For those who move here and live here for a short time or even for decades, there are many questions about the state — its history, traditions, politics, and culture.

I often get questions directed to me as an elected official who is a native Virginian and student of her history. Periodically, I teach a course on Virginia history at the OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) of George Mason University at its Reston location at the United Christian Parish.

This week, I just started a new class that I have entitled “What is it about Virginia?” Once again most of the students are “come heres.” Even though as retirees they may have lived here for a long period of time, they still have questions about the state, its history, its impact nationally, and its people.

First there is the history. As Ronald Heinemann and his co-authors described it in their book Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia 1607-2007 (University of Virginia Press, 2007):

“Four centuries of remarkable history. Site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Home of the first representative assembly in America. Landing place of the first Africans in the Chesapeake, whose heirs were among the first to be enslaved on the plantations of British North America. Birthplace of the great generation of founders, who led the Revolution and created a brilliant constitutional order, four of whom were among the first five presidents of the new republic. Mother of presidents. Mother of states. The state whose territory was the scene of much of the critical fighting of the Civil War…The Commonwealth of Virginia — the Old Dominion — was without peer in the first two-and-a-half centuries of American history.”

Then came the matter of being on the wrong side of the Civil War and the move “to a defensive, tradition-bound, inward-looking, and different version of American development (1820-1960) and back again to a progressively conservative society in the late twentieth century” to today when President Obama wins the state twice, all five statewide elected officials are Democrats, and the General Assembly is controlled by the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party.

The major themes that play throughout Virginia history — change and continuity, a conservative political order, race and slavery, economic development, social divisions, and geographic diversity help to make Virginia a fascinating topic for discussion. I hope my students will enjoy the class as much as I am sure that I will, and I hope someday to be able to talk with you about Virginia.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Reston Now.

I had no idea what to expect when the jury announced it had reached its verdicts on the charges against former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen, but when the verdicts were announced I was stunned.

The jury of seven men and five women left no doubt in their findings: eleven counts of guilty for the former Governor and nine counts of guilty for his wife! All the efforts to explain away their behavior, redefine their relationship, and nuance words and actions were not successful.

Virginia has now achieved the level of disdain we have held towards governors of other states in similar circumstances.  We have a former governor found guilty of corruption in office.  Somehow with Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson having occupied that seat, it was not supposed to happen in Virginia.

Bob McDonnell is the last person anyone would have thought would have brought this legacy to Virginia. He served his country in the military. He has three degrees from a Christian university. He married a professional cheerleader from a major league football team. The thesis for his masters’ degree spelled out an old-fashioned morality that he thought was essential for how people should behave. He was a prosecuting attorney finding others guilty of crimes in order to keep his community safe. He represented his community in the House of Delegates where he introduced bills that included one for a covenant marriage. His first statewide elective office was Attorney General responsible for seeing that Virginia’s laws were fairly interpreted. His win for Governor was by a wide margin. He appeared squeaky clean.

The jury heard in detail what happened during his term as governor and determined he was guilty of corruption.  That is the way our system of justice works.  Not only is his legacy tarnished so too is that of his wife and family. For the Governor and his family on a personal level, they have my thoughts and sincere prayers. There will be an appeal, no doubt. Whatever the criminal justice system does with the case under appeal will not restore the man to the elevated position he had in the public’s mind when he became governor.

We need to turn our attention now to the legacy for Virginia. Maybe we Virginians had it coming for we had become somewhat pompous over our reputation for the clean government we thought we had. Despite some cynics’ views, virtually all elected officials and government employees are honest, hard-working people who want to do their best for the Commonwealth. For those who do not fit this category we need to participate in a whistle-blowing exercise that will expose any who are putting their selfish gain above the public good. And the legislature needs to do more work on its conflict of interest and ethics laws.  Maybe those changes can become the legacy of Bob McDonnell.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Reston Now.

Although it has been many years since I was a teacher in the classroom, I still get a nervous stomach around Labor Day each year in anticipation of the beginning of a new school year.

