been stopping me on the street when they see me walking about downtown Columbia in my Embrace Hostility in Howard County t-shirt. They ask me where I got it, and they all seem disappointed when I tell them that I had it made. Well, now, I'm making the t-shirt available on Zazzle from the Embrace Hostility Store link on the sidebar. There are also bumper stickers and trucker hats as well. (Hey, why not, it's free to print.) If you'd like to get in on the Embrace Hostility movement, head over to the store and get your gear. And do it in a hostile fashion.