Editorials

“Restaurants are places where people from different walks of life gather for nourishment, social interaction, and an opportunity to belong to a community. These things go to the heart of what it means to be American."

My role in Congress is to advocate for my constituents, and I am pleased that one of the best means to fulfill that responsibility has been reinstated. With the return of Democratic control of both the House and Senate, Congress, last month, enacted its first federal spending bill in more than a decade that includes funding for community projects identified by local entities and championed by their elected representatives. While these funding opportunities have returned, so have the misplaced criticism of the policy.

COVID-19 is not the only epidemic plaguing America’s Black community today.

While the United States is finally “out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase,” according to Anthony Fauci, the two years of suffering and hardship showed Americans and the rest of the world what the United States stands for as a nation.

On one day, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing for five extraordinary women of color who have been nominated to federal judgeships by President Joe Biden. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing for five extraordinary women of color who have been nominated to federal judgeships by President Joe Biden. 

I began by noting that the Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (TJ) located in Fairfax County, Virginia is a public institution that is funded by Virginia tax payers. Those tax papers include Black Virginians.

It is a tragedy when we lose a loved one. That tragedy is compounded when are unable to visit their final resting place to honor and remember them.

I was trained to fight by my grandmother, Mamie Bland Todd. She would often remind me, “Pessimists are right more often, but optimists win more often.”“In this life you have to decide what’s more important to you." Then she would add, "As for me, I’ll take winning.”My favorite optimist died recently at 105.For our family, she was the last living link to our story of origin in antebellum Southern Virginia.

 I don't know about you, but I am sometimes confused about circumstances which dictate our compliance and action, and what those appropriate actions must/should be.  COVID created that type of conundrum for me and millions of others.  The 81 million US COVID cases and the 990,000 American COVID related deaths suggest a breakdown in understanding the seriousness and avoidance of this dreaded disease.