Opinion

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” These are the words that come to mind as we contemplate a great injustice that has rattled the nation over the past several days.

Although the death of George Floyd took place hundreds of miles from Stafford County, the impact of this injustice has reverberated across the nation including here in our community. Alongside our community, we watched with horror the chilling video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for a prolonged period of time as he pleaded for help and yelled “I can’t breathe.” Several officers stood nearby—doing nothing—as George Floyd took his last breath and died at the hands of the officers who took an oath to protect and serve their communities.

We are excited to see that Governor Northam has placed education funding among the top priorities in his budget submitted to the General Assembly.

Virginia is the number one state for business, and we believe that it should be number one for education as well. The greatest opportunity for sustaining economic prosperity, ensuring a strong workforce with future-ready skills, and empowering individual success is through an outstanding and equitable PreK-12 education for all. 

Everyone loves a parade, so when I woke up the morning after the history-making Washington Nationals’ World Series win, I contacted Virginia Railway Express to see if it planned to provide service to the victory parade on Saturday.

After watching every thrilling and (at times) agonizing minute of the World Series, I plan to go to the parade.

In addition to our efforts in the General Assembly, some issues must be solved by the Congress and surprise medical billing is one of those issues. When members of Congress return to Washington in a few days, I believe that they should take immediate action to work on common-sense legislation that will resolve the problem of surprise medical billing.

Anyone who has been impacted by a surprise medical bill—and that’s roughly 57% percent of all Americans, according to a University of Chicago, study understands the heavy financial toll that was endured. Individuals who have received medical treatment weeks or months earlier should not be confronted with surprise medical bills which require payment for costs they assumed would be covered by their insurance company.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has called the state legislature to Richmond this week for a special session to focus on measures to reduce firearm violence in the state.  Addressing this problem is long overdue.

Last year, guns killed more people than car accidents in Virginia.  The majority of those deaths were people committing suicide.