Teaching is the hardest work I have ever done in my life including being a legislator. I taught before the era of Standards of Learning (SOLs) and massive standardized testing. The challenge I and my colleagues had in our time was to recognize, nourish and expand individual students’ knowledge, talents and abilities. Today’s teachers have unfortunately been forced to teach to standardized tests that do not recognize individual student’s knowledge, talents and abilities nor do the tests or the assessment process of teachers recognize their unique skills and talents.

I attended the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) recently where Sir Kenneth Robinson, noted author and speaker, spoke about the need for revolution — not reform — in public education.

“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” according to a report, Climate Change Impacts in the United States, that was released this year and that includes the findings of 300 experts affiliated with the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee .

Their findings are the same as I heard discussed last week at the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators National Issues Forum in which I participated. A couple of speakers brought unique backgrounds and insights into the issue of climate change. Retired Vice Admiral Dennis V. McGinn is a widely recognized energy and national security expert. He insists that climate change is a threat to our national security.

Dr. James Hansen, formerly Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, started in the 1980s raising awareness of global warming and speaks forcefully today of the need to take action to protect the future of young people and all species on the planet.

In legislative chambers in Virginia and throughout the country, climate change continues to be debated by politicians some of whom question whether or not climate change is actually occurring and whether humans have anything to do with causing it. Meanwhile, there is a clear conclusion among scientists as expressed in the Climate Change report:

“Evidence for climate change abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans. Scientists and engineers from around the world have meticulously collected this evidence, using satellites and networks of weather balloons, thermometers, buoys, and other observing systems. Evidence of climate change is also visible in the observed and measured changes in location and behavior of species and functioning of ecosystems. Taken together, this evidence tells an unambiguous story: the planet is warming, and over the last half century, this warming has been driven primarily by human activity.”

Climate change means hotter and more erratic weather, warmer oceans and fresh water sources, heavy downpours, global sea level rise, and reductions in glaciers and sea ice, among other changes. Shrinking land ice along with an expansion of the ocean as it warms and natural land subsidence that occurs along the coast will result in areas being inundated with increased episodic flooding. The Virginia coastline will be especially hard hit.

Actions can and should be taken by legislators to protect our communities, children and future generations from the dangers of climate change. We need to reduce harmful emissions for sure, and
I have put a lot of emphasis in my work on renewable energy. We need to deal with big polluters some of whom receive government subsidies recognizing that alternative energy sources are becoming increasingly available to us from rapidly growing clean industries.

Above all, however, politicians need to be honest with the public in acknowledging that the climate is changing, and we can do something about it!

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates

For those whose parents lived through the Great Depression, you can skip the next few sentences since you know what I am about to say. For my younger readers, let me explain that life during the Great Depression (1935 to the mid-1940s) was so difficult that it made an indelible mark on the way that people thought and lived.

Jobs, money, food and the basic necessities of life were in such short supply that most everyone learned to be very careful in the use of all their resources. The impact of scarce resources diverted for use in the war effort during World War II reinforced their conserving way of living.

By income standards of the time, my family would probably have been considered low-income but not poor. My dad did maintenance work for the Norfolk and Western Railroad; my mom was a stay-at-home mother. They never forgot their experiences of growing up during the Great Depression or living through World War II that followed it. We did not have a lot to spend, but we were very frugal. Dad was an excellent gardener who raised all the vegetables that we ate during the summer and that Mom canned or froze for the rest of the year. The potato bin in the cellar was always filled to last us between the harvesting of crops.

I continue to be influenced by the way they thought and lived. I seek to re-use whatever resources I can and feel guilty if I feel that I am being excessive in what I am buying or using. Sometimes I could be referred to as being cheap although I prefer to be called conserving.

The quality of conserving that necessity brought to my parents and their peers is a quality that necessity will once again bring to our society. The depletion of natural resources as well as the degradation of the quality of life that comes about in the use of some of our energy resources will force us into being more conservation-minded.

While climate change will force major policy changes in the way we secure and utilize our energy resources in the future, there are actions that we can take today as individuals that can make a positive difference for our children and grandchildren. One example I use is energy conservation in our homes. We can save money and energy resources with an energy audit. There are certified persons who can identify energy losses in your home and offer ways to prevent them. Energy counselors like those with LEAP (Local Energy Alliance Program; leap-va.org ) can also help save energy and money for you in your home. A recent effort on my part to identify and close air seepage into our home will I believe add to our comfort this winter and save money on heating.

