The most poignant story in our area this week is on page one of this edition. It is Virginia U.S. Senator Tim Kaine’s appearance at a Head Start-linked Higher Horizons program in Bailey’s Crossroads coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s wholesale shutting down of funding for such programs. The leaders at the center and Falls Church’s Kathleen Havey of Head Start gave their accounts of the acute disruptions and threats to programming at the center that the Trump moves have already caused, and Kaine was there to listen intently and to insure them that he and his like-minded colleagues in Congress would do all in their power to redress the problems.
It is worth taking a moment to remember that, but for Trump, Kaine would likely be the President of the U.S. now. He was Hillary Clinton’s surprise but deserving choice as a running mate in the 2016 election. Thanks significantly to that, Clinton carried Virginia in that presidential election, but had that ticket won that election and won re-election in 2020, then this last year would have been Kaine’s turn to succeed Clinton as their party’s presidential candidate. He would have been a great president, though it’s not helpful to dwell on such things now.
Kaine’s mere presence at the Higher Horizons as Trump’s cuts had just hit speaks volumes, even if the News-Press was the only print publication on the scene to report it (one online outfit and one D.C. TV station also showed up). Everyone in this region is deeply alarmed and concerned about the effects of these illegal moves by the Trump 2.0 administration because tens of thousands of jobs are threatened, including many already terminated, including direct government employees and also those linked to government contracts.
The Falls Church City Council began to discuss the serious potential implications of this for the City’s well being, fiscal and otherwise, at its meeting this Monday, but since there is at this point little to be certain of, the remarks were limited to offering assurances the City will be doing all that’s possible to look out for its citizens in this situation. The City’s commitment to the principles and policies associated with the DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) programs that Trump is so determined to wipe out remains solid.
It occurs to us that identifying the programs as simply assuring “equality” rather than a three-lettered acronym would make it harder for Trump to move against them. Trumpers have been able to attack DEI as most citizens are probably not even aware of what it stands for, just like their use of the term, “woke,” is another cruel misnomer for standing for simple equality, in fact.
But just like the City of Falls Church, this newspaper is unapologetically both “woke,” pro-DEI, and resolved to remain vigilant in the protection of the values those terms represent as we stare at the menacing forces that are now emanating from across the Potomac.
