Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace Inc., based in Norway, plans to invest $71 million to build a 150,000-square-foot facility in the county, creating about 180 new jobs. Construction is set to begin next year, with the facility anticipated to open by 2028.

Representatives from James City County, the Hampton Roads Alliance and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership made a joint announcement Tuesday at the country club of The Governor’s Land at Two Rivers. Those assembled included local, state and federal elected officials as well as members of the Kongsberg team.

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, founded in 1814, is a global technology company that supplies products to customers in the marine, defense, aerospace, offshore industries and renewable energy sectors. The James City County facility will produce two state-of-the-art cruise missiles for the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. It will be Kongsberg’s first manufacturing facility in the United States, and the second such facility the company has announced, with another factory being built in Australia.

Kongsberg will invest $100 million, including $30 million in costs toward engineering and software, in the coming years to establish the facility in James City County. An exact location for the building has not been disclosed.

During Tuesday’s announcement, Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance, called Kongsberg a “fantastic fit for the Historic Triangle,” given the strong military presence in the community. There is potential for collaboration with the Naval Weapons Station at Yorktown.

More than one-third of the local economy supports the defense sector, with 18 military installations located in the region, Smith said.

“This will bring a tremendous amount of opportunity to Hampton Roads,” Smith said.

Geir Haoy, president and CEO of Kongsberg Gruppen ASA, noted that the U.S. has been an important security partner and customer of Kongsberg for years.

“We are fully committed to supporting the U.S. Armed Forces,” he said. “We are ready to build our presence in Virginia.”

Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Craig Crenshaw said he considers Kongsberg coming to James City County a major coup for Virginia. He presented team members from Kongsberg with a Virginia state flag as a thank you for their investment and support. Virginia beat out two other states to secure the project.

“We are excited for what is to come,” Crenshaw said. “The commonwealth is in overdrive and we are hitting the accelerator to increase the momentum.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin also issued a statement regarding Kongsberg’s announcement.

“Following our productive meetings in Europe, Kongsberg’s decision to establish its first U.S. defense assembly facility in Virginia reaffirms our status as America’s top state for business,” Youngkin said. “Not only will this investment create more than 180 new jobs, but it will also showcase our strategic location to attract global leaders in defense industries. We are proud to welcome them to the Commonwealth and look forward to supporting their growth.”

Brandy Centolanza, bcentolanza@cox.net

Following a move by the city more than a year ago to study a school system split and the county’s subsequent termination of their joint contract, the Williamsburg-James City County school system is on target to separate prior to the 2028-29 school year.

But now, county officials want to know by Oct. 1 whether the city has at least a preference.

“The apparent lack of an anticipated decision date is causing unnecessary concern in the community and is hindering the county’s ability to adequately plan for a separation,” Ruth Larson, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, wrote in an Aug. 12 letter to Williamsburg Mayor Doug Pons.

Williamsburg City Council voted in June 2023 to begin exploring the feasibility of splitting the school system, which has been run jointly since 1955. Consultants hired by the city to study the issue found that a split would cost millions and disrupt thousands of students. The study also revealed a stark difference in achievement levels between city and county students.

Following an update at last Thursday’s City Council meeting, the city said in a news release it anticipated that “both localities will keep planning for what individual school districts could look like, while also working to potentially remain united.” Research continues by looking at joint operating models that govern other school divisions in and outside of Virginia, the release said.

Looking at those other joint divisions, along with their funding mechanisms, should provide the city and county with “the ability to collaborate on a potentially modernized joint operating structure that better serves both communities should the decision be made to remain in the current joint school district.”

The city said it’s aware of the need for finality.

“The council is anxious to resolve this issue and look forward to making the best decision possible for Williamsburg students and the overall community in the months ahead,” the city’s statement read.

James City County leaders, however, responded that the city’s intention “remains as unclear as the day it was released.” As of now, the county is planning to hold public meetings next month as part of its own study assessing the feasibility of operating a separate school system.

If a school split were to occur, roughly 1,100 students in a Williamsburg system would attend one of three schools — Matthew Whaley, Berkeley or a newly converted James Blair High School. It would mean the displacement of more than 600 students and likely require the construction of a new middle school.

A split would cost city taxpayers more per student than the existing arrangement with James City County. Then there’s also the matter of staffing, splitting up buses, equipment and other property and how to make student transitions.

