Tag Archives: Guest contributors

by Kathleen Smith

For the millions of dollars that have come to the Commonwealth for COVID-19, did anyone ever think about the infrastructure needed to rollout the most important aspect of a COVID response, the vaccine? According to The Virginia Mercury, The Virginia Department of Health hasn’t developed a uniform playbook or guidance that health departments can follow when it comes to a COVID-19 vaccination.

Here is an example of the lack of guidance. Go to the Alexandria website link provided by VDH. There is a place on the page that allows you to register for the vaccine. Go to the Crater website link provided by VDH, you find an article from April 2020 with no information on the how to register for the vaccine.

Using the telephone number and email provided in the Progress Index for “contacting” the health department as the Crater District moves into 1B, I left and sent my contact information as requested. One week later, NOTHING. I also called at 8:56 a.m. and was told by the person answering the phone that she could not put me through to the vaccine department until 9:00 a.m. I called back at 9:00 a.m., received the same person, who then took my name and telephone number and said someone would return my call. I am still waiting one week later. Continue reading →

Dave Isay, founder, StoryCorps

by Dave Isay

We are in the throes of what has been called a “culture of contempt,” a nation so divided that some families may not be able to endure another Thanksgiving around the same table. Passing the yams might well come with an earful… or more. Comity has given way to scorn. Division is seen as not only a national issue but one that has cost people personally, too.

Cable news and online media – and to be sure, social media – are stoking and accentuating our differences. We aren’t listening to each other. We are at a point where we must ask: Have we reached a moment in our nation’s history when we are unable to recognize our neighbors for the genuine people that they are? Is the light around us to be perpetually refracted through a prism of red and blue? Above all else, have we lost our sense of humanity, of seeing each other as people first and not as “Uses” and “Thems?”

We can do better. We must do better. Even if that starts with One Small Step.

That is the name of a new initiative that we at StoryCorps are scaling in this critical moment in our nation’s history. It’s based on a premise that we know a bit about – conversation and listening can be an act that brings two people together. Continue reading →

Rajesh Balkrishnan

by Ryan Chou and Rajesh Balkrishnan

In the weeks and months preceding Virginia school re-openings, parents, teachers, and students speculated about what distance learning would be like. Following the onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, many districts had hastily shut down schools to protect students and teachers from the virus and had implemented distance learning plans, resulting in technological mishaps, decreased communication, and an end to many student opportunities. Thus, many students and parents were hesitant to accept continued distance learning in the fall.

Ryan Chou

Thankfully, virtual school re-openings in Virginia more closely resembled in-person schooling than the chaotic version from a few months ago. Extracurriculars made an attempt to resume virtually, and sports began conditioning.

Despite this, the majority of students and parents ultimately cited declining mental health and difficulty learning, especially for younger students, as the reason to push for an in-person reopening. As a result, many school systems in distance learning mode have drawn, and are now implementing, plans to open in-person in small groups or as a whole, within the next month or two.

However, it’s clear that we cannot open our schools up. Continue reading →