by Gordon C. Morse
Virginia Military Institute, defined in the broadest sense of its extended community, may wish to reconsider its collective commitment to being correct and thoughtful.
Meaning, under the circumstances, consider this to be a threat assessment.
VMI’s loyalists should not confuse a proposed legislative “study”—a proposed task force, in this instance—for being anything other than hostile to the school itself. The Democrats are coming. They yearn to lash out and there it sits—VMI—on the open plateau of Virginia’s culture wars, an optimal target of opportunity.
To put it another way, you’re as likely to get a sympathetic, balanced, sensible response out of the current General Assembly on the subject of this long‑venerated, state‑owned school—VMI—as you would out of the Trump administration on the subject of immigration.
The Democrats came before. On October 19, 2020, then‑Gov. Ralph Northam, along with other Democratic Party leaders (no Republicans), sent a letter to VMI board president John W. Boland and other members of the VMI Board of Visitors, saying, “We write to express our deep concerns about the clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism at the Virginia Military Institute.”
The letter did not say, “We’re worried about a newspaper report.”
It did not say “could be” or “might be.”
The letter offered no doubt or room for discovery at all. It made declarations. It openly condemned VMI.
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