Worrisome to both localities through the process has been findings showing that Williamsburg students have been falling behind in some academic areas. In July, the WJCC School Board responded to the city’s request for an action plan regarding student performance in part by pointing out that the underperforming numbers could also be a result of the learning loss that all schools saw after the pandemic, especially among vulnerable groups.

“That is precisely why tremendous efforts have been made day in and day out by our dedicated administrators, teachers and staff to make up for the learning loss that is evident in your study,” school board Chair Sarah Ortego wrote in her July 26 response. “The fruit of these efforts are just now coming to bear and more is expected in the coming months as we enter the next school year and beyond. These efforts and results simply cannot be captured by viewing one post-pandemic year of data that is now two years old.”

The school board’s letter further noted that the schools are already seeing improvement, particularly in Standards of Learning scores and other standardized assessments. In addition, the school board is still in the process of honing its strategic plan despite the “uncertainty of our school division’s future,” Ortego said.

“Rest assured, the academic growth and personal success of every child is paramount for our teachers, staff, and administrators, and we trust in their capacity to deliver,” Ortego’s letter added.

The Board of Supervisors is open to renegotiating a contract that more fairly distributes cost, representation and “provides an excellent educational system for the our students,” the county’s statement said.

According to Larson, agreeing to a new contract could take several months, but that the localities could have a new contract in place by Dec. 31. “To that end,” she wrote in her letter to Pons, “we stand ready and willing to enter into negotiations with you on October 2, 2024.”

The city’s feasibility study, along with other documents, can be viewed at williamsburgva.gov/feasibilitystudy.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

A continuing part of Jamestown Settlement’s Director’s Series, this fall’s programs will include experts Blackhawk, Julian E. Zelizer on Oct. 16 and Edward L. Ayers on Nov. 20 focusing on their specialties from Indigenous history to American democracy and diplomacy.

Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, will sit down with these scholars to talk about their shared legacies in American history.

All three programs will take place at 7 p.m. in the Robins Foundation Theater at the Jamestown Settlement followed by a book-signing at 8:30 p.m. Admission is limited; tickets can be purchased for $10 in advance online at jyfmuseums.org/directorsseries. Virtual tickets are also available.

Now in its third year, the series is sponsored by TowneBank.

A member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada, Blackhawk is currently a history and American studies professor at Yale University, where he has been a faculty member since 2009. His most recent book, “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History” published by the Yale University Press, won the 2023 National Book Award for nonfiction.

In a phone interview Monday from his Connecticut home, Blackhawk stressed that his Jamestown appearance is “a generous opportunity for me to talk about my work to a large audience” interested in the plight of Native Americans in U.S. history.

In his book, he examines Native American roles in various U.S. history episodes such as chapters on the American Revolution, the U.S. Constitution, the Early Republic, the Civil War, the New Deal and the Cold War.

In discussing the book, the Washington Post Book World wrote: “In accounts of American history, Indigenous peoples are often treated largely incidental — either obstacles to be overcome or part of a narrative separate from the arc of nation building. Blackhawk challenges those minimalizations and exclusions, showing that Native communities have, instead, been inseparable from the American story all along.”

For example, George Washington’s first battle, Blackhawk explained, came in 1754 at Fort Necessity, which he built in the Virginia back country. “Washington failed miserably, because he didn’t understand the power of the French Forces and their allied Indian forces that he faced,” Blackwell said.

This was part of the Seven Years War, also known as the French and Indian War. “Washington surrendered on July 4 and was lucky that his men were allowed to leave. This incident, and this war, is part of what we’re not well informed about now,” he said.

Zelizer, the Director’s Series’ featured October speaker, is a pioneer in the revival of American political history. According to the Jamestown Settlement news release, he “will explore the most pernicious myths of the American past and how myth is formed around national narratives, for better or for worse.”

Zelizer is a history and public affairs professor at Princeton University. His most recent book, “Myth America,” co-edited with Kevin M. Kruse, was a New York Times bestseller last year.

The other fall speaker, Ayers, “will touch on his work in digital history and how this reimagining helps others to fully understand and visualize the past,” the release said. A former president of the University of Richmond, where he is currently a humanities professor, Ayers is a two-time winner of the Bancroft Prize in American history. His newest book, published in 2023, was “American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860.”

