The Rush River Commons, if approved and built, will be the single biggest real estate development in the history of Rappahannock County. Or, to put it differently, the biggest single addition of housing since the land was inhabited by its Indigenous Peoples in the early 17th Century. 

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Years ago, my late husband Jack Dwyer and I traveled to California to see some of the wondrous beauty there. Majestic Lake Tahoe was one stop and there I loved the striking sailboat surrounded by snow capped mountains. That called to my mind the quote, “You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails.”

After more than a year of darkness imposed by COVID-19, the Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC) Theater brought Rappahannock’s own theater back to life on Friday night with a magnificent performance of “Let Me Down Easy,” a very human play by Anna Deveare Smith. You can still see the performance online this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. You don’t want to miss it.

The Food and Drug Administration expanded emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents 12 to 15 years of age on May 10. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention followed with recommendations endorsing use in this age group after their advisory group meeting on May 12. The American Academy of Pediatrics also supports this decision.

After 50 years of orogenic calm, suddenly the directors of Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) are trying to change the college name, and the school’s public relations cadre has been in full-blown smackdown and smearing of the deceased namesake, Lord Fairfax the 6th.

The year 2020 was definitely one for the history books, and the events of last year are going to have a huge impact on our girls. During the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools across the nation abruptly. This forced parents and teachers to provide support and education under conditions unfathomable just a year before.

On behalf of the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors and our County Administrator, Garrey W. Curry, Jr., I wish to publicly thank the Rappahannock CFC Farm & Home Center’s manager, Mike Cannon, and his staff, especially Gwen Parker, for their support in allowing the County to hold a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day at the store.

As a representative of the people of Fauquier County and the surrounding areas primarily served by Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC), I respectfully ask that the LFCC advisory board reconsider their decision to change the school's name. 

The year 2020 was definitely one for the history books, and the events of last year are going to have a huge impact on our girls. During the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools across the nation abruptly. 

Recently on social media and in conversation with citizens, there has been speculation about the public library. Change needs to occur at the library, but the Library Board of Trustees (Board) is just beginning to research the potential scope of a library renovation and expansion project for the community.

One thing this past year has illustrated is the good that can be accomplished if we work together.  As a Community Foundation serving our Northern Piedmont region including Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison and Rappahannock, our goal is to strengthen our community resources through philanthropy.

Perhaps some have not read some of my commentaries in this newspaper about our precious  county and how it is, in fact, protected from the ravages of development that some warn might be our fate. For one, all the major roads depicted in the art I’ve attached (Routes 7, 50, 66, and 29) lead economic growth along those corridors, bypassing Rappahannock County (the star drawn) completely. 

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.

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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.