Finally. The time has come.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We the people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as stated in our founding document, are about to make decisions on how our county, our state and our nation will be operated.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In order to form a more perfect union\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we have the opportunity and obligation \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in less than a month \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to rise early on perhaps a frosty morning, to drive or walk or bike to the neighborhood school or church or garage or library which will that day become a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153polling place.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153To ensure domestic tranquility\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we will line up to give our name, take a ballot, and enter a booth, there to decide what kind of nation, state and county we want to be or to become.<\/p>\n
On those fronts we have much with which to be concerned.<\/p>\n
Most disconcerting, locally, is the news that a county school bond proposal is facing, as the Connection\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Seth Rosen wrote, an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unraveling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the usual strong consensus of support for school bond issues. The apparent controversy seems to be taking on an unfortunate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153north vs. south\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Arlington divide. Toward the end of Seth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s September 27 story he writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those who are publicly opposing the bond package do not believe in the end it will be shot down by Arlington voters,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that through their opposition they just want to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsend a message\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to elected leaders. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a dangerous path to take, when the schooling of the County\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s youngsters is at stake. Study the issues, yes. But please give strong thought to what could happen if solid support for public education in Arlington is broken.<\/p>\n
Our Commonwealth has no less controversial a question to put before you: the infamous \u00e2\u20ac\u0153marriage\u00e2\u20ac\u009d amendment to our Bill of Rights. While claiming to make a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153definition\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of what marriage is; the proposed amendment actually takes away a right some of our fellow Virginians may want to exercise.<\/p>\n
Strange, is it not, that we would want to add to our most sacred document, which enshrines that to which we are entitled, wording that would take away a right?<\/p>\n
This constitutional amendment, we all know, is aimed at our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends and neighbors who may happen to be attracted to persons of the same sex. Sure, you might not think that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnormal,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but we need to ask ourselves, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwhat is normal?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 If you happen to be divorced, would we adopt an amendment denying you the right to marry again? If you are single and living with a person of the opposite sex, would we vote to fine or imprison you for not being married?<\/p>\n
By the same reasoning, if two people are so committed to one another that they wish to make vows before God and man to bind that union, who are we to deny them that right? After all, it is called a Bill of rights, not a bill of denials.<\/p>\n
Lastly, we are faced with the opportunity to decide who will represent us in the United States Senate; that body of our government which voted to allow our president to take this nation into an unprovoked invasion of another sovereign nation.<\/p>\n
One candidate, our current senator John Allen, said in his debate with Democrat Jim Webb, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I stand by my decision\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to grant war-making authority to George W. Bush. Webb opposed that decision.<\/p>\n
Think what has become of our nation since that invasion: war has become a part of our daily lexicon for a period of time longer than the horrific second world war, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153torture\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is now associated with our beloved United States of America.<\/p>\n
Is this what we want? Since this unprovoked invasion took place, with Mr. Allen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blessing, more than two-thousand seven-hundred young men and women of this land have lost their lives in a place far, far away. They were told they were avenging the 2001 attacks in New York and on our Pentagon; and they were told the madman ruling Iraq was about to use poison gas and other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153weapons of mass destruction\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to rain death upon us.<\/p>\n
Over time it became apparent that neither reason was true, and that our president knew it before he made his decision to invade Iraq.<\/p>\n
We have nothing more precious than the right to determine how we are to be governed. Please do set aside a part of your time on Tuesday, November 7, to make your way to your precinct\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s polling place. Momentous decisions will be made that day; decisions that will tell Arlington, Virginia and our nation what kind of people we are.<\/p>\n
What kind of people we want to be.<\/p>\n
Nick Penning is an Arlington, Virginia, freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finally. The time has come. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We the people,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as stated in our founding document, are about to make decisions on how our county, our state and our nation will be operated. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In order to form a more perfect union\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we have the opportunity and obligation \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in less than a month \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to rise early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penning.us\/Nick2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}