Recordings of past Director’s Series programs, including that featuring Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter, are available at jyfmuseums.org/events/directors-series/past-directors-series-guests.

Wilford Kale, kalehouse@aol.com

In June of 1788, “anti-rats” and “pro-rats” descended upon Richmond to argue during Virginia’s Ratifying Convention. All eyes were on the Old Dominion, America’s largest, richest and most influential state, with borders stretching to the Mississippi River at the time.

Virginia was home to some of America’s most influential leaders — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Mason and Wythe. Virginia had been slow to ratify.  Among the 13 states, it would be the 10th to confirm. Leaders in New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island were watching before casting their votes.

At the onset of the Richmond convention, delegates were evenly divided regarding ratification. Some remained to be swayed by the most compelling arguments.

Delegates debated for days in oppressive heat in the Richmond Theater building, which served as Virginia’s temporary state capitol, at the crest of Broad Street overlooking Church Hill. Powerful states’ rights forces lined up against Virginia’s ratification, led by Patrick Henry.

Henry took the floor for hours at a time, attempting to sway indecisive voters with urgent oratory that previewed the modern political filibuster.  As large as some European nations at the time, Virginia prided its independence and feared an over-reaching national government.

Henry advised delegates that slavery, on which Virginia’s economy depended, could be outlawed under a new system. He summed up his views on the ratifying argument: “I smelt a rat.”

James Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, argued eloquently on the Constitution’s behalf. But at age 37, he was among the younger Founding Fathers. It would take the authority of a more senior leader to sway the crowd in the final round.

In Richmond after days of dispute, all attention turned to elder patriot George Wythe, 62. Wythe had served as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, consequential member of the Continental Congress, speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, influential judge, Virginia attorney general, mentor to Thomas Jefferson, and America’s first and only professor of law at the time.

He had signed the Declaration of Independence with the high hope of a strong nation, a future leader among nations.

The year before, he had traveled to Philadelphia to the national Constitution Convention at his own expense, putting his law practice income on hold. As one of America’s most respected authorities on government and parliamentary procedure, he was quickly chosen to write the rules of the convention. Without standard operating procedures, the assembly could easily have become disorganized.

Delegates from the 13 former colonies convened in Philadelphia from June through September 1787 to debate the form of America’s future government, behind closed doors in humid summer weather. Finally, the Constitution was released to the public on Sept. 17, 1787.

In the Virginia Ratifying Convention nine months later, Wythe was appointed chairman of the Committee of the Whole and presided over acrimonious debate for more than three weeks.  Wearied by arguments, he stepped down from his chair to address the convention, his voice shaking with emotion.

Admired for his integrity and patriotism, the elder statesman commanded the assembly’s full focus. He reminded delegates that the country’s current Articles of Confederation were weak, that the new Constitution provided a way forward, and that it would certainly be strengthened with the promise of a future Bill of Rights as the first 10 amendments. Although Patrick Henry wanted to have the last say, Wythe then called for a vote.

A list of those voting in the affirmative shows that the narrow margin for approval came from Wythe’s former law school students at the College of William & Mary and others affiliated with the college. At the time, this was Virginia’s preeminent institution of higher learning, the second oldest college in America after Harvard.

By a vote of 89 to 79, the decision to ratify prevailed on June 25. New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island followed Virginia’s lead, making ratification unanimous among the United States of America. Two of the decisions in favor were exceedingly narrow: New York by only three votes and Rhode Island by only two.

Oscar Shewmake, former dean of the William & Mary Law School, founded by Wythe, described his contribution: “But for Wythe’s services in the Convention of 1788, Virginia would not have ratified the Constitution of the United States as it stood … The entire course of American history may have been materially changed.”

The Constitution became America’s official governing document in 1789. It has survived as the world’s oldest written constitution.

Historian Suzanne Munson is author of the recently published book about George Wythe’s prodigious teaching legacy, “First in Law, First in Leadership: William & Mary,” from which this account is drawn. She is also the author of a comprehensive George Wythe biography, “Jefferson’s Godfather.” She will have a book signing of “First in Law, First in Leadership” on Oct. 13, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble in New Town.

Following the massacre that suppressed the student-led protests, Wang become the most wanted man in China. After being arrested, he was incarcerated in Beijing’s notorious Qincheng Prison on and off for more than seven years. Finally, he was permanently exiled from China and came to live in the United States. Here he earned master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Harvard and began a teaching career in Chinese political history.

