Thank you, Tom and Grover and my fellow Virginians.
As I look at the list of recipients of the Medallion Award, I am grateful – and humbled.
Admiral Byrd, General Puller, Si Bunting, Binnie Peay, Sam Wilson, Gil Minor, Bill Berry, Douglas Southall Freeman, Virginius Dabney, Secretary Marsh, Governor Godwin, Justice Powell – these are just a few of the medallion recipients for whom I have tremendous respect.
Bobby Ross won a national title with Georgia Tech. Larry Sabato predicts every election on Earth – and some – on other planets too. Colgate Darden, Edgar Shannon and John Casteen were all presidents of my alma mater.
I am honored to have my name enshrined alongside some of the best military men, writers, politicians, thinkers, lawyers and businessmen our great Commonwealth has produced since Carter Glass was the first recipient.
I do not know if I am worthy, but I will do my best to make your evening enjoyable.
A few personal notes – because I can only claim Virginia by choice – not by birth. I was born on an Army post on the Island of Okinawa and moved to Northern Virginia when my father – a career Army Officer – finished his tour in Vietnam and was assigned to the Pentagon. I was eleven. After moving in and out of Virginia, I ended up as a student at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria.
In my senior year, one of my classmates scored 8 points – the most by any individual that year – against an invincible T.C. Williams Titans football team – now dramatized in the Disney Film, “Remember the Titans”. That classmate and car pool partner was Bob McDonnell, who became the 71st Governor of Virginia.
I then attended the University of Virginia, earning a degree in economics, and stayed in Charlottesville for law school. I entered law practice in Virginia, first with Hunton & Williams and later with a firm that became McGuireWoods.
And in 1995, I joined Dominion as general counsel. I am now in my 14th year as chairman, president and CEO. In my spare time, I co-wrote a screenplay for a feature film about VMI cadets who fought at the Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. DVDs are available, if you are interested in checking it out. More about that in a few moments.
So, yes, I am a Virginian – and I am pleased to be with you to toast to and share our love for and pride in the Old Dominion. I should say again – an adopted Virginian. My wife’s family has been in Virginia for thirteen generations. I am still not convinced after nearly 40 years of marriage that she would acknowledge me – as a Virginian. Those of you who are native born, I expect know what I mean.
Not that Baltimore or Maryland are so bad, The Wire, notwithstanding. My brother and his family lived in Ruxton for several years. I have logged many games at both Memorial Stadium and the incomparable Camden Yards. In fact, I was there the day it opened and the night Ripken broke Gehrig’s record – and I have the tickets to prove it.
Tiramisu was apparently created here. Baltimore boasts The Babe, and most folks would recognize Johnny U and Jim Palmer and Frank and Brooks Robinson representing the City like no others before – or since. I wish the Preakness could stay at Pimlico. It is just so Baltimore.
The Wahoo in me does, however, take issue with one particular school in Baltimore County, less than ten miles from here. But that is a different story for a different day.
[PAUSE]
Well actually, maybe not another day. Maybe it is not too soon to talk about it. I still do not know what is worse – losing to a 16 seed, or losing to a team whose coach grew up in Charlottesville, where his father was an assistant to Terry Holland, and played basketball at Hampden-Sydney.
You tell me.
All I know is that we did get some measure of revenge. We played – and beat –every other Maryland school we could find this year – Towson, Coppin State, Maryland and Morgan State. And Hopkins in Lacrosse for that matter. But not UMBC. Not that I am not bitter or anything.
Really —- I’m not —–
And now – we can say no # 1-seed that has lost to a 16-seed has ever missed the Final Four the next year…. or maybe won the National Championship! What a story either way. Go Hoos!
I do miss having Maryland in the ACC. And I am sure that Maryland student-athletes miss the ACC when they are traveling 1,210 miles to Lincoln, Nebraska, in January – instead of to Tallahassee or Miami. Those Lefty teams with McMillen, Lucas and Elmore and the Gary Williams team were synonymous with the ACC. And, the Virginia-Maryland football, basketball and lacrosse rivalries were both heated – and lots of fun.
[PAUSE]
The Virginia-Maryland rivalry can be humorous, too. I was in school when the University of Virginia’s Pep Band made the whole state of Maryland furious – and with good reason.
