Progressive Voice

Progressive Voice is a bi-weekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Cheryl Moore

In times of tragedy and uncertainty, those of us who are part of faith community often turn to that community for comfort and support. But since mid-March, turning to your faith community often meant turning on your computer and logging into Zoom.

The staff at Mount Olivet United Methodist in Arlington began preparing for disruption in early February upon hearing news about the strange new virus. The initial plans to figure out contact-less communion went out the window on March 12 when large gatherings were banned for health safety reasons.

Moving quickly is not the norm for many religious institutions, but when Covid-19 hit, things had to change immediately. And that has had implications for faith communities.

Times of crisis can also be times of opportunity and growth. Faith communities that are willing to provide new points of connection, experiment with new initiatives, and build community partnerships will likely prove resilient and more relevant.

Prioritize communication and connection

Mount Olivet associate pastor Teer Hardy related that he and other staff were first inundated with questions about the virus. He said that seminary didn’t train him about what to do in a pandemic, but it did train him in “connectedness.” Keeping its members feeling connected became goal one.

Mount Olivet expanded its Sunday worship online, and added online Sunday School, youth activities, and email devotionals. Volunteers made weekly check-in calls to older members. Callers found many seniors felt isolated even before the pandemic, so this initiative will likely continue.

Worship attendance has been surprisingly high. Said senior pastor Ed Walker, “Even members who haven’t been very active have been attending.” And one Sunday School class reported that a class member who is temporarily working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, gets up at 2:00 a.m. their time to join the class via Zoom.

For some in the Jewish community, however, technology has its limits. Rabbi Lia Bass, of Congregation Etz Hayim, explained that Shabbat services in her Conservative congregation cannot be live-streamed, because it would entail use of electronics, which is not allowed on Shabbat. Services on Thursday mornings and classes on Sundays are now live online, offering new opportunities for the community.

Our Muslim neighbors had the additional challenge of celebrating Ramadan, the holiest Muslim holiday, from April 23-May 23. The observant fast all day, and a nightly gathering with food and prayers at the mosque is an integral part. Those communal activities had to be canceled.

Hurunnessa Fariad, the outreach/interfaith/media coordinator at ADAMS (All Dulles Area Muslim Society) Center, said that she and her colleagues realized that social media was the most effective way to connect with its members. They quickly ramped up daily communication, reminding people to stay at home. “In the Muslim faith, saving a life is even more important than communal prayer,” Fariad said.

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Progressive Voice is a bi-weekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Del. Richard C. (Rip) Sullivan, Jr.

While Arlington continued to confront the coronavirus epidemic, County residents also were preparing for several elections: the Democrats’ May 30 School Board caucus, the Republicans’ June 23 Senate primary, the July 7 County Board special election, and the November 3 general election. Arlingtonians take their civic duty seriously and vote at above-average rates, yet no one can predict exactly when the virus will stop being an immediate threat to our health, when life will go back to “normal,” or whether there will be a second wave of the virus.

To continue our strong record of voter participation and to stay safe, Arlingtonians should prepare to use absentee voting by mail until the General Assembly passes legislation to create a comprehensive no-excuses, vote-by-mail system. Democracy thrives when more voters participate. Voting-by-mail presents that opportunity and also can save money in the long run.

Voting by mail is not only useful during an outbreak – it strengthens our democracy. First, the system increases turnout and does not favor any one partisan bloc. A new Stanford University study finds that universal vote-by-mail programs do not advantage one party over another, but instead increase overall voter turnout. The more people who vote, the better for our democracy.

Second, access to the ballot box on Election Day is often difficult for individuals who, for example, are caretakers, do not have available transportation or depend on low-wage hourly jobs. Lines at the polls can be devastating to their schedules and livelihoods. Receiving a ballot at home to vote by mail would give these Virginians much-needed flexibility. By expanding the number of registered voters who can practically vote, we would again increase turnout and make sure that their voices are heard in the democratic process.

Third, voting by mail is less expensive for voters and states alike. Voters who work hourly wages do not have to lose any earnings by taking time off to cast a ballot. There is no cost of gas or a Metro card to the voter in order to get to one’s polling place. There is no cost of childcare when a parent or caretaker goes to vote. Voters mail in their ballot when it is convenient, leveling the playing field in terms of the cost of participation for voters of all socio-economic backgrounds.