Several years ago, Wang launched a think tank in Washington called “Dialog China.” He has written more than 20 monographs about his experiences dealing with Chinese authorities and recently published a new book, his first in English, titled “The Fifty Questions on China.”

To introduce Wang to the college community, William & Mary’s Global Research Institute is organizing a talk by him at 5 p.m. on Sept. 26 at the Tucker Hall theater. The free talk will be followed by a reception and book signing and is open to the public.

Wang, who also visited William & Mary in 2019, is known not just as a very level-headed scholar of Chinese history, but also as someone who lived through the various upheavals of Communist China’s political landscape.

“I want to tell students at William & Mary who are interested in China that China is a very complex country, where seemingly contradictory phenomena coexist,” he said in an interview with The Gazette. “This makes it difficult to understand China correctly. It is important to listen to the voices of ordinary Chinese people. If you visit China, you should know that not only is the government’s narrative unreliable, but ordinary people often have to tell lies.”

Wang casts a skeptical eye on how the U.S.-China relationship is viewed.

“Currently the situation is that the U.S. hopes to treat China as a competitor, but the Chinese government continually tells its people that the U.S. is China’s enemy,” he said. “More importantly, the Chinese Communist Party is trying to export its political governance model worldwide, including the U.S.

“In this context, saying that the U.S. and China can compete is self-deception. The premise of competition is that both sides must follow the rules, but the CCP does not abide by the rules.”

I asked Wang, what changes would have taken place in China if Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader, had not approved the military intervention and the massacre at Tiananmen?

“If the CCP had not suppressed the protests and had accepted the students’ demands, China would likely have begun political reforms in 1989,” he said. “If that had happened, not only would society be more stable, but economic development would be healthier. The former because the abuse of power by officials would have been curbed, and the latter because less corruption would result in a fairer distribution of wealth.”

I asked him, what does the reaction of the United States — and the West — to the Tiananmen Square massacre tell him about how democracies respond to actions by dictatorial regimes?

“In 1989, when the Tiananmen Square massacre happened the whole world condemned and sanctioned China,” he responded. “However Deng Xiaoping’s CCP group kept spreading the narrative that China’s reforms would not stop. Western countries were deceived into lifting the sanctions. Today, not only has China not continued the reforms, but actually regressed. This is a big lesson, showing (you can) never believe the promises of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Although the Chinese Communist Party’s rule is often described as pervasive, there are lapses.

According to Wang, after the Tiananmen Square massacre, the government issued a nationwide warrant for the arrest of 21 student leaders. Wang was listed as the No. 1 most wanted. However, the warrant was riddled with errors. His personal information was full of inaccuracies. He was 20 years old at the time, but listed as 24 years old. The warrant said he was from Shandong, but he was from Jilin.

When arrested, Wang firmly denied that he was the person listed on the warrant. Nevertheless, he spent seven years in prison.

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.

James City police responded just before 10 p.m. after an employee in the park’s France area called to report a fight going on, a police spokesman said Sunday. Those involved had left the scene when police arrived, but left several “items of evidentiary value,” spokesman Tayleb Brooks said in a news release.

As police were investigating, the 18-year-old approached officers at the park’s entrance and told them he had been stabbed. He was taken to Riverside Doctors’ Hospital Williamsburg with non-life-threatening injuries, Brooks said.

Police said Sunday they were still trying to identify the suspect and were asking for the public’s help.

The stabbing comes a week after police from three jurisdictions went to the park for a verbal dispute that escalated among two large groups during the second night of Busch Gardens’ annual Howl-O-Scream Halloween event. No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 757-253-1800. Tipsters may also call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or submit tips online at p3tips.com. Callers to the Crime Line and P3 Tips users may remain anonymous, are not required to testify in court and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,500 if the information provided leads to an arrest.

Kim O’Brien Root, kimberly.root@virginiamedia.com

With one phone call, our preparation time shrank from three weeks to three hours; we called the dog sitter, canceled plans, touched base with family and friends. Then, as his anticipated three-night stay extended, we entered unfamiliar territory, navigating new vocabulary and a host of nurses and doctors, the ground shifting under our feet daily if not hourly. The sociologist Arthur Frank has a term for this kind of disruption and disorientation: narrative wreckage. The present is no longer what the past was supposed to lead up to, and the future is scarcely thinkable.