The “guest conductor” of the Pep Band on the Scott Stadium field that fall afternoon was a stand-in for former Governor Marvin Mandel. He was dressed in black-and-white stripes and carrying a ball and chain, and led a rousing rendition of – “Jailhouse Rock.”
Forty years later, the glass houses in which we live in Virginia are no longer tinted and opaque. The recent events have laid us bare and have been the stuff of lampoons on “Saturday Night Live” and the late-night talk shows. And if the University of Maryland’s band has a chance to repay the favor, Lord help us all.
But the rivalry between our two states has been fought on more than hardwood and grass fields. And it goes back four centuries.
[PAUSE]
As you know, Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth, and was founded as a crown colony, whose inhabitants were Anglicans.
And of course, Maryland was named for King Charles’ French queen consort. Lord Baltimore envisioned the colony as a haven for Catholics who had been persecuted in England.
As early as 1635, naval battles erupted when a few Virginians engaged in trade in Maryland waters without a license seems a fairly innocuous offense from your fellow colonists. Well – they were killed by Lord Calvert’s forces. A pretty serious penalty. Nine years later, similar skirmishes would take place on Kent Island.
Protestant-Catholic strife between the colonies occurred, too, mostly mirroring events occurring in England during the English Civil War between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads.
During the American Civil War, both states were divided – with Virginia actually splintering into two parts, loyal to the Federal cause in the west and to the Confederates in the east. Maryland remained in the Union, but contributed thousands of soldiers to the Confederate Army.
Lee fought in Maryland at Antietam Creek – Virginian’s, of course, would say at Sharpsburg. A President – whose parents were Virginians – was murdered at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. by a Marylander – who was run to ground and killed three days later in Virginia.
Today our fights and squabbles are much more mundane, focusing on riparian rights, land use and bridges over the Potomac.
Speaking of bridges over the Potomac, the impetuous George Wallace once said, “They’re building a bridge over the Potomac for all the liberals fleeing to Virginia.”
I am not sure there was much truth to that. Virginia elected three Republicans in a row beginning in 1969 – with Linwood Holton beating a Young Turk and Mills Godwin and John Dalton defeating the liberal lion and populist, Howlin’ Henry Howell – who wanted to keep the “big boys” honest – in particular a large utility company today called – Dominion Energy.
And, if Wallace’s words were true, it still took Virginia 50 years to catch up to the perceived politics of Maryland. I say that – understanding full well that politics is something that ought to be left to folks like Larry Sabato, your 2002 Medallion recipient who was a fourth year at Virginia when I was a second year.
[PAUSE]
And when our states work together, we can achieve great things.
It starts with the Chesapeake Bay which we all share. We should remember that Captain John Smith explored parts of the Bay that belong to both states. He discovered the Nanticoke and Patapsco, as well as the Potomac and Patuxent.
And now we are working together to restore the Bay’s health and return oyster populations to where they were a hundred years ago.
Together, Virginians and Marylanders constructed two of the largest projects of any kind in Maryland’s history – the $2.4 billion Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement and the $4.1 billion Cove Point gas liquefaction project in Calvert County.
The Wilson Bridge has alleviated a lot stress for commuters and perhaps led to a decline in heart disease in the capital region.
Cove Point is, of course, owned and operated by Dominion. It was the largest capital project in our history as well as the largest capital project in Maryland’s history. It by itself has expanded Maryland’s international exports by one third.
There is one myth about the Bay though that I just cannot let stand unchallenged. I know this will be controversial – but facts are facts. Maryland claims to be the source of the best crabs in the world. The problem with that, of course, is that it is simply not true. It is – to borrow a phrase – fake news.
The crabs harvested in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay are actually Virginians. Every single one is born in Virginia waters. Indeed, untold generations of Virginia’s native sons and daughters have been exploited by Maryland watermen.
It is shameless for Marylanders to claim otherwise – and I hope as fellow Virginian’s, you will help set the record straight.
[PAUSE]
In the past you have honored Waite Rawls, Ed Ayers and James Robertson – three men who have contributed to the fabric of Civil War scholarship, research and education. I know the first two very well.
As you know, Waite has been the longtime executive director of the Museum of the Confederacy. Ed did a lot of work on a subject he calls the “Valley of the Shadow”. He used that scholarship to show the similarities of the people in Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania – and what caused them to choose the sides they chose during the war. Robertson is a distinguished scholar who has written wonderful biographies about A.P. Hill and Stonewall Jackson.
