Author: Elena

I just wanted to wish those celebrating Chanukah, a joyful holiday. I thought I would share the history of the holiday as many people don’t know all the details.

I have been making potato latkes for days now, about 150 total ! Potato latkes are made as a treat for this holiday as you cook them in oil, the oil representing the significance of Chanukah.  

Long ago in the land of Judea there was a Syrian king, Antiochus. The king ordered the Jewish people to reject their G-d, their religion, their customs and their beliefs and to worship the Greek gods. There were some who did as they were told, but many refused. One who refused was Judah Maccabee.

Judah and his four brothers formed an army and chose as their name the word “Maccabee”, which means hammer. After three years of fighting, the Maccabees were finally successful in driving the Syrians out of Israel and reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem. The Maccabees wanted to clean the building and to remove the hated Greek symbols and statues. On the 25th day of the month of Kislev, the job was finished and the temple was rededicated.

When Judah and his followers finished cleaning the temple, they wanted to light the eternal light, known as the N’er Tamid, which is present in every Jewish house of worship. Once lit, the oil lamp should never be extinguished.

Only a tiny jug of oil was found with only enough for a single day. The oil lamp was filled and lit. Then a miracle occurred as the tiny amount of oil stayed lit not for one day, but for eight days.

 Mom, Jean Smith, along with her son Jim, 19, were murdered,Friday afternoon, in their home in Dale City.  The surviving children and father must be reeling from this senseless tragedy.  My heart goes out to the family. According the article in the Potomac News, Jean was very active in her childrens’ lives.

By JONATHAN HUNLEY
Published: December 19, 2008

A mother and son described as the “kind of people you aspire to be” were found dead in their Dale City home Friday afternoon, Prince William County police said.

Jean Claire Smith, 39, and James Marshall Smith, 19, were discovered by a younger son of Jean Smith at about 3 p.m., Maj. Ray Colgan said.

Mother and son were found in different rooms of their house in the 13600 block of Langford Court, Colgan said.

“It appears to be a double-murder,” he said.

How the Smiths were killed was unclear Friday night, and Colgan said police hadn’t developed a motive for why anyone would harm them.

“They would be called ‘low-risk victims,’” he said.

The family was active at Holy Family Catholic Church, Colgan said, and in activities at C.D. Hylton High School. They seemed to get along with their neighbors.
“This is a fairly quiet neighborhood,” he said as he stood a few feet in front of the Smith home.

Update: There’s another article in the Washington Post at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/19/AR2008121904030.html.

I am truly fascinated with this story.  Caroline Kennedy has always been such an enigma to the world, always very private, reserved, and dedicated to her father’s memory and ideology in an unassuming manner.  Her desire to seek public office comes as a pleasant surprise!  I believe she would make a great senator. 

Caroline Kennedy to Seek Appointment to N.Y. Senate Seat
UPDATE, 9:00 p.m.: Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Caroline Kennedy confirmed to the Fix this evening she is seeking the Senate appointment. Kennedy made a round of calls today to influential New York Democrats, added Friedman. She spoke to, among others, Rep. Louise Slaughter who offered an endorsement this evening, as well as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Once again, the ADL clearly states that there is an important discussion that needs to happen regarding immigration, and yet, still, people with little insight, miss the point. It is amazing that the for an article with the subtitle, “Blog comments reflect stereotyping and bigotry”, you will find hateful and misinformed comments replicated in the comment section of THAT article. What the ADL IS advocating, AGAIN, is that people step away from the scapegoating of hispanics and look at the historical relationship between hate rhetoric and the dangerous journey it has taken some nations.

The Houston Chronicle made some important discoveries with its recent series by Susan Carroll on the failure of law enforcement officials to deport or keep in jail illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

Certainly the Chronicle’s investigation pointed out shortcomings in our legal and immigration systems that need to be fixed. The release of any criminal who goes on to commit more crimes, whether he or she is in this country legally or not, can be called a miscarriage of justice.

What concerns us at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is despite Carroll’s attempts to reach readers with the results of research that “found that recent immigrants are far less likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to commit crimes and end up in prison,” anti-immigrant bigots seized on parts of her series to insult, stereotype, and even advocate violence against immigrants and others they perceived to be immigrants, especially Hispanics.