I’m not unaccustomed to hospitals, neither as a pastor nor as the spouse of a frequent flier. But this longer stay, with its heightened uncertainty and anxiety, has given me a new appreciation for what gets us through difficult times. I could write a book about the lessons of the last 10 days — and I even have a title picked out, thanks to my daughter’s coinage of a word describing my particular circumstances during the pandemic lockdown: “Warrentine.”

So, as a preview of that future bestseller, here are a few thoughts on hospitality, humor, and hope.

The words hospital, hospitality, hospitable, and hospice share the same Latin root, hospes, which means “host.” We practice hospitality when we make someone feel at home. It’s a tall order in an institutional setting, so I appreciated every kindness, large and small, from the medical team, staff, fellow patients, and caregivers, to the person on the phone taking Warren’s lunch order and the employees at Panera and Chick-fil-A where I got a lot of my meals. In one memorable encounter, one of the housekeeping staff arrived while Warren was wheeled out of the room for a test. Taking advantage of the open space, Darrell encouraged me to stay put on the couch finishing Warren’s leftover fruit cup while he mopped the floor. I said I was grateful for the invitation to relax, and Darrell said that creating space for that kind of peace is what he tries to do. We talked about ministry, and the wisdom he learned from his mother and grandmother. Those few moments of connection and meaning restored and fortified me.

Even in the midst of stress and fear, laughter is the best medicine. An ongoing source of amusement during the week was a video monitoring system being piloted on the unit. A remote human “Observer” had a camera trained on Warren in case he needed something when no one else was in the room. If the nursing staff arrived to assist him, the Observer would come onscreen and ask if they needed privacy, and would sometimes check in to make sure Warren was OK. I joked with a friend that he seemed to be listening better to the Observer than to me, and that I was tempted to take it home to encourage ongoing cooperation. Once when I was helping Warren with something, the Observer asked him if he’d rather she call his nurse!

Whether in person, or in emails, texts or phone calls, I treasured every attempt to inject some humor into our circumstances — and the sensitivity to know when seriousness was called for.

And finally, hope is indispensable. Knowing we were surrounded by a network of loved ones, feeling the love and prayers of family, friends, and the faith community, made all the difference. Since I couldn’t make it to church last Sunday, I joined those watching our service on YouTube. Just as our associate rector Joshua Nelson was beginning his sermon, a crew of nurses arrived for another procedure, and I had to pause. “God is present even in the moments we feel weakest,” Josh was saying. “Suffering will be transformed into joy: that’s the good news. Sometimes it’s hard to believe, but we have to hold onto it.”

While I fervently hope my ongoing “Warrentine” doesn’t include another week like this one, I know that more trials lay ahead, for all of us. Another powerful moment of our time in the hospital came during a Zoom book discussion with parishioners. Our room was very close to the helipad, and suddenly we heard the loud whirring sound of a patient arriving for treatment. “That was me in May,” said a woman in our group whom I had visited after she came to the hospital in one of those very helicopters. Being on the receiving end of pastoral care this time has made me acutely aware of how much we all need tending, both in our times of crisis and in the bumps and bruises of daily life. We need each other.

Writing this past week in The Christian Century, Debie Thomas reflects on the “hopes, hungers, losses, and loves” that bring us to our knees. “Whether we use religious language to describe it or not,” she says, “we are starving for coherence, for awe, for connection, for meaning. We are still hungry for spaces, rituals and rhythms that will help us beat despair and recover wonder. We need questions worth pondering and truths worth trusting. We still need containers spacious enough to hold our pain.”

May we be such holding spaces for each other.

The Rev. Lisa Green is rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Williamsburg.

But while more than 14,000 homes are on course to be connected by early next year, not all residents are fans of the company’s contractors, sparking some complaints to the county Board of Supervisors.

Chris Kyle, vice president of industry affairs, addressed some of the concerns when he spoke to the board on Tuesday.

Kyle described the company’s Glo Fiber as “the gold standard in our industry.” He said 6,581 homes in James City County have been hooked up to high-speed broadband to date, leaving 8,058 to be linked to the network by the first quarter of 2025.

Notwithstanding the progress, some supervisors expressed concern about Glo Fiber’s contractors.

