Column: Symptoms or just Sometimes
Making the best of a bad situation, that’s how I roll (I’m a Red Sox fan after all). Some days are easier than others, some symptoms/treatments/results are better than others. And some columns make more sense than others. But that’s cancer for you: an equal opportunity “screwer-upper.”
Letter: ‘Work Sunday’s Thank-you
On behalf of the 20 local faith communities represented on the "Works Sunday" Committee, we write to express our heartfelt thanks to the extraordinary people of Reston and Herndon for their 17th consecutive year of wholehearted support of this unique day of charitable outreach and giving. As in years past, we can only marvel at their overwhelmingly generous response, and assure them of our gratitude, and that of the many people in whose lives they have made a real difference for the good.
Letter: Separate and Unequal - II
Your editorial in the titled "Separate and Unequal ?" [The Connection, July 25-31, 2012], addressed the "eye-popping" disparately low admission of Black and Latino students to Thomas Jefferson High School, and the complaint that this was "in voilation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin."
Opinion: First Day of School Coming Up
And never too early for parents to get involved.
The first day of school in most of Northern Virginia is Tuesday, Sept. 4. We don't agree with having the General Assembly dictate the first day of school, requiring the start date to be after Labor Day, but starting school after Labor Day does seem more hospitable than the Aug. 27 start in many other areas.
Column: Diagnosed But Not Sick
Having/being diagnosed with cancer/a terminal disease is neither fun nor funny; however, unless I find some humor or wishful thinking in how I approach this situation, I don’t suppose I’ll be approaching it much longer. To me, it’s always been mind over matter, and even though these matters are rather serious, I still don’t mind.
Column: Life in the Cancer Lane
Having been there and done that now for three and a half years certainly helps. And however familiar it may be and/or has become, it doesn’t exactly help to pass the time or affect the results, unfortunately. Cancer sucks! That much is clear. Now and in the future.
Editorial: Starting School Prepared
First day of school is Sept. 4; local nonprofits provide school supplies and weekend food.
With school beginning in a few weeks, area charitable organizations have been collecting contributions of new backpacks, calculators, other school supplies, money and gift cards and winter coats to help the tens of thousands of truly needy Northern Virginia students.
Column: A Pill a Day…
Hopefully will keep the cancer at bay. (I’d say “away,” but let’s be realistic, three and a half years past a NSCLC diagnosis, there is no way, generally speaking, that stage IV lung cancer disappears into the ether; it’s classified as stage IV for a reason.
Letter: No Enemies on TJ Admissions Front
To the Editor:
FCPS is not being honest, straightforward or holding itself accountable for the fact that too few of these disadvantaged kids are achieving as well as others relative to their populations and too few are fostered appropriately so they can be identified for and take advantage of advanced curricula, including advanced academic programs (AAP) and thence TJ and high school honors, AP and IB programs. The leaders in this system have had years to figure out how to make serious improvements, but they have hidden and spun or not even bothered to gather data and have excluded individuals and groups that could be partners in resolving this situation. Thus, we have a segregated system, as the data show.
Letter: No Enemies on TJ Admissions Front
Letter to the Editor
I’m writing about the complaint filed by the Coalition of the Silence regarding the lack of representation of Black, Latino, poor, and disabled kids at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and about why this issue is worthy of immediate community action, regardless of the complaint’s final disposition.
Column: Derive to Survive
Now that I can taste food again, or rather have food taste like normal again, my attitude is much improved.
Column: Choosing My Words, Respectively
It has been brought to my attention by some regular Kenny-column readers – who are friends, too, and whose opinions I value, that my most recent batch of “cancer columns” (as I call them) were not funny; in fact, they were more depressing and negative than anything, and not nearly as uplifting and hopeful as many of my previous columns have been.
Editorial: Readers Respond on TJ Admissions
"Stop making smart 8th graders feel inferior because they are not admitted."
Readers responded to last week's editorial, which cited a civil rights complaint about the apparent lack of access to gifted and talented programs and admission to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Column: A Life Worth Living, Still
It might be my age (as in getting older), or it might be the fact that I have cancer (you think?), but my brain and the related physical and mental tasks it coordinates are not exactly working at peak efficiency.
Editorial: Separate and Unequal?
If we don't believe that poor students are less innately talented, then the disparities in Northern Virginia are truly unfair.
The numbers are eye-popping. Latino students are 22 percent of Fairfax County Public Schools students, but 2.7 percent of the incoming Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology freshman class, the class of 2016. Of the 480 students, seven are black. That's 1.4 percent, while black students are 10 percent of the county school system.