States ultimately save money because they no longer need to staff as many traditional polling places and invest in expensive voting machines at each location. Oregon, for example, reports savings of 30 percent since its transition from traditional in-person voting to exclusively by-mail voting. The price of mailing pre-stamped ballots to voters may seem high at first, but it is outweighed by savings for states and jurisdictions that have tried it.

The local elections held in towns and cities across the Commonwealth on May 19 marked the first time that Virginians faced a choice between voting in-person, voting absentee by mail, or not voting at all in the midst of a pandemic. The results are clear – when given the opportunity, voters want to cast their ballot by mail. In Fairfax City, for example, 74 percent of voters cast an absentee ballot by mail. Turnout also increased slightly across Virginia due to the increase in the number of absentee ballots cast.

Before Covid-19, we already had made great progress in the General Assembly regarding access to the ballot box. We passed a bill making Election Day a state holiday (and doing away with Lee-Jackson Day), changing Virginia’s voter ID law to allow people without IDs to sign an affidavit, and allowing for no-excuse early voting 45 days prior to an election. We also implemented automatic voter registration at the DMV.

While we are not likely to see a fully implemented vote-by-mail system in Virginia by November, we can get close by ensuring that every voter who wishes to vote does so by requesting an absentee ballot. The Covid-19 outbreak may be a threat to our personal and community health, but we can take steps to ensure that it does not interfere with the health of our democracy.

Richard C. “Rip” Sullivan, Jr. is a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Virginia’s 48th District, which encompasses parts of Arlington and McLean. He practices law in Arlington with Bean Kinney & Korman, P.C.

Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Betsy Withycombe

Once upon a time, after trauma had stolen my health, I began to walk. But no matter how far I roamed the streets of Arlington, no matter how completely I exhausted my body, my mind continued to churn. It felt pointless. My tank of resiliency, normally full, was empty.

Among our family’s collection of books are several editions of dictionaries. I looked in each for the definition of “resilience.” Every edition included a primary definition which defined resilience as the ability to return quickly from hardship or adversity. Secondary definitions offered that resilience was a type of flexibility or elasticity. I prefer the latter definition. One’s ability to be resilient is not measured by the speed at which one addresses adversity; sometimes you have to be gentle with yourself as you adapt to the challenge in front of you and continue moving forward.

In the last ten years I have experienced a clinically significant amount of change, loss, and heartache. The details aren’t important, but I’m sure those of you who saw me in the grocery store never suspected the depth of chaos framing the rest of my life. I practiced good self-care and did all of the things that promised my resilience would return. I sought calm in books. My family and friends did everything they could to remind me that I had grit and that my hardest days were behind me. I tried very hard to listen. I was as gentle with myself as I could be. I walked.

Renewed resilience finally came in the form of a flower (which was probably a weed). As I was dragging myself down the sidewalk thinking many unhelpful thoughts, I noticed a small flower. I took out my cell phone to photograph it. I suddenly noticed many unseen flowers and plants on the very street I had been plodding down every day. I was almost home when I realized something very important: Focusing on something outside myself, I had stopped the continuous loop of despair running on repeat in my mind.

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Progressive Voice is a bi-weekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Maurine Shields Fanguy

For many Arlingtonians, a School Board election may be far from top of mind. So many in our community are struggling to hold down jobs or to keep businesses afloat. Others are facing unemployment–many for the first time ever. Families in dire financial circumstances are cobbling together a patchwork of meals for their children from Arlington Public Schools (APS) and groceries from generous community organizations.

Even before COVID-19, this was set to be a critical year for the Arlington School Board. Two Board members announced they would not seek re-election. Five contenders are vying for two seats in the Democratic endorsement process. The two candidates selected in November have an opportunity to fundamentally reshape our schools and drive innovative strategies to address a broad range of issues.

Now, more than ever, it is important for us to thoroughly question the School Board candidates and carefully decide who are the best leaders for a yet unwritten chapter for Arlington schools. Although COVID-19 may have curtailed in-person campaigning, here are the questions I would ask each candidate in a virtual meet-and-greet:

1. What is the most pressing policy issue the School Board needs to resolve in the coming year? What legal or policy impediments or community reactions do you foresee? Does this issue impact most or all students, and why?
2. What do you see as increased needs in the school system because of COVID-19, and how would you appropriately budget for those, as well as your top three budget priorities in what will be tight budget cycles during your term in office?
3. Share your advocacy and leadership experience with an issue that affected more than one school, and how you interacted with people countywide who did not share your view. Did you change your mind or change anyone else’s, and if so, how did you accomplish it?
4. How can we build on the current remote learning to drive a more robust school resilience plan? What instructional and testing practices should we preserve, in whole or in part, when it is safe to reopen schools? How would these practices support achievement for all students?

