“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” wrote the author of The Life of Reason, back in 1905.
That quote seems pretty fitting for Montgomery County, MD. Twenty-plus years of taxing, spending, chasing out “unapproved” businesses or groups. Petty regulations and taxes (plastic shopping bags, for example). Agenda-driven County Council “proclamations” and virtue-signals. Big budgets that preserve the famed “triple-A rated” County debt but continue to grow the debt pile, to the point at which (soon) the County will be paying a half-billion in interest costs annually just to service all the past debt of County Councils gone before. This could happen by fiscal year 2026, or sooner.
Those who cannot remember the past are indeed condemned to repeat it. Doubling-down on poor policy is a Montgomery County staple, unfortunately. As is “one-party” rule.
This recent history would seem worth exploring in 2023. But the Montgomery County Historical Society has a History Conference coming up in January 2023 and none of it will be.
Instead, race, class, gender, sexuality, slavery, discrimination, immigration etc — these topics will be on the agenda for Montgomery County History Conference 2023.
To be sure, Montgomery County and its politicians have a sordid history of housing discrimination worth exploring, reviewing. Colonel Edward Brooke Lee (formerly the name of a Silver Spring-area Middle School) was involved in redlining and using the law (the power of the state) to keep African American from owning property in certain Montgomery County zip codes. He was also a prominent Maryland Democrat. From Wikipedia:
Lee co-founded United Democratic Clubs of Montgomery County, and he served as its treasurer. In 1923, Lee was the Secretary of State of Maryland (as a Democrat), and he served in that position for two years. He represented Montgomery County in the Maryland House of Delegates (as a Democrat) between 1927 and 1930, during which time he also served as the Speaker of the House of Delegates.
It will be interesting to know if this part of Montgomery County history comes up in “Option 1: Mapping Segregation” in the Saturday session.
The description for an opening-day session called “Montgomery County in the 1980s: Addressing County Challenges with Progressive Programs” reads like something that is straight out of a County Council e-mail today. As in, in 2022. Not in 1984:
This session will discuss major challenges facing Montgomery County in the 1980s and describe the progressive policies and programs adopted to address them. These challenges included down-county school closings, rapid population diversity, racial imbalances and achievement gaps in public schools, growth along I-270 and US 29, loss of agricultural land, attracting biotech businesses, responding to homelessness, hunger, hate crimes and much more.
40 years later and the top-down, insular “progressive policies and programs” of MoCo are sure to work, right? We just need another 40 years of them.
Related posts:
MD Sec of State Susan C Lee, Who Says Removal of Donald Trump from Maryland Primary Ballots is “Under Consideration”, Has an Interesting Political History in MoCo (Part 1)
Looking Behind the Curtain of “Progressive Maryland Liberation Alliance PAC” & the Nonresidents Who Smeared Esther Wells
As Black History Month 2023 Draws to Close, Questionable Past Statements Made by Council Members Come Into Focus