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Wish you had a column on Oakton Patch? Well, you do! E-mail me at Nicole.Trifone@patch.com to guest as a columnist.Several of our nation's leaders, including President Barack Obama, have been urging the Senate to ratify the New START treaty that was negotiated this year and signed last spring by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The U.S. leaders are contending that if the treaty is not ratified, our national security will be seriously jeopardized. If you are familiar with the history of our strategic nuclear weapons stockpile, you will know that since the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, nuclear weapons have become purely political in nature. No military commander planning a campaign …
Every July, on the campus of Princeton University, a group of 80 high school students, half from America and half from Japan, come together to participate in a cultural exchange and friendship program called the High School Diplomats. Last winter, I applied and was selected for this scholarship, which gave me the privilege to spend 10 days with a group defined by its positive atmosphere and individuals varying in personalities, interests and cultural beliefs. Every American student had a Japanese roommate, with whom they interact in nearly all activities. Roommates are chosen according to …
Every two years Americans go to the polls to elect a new House of Representatives and rarely do the results of any particular town make a significant difference. That may not be the case in Oakton this year. This year, Oakton is a swing town, in a swing congressional district that may be a deciding factor in the midterm elections which swing the House back into the hands of the Republican Party. The Republican congressman to our west in District 10, Frank Wolf, is all but assured to be re-elected—he is currently holding a 27-point lead in a district that has not had a Democratic incumbent …