“I have heard a fair amount from folks about their concerns,” said supervisor John McGlennon. “In the case of Shentel, we’ve seen a couple of instances that were concerning  … where there was some damage.”

McGlennon said the company had been responsive but citizens wanted to get answers when a problem was occurring.

“I haven’t heard from the district that I represent of people getting prior notification and that’s been a big complaint that I’ve had,” he said. He said residents are also concerned about gardens being destroyed.

There has also been an issue concerning the dumping of soil on National Park Service land, McGlennon said.

Board Chair Ruth Larson said the lack of prior notification has been an issue in her district, too. She said utility lines were cut in some cases.

Kyle admitted the company had missed making some prior notifications to neighborhoods and urged residents who experience issues to contact Glo Fiber via its website — glofiber.com —or via 866-997-6474.

“We did have a contractor here that’s been dismissed that we think has caused some of the questions, that was not doing the proper door hanging and prior communication,” Kyle said. He said a new contractor has been brought in for the project.

“We want to fix this while we deliver on this multimillion-dollar investment,” Kyle told the board. “If we damage something we are going to fix it.”

James City County’s Board of Supervisors approved the Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel’s) Glo Fiber’s contract in 2021 after residents expressed concern about Cox Communications’ monopoly in the county.

“The citizens are benefitting from this multimillion-dollar investment we are making in James City County,” Kyle said.

David Macaulay, Davidmacaulayva@gmail.com

I was admonished by my onboard hands-free system to be more polite.

Are you kidding me right now? Needless to say, a few more, less-than-polite words were forthcoming. I’m sure all the other drivers must have thought it quite amusing to see me jumping around in my seat yelling at the dashboard.

What happened is this: My car’s hands-free system was acting a little wonky while I was attempting to make a call. I kept repeating the individual’s name I wished to call, and the system kept getting it wrong or simply cutting out. After about the fourth attempt I got a little hot and let loose with a few choice words to let the darn thing know I was done messing about. The next thing I know, I’m being told in a very superior tone that she doesn’t appreciate being spoken to in that way and, despite only being an “electronic assistant,” I should refrain from using such language when speaking to her.

I know I said before that I’d heard everything, but when it comes to artificial intellgince, I’m sure we’ll all be hearing plenty more. Some will be good; some perhaps not so much. Stephen Hawking warned that powerful AI would be “either the best thing, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity.” And California is currently attempting to pass legislation providing accountability and penalties for any potential damage done online by AI algorithms.

We’ve sure come a long way from the early days when it was all speculation and endless possibilities; when John McCarthy, the American computer and cognitive scientist who is generally considered to have invented AI, coined the term during a summer research project at Dartmouth in 1956. AI is now so ubiquitous, if you’re on the grid, you’re in the matrix.

It’s been predicted that by 2028, our education system could become virtually unrecognizable, as AI is used to create a unique, tailored learning experience for each student. On the health care front, AI — which is already widely in use for patient monitoring, operating room management and pretty much everything else — will likely become the standard diagnostic tool for doctors. AI is now even being used to help university admissions staff sift through thousands of applications and summarize all the attendant essays. And new algorithms are being written as you read this that will increasingly influence your life in coming years.

While a few people I know have expressed some concern about being “listened to” and having targeted advertising pop up in their social media feeds, other folks seem pretty comfortable with AI — if they’re even aware of it — because it’s helpful and mostly works in the background. Predictive text with its sometimes amusing foibles is a good example: through use, over time you “teach” your phone or computer words and phrases you use often, and then it starts suggesting those when it “thinks” they might be appropriate.

But that’s just small potatoes. There are lots of things that AI currently does, or will do shortly, which may have the power to not only existentially alter our lives, but our perception of reality and the truths we take for granted as well — trading one fiction for another. Like AI-generated Morgan Freeman and Joe Rogan voices narrating a reel or touting all manner of things. Even voices of politicians and other public figures are being generated to give the impression they’ve said things they haven’t actually said. These are called “deep fakes,” and are becoming an increasingly common way to spread disinformation online.

While I’m certainly no expert, some of this AI business really hits home. As a creative person, there’s something here that reaches deeper for me than it might for some. While it may not yet be as refined or sophisticated as it one day will be, AI is already capable of doing pretty much everything I — and other folks like me — feel defines us. We use our minds and imaginations to make art, but it’s already possible to use one of any number of available apps to write a song, or a story. They can even create a picture in the style of just about any artist who has ever lived.

