I am writing in response to the wonderful article on the “hippie invasion,” written by Isaac Parish and published in last week’s edition. I was 14 or 15 when the hippies migrated to Rappahannock County in the early 70s. This occurrence had a significant impact on me, informing and influencing the trajectory of my life in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Many of the values expressed by the counter-cultural movement continue to resonate for me, some four decades later.

Can we accept a responsibility to protect this place, not just for us humans, but for our wild kin who were here first and whose habitat is increasingly diminished and threatened on all sides? Can our lives continue to be enriched by this close contact with nature if we unwittingly take part in its destruction — even if this destruction is ever so gradual? 

Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com.

Remember, I’m not invested in whether the decision to release Vincent Martin was the right one or wrong one. And I’m not in a position to fully understand the procedures and policies that were or weren’t followed.

Mr. Maxwell’s criticism of the leadership of Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) is long on history but gets the fundamental question wrong. True, Lord Fairfax was a man of his time and cannot be fairly judged by today’s standards. But LFCC is a product of our times — it was founded in 1970, not 1770.

Follow Devin at @DevinSherwoodDraws

Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com.

In his presentation to the Rappahannock BOS last week, Ron Maxwell brilliantly refuted Mike Wenger’s claim in a recent Rappahannock News commentary that Lord Fairfax had, “left no significant contributions to the political development of colonial Virginia” [Feb. 25, 2021]. At that same meeting, LFCC President Kim Blosser said that, in part, the college’s students of today, and potential future students, have very little in common with Lord Fairfax, the man.

In a recent issue of the  Rappahannock News, I wrote an opinion piece in response to an attack on Supervisor Ron Frazier regarding his attendance at the huge Trump rally in the Ellipse park by the White House. Ron was being accused, without any evidence whatsoever, of being amongst that crowd of idiots who invaded the Capitol later that day. 

The time has come to draw a line. I have learned to eschew involvement in public debate because what currently passes for civil discourse is all too often anything but civil. I am especially reticent about commenting on matters pertaining to Judaism because it is my experience as a historian of Jewish descent that many people involved in these discussions do not appreciate the depth of historical Jewish suffering. Prima facie evidence of this issue can be seen in the growing tendency of commentators to use Jewish bodies as a currency for measuring an expressed sense of grievance.

The truth is that Lord Fairfax did work. As is well documented in the archives of the Commonwealth — he served as County Lieutenant and as Justice of the Peace.

The headlines can’t by themselves explain what’s been driving American politics. Always remember former House Speaker Tip O’Neil’s truism that “all politics is local.” So let’s look at America’s divisions narrowly, through a lens focused on how prominent politicians in our own congressional district have been dealing with the turmoil.

George Shultz, who passed away earlier this month at age 100, was a man about which any mother would be proud. He excelled in so many dimensions, and his strength of character was exemplary. 

After reading about the joint meeting of the School Board and the Board of Supervisors regarding the school budget (Feb 11), I suggest this paper investigate in greater depth the Local Composite Index (LCI), the calculation used by the state to allocate funding to school districts, and how it affects so adversely the funding provided by the state to Rappahannock’s schools.

How does “the newspaper” feel about (fill in the blank)? You will be hard pressed to know because “the newspaper” rarely writes editorials which express the newspaper’s viewpoint. That’s intentional: Why would you care what some newspaper thinks about anything?

Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com.

I am amazed at the energetic debate roused in our quiet county about changing the name of Lord Fairfax Community College. And gratified too — it shows how many of us love the college enough to have strong opinions about what is best for the students.

Rappahannock County Supervisor Frazier has every right to peacefully protest the results of the presidential election. Indeed, the history of my family would not permit me to affirm otherwise.

It is hard to understate the revulsion and anger I felt when reading the commentary “Some good must come of this” by Thomas G. Storch of Sperryville. In any partisan political debate, especially among friends and neighbors, there is a line that should not be crossed. Mr. Storch has crossed that line.

After several weeks of scrambling to get the COVID vaccine before current supplies give out, I got mine last Saturday at a Valley Health site in Winchester

Some months ago, I wrote an article for this paper and the next week a letter appeared in the paper saying that I had dipped my pen into the poison well of politics, or some such. Maybe that was true; maybe it wasn’t. I happen to have opinions and views about a large number of issues. Most of them I keep to myself. The one I write about today has been on my mind for some time.

With no evidence other than Mr. Frazier’s own account of attending the festive gathering at the Ellipse and the March to the Capitol along with 85,000 other Americans, Ms. Willis sinks to the lowest form of McCarthyism to imply that Ron Frazier was one of several hundred fringe radicals who attacked and ransacked the nation’s Capitol Building.

It is extremely painful to share the news that on the evening of January 13th, we lost a member of our Rappahannock and Wakefield community, Tony Huff. Coach Huff was our middle school assistant basketball coach as well as the varsity girls' and boys' basketball coach.

All too often these days, the good works of people trying to do their jobs get drowned out by the accusations, the innuendos, and the feverish atmosphere of the moment. Rather than see the negativity, I see the hard work and earnest endeavor to get construction underway and headed toward completion.

This is although Frazier’s potentially insurrectionist behavior is not even on the agenda. That’s because he has yet to account exactly for what he did that day, relying on surrogates to do the talking for him.