I hope the candidates will answer these questions and share their responses with voters.

Experienced, countywide experience in Arlington school issues is particularly crucial because of multiple tough situations that already were challenging School Board members.

Difficult decisions earlier this year to move three schools laid the groundwork for even more challenging community discussions on elementary school boundaries that will move thousands of students to new schools in 2021. When Arlington landed Amazon HQ2 in 2019, many Arlingtonians voiced concern about the strain on a school system that already had more students than seats and was expected to grow by 7,000 more in the coming decade.

The 2019 U.S. Department of Justice settlement over services for English language learners underscored the need for tangible action on inequities between schools, long-standing achievement gaps and closer supervision by the School Board to enforce accountability.

Former Superintendent Patrick Murphy announced his retirement in June. Interim Superintendent Cintia Johnson graciously stepped into the role, facing the challenge of leading through the most trying time for APS in decades. Every school is shut down until at least June and nearly 29,000 Arlington students and their families are struggling to adapt to learning from home because of Covid-19.

A schools’ budget that was already stretched has now been slashed by $54M in response to the economic uncertainties resulting from COVID-19. The cuts include hard-to-swallow teacher pay raises, class size increases, and dipping into reserve funds.

The challenging scenario was set in motion even before COVID-19 became our harsh reality and not a news story from another continent. So, who do I think should write the next chapter in Arlington schools?  I believe that when voting for new School Board members this month, it is time we choose sound, experienced and clear-thinking leaders who have a countywide perspective and vision, and who can resolutely approach decision-making.

The Arlington County Democratic Committee is going virtual with a mail-in endorsement caucus. Request your ballot by May 7. Ballots must be received by May 30.

Maurine Shields Fanguy, a parent of 4th and 7th grade APS students, has served as a PTA President, on APS advisory committees, and in other volunteer roles. An Army brat who attended 11 schools, she is proud to have adopted Arlington as her hometown.

 On April 24, School Board member Barbara Kanninen announced her candidacy for a seat on the Arlington County Board left open by the death of the Erik Gutshall. If she wins, a third seat will be open on the School Board.

This column has also been submitted in Spanish: (more…)

Progressive Voice is a bi-weekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Scott Matties

In the face of COVID-19’s massive effect on the health, safety and economic welfare of Arlingtonians, our county decision-makers face hard choices as they re-consider the 2021 budget and five-year CIP. Many economic impacts are not yet certain — accurate revenue forecasts, the toll on health and human service needs, and what the future holds when schools and businesses are able to reopen. Emerging needs have been factored into the revised budget proposal, but updates later in the year will likely be necessary.

With these serious and immediate challenges, it is easy to lose focus on long-term community priorities and their need for funding. Both the public and private sectors should do more to improve sustainability as aging buildings and infrastructure are upgraded or replaced. How we bring about this change can be a model for protecting our environment–or not. We have an opportunity now, with the redevelopment of Lee Highway, to put big ideas into action.

One example is stormwater management. The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act regulations, first implemented in Virginia in 1989, have improved the health of the Bay by focusing on water quality through the collection and treatment of stormwater run-off to reduce pollutants. Arlington’s stormwater management regulations are written, in part, to ensure compliance with this law. These regulations will continue to improve the health of the Bay and our local waterways that feed it.

A more tangible impact on Arlington discussed much of late is flooding. The frequency of very intense storms will continue to impact Arlington due in large part to our inadequate stormwater drainage systems. To address this, we need a new focus on better management of stormwater quantity. It is worth noting that the Virginia regulations related to flood protection identify minimum requirements but do not prohibit local jurisdictions from requiring more.

There are a variety of criteria in the Virginia flood protection regulations, but they generally involve mitigating 2-year and 10-year storm events. The storm that hit our region in July 2019 was a 100-year+ event. The language we use to describe these events should change as it can be misleading. We should shift from colloquial terms like a 100-year storm to what it really means – a 1-in-100 (or 1%) chance of such a storm. Another storm like July 2019 could happen tomorrow. It may be statistically unlikely but it’s time for the public to discuss storms in these terms.