Here are some examples of the comments from Chronicle blogs:

• “This is a no-brainer to me. Start with the jails and get all those people deported, then construction companies, garbage companies, landscape companies, restaurants and must I go on?”
• “All of our grandchildren’s children are going to live in a third world country.”
• “We the taxpayers are footing the bill for these society leeches.The people from Katrina were bad enough. Our crime rate is still high.”
• “I got a great idea — just shoot them on the spot if they commit a serious crime in Texas.”

These comments should offend all of us, and must be challenged. One only need look at the Holocaust to see the results of relentless, pervasive bigotry. The Nazis began their campaign with words and pictures against Jews, Slavs, political dissidents, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and the mentally and physically disabled.

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During Thanksgiving, I think it is always important to take a moment, no matter how brief, and allow yourself some silent introspection. For me, this video, represents a family that has been through hell and back and yet, still remains hopeful and thankful, in spite of the clear hardships that their son will face. It should remind us all to appreciate the health and well being of our loved ones, I certainly say my “thankfuls”, every night, for my healthy family, especially my children. I am thankful for the journey that I have been blessed to live.

Life is about the paths we choose, and, if we are lucky, we make the right choices that allow us to fully experience this one chance we get at living. Even though my ever winding path has led me through some pretty difficult times, I would never want to exchange one turbulent or painful moment, for each experience has shaped the person I am today. Hmmm, I can’t wait for some posters to have fun with THAT last sentence 🙂 Anyway, I wish for everyone a peaceful and “Thankful” holiday.

The Washington Post reports the Virginia Panel on Immigration, created by Govenor Kaine, has come to realize that immigration is an issue that must be dealt with by the Federal Government.

RICHMOND — Virginia, known for some of the nation’s toughest policies on illegal immigration, appears to be abandoning its hard-line approach as state officials consider proposals to help foreign-born residents assimilate, including increasing the number of English classes.

In the coming weeks, the Virginia Commission on Immigration will send Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) two dozen recommendations, most of which would help immigrants instead of penalizing them.

During the General Assembly’s session this year, the number of immigration bills introduced was the highest in recent years, but most measures died. State and local governments found that they could do little to resolve the issue.

“This is really a federal issue,” Watkins said. “They have . . . pushed it down toward the states, and the time has come for them to deal with it. We have no jurisdiction.”

What was especially interesting is the realization that as a “wedge issue”, illegal immigration was a losing issue. As has been pointed out several times on antibvbl, 20 respresentatives from the “immigration caucus” lost their seats in this election.

Creedon said commission members recognized that in the past some immigration proposals were raised for “political purposes” and could not be enforced. “They wanted credit for taking a tough position, but you knew they wouldn’t be implemented,” he said.

Those on both sides of the issue say interest in immigration has waned because of the growing economic crisis, a clearer understanding of the state’s limitations on a largely federal issue and backlash at the voting booth.

“I think some reality set in,” said state Sen. John C. Watkins (R-Chesterfield), the group’s chairman.

Here are some of the recomendations by the committee. Imagine that, a formal committee actually created to determine, with expert advice, a reasonable path to deal with immigration issues. Reminds me of what our county LACKED when dealing with immigration.

The Immigration Commission spent more than a year writing recommendations for Kaine after public hearings that included expert testimony and comment from legislators and the Virginia Crime Commission. The proposals would have to be adopted by Kaine, the General Assembly or Congress.

The commission proposed increasing the number of English classes and creating a plan to address the needs of foreign-born residents. It also urged the federal government to compile more complete immigration statistics, increase the number of visas for foreign workers and pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

This, this is what happens when you allow hatred of one segment of our population to grow and fester like a cancer. Marcello Lucero, 37, was stabbed to death Saturday, November 9th. His crime, you may ask? He was Hispanic. Seven teenagers, living in a county where the County Executive, Steven Levy, is known for pushing tough anti illegal immigration enforcement, even to the extent of raiding apartment buildings, demanding documentation from the inhabitants, all of whom were Latino. Apparently these teenage boys were looking for any Hispanic to attack, and Marcello was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The reality is, when you have elected officials, standing silently by, while hatred and racism grow towards one group of people, violence is bound to happen. What is worse though, when I think about it, is that I can only imagine that Suffolk County mirrored PWC in many ways, in ways that refused to acknowledge there was a growing dislike towards the Latino community. However, we had Greg’s blog to document the growing hatred, hatred that Corey and John, to this day, continue to deny knowing about or admitting that there is a division growing in our county. Geez, you even have Corey saying, out loud, “did you ask the Spanish speaker if they were legal citizens”, when he was inquiring about the citizen satisfaction survey.
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The Washington Post reports, although our real estate taxes will decrease, this is not necessarily good news. Our home values have dropped an average of 30% and apparently we should not expect a recovery to begin until 2013. What I am wondering is where are all these savings that Chairman Stewart promised us? He has put our county through hell and what does he have to show for it? Where
‘s the beef? Not just, gee, Greg tells me his neighborhood looks less Latino, but real concrete factual budgetary numbers! If he uses the drop in ESOL as his basis, well, then, I want him to explain where these families lived? Is the exodus of ESOL contributing to our astronomical foreclosure rates? The 11 million we wasted on the anti illegal immigration resolution should would have come in handy right about now, especially considering, it accounts for almost HALF of our budget shortfall. But hey, who cares about people having to pay for their own ambulance ride or county employees being laid off.

