by Mark Reed
My wife and I, Lexington residents since 2016, adopt” VMI “Rats” through a local church. We’ve had the pleasure of serving these fine young people in our home every Sunday during the school year, and we’ve been fortunate to continue our relationship with them and their families as they pursue their degrees at the finest military school in America.
The VMI controversy — conceived, birthed, and raised up from a tiny sample size of anonymous “allegations” — has toppled the academic and personal lives of these young men and women during a time when America reels from a pandemic. I submit that I, a military veteran, accomplished investigator, and retired child welfare professional, have far more insight into the institution that is VMI than do Richmond politicians or The Washington Post.
I have spoken face-to-face with far more Keydets than had the Washington Post when it first alleged that VMI is a systemically racist institution. I have hosted Rats every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. from October to April. They studied (and some dozed off, wouldn’t you if you were them?) in my office and my guest room. They ate at my dinner table (often in huge quantities), and they bared their souls to my wife and me during one of the most chaotic periods of their young lives. And at 20:00 I escorted them back to Post.
So, I can draw the sound conclusion, in contrast to the shaky Washington Post allegations, that the Keydets of VMI live, study, and work in an environment that is far from racist. In fact, I “allege” that racism is the last thing on the minds of VMI’s finest. Simply put, they don’t have the time. They are too busy living, preparing to lead and fight for America.
It’s nothing new to hear loose charges of racism from Democrats and their media allies. But where are the Republicans?
Republicans have not been especially visible or vocal in terms of support during the VMI racism controversy.
Local Republican committees should be engaging with future leaders-in-the-making at VMI. For an entire academic year, I hosted a Rat whose ambition is to lead Navy Seals. Upon commissioning, he will outrank this former enlisted man, but I had much to offer in terms of learning how to lead. I rose through the Navy ranks for 10 years, gleaned incomparable knowledge from tested leaders, and passed it on to him. My future Navy Seal will be a fine leader. He will serve and protect, and I helped him learn about that.
Elected Republicans are not offering solutions to constituents who want to do big things but lack a foundation to build upon. Not long ago, I hosted a Rat from a privileged family who wanted to serve in the trenches with the Marine Corps. For seven months he sat at my dinner table and listened intently (because that is what Rats do in their first year) as my wife and I related how we balanced school, work, and life during our formative adult years before my wife became an accomplished architect and I became a successful social worker. Our untested young Rat will become one of the Few and Proud, because he knows how to get his hands dirty. Now.
During the 2019-2020 academic year I hosted a VMI athlete. This young man (a racial minority) was (and is) in the middle of everything that is going on right now at VMI. How in the world has he navigated through the 2020-2021 school year since I picked him up at Roanoke Airport last Fall and returned him to a radically different VMI? This young man is a work in progress, but because I connected him last year to the Keydets I have already told you about, and because he is still an integral part of the VMI peer-mentoring culture, he thrives.
I know what VMI is about, because I have seen VMI up close. I know that VMI does not reflect institutional racism. VMI is America, and America is not a racist country.
I know these young people. After years of hosting, mentoring, teaching, and after years of giving Rats the opportunity to see me up close, I know VMI is and will always be what all Republicans should envision for America — an institution that molds leaders, gives them the tools to succeed, offers them the support they need, and then sends them into the real world. Americans can sleep better at night knowing they. all of them, will be there for all of us when we need them.
Mark Reed, a Lexington resident, is a Republican candidate for House District 24.
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