Town Patriots
To the Editor:
There is a pervasive, condescending attitude towards constituents from county officials in articles in the Reston Connection regarding the “Madison Island” and other school redistricting measures not to mention the Reston Town initiative. The School Board members see a captive audience, people who have no other options — except to move. This may be why some schools are overcrowded and others emptying — because the only vote people have is with their dollars and their feet.
It is laughable that our supervisor (some title, can my supervisor fire me?) thinks that Restonians are seeking incorporation and independence for merely utilitarian reasons of monopolistic services rendered. Virginian Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death”, not “Give me reasonably good services for a price that I am forced to pay anyway or I’ll move to another place where the political monopoly won’t take me for granted as much, for a while.”
The question of Reston as a town is one of strengthening the organic nature of the community that is already Reston, creating an organization that can undergird and support what we all already love about Reston. While the county sees that people love Reston and therefore will not move no matter how roughshod they ride over us, we love living in Reston and want to defend it against depredations. We do not need to be supervised and we do not need to be taken for granted. Reston as a town is about the freedom of a community exercising social power, determining its own identity and direction. It is about the most romantic of all issues — local patriotism.

James McPherson
Reston