Awhile back, I submitted a column to our local newspaper, now named “InsideNoVa.com,” formerly “The Potomac News.” My column submission was triggered by a report that about 80 percent of Prince William County were “OK” with the way our police department were handling the anti-Hispanic immigration resolution passed by our Board of County Supervisors back in 2007.
I was deeply offended by this information, and submitted my column.
Back on December 28, 2008, I had my latest letter to the editor (LTE) published in our local newspaper the Potomac News. This letter was a rebuttal and answer to our local columnist James Simpson. Mr. Simpson subsequently promised a rebuttal to my answer, and this week he did just that.
Not much of a surprise there, but what did pleasantly surprise me was his tone. He actually wrote a respectful response laying out his opinions without any hint of mocking me.
The Republican Smear Machine has already started cranking out their nonsense in all its finest glory. Some of it leaked out into our local newspaper editorials section of “The Potomac News” on June 15, about Senator Obama allegedly breaking his promise to not take Lobbyist money. With this letter, I decided to officially become an “activist” and get clarification directly from the Obama campaign.
I’ve been a bit slow in re-posting my monthly Letter’s to The Editor (LTEs) for June and July. As I’ve mentioned before, last July I made it a goal to get at least one letter per month published in our local newspaper The Potomac News.
I’ve actually met that goal so far, having one letter per month published since last August, and one column under my byline. With everything else I’ve been doing these past couple of months, I’ve been a bit slow republishing them here. So here is my June LTE.
I’ve made a point of getting a Letter to the Editor (LTE) of our local newspaper published at least once each month since last summer. Over these past months my writing has evolved from simple rebutting of our local Conservative columnists to writing on original topics. Part of the change from rebutting columnists is that the newspaper has introduced commenting in their on-line version. This on-line commenting is moderated but apparently only filtered for obvious spam, as evidenced by the range of opinions that actually gets posted.
A comments thread I participated in became extremely amusing to me extremely fast today. Unfortunately, it is also a sad example of what now-a-days passes for “educated discussion” on immigration in this Virginia county of Prince William.
This month’s Letter to the Editor (LTE) of our local “The Potomac News” focused on veteran’s issues. Specifically, I wrote about a current bill in congress that dramatically expands educational benefits for our veterans, submitted by freshman Senator Jim Webb (D-VA). My letter specifically noted that Republicans, from the Bush administration on down, is actively opposing this bill and none of the chattering class seems to be paying attention.
I’ve just had another of my continuing series of Letters to the Editor published in yesterday’s “The Potomac News. This letter was another in my recent series of taking on the anti-Hispanic-immigration crowd that is running wild here in Prince William County.
A few weeks ago I had another of my letters to the Local Newspaper “The Potomac News” published. This letter expressed my lack of sympathy towards one of our most out-spoken racists complaining about being listed in the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a “nativist.”
My letter received a direct letter to the editor rebuttal only two days later. My follow-up was never published by “The Potomac News,” so I’m publishing it here.
Last week I submitted another of my on-going series of Letters to the Editor of our local newspaper “The Potomac News.” This time, I took on a local wing-nut who is key in whipping up anti-immigration hysteria in this area. It seems that after a few years of diligently and successfully working to build his reputation as a local racist, this individual was unhappy about being labeled a “nativist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center and local newspapers.
Back In The Trenches – A New LTE
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Back quite a few years ago, when we first moved up to Northern Virginia, I was actively writing Letters to the Editor (LTE) of my local newspaper. Between 2007 to 2008, we still had a local dead tree newspaper, an openly hard-rightwing publication judging by their columnists and general editorial slant.
Regrettably, that all ended when the newspaper collapsed. All we have now are some small online publications, still mostly right-wing oriented. This week I decided it was time to get back into writing LTEs again.
Opinions & Commentary
LTE Prince William County