Tag: Joe Fitzgerald
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Bad Judgment
General Assembly Democrats put self-interest above justice for Harrisonburg. by Joe Fitzgerald Several years ago, Todd Gilbert arranged a town hall on immigration in Harrisonburg. Latino leaders organized several speakers to come and speak about the real experience of immigration to the Valley, as opposed to the demonization and slander of immigrants that often comes…
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Why Do Dems Bother?
Assembly majority poised to appoint a judge who hates us. by Joe Fitzgerald Will Democrats in the General Assembly find a way to piss away their majority? Historically, yes. Then they’ll begin looking for a woman to blame it on. (See Filler-Corn, Eileen.) Ranking Democrats are currently defending being on the verge of appointing Todd…
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Establishment Rising?
Rockingham County turned around; Harrisonburg could. by Joe Fitzgerald The most significant thing about the most significant purely local political story of 2025 was not widely reported, possibly because there was no one to report it. A School Board member in Rockingham County was defeated by a candidate he had defeated to win his seat…
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Harrisonburg Can Do Better
by Joe Fitzgerald Someone once described GM’s Vega as a vehicle completely unencumbered by the engineering process. And then there was the country mechanic who once suggested to the driver of a Vega that they fix a particular problem by jacking up the radiator cap and driving a new car in underneath it. We’ll get…
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Harrisonburg Councilman Denounces ICE Actions
by Deb and Joe Fitzgerald In a Harrisonburg City Council discussion Wednesday of ICE activities in the city, council member Nasser Alsaadun, an Iraqi-American immigrant, made a heartfelt personal statement about what it means when Immigration and Customs Enforcement seizes a city resident. “I wanted to thank council members, Mayor Reed and the City manager,…
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We’ve Heard It Before
It’s not political violence, it’s political immaturity. by Joe Fitzgerald In “The Killing Joke,” the Joker has kidnapped one Batman ally and crippled another to prove the world is absurd, and wants to know why Batman isn’t laughing. Savagely grabbing the Joker, Batman replies, “Because I’ve heard it before and it wasn’t funny the first…
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Selling JMU to Itself
Academic department puts million-dollar mark on football field by Joe Fitzgerald There either is or should be a rule that says if your organization is doing something that makes absolutely no sense to most of the people outside and many of the people inside, you should explain it better or do it differently. Specifically, if…
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Judge Harrisonburg Council on Link Vote
by Joe Fitzgerald Those who miss daily journalism could probably name the stories that have slipped under the radar this year. One is the county’s attempt to take over Massanutten Technical Center and the city’s decision to reject their bullying. Those who managed to keep up with the details knew the split was inevitable, with…
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The Link, the Vista, and K-12
Twenty-five years of student housing generating students by Joe Fitzgerald History, arithmetic, evidence. Those are just some of the things that suggest a student housing glut is a major factor driving enrollment growth in Harrisonburg City Public Schools. They’re also some of the things City Council members can legally and politically ignore in making decisions…
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Sediment-Like Materials Spur Emergency
The only thing muddier than the water is the prose by Joe Fitzgerald When I declared a local emergency when a hurricane was threatening to come across the hill 22 years ago, the city manager had made it reasonably clear that a local emergency didn’t mean that much. Mostly buying up bottled water, he said,…
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Waking up to Woke
by Joe Fitzgerald The nearest analogy might be the spelling bee. No double-elimination, no second tries. One wrong and you’re out. That’s what woke means to some of us. Defenders of wokeness will tell you, with some sincerity, that its goal is the comfort and safety of everyone. So you eat up the first five…
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White House Attacks Harrisonburg Schools
by Joe Fitzgerald The post-truth nature of the Trump White House came home to Harrisonburg today. One of Trump’s hundreds of executive orders demands that schools stop teaching critical race theory and quit indoctrinating students. The text is on the White House news site, for those who want to read the entire text. The jargon…
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City’s Too Big, Council’s Too Small
by Joe Fitzgerald Harrisonburg is a city of 60,000 or so with a City Council for a town of 15,000. A quick check of Virginia’s cities finds that besides Harrisonburg, only Charlottesville among the larger cities has five council members. Most have seven, or six and a mayor, with Winchester’s nine and Virginia Beach’s eleven…
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Democrats Stayed Home
by Joe Fitzgerald 17,993 people voted in Harrisonburg in 2016. 17,086 voted in 2020. 15,051 voted in 2024. Another 2,351 voted provisionally on Election Day, meaning they were allowed to register and vote but their registration must be recorded and confirmed before their vote is counted. If they are all accepted, that could bring the…
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Decked Out
A lame duck councilman’s race card doesn’t trump anything. by Joe Fitzgerald Imagine that you’re Harrisonburg City Councilman Chris Jones, perhaps without his driving record or his tax bills, but with his animosity toward the school system. You’re at the end of ten years on the council after coming in dead last in the Democratic…