Unforgettable moment
Bensblurb # 570 9/10/10
Forget Young Rabbit Ears,
We have a moment never to forget...
Please put Obama’s latest rants behind you for a moment...How he’s whining that interest groups he has battled, “talk to me like a dog,” forgetting his comments in 2008 about getting a shelter dog: a “mutt, like me.”
For tomorrow, we commemorate what happened nine years ago, but like yesterday for friends on my block. For that was when we lost a good neighbor, Marian Serva, to the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, on that 9/11 day of infamy.
We didn’t forget or let it pass. Rather, we built a permanent memorial in Aquia Harbour. It commemorates the sacrifice of her and another neighbor, Martha Reszke, plus county resident Teresa Martin and all others who lost their lives in those three terrifying conflagrations.
Never to be forgotten? Let’s hope so. At least our local reaction was timely, in seeing our memorial in place before two years had passed. I don’t know why New York City’s own memorial to the monstrous Twin Towers attack has been so long tied up in controversy. How outrageous it would be if that proposed mosque nearby gets built before the massive 9/11 hole in the ground can be restored and commemorated.
Thinking back, it was also only nine years ago that our country was finally getting used to accepting George W. Bush as our president. Because for much of the first half of that year, his election had been disputed by Democrats claiming Al Gore had the election stolen from him because of Florida’s vote recount shenanigans. Not much grumbling here, though: Stafford and the whole state had gone strongly for Bush in the previous fall’s elections.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks also led directly to retaliation soon thereafter via our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Aside from that drawn-out Bush-Gore election squabble, not all had been otherwise tranquil here In the summer leading up to 9/11. Stafford had a major argument over whether to build an “Outer Connector” that would connect I-95 in mid-county (at the eventual airport’s interchange) and thence southwestward to cross the Rappahannock River and connect to Va. 3 west of Fredericksburg.
Promoters backed down on the whole project in the face of vicious opposition from environmentalists and “not-in-my-backyard” anti-sprawl residents who would have been most affected. Opponents applauded instead the imagined soon-to-be- extended HOV lanes down past the Rappahannock River. That's still only a dream.
Today, Stafford supervisors are revisiting the Outer Connector concept to the extent of building only the portion from the airport interchange down to U.S. 17 in the western part of the county.
Earlier opposition to any such project had centered mainly in South Stafford and Falmouth, which subsequently led to the replacing of two county supervisors with Democrats.
Another county project begun in 2001 was the ultimately successful effort to preserve Crow’s Nest, the large forested parcel touching Potomac Creek.
Economically in 2001, Stafford was booming, although the national stock market was falling and a recession got underway in the spring. County population climbed to 100,000 (over 125,000 now). Unemployment plunged to a negligible one percent in the spring. Home prices continued their upward advance. New business starts flourished. Household incomes in Stafford had climbed to an average of over $75,000, well above the rest of the area, and home values were also highest, at $167,000 on average. Our Aquia Towne Center was bustling, alas.
What a difference the years have made, right?
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com
Forget Young Rabbit Ears,
We have a moment never to forget...
Please put Obama’s latest rants behind you for a moment...How he’s whining that interest groups he has battled, “talk to me like a dog,” forgetting his comments in 2008 about getting a shelter dog: a “mutt, like me.”
For tomorrow, we commemorate what happened nine years ago, but like yesterday for friends on my block. For that was when we lost a good neighbor, Marian Serva, to the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, on that 9/11 day of infamy.
We didn’t forget or let it pass. Rather, we built a permanent memorial in Aquia Harbour. It commemorates the sacrifice of her and another neighbor, Martha Reszke, plus county resident Teresa Martin and all others who lost their lives in those three terrifying conflagrations.
Never to be forgotten? Let’s hope so. At least our local reaction was timely, in seeing our memorial in place before two years had passed. I don’t know why New York City’s own memorial to the monstrous Twin Towers attack has been so long tied up in controversy. How outrageous it would be if that proposed mosque nearby gets built before the massive 9/11 hole in the ground can be restored and commemorated.
Thinking back, it was also only nine years ago that our country was finally getting used to accepting George W. Bush as our president. Because for much of the first half of that year, his election had been disputed by Democrats claiming Al Gore had the election stolen from him because of Florida’s vote recount shenanigans. Not much grumbling here, though: Stafford and the whole state had gone strongly for Bush in the previous fall’s elections.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks also led directly to retaliation soon thereafter via our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Aside from that drawn-out Bush-Gore election squabble, not all had been otherwise tranquil here In the summer leading up to 9/11. Stafford had a major argument over whether to build an “Outer Connector” that would connect I-95 in mid-county (at the eventual airport’s interchange) and thence southwestward to cross the Rappahannock River and connect to Va. 3 west of Fredericksburg.
Promoters backed down on the whole project in the face of vicious opposition from environmentalists and “not-in-my-backyard” anti-sprawl residents who would have been most affected. Opponents applauded instead the imagined soon-to-be- extended HOV lanes down past the Rappahannock River. That's still only a dream.
Today, Stafford supervisors are revisiting the Outer Connector concept to the extent of building only the portion from the airport interchange down to U.S. 17 in the western part of the county.
Earlier opposition to any such project had centered mainly in South Stafford and Falmouth, which subsequently led to the replacing of two county supervisors with Democrats.
Another county project begun in 2001 was the ultimately successful effort to preserve Crow’s Nest, the large forested parcel touching Potomac Creek.
Economically in 2001, Stafford was booming, although the national stock market was falling and a recession got underway in the spring. County population climbed to 100,000 (over 125,000 now). Unemployment plunged to a negligible one percent in the spring. Home prices continued their upward advance. New business starts flourished. Household incomes in Stafford had climbed to an average of over $75,000, well above the rest of the area, and home values were also highest, at $167,000 on average. Our Aquia Towne Center was bustling, alas.
What a difference the years have made, right?
Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com
posted by Ben Blankenship at
6:49 AM