While I’m pretty sure there’s plenty more weirdness waiting in the wings, I’ve decided to keep an open mind about it all. AI is simply another step on the path of human and artistic evolution. It began with finger-painted cave drawings, pounding bones on logs and storytelling around the fire, which ultimately led to the invention of brushes, hide-covered drums and pictographs — and all the advancements since.

So I’m not going to worry about it. I’ll just keep on doing what I do, and hope the powers that be around here don’t figure out that all they need do is feed the AI app a few of my old columns, pick a topic and bada bing bada boom, I’m out of a job.

W. R. van Elburg is a James City County resident. He can be reached at w.r.vanelburg@gmail.com.

On Sept. 10, ABC moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis failed to live up to that standard by interjecting themselves as fact checkers. Worse, it was completely one-sided and focused on Donald Trump’s false or misleading statements, which while real, ignored those from Kamala Harris to include disingenuous denials or evasions about her views on guns, abortion, policing, ICE and more.

I am sensitive to that issue for many reasons, one of which is the way that I used to teach economics, American government and also a course called Problems of Democracy. The format was lecture/discussion, and I was the only teacher in the building who arranged the students’ desks into an inward facing rectangle so that they could see each other’s faces. I often stood in the center like a talk show host. Topics were introduced by me — say a particular U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the First Amendment — and then the floor was thrown open to students to comment, to compare and contrast the majority opinion(s), the dissenting opinion(s), and of course their own opinions of the case.

It was a little bit like a daily town hall, except that after I was finished presenting the opinions, the students took over and all I did was moderate the discussion and make sure that it remained civil and respectful. I did not correct a student, even if I knew they had gotten something wrong, because this wasn’t about winning or persuading; it was simply about sharing views even if the basis for some of those views was inaccurate. Moreover, my interjecting myself as a fact checker would have had a chilling effect on my students’ willingness to participate, and that was the last thing I wanted to do.

In the end, more than the details of a case, or an occasional misstatement of fact, they would remember the most important lesson, which was to listen with the intent of understanding and not arguing back in order to win a point. That is the only way to truly understand an issue, which is impossible if we focus instead on how we’re going to respond. Listening should be proactive, not reactive. But of all the communication skills we were taught in school (reading, writing, speaking), how many of us have ever taken a course in active listening?

There was only one case where my methodology failed, and that was the year that Roe v. Wade was decided. Knowing it was surely in the minds of my 12th grade students, I chose it as a topic for discussion. That was a mistake. The emotions were so high on the opposing sides that I lost control of the discussion and had to deal with students in tears on both sides of the issue, which really wasn’t the point. I wanted them to understand the four primary governmental interests that the Court had defined in Roe and also to be familiar with the majority and dissenting opinions, but to no avail.

Now, half a century later, I still encounter people who are incapable of discussing abortion in a scholarly and unemotional way, and most of whom have never read Roe v. Wade, Casey v. Planned Parenthood or Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, despite having such strong opinions.

Back to the debate, regular readers of this column already know that I am no fan of former President Trump. Quite the opposite. But I hope they also recall that the expansion of governmental size, scope, cost and power under modern progressivism, exemplified by Vice President Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is one of my greatest fears. And so, I can report with some degree of objectivity that Trump’s performance at the recent debate was abysmal. He fell back upon his endlessly repeated hyperbolic claims, exaggerations, and falsehoods instead of laying out a vision for the American people. Surely his debate preparatory team must have made every effort to dissuade him from resorting to his usual rally/stump speech, but he can’t help himself.

Harris did not need the help of the ABC moderators. She would have walked away the winner of that debate without their unfortunate and inappropriate intervention. Despite her multiple evasions and falsehoods, she came across as prepared, disciplined and in control of herself. She wisely “let Trump be Trump” for all the nation to see.

Now, as we begin the voting process, the key will be the undecideds, especially in the swing states. Long after those voters have forgotten the details of the recent debate, they will remember how the two candidates made them feel. Donald Trump likely made a lot of them squirm in their seats. Kamala Harris likely made them feel more at ease by comparison, and if she wins, more than anything else, that may be the reason. But neither, if elected, will govern with a mandate.

Joseph Filko has taught economics and American government and lives in Williamsburg. He can be reached at jfilko1944@gmail.com.