I still get satisfaction when I am able to be conserving. For my parents and others it was a matter of survival. For the future it may well be a matter of survival as well.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

Mrs. Alice Foltz was my sixth and seventh grade teacher as well as being principal of Grove Hill Elementary School near Shenandoah, Va. She passed away in 2005 at the age of 99.

Mrs. Alice, as she was called to prevent confusion with another Mrs. Foltz who was the fourth grade teacher, was a great source of inspiration to me. She along with many other warm and caring teachers inspired me to become a teacher.

The first half to full hour of Mrs. Alice’s classroom day was always a study hall during which homework assignments and work sheets could be completed while she did her work as principal. As one who completed his assignments quickly, I could have gotten into real problems had Mrs. Foltz not had the foresight to make me the “cafeteria manager.”

My duties in this assigned job were to go to the other six classrooms in the school and pick up the lunch orders and payments for the day. I would total up the number of students who had purchased milk only and the number of students who purchased lunch that included milk, check to make sure the monies collected were correct, and tell the cook, Mrs. Rodabush (who incidentally used the government surplus cheese to make the best macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten), the number of lunches she needed to fix.

It was a rather simple and routine job, but for me it was the greatest thing that could happen. I was trusted to go throughout the school on my own and was given a significant duty. I may have learned more from my school job about confidence, trustworthiness, and responsibility than I did in the classroom. Mrs. Alice knew exactly what I needed!

Imagine my surprise when about a decade ago I met another Alice Foltz! This one was in Centreville and was not related to the Alice Foltz of my youth. My new Alice Foltz is the inspiration and leader behind the Centreville Labor Resource Center that provides counseling and assistance to day laborers in the area.

At a time when a government-supported worker center was closed in 2007 in a nearby community and a tough anti-immigrant ordinance was passed in the next county, Alice as she is called by anyone who knows her, was able to convene a series of open community dialogues to discuss the impact of immigration in Centreville. The success of the Centreville Immigration Forum led to the establishment of a non-profit, non-government center where immigrants can learn English, acquire job-seeking skills, and be matched with private employers who are seeking day laborers.

Alice is a soft-spoken, persistent and strong leader who has accomplished in her community what government programs could not do and what other communities had unsuccessfully attempted. Too bad political leaders have not learned from her approach.

Alice Foltz has my greatest admiration. I am blessed to have known both of them!

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates

The opening of the Silver Line on July 26 brought an overflow crowd of dignitaries and well-wishers to cut the ribbon and ride the first train. The half-completed project received a lot of acclaim with its airy and sleek stations and gleaming new equipment. The first phase of the extension of Metro that will increase the size of the mass transit system by 25 percent has clearly captured the spirit of most of the community.

The feelings about heavy-rail transit in the Dulles Corridor have not always been viewed so positively. While the idea of mass transit to Dulles Airport has been around for more than 50 years, positive steps to make it a reality were slow in taking place.

When I organized the Dulles Corridor Rail Association (DCRA) in August, 1998 to provide mass transit in the corridor, there were many doubters, naysayers and skeptics. The original board made up of community and business leaders and professional planner Patty Nicoson, who became and remains president of DCRA, went about building the case for a mass transit approach. Population growth projections for the region provided the clearest evidence that highways and cars would not be adequate to meet transportation needs in the future. The idea that the nation’s capital did not have a rail connection to its international airport was appalling to many. Air pollution’s effect on the health of the region was also a concern.

DCRA was able to get the conversation going about mass transit for the corridor and kept it before the attention of public officials as the many issues related to the project were debated. Should rail just go to Tysons Corner? Dulles Airport? Loudoun County? Should it be bus? Bus rapid transit? Light rail? Heavy rail? Should it be a subway system? Aerial system? How many stations? Where?