Prince William County residents will probably see a decrease in their property tax bills next year.
The Board of County Supervisors agreed at its budget retreat last week that it wanted county staff members to prepare a budget with a tax rate of $1.13 per $100 of assessed value. That would be an increase from the current 97-cent rate, but because home values have decreased so sharply, the average homeowner’s bill would still fall 18 percent.

The rate may go lower but cannot go higher if the board agrees to the budget proposal, as expected, at its next meeting Nov. 18.

“It’s not terribly realistic to expect homeowners to pay more in their tax bill with the degree of economic uncertainty we are facing,” County Executive Craig S. Gerhart said.

Even at the $1.13 tax rate, the county would have to cut $26 million from school and county spending to close an anticipated $190 million gap in the coming budget year.

Although home sales have surged in Prince William, it faces hard economic times because home values have decreased 30 percent in the past year. The county projects that the housing market won’t recover until 2013.

“Prince William County has lost more value at a faster pace than the rest of Northern Virginia,” said Christopher E. Martino, the county’s finance director. “We are going to overcorrect before we come back up and stabilize.”

Although this report, done by the Northern Virgina Regional Commission, should not come as a surprise to anyone, it does codify what we all knew, Prince William County’s demographics are radically changing.  Even Corey Stewart, admitting it months ago, shared that Prince William County was experiencing a “demographic change”.   As stated in this Washington Post article:

Prince William County has become the most ethnically and racially diverse county in Northern Virginia as a profound demographic shift in the region is reversing half a century of white-flight suburbanization, according to a report by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission.

While places like Arlington and Alexandria are lamenting that their population is losing its diverse landscape, we are gaining their faces in our changing population.  Marty Nohe has some great quotes as follows:

“Because we’re far less urbanized, it’s an easy assumption to make that we’re a predominantly white community,” said Prince William Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles), who attended Billingsley’s presentation at a recent meeting of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. “But my hope is that people will recognize that our community has changed, and I think the change we’re experiencing is a positive one.”

No members of minority groups serve on the heavily Republican Prince William Board of County Supervisors or on the city councils of Manassas and Manassas Park, but Nohe predicted that, too, will soon change. “As newcomers to our county get more established, you’ll see more minority participation in politics,” he said, noting that the county has a black sheriff and black School Board members.

Obviously, the elephant in the room is our recent debacle over immigration legal and illegal, as my favorite friend Mr. Duecaster likes to point out, and how that has impacted our community.

Because the report relies on Census Bureau estimates that extend only through 2007, it is not clear how the recent economic downturn, the foreclosure crisis and efforts in Prince William and Manassas to target illegal immigrants might affect the region’s demographics. The highest foreclosure rates in the region are in the jurisdictions that have experienced the largest minority growth.

My hope is that we are on a new course, and immigration reform will be a part of that new direction. This video was a culmination of a rally that I believe set the tone for Prince William County, for Virginia and for a nation. If you missed it, I strongly urge you to watch it, you too will get fired up to help create a new and positive direction for our country. We are ALL a part of the solution.

Senator McCain gave an excellent concession speech. We are thankful for his grace at what must have been a very emotional time for him. President Elect Obama gave the MOST thoughtful speech I have ever heard, bar none except Martin Luther King and the I have a Dream.

Hey Turn PW Blue, now you can add “turn VA blue” to your Moniker!!!!!! Wow, Virginia, since 1964, prior to desegregation, has not voted Democratic. And look at us now, putting our first African American in the executive office, take my keys Poor Richard, I must be drunk!