While I think Ms. Sheila Gresinger’s letter is the most eloquent response to Mr. Ron Maxwell’s hyperbolic diatribe, Mr. Maxwell makes certain assertions that need to be addressed.

Absolutely, let the people of the county decide on the land use in question in 2024 — but vet it first before the county board of supervisors, a piece at a time, the hard way, in the meantime. This should be a very tough exercise, with no wave of the hand.

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

Hooray, hooray! Finally, in May, it’s time for many to toss their masks! Further, in the midst of all of the day’s other news battering our senses, it’s time to ponder some news that was published in an article in the May 13 edition of the Rappahannock News [“Local health director: ‘Herd immunity is still the goal’”].

Kid Pan Alley would like to extend a special thank you to our friends in the Northern Piedmont community for your support and generosity during this year's Give Local Piedmont fundraising campaign.

I want to thank the Rappahannock News for the valuable article by Tim Carrington on “Fast-Forwarding to 2031.” I learned a lot and felt it gave specific information as well as broad perspectives on the issues that we’ll be confronting in our special place called Rappahannock County.

I want to say thank you to Sheriff Connie Compton and the men and women of our police department. I would like to thank them for doing an outstanding job in keeping Rappahannock a safe community.

Last Thursday at the Rappahannock Food Pantry, there was cause for celebration. In the day’s mail was a $907 donation from Amissville United Methodist Church’s Lenten collection.

Connie Compton is an enormous asset to Rappahannock County. She’s more than an excellent law enforcement officer, she’s a guidance counselor for many local teens and a diplomat when it comes to local politics.

I wanted to add in a few things to complement an April 15 article in the Rappahannock News about marijuana [“Marijuana will be legal in July. Now What?”]. Any serious discussion about marijuana should include some history of how it became illegal in the first place. It had always been called “cannabis” until 1930s drug czar Harry Anslinger decided the Spanish word was scarier-sounding and somehow the name stuck. A few of Anslinger’s choice quotes:

Your article “I wouldn’t trade it for anything” [April 1] brought back fond memories of Rappahannock County in the early 1970s. Writer Ike Parrish was exactly right about Eldon Farms renting places to the counterculture types who descended on the county at that time. In 1970 my wife and I rented one of their cabins near Woodville for $25 per month (you read that right!).

I want to thank Sheila Gresinger for recognizing the efforts of the Rappahannock County Garden Club and its “Rappahannock in Bloom” project in her recent Commentary (“How our Land is Protected,” April 8). We actually planted 850 trees in our county in 2019 and 2020 through our relationship with Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR) based in Fredericksburg.

Planting trees is a brilliant thing to do. Most people would agree in the abstract that it is a good thing. To actually do it is light years ahead of daydreaming. I applaud the folks at Pen Druid for their industry.

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

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

Rappahannock Democrats addressed this by providing information about the Virginia government reservation sign-up site as soon as we became aware of it, at our monthly meeting and by email and social media. Some of our members also reached out to neighbors they knew did not have internet access offering to help them sign up. 

A few days ago I was taking care of some office work when I focused on a “dinosaur” of an “all in one” printer, scanner, fax and copy machine taking up space. It had been some time since it was used, having been replaced by a scanner app and a small bluetooth printer.

To Michelle Galler, who lost her internet service provider at an inconvenient time: Welcome to 2021 (or 1995 as the case may be). These tech corporations could care less about your circumstances. They have an army of lobbyists paid to keep them free from regulation. Think Texas power grid.

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, maybe not stormy but dark, cold and windy. They may be sung or unsung, and they are paid for what they do, but the repair people of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) have a tough job.

We were disappointed to read last week that John McCaslin has left the newspaper. We always looked forward to Wednesday evenings when the e-version of the paper would drop and read the wonderful stories he brought to light.

I am relaying this cautionary tale, not only as a reprimand to HughesNet about how they created and handled a bad situation, but as a warning to the community as to how exposed HughesNet customers are to the company’s unclear and nonsensical interpretation of the law — and for which customers have little recourse.

If I thought Donald Trump had proof — beyond repeating over and over again — that widespread criminal acts in many districts across the nation stole the election from him, I too might have rushed to Washington D.C. on Jan. 6 in a last-ditch attempt to save our democracy.

