Tag Archives: Kristen Swanson

Past Time To Act On Guns

Posted on June 11, 2019 at 9:51 am by John Flannery |

Many have found it particularly distressing given how little has been accomplished to assure citizens that they are safe from mass shootings and gun violence.

Moms, family and friends gathered to protest this past weekend – to demand action for a change.

In recent days, in Virginia Beach, a city employee killed 12 people and injured four more in a municipal building.

The killer carried two lawful .45 caliber handguns but he also had a silencer and an extended capacity ammo magazine. The large magazine meant he didn’t have to re-load and could continue to shoot longer and kill or wound more innocents. Continue reading →

The Story of Flight From Central America

Posted on July 4, 2018 at 9:06 am by John Flannery |

Young Dylan Keefe at the DC March to bring families together

Our neighbors from Lovettsville, and across Loudoun County, traveled as best they could this past Saturday from their homes here to Washington, DC.

They made the journey despite the harsh 90 degree summer heat, by car, bus, train, and on foot, to protest the separation by our government of young Central American and Mexican Children from their parents.

Most of these migrants insisted, through interpreters, that this was a story of flight from the dangers that they had to leave behind, from what had been their home.

They fled the abuse and danger they suffered there, to find asylum and safety in these United States, as had the many who came before them to find peace and a new life.

Migrants who anticipated that this Administration might resist their asylum petitions said they had no alternative. Continue reading →

Science marches on – challenging chaos and supersistion

Posted on April 25, 2017 at 5:26 am by John Flannery |

Tami Carlow and Kristen Swanson at the rainy Science March

Tami Carlow said, “Rain will not stop Kristen Swanson and I from marching for Science in Washington, D.C.”

Tami is a gardener with undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology, concentrating in entomology. “Ever since I was little, I was fascinated by insects.” Tami has published papers on the flightless weevil (Eisonyx Crassipes) and parasitic wasps on the backs of dragon flies. Little wonder that she was a taxonomist, studying weevils at the Natural History museum in DC. Also little wonder that she would join the Science March on Washington this past Saturday.

Science March on Washington

Kristen K. Swanson, of Lovettsville, is an artist but her technique requires some craft at science. Kristen takes a soft lump of stoneware clay, thrown on a potter’s wheel (if not made from clay slabs), shapes the clay by hand, paints or “carves” designs on the clay body, and fires the clay twice, the second time at 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Kristen received her Bachelor of fine Arts in Ceramic Art in 1998 from the Virginia Commonwealth University.

Tami and Kristen joined thousands in Washington DC on Earth Day and many others in 600 cities on 6 continents including research scientists in Antarctica.

There are many instances to insist on science as your guide this year. The Science March itself was inspired by the Women’s March, and has been characterized by the slogan, “There is no Planet B.” Continue reading →