Editor’s Note: A statements of support for the Equal Rights Amendment from the Herndon-Reston Indivisible Women’s Issue Group. On January 27, the new Democratic majority in the Virginia General Assembly passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), officially making Virginia the 38th state required for ratification into the United States Constitution. As is typical with many women’s rights issues, there will likely…
By Tom Goodwin: Natasha McKenna died five years ago this past weekend, February 8, 2015 — naked, cold, frightened, shackled, muzzled, and black — after a rough afternoon at Fairfax County jail. The social and racial inequities that contributed to her death still loom as the OneFairfax policy is extended throughout county government. I wasn’t thinking about racial inequity when I…
By Susan Boggs: Some of you may know me from my Thursday morning shifts at the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. Others of you have handed out sample ballots and back-to-school-night literature with me. I’d like you to see my other side—that of a former Foreign Service spouse. I spent 14 years living in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal with my…
By Brad Swanson: Virginia’s citizen boards will retain control over pollution emitters for at least another year as a bill to transfer this authority to a state agency has been downgraded to require passage by two consecutive annual legislatures. In the interim between the current session and the next, beginning in Jan. 2021, the bill would require the state Department…
By Todd Smyth: The “Public Option” for healthcare insurance was a distraction, promoted several years ago by the insurance industry, to keep people from supporting a single-payer system. Pres. Barack Obama actually dropped his support for a public option in February 2010 and throughout the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Wendell Potter was vice president of corporate communications…
By Kathi R. Levin and Liz Walker There is a common saying that if you need something done, find a person who is already busy to do it. That can truly be said of long time Centreville resident and active Sully District Democrat, Stella Pekarsky, who is running in the Nov 5th election for the Fairfax County School Board. “Rest”…
By Paul O’Shea: The leader of New Hampshire’s successful drive to abolish the death penalty – making it the 21st state to do so — will deliver the keynote at the annual luncheon of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP) in Reston on Oct. 5. Renny Cushing is a state legislator in New Hampshire whose work as a…
By Susan Laume: Lucky Clifton residents on Monday, Sept. 16, got an opportunity to sample free ice cream and show their support for Virginian ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Clifton was just one stop in an ice cream truck tour of the Commonwealth by volunteers to remind voters that if Virginia ratifies the ERA it will become the 38th…
As the largest minority in Fairfax County, Asian-Americans are a major focus of outreach activity for the local Democratic Party, which faces a critical election on Nov. 5 to determine the control of the state assembly. Today Republicans hold one-vote majorities in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Democrats are mounting a major effort here in northern…
By Brad Swanson: Sean Perryman has only been president of the Fairfax County NAACP for a month, but he already has his priorities clear. “My plan is to focus on fewer issues, but go deeper,” he said. The top three topics for him are cannabis legalization, school name changes, starting with Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, and more…
By Brad Swanson: Ricardo Alfaro is a man on a mission. As the newly elected president of the Latino Democratic Caucus in Virginia, he has crafted an ambitious workplan to expand the group’s reach and counter the rising tide of fear engulfing the Latino community in the Trump era. “No one should feel unsafe going to school or grocery shopping…
It’s never too early to begin grassroots organizing. That is the concept behind an innovative program at Sully District Democratic Committee that enables students to organize and participate in political events in their own community. Gun violence, unsurprisingly, is one of the topics that students in the program – called GROWTH Student Interns – feel most strongly about. “I am…
By Brad Swanson: What motivates a man to spend more than two decades – and counting – as a volunteer running a farmers market? In the case of John Lovaas, a manager of the award-winning Reston Farmers Market, the answer is self-evident. “I doubt anyone would work at a volunteer job for 22 years unless it was wildly satisfying and…
An estimated 300 protesters showed up Tuesday evening, Aug. 5, to protest gun violence — and especially last weekend’s devastating attacks in El Paso and Dayton — at the headquarters of the NRA in Fairfax. There was a candle lighting ceremony and the names and ages of the victims were read by different speakers for El Paso and Dayton, followed…