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

I find the thesaurus ridden failure an attempt at an opinion by Ben Jones — he certainly is no lawyer which is evident by his ignorance of both the law of slander and the “apparent” electoral success of our president and commander in chief [“Wanting answers from the local Democrats,” Commentary, Feb. 4].

Apparently it was stored in the attic and fell down into a wall space which we opened. Was an eerie feeling being so close to what seems so far back. We all were quietly shaken, seemed so hard to believe.

Rappahannock County is now classified as being at Extremely High Risk concerning the coronavirus. But, at the February 1, Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting people were allowed to attend who were not wearing facial masks. It seems as though the BOS members do not understand these things and do not take the coronavirus seriously.

Was reading today's story about the broadband setback [“County’s pursuit of broadband dealt big blow,” Feb. 4] and wanted to share that I received an email today letting me know Starlink Beta is now available at my address in Castleton.

Community college students and prospective students are facing substantial challenges right now. The pandemic has left many unemployed or underemployed.

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

Do you have any evidence that Mr. Frazier went to Washington to sack the Capitol? Or to support those miscreants who did? Or even that he had any idea that some nuts in the crowd would actually resort to violence? 

I recently had surgery and cannot do much for myself (cook, drive, shop, etc.).  The outpouring of love I received from people in this community has been overwhelming!

The Knights of Columbus together with parishioners have installed a Cemetery of Innocents in front of St. Peter Catholic Church in Washington.

While I do not always side with Rappahannock Board of Supervisors member Ron Frazier, I am deeply troubled that he is being unjustly accused of exercising his First Amendment rights by a group of Rappahannock liberals who happen to disagree with his politics, and who are asking that he be censured by the Board of Supervisors. 

Congratulations and deep thanks to the Health Consortium for their expertise in putting this huge logistical effort seamlessly together. Thank you to the nurses, volunteers, planners and all involved.

This is an American danger and we in Rappahannock County need to be aware, to stop and research all facts, not rushing to judgement, to keep on being brave enough to speak up in the face of differing opinions and to be allowed to do so.

After spending my life working on a farm, I have come to realize that my life is easier if I bend my will to that of Mother Nature rather than asking that she bend her will to me. Mother Nature is accepting of buildings on dry land and is not keen on buildings built in swamps.

Does he understand what the Constitution is meant to constrain? Does the First Amendment mention Facebook or Mailchimp?

Attacks by Mary-Sherman Willis against Supervisor Ron Frazier for attending a public event in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 are an irresponsible attempt to suppress Mr. Frazier’s U.S. Constitutional First Amendment rights of both freedom of speech and freedom of peaceable assembly to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

I would like to offer public thanks for two deputies in our Rappahannock Co. Sheriff’s Office who discovered the body of my elder daughter, Cynthia Price, on Dec. 29.

Elected officials, behind the scene plotters, gun carrying militia lovers, and their silent supporters. They all live among us and corrupt our Republic. They support the lies and disinformation campaigns, fund the conspiracy theorists, and  those who lie as they run for office and may indeed repeat, publish and broadcast those rabid untruths.

Morning came early

this morning

for me.

You, unfortunately, did not have the bravery or wisdom to recognize the same, and voted to cast into doubt the certified votes of thousands of Americans, votes, keep in mind, that were subjected to state court appeals and recounts.

What a mess we are, what a mess we have become.

Many students, many teachers, few masters common sense.

What is that?

Republican Congressman Robert “Bob” Good, representing Virginia’s 5th district which contains Rappahannock County, wrote this the day following the horrific bloody event last week that took place in the U.S. Capitol: 

To my delight I just saw that Devin Sherwood’s cartoons are going to be published in the Rapp News. No surprise to see Devin’s work; he comes from a talented family with an accomplished artist as mother. 

Must be a hoax that a guy got elected to Congress who thinks losing 3,000 lives a day, and likely over half a million before the coronavirus gets under control, is not a pandemic.

Guess which political party just presided over the largest defunding of law enforcement? It’s the Republican Party. 

Your coverage online [earlier this month] of the house fire and death of Laurel Malik rendered me horrified and speechless.