Reunification Drill Training

This slide from my school’s Reunification Drill training hit me hard. “Must have two

exits. One for parents leaving with children. One for parents leaving without children.”

Let that sink in. Two exits. One with children. One without children.

Lockdown drills are tough. Children hiding in the dark behind desks, in a bathroom, or

in a storage closet while teachers try to keep them calm and quiet. We speak

reassuring words “Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe,” knowing this is a lie. Believing in

my heart that I would sacrifice my life to save my students, but knowing I cannot protect

them from a heavily armed gunman intent on slaughter. Knowing that most deaths

occur in the minutes before the police arrive.

Lockdown drills cause anxiety for teachers as the “what ifs” run through our minds, but

reunification drills are the harder. In this drill we train for what happens after the

unthinkable happens. After there are little bodies slumped on classroom floors. After

families are shattered, but before parents know their lives are about to change. As a

“runner”, I’m supposed to greet the terrified parent and take them to one of two areas

without revealing to them what I already know. Some will joyously reunite with their

child, while others are about to get the worst news of their lives.

Democrats and the majority of Americans want to pass sensible gun legislation

(background checks, red flag laws, an assault weapons ban) which will protect our

children while also preserving Americans’ 2 nd amendment rights. Republicans oppose

any new gun laws, valuing NRA money and endorsements over our right to live free of

gun violence.

“Must have two exits. One for parents leaving with children. One for parents leaving

without children.”

Vote accordingly.

Andrea Martens

When it comes to our freedom to make our own reproductive health care decisions, the

differences between Senator Tim Kaine and Republican candidate for Senate, Hung Cao are

profound.

Senator Kaine strongly supports a woman’s right to the full range of reproductive health care

services. Immediately after the June 2022 Dobbs decision repealing Roe v. Wade, which

threatened a woman’s right to obtain a legal abortion, Senator Kaine introduced a bill--the

Reproductive Freedom for All Act--that protects contraception access and legal abortion.

Senator Kaine also introduced the Right to Contraception Act in July 2022 which would legally

protect health care providers who offer contraceptives – both medications and devices – to

prevent pregnancy. Kaine has consistently opposed legislation that would prohibit Federal

funding of Planned Parenthood.

By contrast, Republican candidate Hung Cao is anti-choice and supports a national law to

define life beginning at conception, banning abortion nationwide with no exceptions and putting

IVF and contraception at risk. He stated that he was “thrilled” that Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Any woman or man who is concerned about their freedom to avoid pregnancy or plan a family

would be wise to carefully consider each candidate’s position on the vital issue of access to

reproductive health care services, free of government interference.

Jennifer Coates

Warrenton

My name is Carol Wild Scott, and I have been involved in Veteran’s affairs and

particularly Veteran’s Health Benefits for 36 years. I am concerned for our Veterans,

should Mr. Trump be elected to the presidency. VHA health care under the “Mandate for

Leadership” (Project 2025) would privatize large segments of health care through

contract/reimbursement referrals to local providers. This will be the Trump

Administration’s effort to reconfigure portions of VA health care into a for-profit

enterprise, with no provision for oversight or malpractice liability. It imposes unwieldy

time and distance requirements that will be difficult for many veterans to meet.

Initial steps in implementing these changes require elimination of everyone in the VA

leadership replacing them with “vetted” personnel with demonstrated political loyalty.

This also includes expanding the term of the Under Secretary of Health to 5 years,

guaranteeing overlap with a future Administration.

Among the “reforms” in 2025: 1) “Aging medical centers” would be replaced with

“partnership and “sharing” arrangements with strained local health care systems,

eliminating infrastructural changes needed for continued inpatient care. 2) Clinicians in

local clinics (CBOCs) would be required to see 19 patients/day (the same as DOD) with

increased hours, disregarding greater veteran patient needs, implying that the “aging

Vietnam veterans reaching their life limits” are better served elsewhere. 3)

“Aggressively recruit retired physicians who wish to serve veterans.”, which disregards

age and differences in terms of competence and skills. This is an irresponsible “reform”

endangering patients absent intense vetting and certainly increases departmental

supervisory loads. Details lurking in Heritage’s “Blueprint for Balance” (2023 budget),

sure to be implemented as cost saving devices include: “ending VA care for Priority

Groups 7 and 8.” These are groups without service-connected conditions.

Under current VA Secretary McDonough, VA health care ranks among the best in the

world for those with injuries and illnesses unique to the conditions of service to this

Country. If we send our men and women to war, we must care for them when they come

home. Politics have no place in caring for our veterans.

Carol Wild Scott, Esq.

Linden

One of the issues top of mind for many voters is access to quality, affordable health

care. Although former President Trump consistently denigrates the Affordable Care Act

(aka Obamacare), referring to it as “lousy health care”, he has yet to offer a plan to

improve it. In fact, with nine years to work on this issue, the best he could offer in the

recent debate was “the concepts of a plan.”

In the vice-presidential debate, Trump’s running mate JD Vance lied and said that

Trump had “saved the ACA”, while in fact the GOP under Trump voted to repeal

Obamacare more than fifty times! The truth is that the late Senator John McCain saved

healthcare for 50 million Americans when he joined two other Republican Senators in

voting against the repeal of the ACA. An act for which Trump never forgave him.

Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, has been a staunch defender of the

ACA. As a senator, Harris consistently voted against numerous efforts to terminate it.

She advocated for expanding its provisions, including supporting legislation that aimed

to strengthen protections for people with pre-existing conditions and to increase funding

for Medicaid expansion.

Additionally, during Harris’s time in the Senate, she co-sponsored the Medicare for All

Act, which aimed to expand Medicare to all Americans. The Biden/Harris administration

has successfully advocated for the Medicare program to negotiate drug prices directly

with pharmaceutical companies, reducing the cost of insulin to $35 as well as setting a

$2,000 cap on out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs, a move that will save nearly 19

million seniors $400 per year.

Trump’s Project 2025 rejects the idea of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and

seeks to weaken Medicaid (a program relied upon by 70 million low-income Americans)

by instituting lifetime benefit caps and work requirements.

The choice is clear. Vote to protect your access to affordable, quality healthcare and

lower prescription drug costs. We don’t need “concepts,” we need intelligent, caring

leadership.

Kathryn Kadilak

The Plains

One afternoon during my daughter’s senior year at a Fauquier area high school, she brought a

friend home who urgently needed an adult to confide in. I was relieved that they came to me.

You see, my daughter’s friend had gone on a date the night before and had been raped. She

was afraid to tell her parents. Fortunately, I was able to convince her to talk with her mother.

The family made an immediate decision to take their daughter to obtain “Plan B,” the “morning

after pill.” Plan B is considered a form of contraception since the woman has not been

confirmed pregnant (and may not be pregnant) when taking the medication. This quick action

protected that traumatized teen from the heartbreak of an unwanted pregnancy while dealing

with the devastation of being raped.

As we’ve seen in legal and legislative actions across many of the Republican-dominated states,

and the proposals published in the notorious Project 2025 Plan, access to this critical form of

contraception will end under a Republican regime.

Project 2025 states that this form of contraception should be excluded from no-cost insurance

coverage because it might be abortion inducing. The Plan also allows employers to deny

covering any contraception based on “moral or religious” exemptions.

Trump’s Project 2025 would force young women and men to endure an agonizing “roll of the

dice” and potentially, an unwanted pregnancy that could have been prevented from the outset.

Democrats, by contrast, strongly support a woman’s freedom to make her own reproductive

health care decisions and to take a proven safe, effective medication to manage her life

choices.

Access to Plan B medication is not just a women’s issue – men and women alike should be

concerned. After all, both have a stake in the outcome. When we vote in this election, we know

that freedom from government intrusion in the most personal of all health care decisions is on

the line.

Kathryn Kadilak

The Plains

Reading the comments on the Times recent article “Harris, Kaine, ahead in Virginia,”

illustrated the stakes of this election. Buried within the conspiracy theories and right-

wing talking points, one individual asked a serious question that I would like to answer:

“I am just curious why someone would vote for Harris (other than just utter contempt

and hate for Trump). Not trying to start a political war, just a question.”

I appreciate this question, and it saddens me that we’ve apparently lost the ability to

have a discussion without fearing “political war.”

My reasons for backing Kamala Harris for President are many, beginning with basic

qualities such as integrity, intelligence, empathy, respect for our Constitution and our

democracy, and a deep belief in the promise of America.

On specific policy, I’ll focus on the economy as Democrats are inexplicably considered

weak on the economy when the facts and evidence point in the opposite direction.

Economic data from the mid-1900s to the present shows that Democratic presidents

outperform Republican presidents on every economic measure: GDP, debt to GDP, job

creation, unemployment rate, median income, and the stock market. The one area in

which GOP “trickle down” economic policies have succeeded is creating great wealth

for those in the top 1%, leading to the U.S. now having the highest income inequality of

the 7 leading world economies.

The Biden Harris Administration has steered the U.S. economy away from an

anticipated post-pandemic recession and created an economy which is considered the

strongest in the world. According to Ayhan Kose, the World Bank’s deputy chief

economist, “U.S. growth is exceptional.” In fact, the World Bank recently upgraded its

outlook for the global economy based on “the strength of sustained growth in the United

States.”

Harris’s plans for her Administration include many policies that would benefit

consumers: tackling our too high grocery prices by going after price gougers, creating

more affordable housing by cutting red tape and working with governors and the private

sector to build three million new homes, providing $25,000 down payment assistance

for first time home buyers, renewing and expanding the child tax credit which, during the

pandemic, cut child poverty by 30% and food insufficiency by 26%.

Harris’s tax plan involves ensuring that more than 100 million working- and middle-class

Americans will get a tax cut, while moderately increasing taxes on the wealthiest

individuals and corporations.

Trump’s main economic plan is to impose a tariff of 10-20% tariff on all goods and a

60% tariff on goods from China. What Trump doesn’t seem to understand is that U.S.

corporations and individuals, not foreign entities, pay the cost of tariffs. Economists

forecast this would cost the average household around $4,000 a year and slow the

growth of global GDP. In addition, Trump has vowed to, once again, cut taxes for the

wealthiest citizens which will result in tax increases for middle and working class

families and cuts in programs that help those families.

On the economy and so many other issues (education, climate change, voting rights,

and more), Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the ticket to move our country forward!

Andrea Martens