Category: Virginia history
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Ah, So That’s What That Was All About!
Leighty, Bill. Capitol Secrets: Leadership Wisdom from a Lifetime of Public Service. Holon Publishing, 2023. A review by Dick Hall-Sizemore The public sees the result of policy development. What the public does not see is the sometimes- messy process that produced that policy nor, more broadly, what goes on behind the scenes to make government…
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Arlington National Cemetery
by Robin Beres Virginia is brimming with famous and consequential landmarks and tourist sites. From the Historic Triangle to St. John’s Church in Richmond, to great beaches, mountains, and countless old plantation homes, vineyards, and breweries, there is a lot to see and do in the commonwealth. It’s little wonder that Virginia is ranked No.…
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Saving a Piece of Virginia History
by Robin Beres Chincoteague Island would probably be just another quiet little town on a quiet little barrier island overlooked by beachgoers and tourists if weren’t for a 1946 visit from children’s author Marguerite Henry. The writer arrived intending to pen a book about the wild ponies on nearby Assateague Island and the annual Chincoteague…
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Mother’s Day: Meandering Through Virginia
Regular readers of this space know that I am still seething over the actions America’s fascists embraced during Covid. The fact that they haven’t apologized and admitted that stomping on Constitutional rights over a virus was a colossal mistake is infuriating. That said, Covid brought two very good things. First: my daughter met the love of…
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The Virginia Way
by Robin Beres Politicians and pundits have invoked the “Virginia Way” in speeches and writings since colonial times. The phrase is used by partisans to evoke sentiments of decency and honor (and votes) in residents of the Old Dominion. In 1926, Douglas Southall Freeman wrote in an editorial for The Richmond News Leader that the…
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Were Confederates “Traitors to their Country”?
It is often said by commenters of this blog — and elsewhere — that Robert E. Lee and others serving in the Confederate army were “traitors” to their country. Whatever contributions they made to national reconciliation or the public welfare later in life, they deserve no public honor or recognition in the form of statues,…
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Allen Litten, 1935-2023
by Joe Fitzgerald Someone else held the title, but Allen Litten was really the assistant when I was city editor at the Daily News-Record. I knew the police scanner was in the darkroom, but sometimes I thought it must be imbedded in his cheekbone. One story sums up all he was for me, and I…
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Let The People In
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Supreme Court has again ruled against a local government for violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The case arose as a result of Deborah Wahlstrom deciding to attend a day-long retreat of the Suffolk City School Board focused on board training and strategic planning. The meeting was publicly advertised…
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The Unsettled State of Lee Chapel
by Kenneth G. Everett “Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.” — William E. Gladstone, British Statesman The respect with…
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RVA History: Merging Manchester
by Jon Baliles I often joke with people when I am asked about Manchester that it was an independent city until 1910 when they merged with Richmond — and they have probably regretted it ever since. Em Holter has a nice piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about the merger of the city nicknamed “Dogtown” that…
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Restoring Trust in Institutions
by Matt Hurt Over the last several years, it has become widely accepted that trust in our institutions has declined. Ultra-tribalism has infected almost every aspect of public discourse, which has certainly enriched the war chests of our politicians on both sides of the aisle. On April 20, 2023, the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE)…
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Ezekiel Statute to Move from Arlington to New Market?
As controversy rages over the fate of the Moses Ezekiel statue at the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, The Cadet student newspaper at Virginia Military Institute quotes anonymous sources that the statue might be moved to the Virginia Museum of the Civil War at the New Market battlefield site. — JAB
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It’s a Cemetery, for Crying Out Loud!
by Donald Smith Apparently, it is the will of the United States Congress that, in the interests of sensitivity and inclusiveness, we go into our cemeteries, and then search for and remove items that might offend someone who’s not related by blood or heritage to anyone buried there. The Congressional Naming Commission (CNC) has recommended…
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Richmond FBI Office Used Undercover Agents to Spy on Traditional Catholics
by Robin Beres The United States has not always been a bastion of religious freedom. When Virginia became an English colony in 1607, the English considered religious differences just as treasonous as political differences. Sure, Elizabeth I had reinstalled the Church of England following Queen Mary’s tumultuous reign, but the possibility of another Catholic on…
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Thomas Jefferson Deserves Respect From All Americans
by Bob Turner Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and is widely believed by able and honorable people to have raped the enslaved child Sally Hemings and fathered all her children. Therefore, it’s understandable that some wish to see our third president “canceled,” to use the Woke vernacular. Today would be Jefferson’s 280th birthday, so it seems…