DCRA played a role in making sure that public officials got a regular flow of information on what was happening in other localities, advantages and concerns related to options, and the costs and consequences of inaction. As planning progressed and the project went through its ups and downs and near-death experiences, the DCRA board and its members were there to write letters, provide fact sheets and opinion columns, line up speakers for public hearings, and even run full-page ads in The Washington Post at a critical time in the approval process for the project. Twice a year, DCRA held receptions at significant locations along the route of the rail line and recognized individuals and organizations that had contributed to moving the project forward.

I was honored to be asked to speak at the opening ceremony for the Silver Line, where I acknowledged as I want to do here the critically important and very effective work of Patty Nicoson towards the success of this project and the significant help of current and past DCRA board members. Many have mentioned that we might still just be talking about it if not for the work of DCRA and its success in keeping it truly nonpartisan. I am pleased to have been a part of such an effort that will be transformative for our region.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates

Since 1990, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has ranked states annually on overall child well-being in a report called Kids Count Data Book (www.aecf.org).

The Foundation’s report is viewed as the authoritative source of information on how we are doing nationally as well as state by state for our children. An index of key indicators in four domains measures what children need most in order to thrive: (1) economic well-being, (2) education, (3) health, and (4) family and community.

“States vary considerably in their amount of wealth and other resources. State policy choices also strongly influence children’s chances for success.” (Kids Count Data Book, page 20) Living in the ninth wealthiest state, Virginia, in the wealthiest nation, the United States, we need to ask ourselves if we are doing as well as we should for our future as represented by what we are doing for our children.

Virginia’s rate of 15 percent of children in poverty is better than the national rate of 23 percent, but we can take little comfort in our better percentage when we realize that there are 279,000 children in poverty in Virginia. All regions of the state, including Northern Virginia, contribute to that number that has gotten worse in recent years. Reflecting the recent recession, the percentage of children whose parents lack secure employment has risen from 23 percent in 2008 to 25 percent in 2012.

Despite all the evidence of the importance of early childhood education and the incredible returns that can be realized from an investment in preschool programs, more than half (52 percent) of Virginia’s children are not attending preschool. Unfortunately many of the children who do not have an opportunity for an early start in education contribute to other statistics that find 57 percent of fourth graders are not proficient in reading, 62 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in math, and 16 percent of high school students are not graduating on time, although these numbers have been improving in recent years.

Virginia has seen a slight improvement in the health indicator of low-weight babies at 8.1 percent over the last decade but exceeds the national rate of 8 percent. In Virginia as well as in the nation, about 6 percent of teens abuse alcohol or drugs.

Probably paralleling the increase of children in poverty is the number of children in single-parent families increasing from 29 percent in 2005 to 31 percent in 2012. The number of children in families where the household head lacks a high school diploma has improved from 13 percent to 9 percent during the same period and beats the national 15 percent.

The area of greatest improvement in Virginia is the rate of teen births per 1,000 dropping from 34 percent in 2005 to 23 percent in 2012. Still the lower percentage represents over 6,000 babies born to teenagers each year.

While the statistics are interesting, the much more important question is how they inform public policy. Officials at all levels of government need to demonstrate through our actions that we know how much kids count!

 Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

By the time you are reading this column, Virginia will have reached the milestone by having refused to accept a billion dollars of monies paid by Virginia taxpayers to close the coverage gap for 400,000 working poor Virginians who cannot afford health insurance. A $1,000,000,000 is a lot of money!

We got to this point by the Republican majority in the General Assembly refusing to pass a plan for Medicaid expansion that would bring more than $5 million dollars a day to the state, produce as many as 30,000 new jobs in the health care industry, insure as many as 400,000 of the working poor, and enhance the quality of life for Virginia’s workforce and their families.

What is the alternative proposed by the Republicans? Speaker of the House Howell was quoted last month as saying that House Republicans propose to help the uninsured through “free clinics and community health centers and through expanded hospital services.” Hospital representatives are saying that they need the Medicaid money in order to expand services. One hospital in the state has closed, and others report financial stress. The free clinic serving this region is reported to be in economic difficulties.

Last week, Stan Brock’s Remote Area Medical (RAM) set up its mobile clinic in Wise County, VA, as it has been doing one weekend a year for more than a decade. More than 1,000 people who do not have medical insurance or access to regular medical services show up and stand in line for hours to be seen by one or several of the more than a hundred medical care professionals who volunteer each year to run this free clinic. Brock, who achieved fame for his television series Wild Kingdom, has described health care needs and services in the Appalachian region that includes Southwest Virginia as being like that of a third-world country.

The General Assembly majority has been able to stymie efforts by the Governor to get a plan for Medicaid expansion approved. While the legislature is still in special session, it is not expected to meet again until Sept. 22. There is little optimism that there will be a change of heart on the part of Republicans as the national organization Americans for Prosperity threaten a primary challenge to anyone who breaks rank. Two senior Republican committee chairs were defeated in primaries in the last election cycle by Tea Party Republicans as was House Majority Leader Congressman Eric Cantor defeated this year. Unfortunately, the desire to keep one’s legislative seat seems stronger than the moral call to do the right thing and provide health care to people who need it.

The billion-dollar give-away is money paid by Virginians under the Affordable Care Act that goes to Washington and is not returned because of the legislature’s refusal to act. Write to your friends, family, and colleagues and encourage them to contact their legislators to support legislation that will keep $5 million a day that will add up to another billion dollars by early next year in the state for the benefit of Virginians.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates 

Legislators in the earliest days of the Republic were mostly of the planter class as women, blacks and non-landowners could not vote or hold office. The best time to get away from the plantation and the crops was in the wintertime.

That probably started the custom that continues to today whereby the General Assembly holds its regular session in the winter beginning on the first Wednesday after the firstMonday in January.

In simpler times — and up until 1971 — the state law-making body only met every other year, in the even-numbered years. The current schedule has the House of Delegates and the State Senate meeting for 60 calendar days in the even-numbered years and 30 days, most often extended to 45 days, in the odd-numbered years.

Passage of the biennium budget passed in the even-numbered years is the justification for the more than two weeks additional time. Special sessions are not that unusual, although they seldom extend for more than a few days.

Virginia government is organized around the idea of citizen-legislators. We who serve in the legislature have work and family responsibilities beyond our service as legislators. With the minimal salaries paid — $17, 640 in the House and $18,000 in the Senate — an additional source of income is necessary if one is not independently wealthy. If legislative sessions were lengthened, it would likely impact who could serve as fewer people would be able to leave their work for extended periods of time. I would not support a full-time legislature as it would be likely to lead into governing in areas best left for local government or the private sector.

Legislative work does get done in the interim between legislative sessions. Study committees meet to consider the need for legislation in areas where more time is needed for analysis beyond that available in the regular session. An important study committee this year will consider the need for additional health care reform beyond that passed in the last session.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) provides legislative oversight with legislative members and a professional staff and conducts some of the most in-depth studies. In 1997 I introduced the legislation to establish the Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS) and served as its original chair. JCOTS conducts studies, with private-sector and academic technical advisory committee members assisting it, in its mission to study and advise in the development of sound technology and science policy in the Commonwealth.

The summertime provides more opportunities to meet with constituents locally and to learn their needs. The General Assembly is referred to as a part-time legislature, although I spend more than full-time as a member. My retirement status provides me time to work year-round at a job I really enjoy and am honored to have.

Although it is summer, still feel free to call on me whenever you think I can be of assistance to you. Email me at [email protected].

Ken Plum represents Reston in the Virginia House of Delegates.

My 11th grade history teacher, Mr. David Poole Kite, assigned me the first big research paper I can remember having to write in high school. I typed out a 20-page paper, “History of Page County,” on my Royal portable typewriter. It took Harry Strickler 442 pages to write his book, A Short History of Page County (Richmond: Dietz Press, 1952). His book was my only source; I just picked fewer events to highlight.

My paper probably should have been entitled “A Very Brief History of Page County.” My original research was to visit sites where some of the events Strickler describes took place. Even then and until today, I find it fascinating to stand in a place of importance.

Last week, I visited one of those places again — the White House on Route 211 west of Luray. The name came from the white stucco that covers the limestone walls of the house, which was built in 1760 by Martin Kauffman II as a residence and Mennonite meeting place. He was among the first settlers in the village. I do not know of any momentous event that took place there. It’s just the idea of a home — not a palace or a mansion — surviving that long that makes it interesting as one of the oldest structures in Page County.

Remarkably, it remains in about the same condition and configuration as when it was first constructed. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places as well as the Virginia Landmarks Registry. An archeological survey is underway at the site, and plans are being developed for its restoration. It is located on rich bottom land in one of the bends of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. Evidence, including a number of arrow points and other artifacts that have been found, indicates that it was an active location for Native Americans.

As interesting as the place itself is, the other activities being undertaken on the property by its owner, Northern Virginia developer Scott C. Plein, are equally of interest. A brick farmhouse on the property built in the late nineteenth century has been beautifully restored. Through the White House Farm Foundation and numerous partners, research is being conducted on riparian buffers, sustainable agricultural practices, and native trees and plants. The White House is not open to the public, but numerous school groups participate in scientific and archeological research on the farm. Students participate in gardening activities with the produce being contributed to local food banks not unlike the activities going on now at the more well-known White House.

Learning about the past has been enjoyable for me throughout my life. At the White House of Virginia, Scott Plein and his associates are demonstrating that while we are learning about the past we can learn lessons for the future about environmental quality, sustainability, and historic conservation. It adds a whole new chapter to my brief history of Page County.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

The Silver Line Metrorail extension will open for riders on July 26! For those of us who have been looking at the seemingly completed infrastructure for many months, announcement of the actual date that we can ride this important new service for our community is welcome news.

Having worked on bringing Metrorail to Reston and beyond for the last 20 years, I am especially excited about the opening. In the 1990s, I was the lone politician calling for rail service in the Dulles Corridor while some dismissed the idea as a pipe dream.

In order to develop support for the rail project, I enlisted the help of business and community leaders who supported the idea. In August 1998, I announced the formation of the Dulles Corridor Rail Association (DCRA) as a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group supporting rail in the Dulles Corridor. Joining in the announcement were professional planner Patty Nicoson, who became president of the group and continues in that capacity today; former Delegate Vincent Callahan, who demonstrated bipartisan representation; former Virginia Secretary of Transportation John Milliken; and Restonians Joe Stowers and Steve Cerny, among others.

We set to work, with letters and opinion columns, testimony at public hearings and a variety of advocacy activities that built support for the project. The task was not easy and not without setbacks. While there was widespread agreement about the need for more public transit options in a metropolitan area that had outgrown its transit service planned for in the 1960s, we had to convince some elected leaders that rail was justified over simply expanded bus service or bus rapid transit.

The idea of putting the extension in a tunnel sounded attractive, but was cost prohibitive. Commercial interests were agreeable to additional taxes to help pay for the system, but the project had to be broken into two phases to accommodate when a business interest would start paying an additional tax and when they would receive service. Toll increases on commuters were projected to be unbearably high requiring DCRA to successfully lobby for more direct state appropriations to keep tolls down.

With no direct financial support for the project and a 2010 goal to deliver a completed system, the 30 men and women who made up the original board and those who have joined and left since that time are to be thanked and congratulated. I am honored to continue to serve as chairman of the board of DCRA.

The Silver Line will not be a silver bullet to solve all our transportation woes. We still live in an area ranked 10th in the country for the worst traffic! Rail and bus riders will be asked to make adjustments; drivers may have to change their commuting habits; and some will complain about tolls and fares. Even so, the Silver Line brings a critically important part of infrastructure to our area that will add to our quality of life in getting to and from work and taking advantage of the rich educational and cultural resources of our region and our nation’s capital.

Ken Plum represents Reston in the Virginia House of Delegates

Since the Dec. 14, 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 27 people including 20 children and the shooter were killed, there have been 79 more school shootings.

Gun rights advocates dispute the number related to schools, but that is the figure Bill Moyers reported a few weeks ago and there are certain to have been even more since his report. The total number of people killed by guns, suicide and accidental deaths between Newtown and December 2013 is 12,042.

With all the fear and anguish brought on by these shootings at whatever rate they may be occurring, little has been done to address the issue in Congress or in state legislatures.

Previous mass murders have had minimal impact on laws to reduce gun violence. One exception is the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. While no one was killed, four were wounded, including the President and his press secretary, Jim Brady, who was left confined to a wheelchair with slurred speech and nightmares.

The efforts of Brady, along with the strong leadership of his wife Sarah, led to the enactment after six years, seven Congressional votes and three presidential administrations to passage of background check legislation known as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Recently, I attended the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence National Summit in Washington, D.C. ,that had as its theme to complete the job on background checks to make them universal.

Since the Brady law went into effect on Feb. 28, 1994, background checks have stopped more than 2.1 million gun sales to prohibited purchasers including convicted felons, domestic abusers, fugitives from justice, and other dangerous individuals. But the Brady bill requires background checks only for sales by licensed firearms dealers. Sales by individuals, unlicensed dealers, or internet vendors do not require a background check. The Brady Campaign is mounting a strong lobbying effort that I support to close the loophole on background checks and require them for all gun sales. To learn more, go to www.bradycampaign.org.

As announced at their National Summit, the Brady Campaign is working in other ways to reduce gun violence. Its “Ask Campaign” (Asking Saves Kids) in conjunction with the American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to ask if there are unlocked guns in homes where their children play. An estimated 18,000 youth are injured or killed each year due to gun violence. More information is at askingsaveskids.org.

This November, make sure candidates you support for the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate support expansion of the Brady bill. I continue to participate along with many good friends in vigils at NRA Headquarters in Fairfax on the 14th of each month to ensure that the issue is not forgotten. I will be working to expand background checks in the legislature.

Looking at other nations of the world makes us realize it is time to do all we can to prevent gun violence in America.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates

About this time of year in 1966 I wrote a letter to my hometown newspaper, Page News and Courier, suggesting that Virginia had just undergone one of the “bloodless revolutions” that Thomas Jefferson had suggested would be good for society periodically.

In the Democratic primary in a very different 8th Congressional District than we know today, liberal state delegate George Rawlings defeated the 36-year veteran Congressman Howard Smith who in his position as chairman of the Rules Committee had thwarted the will of presidents through his control of the flow of legislation and his bottling up of the Civil Rights Act for nearly a decade.

The shock waves when the polling results came in were as great as those heard in the 7th Congressional District this year. As if the defeat of a powerful committee chair was not enough, in that same primary moderate State Senator William B. Spong, Jr. defeated Virginia’s Senator A. Willis Robertson, who had been in the Senate for 20 years. President Lyndon Johnson had recruited Spong to challenge Robertson because the Senator opposed the Civil Rights Act and supported school segregation.

When Lady Bird Johnson came through Virginia campaigning for her husband on the Lady Bird Special train, Robertson was the only elected Democrat who did not come out to greet her. George Rawlings lost in the general election to William “Bill” Scott as conservative Southern Democrats voted for the Republican, and many never returned to the Democratic Party.

Spong was elected to the U.S. Senate where he served for one term before being defeated by the same Bill Scott who had defeated Rawlings six years before. Scott’s service in the House and in the Senate earned him the title given by one publication as being “the dumbest man” in Congress.

The primary defeats of two Southern Democrats in 1966 marked a sharp decline of influence of the Byrd Machine in Virginia politics and a realignment of the conservatives who had called themselves Democrats since Reconstruction. Some became Independents, but others switched to the Republican Party where they felt more at home with their conservatism. When Harry Byrd, Jr. ran for the U.S. Senate to replace his father, he won as an Independent.

No Democratic candidate for President was able to carry Virginia until ironically Barack Obama carried the state in 2008. While Democrats and moderate Republicans are celebrating the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in another historic primary, it is important to consider the outcome of the election for the future of the Commonwealth.

The candidate who defeated Cantor did so by being more conservative than Cantor, and from the comments I have been reading he is a far-out Tea Party candidate. Just last year two Tea Party candidates defeated two Republican committee chairs in primaries and went on to win the general election.

An already conservative General Assembly is likely to be pushed further to the right by Republicans who fear a primary challenge. A bloodless revolution is occurring in the Commonwealth; Virginians will not be better for it.

Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates.