Shut the door, then assimilate
We enjoy being around people like us. But when others move in, it can make us uncomfortable until they become more like us.
When they adopt the same rules we do in our community, then we tend to become friends and not just neighbors.
Thus in my gated community of Aquia Harbour—a historic first and largest for Stafford County—we share a common bond in paying for extra security and amenities and having a say in management.
Soon after I moved here in the late 1970s, I was at a monthly meeting of our homeowners’ board of directors. There sat director Kenneth Cundiff, who happened to live right down the street. So this is an integrated community, and that’s OK, I thought. For I found Ken and his wife to be great folks. First of all, they loved Aquia Harbour, too, despite our early travails.
There were other black residents in those early years, like today, and all just as neighborly. The question here of racial exclusivity or harmony has never arisen to my knowledge. Instead, our community’s tendency to unite, often against outside pressure, has served us well.
Early on, the county had threatened to withdraw school bus service unless we fixed our roads, which remain--although greatly improved—as convoluted as a plateful of spaghetti. Residents had to act in our common interest and did, and still do.
Today, we are trying to draw in our skirts to fend off encroaching civilization on our perimeter--in view (literally) of the new Hills at Aquia development arising on our western flank and Brents Mill II on our north. Too bad we couldn’t have played the Army’s trump card recently in prohibiting nearby residential development in Spotsylvania deemed too close, on a national defense rationale, to Fort A.P. Hill.
We’ll just swallow hard and try to get along with the snooty newcomers. It’s good for Aquia Harbour folks to remember that once we were considered snobs by the rest of the county. We were the rich new arrivals. Well, maybe not rich, but undeniably new.
Now with these new latter-day Harbours encroaching, let us be reasonable. After all, how high falutin can a tract be that will soon have a car dealership in its front yard?
So mark me down as a cranky community booster. For despite all, Stafford County has done good by me and mine. I even like the supervisors and the county officials.
And especially our precious historic sites. Right down the hill from us lies Aquia Church, still alive and kicking. It was founded about the same time as “historic” Alexandria. Adjoining the Harbour is Government Island., now county owned, and once a quarry used in the construction of many historic buildings in Washington, D.C.
Virginia, despite our recent Democrat governors, still occupies a warm spot in my heart. Our state remains fairly prudent and honest. We’re doing well economically, and yes, our forefathers spawned the world’s greatest democracy.
A few of my own roots trace to early Virginia. Several years after Jamestown’s founding, a fecund farmer named Blankenship cropped up in Chesterfield County, upstream on the James, and there sired a flock of kids via several wives..
So I’m proud of this year’s 400th anniversary celebration. Granted, Virginia once led in holding slaves and running baby farms to provide new ones. But it wasn’t the sole culprit. New York City once was the second leading U.S. city in holding slaves.
It’s also true that slaves played a huge role in getting the colonies and our early nation on its feet.
So should we apologize for their past treatment? Some states have. But why stop there? The Yankees should apologize to Stafford’s pioneers for leaving our devastated county in dire straits after the Civil War. Also, let’s hear regrets from the descendants of a group of blacks in New Orleans who reportedly kept other blacks as slaves. And don’t forget the noble American Indians, some of whom also were known to keep a few slaves from other tribes.
In overcoming such past sins, we’ve adjusted and assimilated. Now we must try to absorb even the illegal immigrants. It should be doable; it’s already happening. So let’s swallow hard and shout Ole!
We’ll succeed, though, only if we first cut off the inflow. Here’s Seth Leibsohn, in National Review Online: “Let’s put illegal immigration on the course of ultimate extinction by tolerating no more furtherance, or rewarding, of it…”
Simple. Yet, “No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”—Mark Twain.
When they adopt the same rules we do in our community, then we tend to become friends and not just neighbors.
Thus in my gated community of Aquia Harbour—a historic first and largest for Stafford County—we share a common bond in paying for extra security and amenities and having a say in management.
Soon after I moved here in the late 1970s, I was at a monthly meeting of our homeowners’ board of directors. There sat director Kenneth Cundiff, who happened to live right down the street. So this is an integrated community, and that’s OK, I thought. For I found Ken and his wife to be great folks. First of all, they loved Aquia Harbour, too, despite our early travails.
There were other black residents in those early years, like today, and all just as neighborly. The question here of racial exclusivity or harmony has never arisen to my knowledge. Instead, our community’s tendency to unite, often against outside pressure, has served us well.
Early on, the county had threatened to withdraw school bus service unless we fixed our roads, which remain--although greatly improved—as convoluted as a plateful of spaghetti. Residents had to act in our common interest and did, and still do.
Today, we are trying to draw in our skirts to fend off encroaching civilization on our perimeter--in view (literally) of the new Hills at Aquia development arising on our western flank and Brents Mill II on our north. Too bad we couldn’t have played the Army’s trump card recently in prohibiting nearby residential development in Spotsylvania deemed too close, on a national defense rationale, to Fort A.P. Hill.
We’ll just swallow hard and try to get along with the snooty newcomers. It’s good for Aquia Harbour folks to remember that once we were considered snobs by the rest of the county. We were the rich new arrivals. Well, maybe not rich, but undeniably new.
Now with these new latter-day Harbours encroaching, let us be reasonable. After all, how high falutin can a tract be that will soon have a car dealership in its front yard?
So mark me down as a cranky community booster. For despite all, Stafford County has done good by me and mine. I even like the supervisors and the county officials.
And especially our precious historic sites. Right down the hill from us lies Aquia Church, still alive and kicking. It was founded about the same time as “historic” Alexandria. Adjoining the Harbour is Government Island., now county owned, and once a quarry used in the construction of many historic buildings in Washington, D.C.
Virginia, despite our recent Democrat governors, still occupies a warm spot in my heart. Our state remains fairly prudent and honest. We’re doing well economically, and yes, our forefathers spawned the world’s greatest democracy.
A few of my own roots trace to early Virginia. Several years after Jamestown’s founding, a fecund farmer named Blankenship cropped up in Chesterfield County, upstream on the James, and there sired a flock of kids via several wives..
So I’m proud of this year’s 400th anniversary celebration. Granted, Virginia once led in holding slaves and running baby farms to provide new ones. But it wasn’t the sole culprit. New York City once was the second leading U.S. city in holding slaves.
It’s also true that slaves played a huge role in getting the colonies and our early nation on its feet.
So should we apologize for their past treatment? Some states have. But why stop there? The Yankees should apologize to Stafford’s pioneers for leaving our devastated county in dire straits after the Civil War. Also, let’s hear regrets from the descendants of a group of blacks in New Orleans who reportedly kept other blacks as slaves. And don’t forget the noble American Indians, some of whom also were known to keep a few slaves from other tribes.
In overcoming such past sins, we’ve adjusted and assimilated. Now we must try to absorb even the illegal immigrants. It should be doable; it’s already happening. So let’s swallow hard and shout Ole!
We’ll succeed, though, only if we first cut off the inflow. Here’s Seth Leibsohn, in National Review Online: “Let’s put illegal immigration on the course of ultimate extinction by tolerating no more furtherance, or rewarding, of it…”
Simple. Yet, “No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”—Mark Twain.
posted by Ben Blankenship at
6:41 PM
