Letter: Taking Exception on Medicaid Expansion
Your recent editorial ["Expanding Medicaid Good For Virginia," The Connection, January 23-29, 2013] is noble in its desire to "extend health coverage to more than 400,000 residents who currently have no health insurance." If public policy making were just that easy. The editorial then goes on to indifferently say, "the Federal government picks up the tab.
Editorial: Extreme, But Brief, Volunteering
More than 150 volunteers needed to survey chronic homeless for three days in February.
The real solution to homelessness is housing. This week in Northern Virginia, a point-in-time survey will record all of the “literally homeless” individuals and families in the region. Last year, on Jan. 25, 2012, there were 1,534 people who were literally homeless in the Fairfax-Falls Church Community; 697 of them were single individuals and 837 were people in families. A third of the total number of homeless were children. Nearly 60 percent of the adult members of the homeless families were employed.
Letter to the Editor: Embracing School Choice
School choice is a hot topic in Virginia, especially as our great commonwealth debates the merits of school choice policies.
Letter to the Editor: Guns Make It Too Easy to Kill
“Guns don’t kill, people do,” says the National Rifle Association. It sounds so right because it’s so obvious. But while it’s obvious that people kill, guns make it too easy to kill.
Letter to the Editor: Need Sensible Gun Laws
Two recent national events have caused me to reflect on the nature of our democracy. In the Capitol of the most powerful country on earth we witnessed the peaceful continuation of leadership. In a small Connecticut town we witnessed a violent destruction of sanctuary.
Letter to the Editor: Despicable Maneuver
On Martin Luther King Day, Henry L. Marsh III, who grew up in segregated Virginia, became a civil rights lawyer who worked on school desegregation cases who went on to become Richmond’s first African American mayor and has been a state senator since 1991, went to Washington, D.C. to see the nation’s first African American president sworn in for the second time to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
George Washington: Surveyor
George Washington's career began as a surveyor, and he continued that activity throughout his life.
Washington and the Culper Ring
In the 18th century, an insult to a Gentleman’s honor required a duel to settle the score. It was better to die respectably in a duel than to live without honor.
George Washington: Using Reasoning as a Winning Strategy
George Washington was committed for the long-haul to winning the American Revolution. He hoped to out-think, out-maneuver, and wear out the British before the patriots themselves lost their commitment.
Column: Senior Services Of Alexandria
February is Heart Health month so it's not too early to register for Senior Services of Alexandria's next speaker series: "Heart Health and Fitness for Seniors."
Column: Building a Budget to Transform a Division
Students, staff, parents, members of the School Board and the entire Alexandria Community: I am honored to offer you my proposed FY 2014 combined funds budget which is centered on our students and dedicated to their learning.
Column: Home Grown
Growing up, Lucinda, the daughter of sharecroppers, lived on a plantation in the small town of Edgefield, S.C. Her family raised most of their own food, never having to buy meat, milk, eggs, potatoes, sugar …, Lucinda even became an expert butter churner as a small child. Even clothes were sewn by hand from cloth bought at a nearby cotton plantation.
Column: The High Cost of Ignoring Mental Health
Before Newtown, there was little discussion of the dismal state of mental health services. In fact, the budget knives have been sharpest at the state and local levels when it came to mental health services particularly prevention. That is not surprising.
Column: Helping Keep Community Safe
There isn’t one answer to prevent violence in our society. Gun debates often take all the headlines. Those debates are important to have. But they are not the only debate.
Column: Focus on Roads, Schools, Medicaid
It has been a week since Virginia Senate Republicans pushed through a partisan redistricting plan that has made our Commonwealth’s legislature become a national spectacle once again.