Editorial: On Voting in the 8th
Vote this week at your convenience in person absentee, or be sure to vote on Tuesday.
Chances are that if you are a registered voter in the 8th Congressional District, your mailbox has been letting you know that many candidates are running in next week’s Democratic primary.
Editorial: New Measure - More Living in Poverty
Inside the Beltway, that is Alexandria, Arlington and parts of Fairfax, 32 percent of children are living in poverty or near poverty. In Fairfax County, 26 percent of children live in or near poverty. This is according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
Column: You and I Should Lead in Mental Health Response
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Unfortunately, we as a community and as a Commonwealth have not prioritized and advocated for mental health outreach and service solutions. The heartbreaking suicides by local high school students, the well-publicized suicide of Senator Creigh Deeds’s son after help could not be found, and the disproportionate numbers of our veterans struggling with mental health challenges all highlight the critical need to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and address the difficulty in finding treatment.
Editorial: Remembering on Memorial Day
Fewer deaths as military operations wind down, but 22 veterans a day die of suicide.
In Arlington over the coming Memorial Day weekend, the organization TAPS, or Tragedy Assistance for Survivors, will hold its 20th annual Military Survivor seminar and Good Grief camp for young survivors, children of all ages. TAPS offers support to anyone who is grieving the death of someone who died in the military, whether from combat, suicide, terrorism, homicide, negligence, accidents or illness. http://www.taps.org/
Letter: Senator Who Cares
To the Editor: It's been more than frustrating to watch such a dysfunctional Congress. Looking toward the coming election, I'm voting for candidates that can cross party aisles and put the welfare of the citizens first. This is why I am supporting Sen. Mark Warner's re-election. Examining his past work in the Senate has given me hope that with more representatives like him, our legislature can emerge from the inoperative era.
Editorial: Virginia Proves Elections Matter
Health and economic issues are entwined.
Some people continue to assert, either with their words or by simply abstaining, that voting just doesn’t matter. Here in Virginia, nearly every day we prove that is incorrect. All of Virginia’s elected representatives who are elected by the entire state are of the same political party. They are all Democrats: Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring and Virginia’s two U.S. Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
Opinion: BOS Budget Falls Short for FCPS
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (BOS) continues to state that education is its top priority but its actions clearly do not match its words -- not when county spending next year will increase by 3.6 percent while Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) budget is projected to increase by just 1.6 percent over last year’s adopted budget. Overall, FCPS will receive 52.4 percent of the county’s budget, down from 52.7 percent this year. While this percentage change seems small, that equates to more than $12 million that FCPS would have received.
Still Curious, But Maybe Not Dying
Although one never knows, especially if that one is living in "cancerville." And by "cancerville" I mean, euphemistically speaking, anywhere where one of us diagnosed with cancer is living. Living being the operative word. Still, as my column from a few weeks ago entitled, "Dying With Curiosity" discussed, cancer patients are often besieged by their subconscious, changing fact into fiction and manipulating feelings into inevitabilities. If only there was a switch to turn off the mind games that don’t exactly mind their "man-ners" or "women-ers" for that fact, I’d flick it in a second. Cancer creates physical problems – as we all know, but I have to tell you, it’s the mental problems that can be just as deadly.
A Tale of Two Seasons
It is not the best of times, nor is it the worst of times; it is, simply put: the time between the end of winter and the beginning of summer. It is the season known as spring, but more to the point of this column, it is the time when, if the weather cooperates/accommodates, I won’t need to turn the heat or the air conditioning on in my house. I will instead be able to ride the wave, so to speak, and not incur any post-winter/pre-summer utility bills. Possibly, I might even be able to pay off my oil-heating budget bill balance for the 2013/2014 season – before the 2014/2015 budget cycle begins, and hopefully not have to cool down the house at the same time – due to an early summer – so that on the day my oil-heating bill is due, it won’t be competing for cash with my upstart electric/air conditioning bill for money not well spent and for money hardly in abundance.
Letter: Appalled by Cell Tower
I am writing in support of Susan Gaertner's perspective on the cell tower issue in Burke Centre [“Cell Tower Challenged in Burke,” Burke Connection, April 24-30, 2014]. Granting that reception may be a problem with some carriers in some parts of Burke, it does not seem to me that, based on the Conservancy's governing documents, it is the Board of Trustee's responsibility to improve cell phone service for residents; nor do the Trustees clearly have the legal authority to lease our Open Space, including land at our five community centers, to a commercial vendor such as AT&T for the purpose of erecting a cell tower. Furthermore, such a lease would violate our Easement of Enjoyment in the Common Areas per Article IV, Section 2 of the Burke Centre Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions.
Father and Son "Twogether"
As a born, bread and buttered Bostonian (Newton Centre, a suburb, to be specific), one of my enduring and genetic passions has been to live and die (figuratively speaking; this is not a cancer column) for The Boston Red Sox. My father sold concessions at Fenway Park (the stadium home of the Bosox since 1912), during the Depression when he was a little boy (not yet an adolescent even). He was nicknamed "Beezo," (his given name was Benet, although he was always called Barry) so he could gain full acceptance to a local knothole gang. Named after the wooden planks which surrounded the old Braves Field in Boston (a National League team called Boston its home as well back in the day), the kids ("gangs") would stand and peer through the knotholes in the wooden planks which otherwise blocked their view. It was a privilege and an honor for my father to be so connected to the game this way. He grew up loving baseball, and as a parent, he passed his love of the game on to me – and my brother.
Editorial: Trending in the Right Direction
Commitment to ending homelessness shows progress, but more affordable housing is needed.
On one night in late January, local jurisdictions in our area fanned out to count the number of people who were literally homeless. Fairfax County released its numbers last week; Arlington and Alexandria will do so in the near future. In Fairfax County, the commitment in 2010 to end homelessness in 10 years has resulted in significant progress, even in the wake of the great recession. The number of people literally homeless decreased by a third from 2008 to 2014, from 1,835 to 1,225 counted this year. Many non-profit organizations have partnered to prevent homelessness one family or individual at a time for those on the brink and to house chronically homeless individuals. There is so much still to be done.
Editorial: Past Time for Later Start Times
Teenagers are sleep deprived, and sleep deprivation takes a significant toll on safety, health and learning. We’ve known this for decades. But for decades, literally, Fairfax County Public Schools (and Montgomery County, Md.) have let a combination of reactionary blabber ("buck up and get moving;" "just tell them to go to bed earlier") and organizational resistance prevent implementing a solution to this very real problem. Getting up at 5:30 or 6 a.m. to hop on a school bus at 5:45 a.m. or even as late at 6:30 a.m. to get to school by 7:20 a.m. is not healthy for teenagers. It is nearly impossible for teenagers to go to sleep before 11 p.m. or midnight. Fairfax County high school students average six hours of sleep a night on weeknights. Research shows they need nine hours of sleep. Research has also quantified the costs of sleep deprivation.
Letter: Prohibit Fracking
Letter to the Editor
In "Residents Concerned About ‘Fracking in Our Backyard’" (Connection, April 3-9, 2014), readers may wonder how pollutants entering the Potomac River 200 miles upstream in the George Washington National Forest could still be toxic in Fairfax County.
Editorial: Celebrate Earth Day
Get outside with your family, participate in group activities, or just walk in your favorite park.
Earth Day is April 22, observed April 19-27 and beyond. Fairfax County offers many useful and educational ways to enjoy the day. Don’t miss the chance to get outside, observe the developing spring weather, flora and fauna. Here are some of the opportunities: