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Health & Fitness

Dispatches from the Ant Colony

A newspaper columnist took a cheap shot at Reston because of our license plate campaign. Want to show her your pride? Sign up for your own Reston plate!

When you're a columnist (or even a blogger like yours truly), sometimes it can be hard to come up with material.  Figuring out something to say on a weekly basis, or a semiweekly basis, is harder than it looks.  Even if you don't feel inspired on a given week, you still need to hand in a column.  A deadline is a demanding mistress.

With that in mind, I can sympathize with Kerry Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot.  When you're stuck for material, you do things like skim through the bills for this year's General Assembly session and look for punchlines.  And when you don't find any, and you still have to write the column, that's when you get really desperate.  And in her desperation, Ms. Dougherty stuck in what she probably thought was a harmless : "Even this session's license-plate proposals are yawn-inducing. Although you have to wonder who will want to zip around with this on his car: 'Reston! Live Work Play.' Be honest, is there a more soulless spot in the commonwealth than that bland ant colony near Dulles?"

I very much doubt that Ms. Dougherty has ever visited our fair corner of the commonwealth, but I'm sure she didn't consider it a problem; after all, Reston is far away from Norfolk, and why would anyone up here notice or care about a column from somebody in Norfolk? 

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Unfortunately for her, a couple media outlets up here did notice, and a lot of Restonians have gotten up in arms as a result.  They've pointed out a lot of things they love about Reston, from our great restaurants to our art galleries to the Lake Anne Farmer's Market to our caring citizens.  I have ; it's why I came back here after college. I think about the pioneer generation of Restonians, who moved here to build a new kind of community, a place where we could live and work and play, a place where people of all races and economic classes could live side by side.  Nothing soulless or boring about that.

But I'm not really interested in picking on Ms. Dougherty, or starting some sort of Reston-vs.-Norfolk grudge match.  I've never been to Norfolk, and I wouldn't presume to make fun of it. 

Find out what's happening in Restonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Rather, I'd like to talk about that license plate bill Ms. Dougherty was mocking.

That bill is being sponsored in the Senate by Reston's own , at the request of RCA.  As you know if you've been reading my blog posts, you know that RCA has been for several years now.  Janet has agreed to move this bill forward for us, and I thank her for it.

Now, if this bill passes, does that mean you can run down to the DMV and get yourself a Reston plate?  Not quite.  Because the next step depends on us.  By Virginia law, you need 450 applications for a plate in order for the DMV to start making it.  Once the bill passes, the clock starts ticking.  We'll have a deadline to get those 450 applications in, probably by the summer. 

How can you get your application?  Simple!  Go to the RCA website and download the form, fill it out, and send it back to us, along with your check for the plate.  Once we have 450 applications in hand, we'll turn them over to the DMV.

RCA is going to be out in the community, handing out forms and pumping up the plate.  You can help by sending the form to your neighbors and friends.  Every little bit helps us get closer to our goal.

Do you love Reston and want to show your pride?  Do you want to show Kerry Dougherty what kind of community we really are?  Instead of writing a letter to the editor or thinking up Norfolk jokes, sign up for the Reston license plate! 

When Ms. Dougherty and everyone else sees our plate on the road, they'll know that Reston is no ant colony.  They'll know that we're a real community with real citizens who really love the place where we live, work, and play.

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