Congratulations Evan Coren
In a former life, I was a believer in the Democratic Party. I was 18, and I was very interested in being involved in politics. I met a good friend in college who was very serious about his studies, was a Truman scholarship finalist, and poured hours and hours into his undergraduate dissertation while I went out, met people, glad-handeled, socialized, and practiced my rhetorical skills in College Debate. Naturally, I became political science professor and Evan became a successful Maryland politician.
Congratulations to Evan, and congratulations to Columbia. Everyone always says that they’re friends are truly principled and committed to doing what’s right, but you have no idea of how principled, stubbornly principled a representative you have selected. Lots of people say they love democracy, but Evan actually loves it, and he has pursued thinking about it and caring about it with the type of devotion that all of our representatives should, but almost none do. Good show, Columbia, good show.
Huge Disclaimer: I am not in any way knocking Evan. I realize you’re just congratulating a friend. Congratulations to him from me as well, and I do hope he makes a difference and all that good stuff.
HOWEVER, since most of your readers will have no idea about any of this… The “Columbia Council” is crap. The city, being not a city but a non-profit corporation traditionally run more or less directly by real estate firms, has no control over anything important. Schools, police, roads, zoning… All of that is done by Howard County’s government. The Columbia Council controls things like swimming pools. If Evan can make the pools my brother hangs out at this summer a bit nicer, then great, but his firm principles aren’t going to mean all that much on the Columbia Council.
Again, no knock whatsoever on Evan. If he uses this as a launching pad to the Howard County government or the Maryland state government, then he gets nothing but respect from me (and I’m more than willing to take Steve’s word that he would be a wonderful candidate). Hell, I also don’t mean to knock local government generally; people who care about their communities are necessary to make those communities better. I simply can not for a moment allow Steve to congratulate Columbia and imply that it’s a real place without having my own say.