Virginia History
For those interested in Virginia history, here are two great sources. One is new; one is not new, but I just discovered it.
Cardinal News has started a three-year project “to tell the little-known stories of Virginia’s role in the march to independence in advance of the nation’s observation of its 250th anniversary, or Semi-quincentennial.” In addition to a story about the chosen topic, Dwight Yancey, editor of Cardinal News, has promised “occasional columns about the politics of the era, written the same way I’d write them today.” The project is called Cardinal 250. The first monthly article, about the “Proclamation Line of 1763,” and Yancey’s political analysis, which is a lot of fun, can be found here.
The other item is the website Virginia Places. This is the brainchild of Manassas resident Charles Grymes, who first created it in 1998 for a geography class he was teaching at George Mason University. He has lovingly nurtured it ever since. It now consists of 1,000 pages on topics ranging from agriculture to Virginia journeys. Grymes describes the website as “an exploration into what makes Virginia special. It is an interdisciplinary journey through the history, economics, geology, biology, sociology, and other -ologies that can help explain how Virginia has evolved in the past, and what the state may look like in the future.” It is a work in progress which he describes as “far from complete.” He is constantly adding to it and updating content added earlier. I have run across items from this website in my search for sources for articles for this blog and I did not realize what it was. Now I know; it is a delightful treasure trove of information about the Commonwealth.
Perpetual Election Machine
Ah, to live in Virginia where there is always an election campaign in progress. It is not enough that, right after we have finished a heated campaign for General Assembly seats, we have U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger announcing that she is not going to run for reelection to Congress, but will be running for governor in 2025, thereby ensuring that, before the present governor is through half his term, we will be talking about who is going to replace him. Now we have Del. John McGuire (R-Goochland), recently elected to the Virginia Senate, announcing he will challenge Republican Fifth District Congressman Bob Good in a primary next year.
As reported by Cardinal News, McGuire, in an email to his supporters (at least it was not on X), declared that Good “has failed us time and time again.” He declared that Good had “abandoned” Donald Trump by endorsing Ron DeSantis in next year’s Presidential primaries. He went on to assert that Good voted for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker, then “threw a temper tantrum, reversed himself, and allowed the party to fall into chaos, costing us the 2023 elections.” As a result of those elections, “Marxist Democrats now control the Virginia General Assembly, which is going to hurt the people of Virginia badly.” That last comment should endear him to his fellow legislators and encourage smooth inter-party relations.
RWH
by Ken Reid
