As the story goes, for more than 100 years, the two statues chosen by the Virginia Legislature to represent the state in the Capitol were prominent citizens George Washington, and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. With all the controversy over glorifying Civll War figures, I wondered why Lee was still there. He is no more.
By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH, Va. — It’s a bit early for a year in review story, but for me, it’s been one hell of a year. A humbling year. I’ve long known that we are all just like tiny grains of sand in the long run of history, here on this special beach of…
CAMP DAVID, Md. — Editor’s Note – A few inspirational thoughts on Election Day while we hold our breaths and wait for the results to start coming in Tuesday night. Today I will fly my American flag proudly in my campsite in the same mountain woods as Camp David, because I will not concede the…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — Well, truth be told, it’s not exactly a secret. This is one of the well known national parks, one of two Crown Jewels of the East along with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Yet it always feels like an amazing…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – LOFT MOUNTAIN, SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. (Sunday, July 12, 2020) — In this summer of our discontent, with the coronavirus still spreading into every corner of the world and the economy teetering on the brink of collapse, it is hard to totally escape the anxiety and stress of…
The Muddled Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MONTROSS, Va. — An American bald eagle just flew by overhead, going north up the Virginia bank of the Potomac River. Its white crown, yellow beak and brown feathers were unmistakable shining in the early Autumn sun with a powder blue sky as a background filled with…
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — After skirting Puerto Rico and flattening and inundating the Bahamas, where the death toll is rising to more than 30, Hurricane Dorian flooded the east coasts of Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina and made landfall at Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks as a Category 1 storm Friday…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Lurking on a wooded little island in the Potomac River just across the water from Georgetown, there lie important lessons for progressive Democrats from the most progressive president in American history. In continuing our exploration of the U.S. capital region, not just the partisan politics,…
ANALYSIS – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — When the tea in Boston Harbor dissipated, a new nation emerged from the carnage. Now that the tea party in modern American politics is clearly over, it looks like another new nation is emerging, one that will no longer stomach the election of people who tear…
The Big Picture By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – So far key politicians in Virginia have not learned the lesson of Charlottesville. There is no public evidence that Governor Terry McAuliffe, Senators Tim Kaine or Mark Warner have noticed that there is a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in the U.S. Capitol,…
Democrat Doug Jones Wins Primary, Calls for Calm in Charlottesville – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The religious right in conservative Alabama once again proved they will turn out to vote in greater numbers than any other group as long as the candidate does not believe in the separation of church and state.…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thomas Jefferson’s home town of Charlottesville, Virginia has taken over the spotlight from New Orleans as the key battleground city in a new verbal civil war between activists on the left who want Confederate monuments removed from public property and neo-Nazi white nationalists who are fighting to preserve…
By Glynn Wilson – Reading the national press coverage on the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, even listening to the reporting on National Public Radio, you would think the biggest problem the parks face is a lack of visitors. The entire story is framed as if the parks were just another capitalist tourist…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MARION, Va. – We made the drive down U.S. Highway 81 out of Maryland and into Virginia on Monday on our first migration south for the winter in the camper van, making it to a familiar spot along Hungry Mother Creek, one of those many babbling brooks…
Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The Shenandoah salamander is no endangered polar bear, cuddly panda cub or playful dolphin the American public may warm up to in the cause of fighting global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet it is the latest poster child from…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BALDFACE ROCK OVERLOOK, Va. – It is election day all across America and the big question is whether the Republicans will take over control of the U.S. Senate. But since I am not now living and working in Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas or one of the…
SECRET VISTAS – By Glynn Wilson – BIG MEADOWS CAMPGROUND, Va. — We pulled into this largest campground in the Shenandoah National Park on Sunday afternoon late, and without knowing it, picked a campsite right on the Appalachian Trail. The view Monday morning at dawn was stunning, and we found out from hikers it was…
Secret Vistas – A Photo Essay – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH VALLEY, Va. — The autumn color is not quite at its peak in these famous mountains with the legendary Shenandoah River running through them. But the scene should come to fruition in the next three weeks. This is the result of day one…
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables – Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – As of September 29, the Virginia Department of Forestry was still reporting that while the calendar may say it’s fall, Virginia’s forests are still mostly green. “Nature’s…
By Glynn Wilson – MARION, Va. — Who says government is so bad? The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation employs young people every summer to engage Virginia’s youth in a structured program of important conservation and park projects on public lands while providing learning that fosters teamwork, self-esteem, social responsibility and respect for the…
