Tag Archives: Kerry Dougherty

by Kerry Dougherty

Keep an eye on Virginia Beach City Council. They have a habit of shoving aside controversial matters only to bring them back when they think no one’s looking.

This week, the conscience of the council, John Moss, embarrassed his colleagues by shaming them for wanting “personal assistants.”

They put off the vote on a plan to hire personal help until some vague point in the future. You know, when the public’s attention is elsewhere.

These self-important little potentates — who refused to reduce the real estate tax rate to help struggling residents this spring — now want to use tax dollars to hire personal aides to lighten their work loads.

Seriously? Continue reading →

by Kerry Dougherty

Want to see an out-of-touch congressperson in action? Take a gander at Rep. Elaine Luria’s Twitter feed over the past 24 hours:

Continue reading →

by  Kerry Dougherty

Every May and June it’s the same humbling story. Thousands of colleges and high schools hold graduation ceremonies. Almost every one features a commencement speaker.

Once again, no one has invited me to the lectern. Yes, I know, I’ve mentioned this before. I’m sure they’d rather the graduates — all those Emilys, Madisons, Aidans and Ethans — be lulled to sleep by some pompous politician, wheezy academic or well-known celebrity than by me.

I’m a writer of opinions. The fact that no one wants to hear what I have to say never stops me from saying it. So here’s the 13-minute speech — that’s the optimal length for a commencement address, according to the experts — I would have given had anyone asked. I’ve written these pilot commencement addresses many times before. And still, no takers.

I’d begin with a familiar request of the graduates and their loved ones:

Turn off your cellphones. No, don’t set ’em to silent. Power them down. Put them away.

No one wants to read your live tweets of the ceremony. No one on a stage wants to speak to hundreds of people staring at their phones. Take pictures later. Continue reading →

by Kerry Dougherty

My most memorable Memorial Day did not take place on Memorial Day at all, but a few weeks earlier. In May of 1982.

But then again, every day is Memorial Day when you stand on those beaches at Normandy. It was a glorious spring morning on the coast of France. The sky was the deepest shade of blue. A gentle wind made the American flags flutter. And I was there with 52 Irish boys. Bad boys.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Twenty-one years ago, I lived in Dublin, where I attempted to eke out a living as a freelance writer in the dingy offices of the now-defunct Irish Press. While back home, American newsrooms were swapping their IBM Selectrics for computers, this one was stuck in another era. Manual typewriters created a chattering cacophony, cigarette smoke turned the air blue, greasy chip wrappers littered the floors. Everyone was known by their last name.

Except me. I was The Yank. Continue reading →