By Erin Andrew, Sabrina Corlette, Heather Jelks, Jane Marcus, Abhisek Mitra, M. Williams Sermons, June Shih, Patrick Smith,Frank Woodruff, Alexandria (File photo)

To the editor:
Many of us attended a town hall on January 16 hosted at Wakefield High School in Arlington by U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8). We were heartened and encouraged to see so many of our neighbors from all walks of life engaged, informed and ready to fight for a progressive future for our community, our state and our country.

We thank Beyer for his leadership and look forward to working with him and others in our community to uphold our country’s core beliefs, values and ideals.

With many deep concerns about the direction of the new administration under President Donald Trump, we recently formed a casual but committed group to begin thinking about how to have our voices heard through the clutter of the current political debate.

We are specifically targeting 2017 political races throughout Virginia where we can make a difference. Additionally, we are focused on a message of unity and finding commonalities in issues that affect all of us.

What we do know is that we will organize and fight against any local or national policy that threatens women’s rights, environmental protections, immigration fairness, civil rights, access to health care or threats to education.
There is a lot that is still unclear about the new administration, but we cannot afford to wait. Now is the time to come together, organize and begin the fight.