As we plan for the redevelopment of the Lee Highway corridor, how do we address this? Restricting redevelopment is not a realistic approach. Community needs and market pressures are already leading to redevelopment, mostly through by-right proposals meeting only the minimum stormwater requirements.  The commercial core areas of Lee Highway are about 67% impervious, meaning covered by buildings, streets, and parking lots, making effective management of stormwater run-off in these areas very challenging. There is currently no requirement and little incentive for that existing condition to change.

So controlled redevelopment will be an important component of a broad-based plan to better manage stormwater along Lee Highway. Individual redevelopment projects can be required to do more, such as increased on-site stormwater retention and re-use allowing controlled release into the County system. But this must be balanced with the financial burden. This is a complicated and interconnected problem that cannot be solved site-by-site.

Arlington’s government should lead the way to upgrading the antiquated stormwater infrastructure county-wide. The County’s 2019-28 Capital Improvement Plan suggests about $19 million to address stormwater quality but less than $1 million to address stormwater quantity through system upgrades. The County’s current FY 2021 budget proposal appears to improve on that with about $2 million proposed in capital outlay.  However, this does not reflect the sense of urgency felt in the community to get ahead of this issue.

One silver lining in the COVID-19 crisis has been improved air quality worldwide. It is encouraging to see clear evidence that a change in behavior, whether chosen or imposed, can improve our environment.  This is likely temporary so let’s not to get complacent. Let’s use this time to get ahead of the problem and make changes, both in policy and implementation, that can improve our environment for the long term.

Scott Matties AIA LEED-AP is an architect who has lived in Arlington 25 years. He is the current president of the Lee Highway Alliance, a group of citizens, property and business owners that has been working on Lee Highway redevelopment for nine years.

Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the authors’.

By Chris DeRosa

Note: The person-to-person activities described in this article have been suspended to ensure health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. The volunteers’ research, paperwork and electronic organization continue.

Kent* was in a local homeless shelter, discouraged and confused. He had completed his felony sentence years ago, but he had a disability, no job, and an uncertain future. A visitor wearing a t-shirt that said “Spread the Vote” asked if he wanted to request to have his civil rights restored. He was a bit leery, but he sat with her for a few minutes as they completed the online form.

Then it was a matter of waiting. It took nearly 8 months and many emails and phone calls to the Eastern District Federal Court and Federal Bureau of Prisons, plus calls to Richmond. In October 2018, his request was finally granted. Kent registered to vote, and has voted in every election since then. He also is in his own apartment now and his outlook on life is much brighter.

Many such citizens have been disenfranchised in Virginia because of a felony conviction. After completing their sentence and probation, they have a legal right to vote, but must apply to have their voting rights restored. Many don’t realize they can do this; many don’t have access to a computer to submit an application.

Carolina* was in her building’s computer room, fretting and near tears. Her ID had expired; without a current ID, she could not start her new job. A friend told her to contact Spread the Vote. A volunteer met with Carolina a couple of days later and ordered a birth certificate for her; after it arrived, she drove Carolina to the DMV. Carolina got her legal photo ID (paid for by STV), started her new job, and continues happily raising her two adorable little boys.

Kent and Carolina are but two of Arlington and Falls Church citizens who, for various reasons, don’t have government-issued photo IDs. Many cannot vote because of a prior felony conviction (voting rights can be restored but must be applied for); others just don’t have a photo ID due to circumstances like a lost birth certificate.

Without a government-issued ID, many also face barriers to housing, employment, and healthcare; they can’t cash a check or open a bank account. They need an ID for life. That’s where the trained volunteers from Spread the Vote can provide encouragement and experience to frustrated clients.

Spread the Vote/Project ID is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that aims to remedy these situations. It is staffed largely by volunteers who are working in communities throughout Virginia and in many other states. What do these states have in common? They all require voters to have photo IDs in order to vote. It’s estimated that 21 million Americans do not have government-issued photo IDs, though they are legally entitled to them.

Isn’t it easy to get an ID? That’s what I thought. How wrong I was! Many don’t have the money to pay for their IDs or the required documents such as birth certificates. Some have lost their documents when they slept under a bridge on a rainy night; others had their backpacks stolen as they napped on the Metro. Many have gone to the DMV to try and get an ID, but were turned away and gave up. Frustrating. Not easy at all.

