LETTER: Tempered Steel | Opinion | princewilliamtimes.com
Mar 24, 2023
Tempered Steel is the reason that we have lived in Prince William County’s rural crescent for the last 26 years. Twenty-seven years ago, Steel carried me from Fauquier County to the top of Bull Run Mountain, bringing me to witness the rural beauty of Prince William County. From that moment, our family knew we had to find a home in that valley that we saw and leave behind the hubbub of Arlington.
It never bothered me that Steel was a free giveaway, determined by the hunt crowd to be not tall enough and not the right breed for their interests. He was strong, beautiful, loyal, patient and talented. He was magnificent; he was mine; and I loved him.
Steel succumbed to the old age of 35 on December 14, 2022. He died the morning after our Prince William Board of County Supervisors adopted the new comprehensive plan – Pathway to 2040. His passing is a tangible symbol of everything that is wrong with their current drive to urbanize and industrialize every corner of our county, particularly their disappearing of “rural” from all planning.
“Tempered steel” is now my mantra. The blood, sweat, tears and time spent fighting for what we love has tempered me forever. I refuse to accept what “they” are trying to do to my home, and to the home I want for my daughter, my grandchildren and their grandchildren.
The quality of life we all risk losing matters too much to just watch it being incrementally chipped away by their flawed decisions.
A community of like-minded county citizens from all districts continues to expand and come together, standing up and speaking out against the wrongs being thrust upon all of us by those who should know better. We are defending our families and our neighborhoods against the predators attacking from all directions — worst of all from our own elected leaders.
We are not going away. There will be a reckoning at the June 20 Democratic primary for the chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. And then again in the November elections, when all those supervisors in majority positions will have to deal with citizens determined to choose better representation for themselves and their families and to bring integrity, honesty and sustainable planning back to the dais.
We will make certain that Tempered Steel’s legacy and message endures.
Karen Sheehan
Haymarket
