Libby's Blog

Dear Friends: "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything" is apparently a military aphorism most notably quoted by Dwight D Eisenhower. It's a good one. I learned this lesson most clearly from 9/11. A little over 21 months earlier County leadership and first responders who had trained for years for “Y2K” were at the Emergency Operations Center on New Year’s Eve 1999. All were on high alert. Chaos had been predicted as computers worldwide would be unable to change the d

Dear Friends: As we enjoy this Labor Day weekend, does the song “9 to 5” keep playing in your head? I think sometimes we forget what our American holidays are all about except for an extra day off. The passing of both Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem at this particular fraught time feels very significant. At first glance, they seem like opposites: hair, make-up, urban vs rural. But, in very different ways, they each lived their beliefs that all people “are created equal:” Do

Dear Friends: For my readers in Arlington, ICE terrorism is here in force. Recently there have been numerous ICE agents snatching people especially along Columbia Pike from grocery stores (MegaMart), bus stops, and parks. Buchanan Gardens apartments were occupied by ICE troops all day on Monday, the 17th causing people to leave in the wee hours of the morning so they could get to work without interacting with ICE. Those who stayed locked themselves in their apartments. As the

Dear Friends: No, I haven’t seen the “Odyssey” movie yet. But I think I’ve read more about it than any movie ever and the reviews and opinions keep coming. Mostly they are rave reviews, with the notable exception of Emily Wilson (whom I admire as a classics scholar, from what I’ve read about her work over the years) and, of course, Elon Musk and his ilk (whom, needless to say, I don’t admire). The movie seems to be a bit of a Rorschach test…like Homer’s Odysseus has been thro

Dear Friends: I continue to think about the meaning of July 4th, which felt so desecrated this year. One thought, shared by quite a few, I’m guessing, is that we can celebrate the 250th anniversary of our democracy more properly when we get to 2038 and the 250th anniversary of the ratification of the US Constitution. By that time – if we can do what we need to do now – our democracy may be secured again. The past few years have seen many Americans learning far more about US

Dear Friends: I hope everyone is enjoying Pride Month and staying cool. I’ll start out with some practical information: 1. Given that many of my readers live in Arlington where the Arch de Trump will be constructed, I wanted to make sure everyone knows about the opportunity for the public to comment on the plans and design. While words like “abomination” come to mind, I decided to mention the destruction of the view with its visual relationship between Arlington Cemetery wit