And, we should not forget Virginius Dabney and his excellent work, The New Dominion, which captures the history of Virginia from its settlement in 1607 until the 1960s, including the Civil War.
I hope no one will ever confuse me with the men whose names I just mentioned – or say my name in the same breath. They are brilliant scholars who have devoted their lives to this work. But I did spend a great deal of time researching and co-writing the screenplay for “Field of Lost Shoes.”
Every rat at VMI knows the story.
On May 10, 1864, General John C. Breckinridge – a former Vice President of the United States – ordered VMI’s Superintendent to send the Corps of Cadets to New Market as reserves for his undermanned Confederate force. The corps of 257 boys, many as young as 15, marched 80 miles from Lexington to New Market. And, on May 15 during a violent storm, Breckinridge ordered the Cadets to fill a gap in the Confederate line saying, “Put the boys in, and may God forgive me”. They not only reinforced the line – they led a charge up Bushong Hill and helped drive away the Union force.
During the fighting, more than 50 were wounded and 10 paid the ultimate price in the clouds of smoke, the hail of gunfire and the forest of bayonets – in the mud and the muck that led not only to lost shoes – but to lost youth and lost lives.
I did not write the screenplay as homage to the Confederacy.
No, I did not.
I co-wrote and produced the movie because I thought it was a story that deserved to be told. A story of selfless honor and heroism by very young men, very late – in a very long war. The story of the only group of school boys in human history to march into battle as an organized unit.
These were young men – boys, as Breckinridge called them – who were ordered to fight for a country that had existed for only three years. The film was written to honor the bravery of the young cadets at VMI, in a battle in which too many young people died, in a war in which too many people died.
It would be the same story – regardless for whom they had fought or at what time in history they had fought.
It is meant to be about them, not about the Civil War.
And I hope those of you who have seen it enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed working on it.
And, as I said earlier, “Field of Lost Shoes” is available on DVD for the low, low price of $XX.XX.
I am told there are about 50 VMI grads here in the audience tonight, so I have easy marks.
I have enjoyed being with you.
We share a love of the Commonwealth – its beauty, its history, its ideals. We have allegiances to VMI and W&L and Hampden-Sydney and Randolph-Macon and UVa and maybe even Virginia Tech.
And although we all consider ourselves Virginians, I live in Virginia, and you live in Maryland.
Please consider coming back. And choose a place to live in, say, Charlottesville, Richmond, Alexandria, Virginia Beach, or Irvington – you know – anywhere where you would be a Dominion Energy customer.
On that note, I want to close with a poem General Shepherd used in his acceptance remarks in 1953.
It is an anonymous work titled, “In Virginia,” that the Marine general said he learned as a boy.
The roses nowhere bloom so white, As in Virginia, The sunshine nowhere seems so bright As in Virginia, The birds sing nowhere quite so sweet, And nowhere hearts so lightly beat, For heaven and earth do seem to meet Down in Virginia.
The days are never quite so long As in Virginia, Nor quite so filled with happy song As in Virginia, And when my time shall come to die, Just take me back and let me lie Close where the James goes rolling by Down in Virginia.
There is nowhere a land so fair As old Virginia. So full of song, so free from care As old Virginia. And I believe that happy land That God prepared for mortal man Is built exactly on the plan Of old Virginia.
Thank you again for this entertaining evening. I appreciate this honor more than I can say. And I accept it with all sincerity – and with all humility.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
The roses nowhere bloom so white, As in Virginia, The sunshine nowhere seems so bright As in Virginia, The birds sing nowhere quite so sweet, And nowhere hearts so lightly beat, For heaven and earth do seem to meet Down in Virginia.
The days are never quite so long As in Virginia, Nor quite so filled with happy song As in Virginia, And when my time shall come to die, Just take me back and let me lie Close where the James goes rolling by Down in Virginia.
There is nowhere a land so fair As old Virginia. So full of song, so free from care As old Virginia. And I believe that happy land That God prepared for mortal man Is built exactly on the plan Of old Virginia.
Thank you again for this entertaining evening. I appreciate this honor more than I can say. And I accept it with all sincerity – and with all humility.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