Spread the Vote/Project ID volunteers have donated hundreds of hours to help our Virginia neighbors. This involves spending up to 6 hours meeting with each client, driving them to the DMV and SSA, and following up with agencies. Nationwide, Spread the Vote has obtained nearly 5,000 legal photo IDs. That includes IDs for over 1,000 Virginians, plus around 250 birth certificates. Spread the Vote/Project ID pays the cost of obtaining IDs and necessary supporting documents. The average cost of getting a valid photo ID is $40. (Non-citizens with visas and green cards can also get IDs.)

These volunteers are changing lives, one ID, one voter, at a time. It is extremely time-consuming, but truly gratifying work! Find out more at our website, or email [email protected].

*Names have been changed to protect individuals’ identity.

Chris DeRosa is a longtime Arlingtonian and is the leader of the Arlington/Falls Church chapter of Spread the Vote/Project ID, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization.

 Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the authors’.

By Wesley Joe and Carly Lenhoff 

Public conversations about juvenile justice can quickly escalate into pitched battles. They involve some of the highest stakes: fateful decisions about the future of children. Unfortunately, these conversations often devolve into unproductive conflict. While some disagreements are inevitable and healthy, many become needlessly mired in unproductive disputes over basic facts. Arlington Public Schools (APS) can reduce some of this deliberative drag by collecting and sharing more data, and by making its existing data more accessible.

Collect more, and more relevant, data to effectively assess school discipline policies.

Reaching a community consensus about how to address a problem begins with agreement about key facts. Unfortunately, public stakeholders currently lack the information necessary to resolve controversies of fact regarding many serious student discipline issues.

For example, there is much discussion of the role of school resource officers (SROs) on school campuses. In May 2018, APS and the Arlington County Police Department signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that more clearly defines the respective roles and responsibilities of SROs and APS personnel. Yet public stakeholders currently have no way to assess the impact of these measures on student life and achievement. The MOU does not specify criteria for “success.” Nor does it require the collection and disclosure of data needed to monitor compliance with and the effects of its provisions.

One potential solution is the adoption of a policy for routine, publicly reported assessment of the impacts of the MOU and other major discipline-related policies. The assessment process would generate and report useful data. For example, one MOU goal is to minimize the incidence of informal requests for law enforcement assistance with discipline that does not involve violations of law. APS’s presentation to the School Board in January reported no data about this issue. A thorough assessment would include, for example, demographic information about students whose conduct is informally referred to SROs, student perceptions of SROs, and the like. Within the limits required to respect student privacy, stakeholders need this kind of information to contribute more productively to policy conversations.

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Progressive Voice is a bi-weekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Madaline Langston

While various panels and programs have explored racism in Arlington, dozens of students recently took a different tack, using site visits, interviews with community members, and creative drama to “Flip the Script.”

About 10 student actors — both black and white — interviewed local and academic historians and visited African-American communities before returning to their rehearsal space to devise a historically based play, “The Day Nothing Happened.” The stories they heard resonated with these young actors and compelled them to confront the difficult issues that African-American students still experience today.

During one visit to Arlington’s Hall’s Hill neighborhood, the students were astonished that a wall had been built in the 1930s to physically separate the African-American community from surrounding white neighborhoods, as if hidden from a society uncomfortable with our mere existence. The response of the students was of hurt, anger and disbelief. A portion of that wall still stands today as a reminder of the past injustices and present inequalities.

The play is structured around one day in 1959 when four black teenagers entered an all-white school for the first time in Virginia, with scenes and interactions from “on the bus, homeroom and cafeteria.” Parents’ concerns were woven in, too, such as a scene from the night before the four entered school.

Performances of the drama made powerful impressions on some in the audience. Claudine Bostick Sangaré, parent of one of the actors, said, “I recently witnessed an elderly black man, visibly moved and crying during the show.” She also recounted a Latina woman’s shock at learning Stratford Junior High (now known as Dorothy Hamm Middle School), located in her “backyard,” was that first school in Virginia to desegregate long ago.

Sangaré said her own 14-year-old daughter drew parallels to the experiences of her character in the play — one of the four black teenagers — and her current school environment. “Since her involvement with ‘Flip the Script,’ my teenage child had to become emotionally attached to the history to channel feelings of angst, anxiety and fear to portray her character.”

In the creative process leading to the drama, actors and others reflected on what they had heard and learned. “I have definitely gone through a roller coaster of emotions,” said one actor. “I was nervous to be vulnerable and raw, but ultimately excited to shed light on a story that is often swept under the rug.”

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