Category: Virginia

Hopes and fears

7/4/2018 Monticello Naturalization
For 56 years Monticello has hosted a Naturalization ceremony on the nickel side of the house, July 4. It is July in Virginia, in the direct sun, high humidity. It is a joyous celebration at the complicated man’s house, on the day he died.
new citizen
The Honorable Michael F. Urbanski presided. 70+/- people took the oath, joined the work, new citizens from Afghanistan, Barbados, Bhutan, Burma, Burundi… the list goes on, 35 countries in all. Andrew Tisch, Leslie Bowman and Judge Urbanski spoke. Their words were meaningful, inspiring and portentous. Or maybe it is the mountaintop venue? Like singing in a cathedral where voices reverberate. Monticello is a complicated place to contemplate Liberty, it is the high altar and the thin ice.
Monticello crowd
And so, into the 243rd year.
Monticello 7/4/2018
Tyler Simpson sings the National Anthem, lady on his right signs…

 

Not. One. Inch.

Emancipation Oak, photo by Moncure Chatfield-Taylor
Hampton University has a three-word message for the Virginia Department of Transportation: Not. One. Inch.
And they mean it.
They do not plan to give up a single inch of land or blade of grass to make way for the planned expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the widening of Interstate 64 adjacent to their campus.–Kerry Dougherty, Virginian-Pilot

Read more about the living history of the Emancipation Oak

what is in a name?

global warming
In 1980, Dominion Resources, Inc., was incorporated as the holding company for VEPCO. For us ratepayers on the ground Virginia Electric and Power Company became Dominion.


transporting fracked gas
Dominion came through the Woolen Mills recently, whacking trees. Line maintenance. They provide the power that I post by here. But what is the price of the power?


North Anna, James
Is it possible for a monopoly to be true to its place of origin? To care about cultural and natural resources? To care about the environment? Here recently, the corporation has been in the news, often. From the outside they’ve been acting more like the Dominator than the Virginian. Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Transmission lines over the James River. New nuclear facility on a faultline.


political clout
Yesterday, people from across Virginia came to speak to the dominator. To date, there is little indication that Dominion has ears.