Burke Opinion

Burke Opinion

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Column: Symptoms or just Sometimes

Making the best of a bad situation, that’s how I roll (I’m a Red Sox fan after all). Some days are easier than others, some symptoms/treatments/results are better than others. And some columns make more sense than others. But that’s cancer for you: an equal opportunity “screwer-upper.”

Letter: Separate and Unequal - II

Your editorial in the titled "Separate and Unequal ?" [The Connection, July 25-31, 2012], addressed the "eye-popping" disparately low admission of Black and Latino students to Thomas Jefferson High School, and the complaint that this was "in voilation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin."

Column: Diagnosed But Not Sick

Having/being diagnosed with cancer/a terminal disease is neither fun nor funny; however, unless I find some humor or wishful thinking in how I approach this situation, I don’t suppose I’ll be approaching it much longer. To me, it’s always been mind over matter, and even though these matters are rather serious, I still don’t mind.

Column: Life in the Cancer Lane

Having been there and done that now for three and a half years certainly helps. And however familiar it may be and/or has become, it doesn’t exactly help to pass the time or affect the results, unfortunately. Cancer sucks! That much is clear. Now and in the future.

Editorial: Starting School Prepared

First day of school is Sept. 4; local nonprofits provide school supplies and weekend food.

With school beginning in a few weeks, area charitable organizations have been collecting contributions of new backpacks, calculators, other school supplies, money and gift cards and winter coats to help the tens of thousands of truly needy Northern Virginia students.

Column: A Pill a Day…

Hopefully will keep the cancer at bay. (I’d say “away,” but let’s be realistic, three and a half years past a NSCLC diagnosis, there is no way, generally speaking, that stage IV lung cancer disappears into the ether; it’s classified as stage IV for a reason.

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Welcoming Dr. Angel Cabrera

George Mason University welcomes new president.

Summer may be considered the “off-season” in education, but at George Mason University, major change is underfoot.

Column: Derive to Survive

Now that I can taste food again, or rather have food taste like normal again, my attitude is much improved.

Column: Choosing My Words, Respectively

It has been brought to my attention by some regular Kenny-column readers – who are friends, too, and whose opinions I value, that my most recent batch of “cancer columns” (as I call them) were not funny; in fact, they were more depressing and negative than anything, and not nearly as uplifting and hopeful as many of my previous columns have been.

Editorial: Readers Respond on TJ Admissions

"Stop making smart 8th graders feel inferior because they are not admitted."

Readers responded to last week's editorial, which cited a civil rights complaint about the apparent lack of access to gifted and talented programs and admission to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

Column: A Life Worth Living, Still

It might be my age (as in getting older), or it might be the fact that I have cancer (you think?), but my brain and the related physical and mental tasks it coordinates are not exactly working at peak efficiency.

Editorial: Separate and Unequal?

If we don't believe that poor students are less innately talented, then the disparities in Northern Virginia are truly unfair.

The numbers are eye-popping. Latino students are 22 percent of Fairfax County Public Schools students, but 2.7 percent of the incoming Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology freshman class, the class of 2016. Of the 480 students, seven are black. That's 1.4 percent, while black students are 10 percent of the county school system.

Column: Circumstances Be Damned

If only it were as easy to actually live it as it is to write it. As much as I believe what I write, it’s still difficult to ignore certain facts (“the underlying diagnosis,” as I often refer to my diagnosis) and the feelings associated with it.

Editorial: Leaving Millions on the Table

Virginia should embrace opportunity for more health care coverage for poor residents.

Chances are that if you are reading this, you have employer-provided health insurance. While you might worry about the young adults in your family or the lower wage workers in your organization, you also know that if you are sick, you can go to the doctor.

Addressing the Shortfall

The culture of a people is judged, in part, by how it treats its most vulnerable.

The County is currently developing proposals to address the over $9 million shortfall in the budget for the Community Services Board (CSB).