The Rev. Adam Colson, pastor for community missions at The Lake of the Woods Church, visited the LOW Democratic Club Jan. 21 to report that the new Living Water Community Health Clinic in Locust Grove is expected to open soon.
The club is one of many community organizations that have supported the establishment of the clinic, which will offer no-cost acute health care to families in the region who cannot afford care.
The Rev. Colson said a recent fund-raising dinner resulted in $10,000 being raised to fund the effort.
He said support for the clinic has been strong with the donation of funds, volunteer hours and equipment. He said the University of Virginia Health System has even pledged access to free surgery for patients in need.
He said the clinic would begin to accept patients withing the next two to three weeks.
Lee Frame, unopposed candidate for District 5 representative on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, and Tim Murphy, candidate for Orange County sheriff, visited the LOW Democratic Club Oct. 15 seeking the support of voters.
The two candidates made informative presentations and answered members’ questions.
Mr. Frame, who has served as District 5 supervisor since 2007, is a retired Naval officer. He served as the District 5 representative on the county’s planning commission before becoming supervisor.
He presented his views on the role of local government and discussed several current issues before county government, including the Wilderness Gateway Study, which concerns future development along the Rt. 3 corridor.
Mr. Murphy, a former chief deputy in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, described his vision for community-based policing, special attention to the growing problem of drug abuse in Orange County, and aggressive investigation of unsolved drimes.
He has 32 years of experience in law enforcement. During his last five years in the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, he held the position of chief deputy in which he supervised all divisions of the office and acted as sheriff in the absence of the sheriff. He has trained at the FBI academy, was chosen as Virginia Deputy Sheriff of the year and was Orange County’s first K-9 trainer and officer.
The club meeting on September 17 will feature Dr. Martha Neff-Smith of Hospice of the Piedmont. She will speak on end of life options, including hospice care.
Martha is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has held academic positions in the US and several other countries. Her training is in nursing, epidemiology, and bioethics. She is an active retiree who is currently the Director of the Speakers Bureau at Hospice of the Piedmont. She serves on several boards and volunteers for several local and state agencies.
The meeting will take place at 1:30 p.m. in the LOW Community Center.
Eileen Davis of Richmond, an advocate for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing gender equality, will speak to the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club on May 21.
Davis will describe efforts to gain ratification of the ERA in Virginia, one of only three additional states required to make the amendment part of the nation’s fundamental law.
The meeting will take place at 1:30 p.m. May 21 in the LOW Community Center. The public is welcome to attend, regardless of political affiliation.
Ms. Davis, a long-time activist for equality and social justice, is co-founder of Women Matter Use Your Power (women-matter.org).
She is a member of the coordination team advocating for ratification of the stalled Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia.
Ms. Davis is also part of the advocacy team visiting U.S. senators and representatives to secure passage of bills calling for removal of the deadline on the stalled bill, allowing for debate of this important civil rights legislation.
The Equal Rights Amendment states simply: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
The ERA was written in 1923 by Alice Paul, suffragist leader and founder of the National Woman’s Party. After women’s right to vote was guaranteed by the 19th Amendment in 1920, she proposed the ERA as the next step in confirming “equal justice under law” for all citizens. The ERA was introduced into every Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year time limit in the ERA’s proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states, three states short of the 38 required to put it into the Constitution.
The ERA has been introduced into every Congress since 1982. Beginning in 1994 with introduction of the first three-state strategy bill in Congress, ERA advocates have been pursuing two different routes to ratification:
the traditional process outlined in Article V of the Constitution, requiring passage by a two-thirds majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, followed by ratification by legislatures in three-quarters (38) of the 50 states, and
ratification in three more of the 15 state legislatures that did not ratify the ERA during the 1972-82 ratification campaign, based on legal analysis that when three more states vote yes, this non-traditional process could withstand legal challenge and put the ERA into the Constitution.
Dr. Brenda Tanner, superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, spoke to The Lake of the Woods Democratic Club on April 16 on a wide variety of topics. The video below is a collection of clips from her talk.
