Opinion: VMI already has the right man for top job

There’s really only one point to this piece, that retired Army Major Gen. Cedric Wins, the interim superintendent of Virginia Military Institute, should get the position permanently and the sooner that happens, the better.

Wins has rapidly earned admiration since returning to his alma mater and clearly has VMI headed in the right direction. If there’s a dissenting opinion, I have failed to find it.

But let’s stop there for a moment and broaden the context.

Last week, I asked an old friend — a native Virginian, who I’ve known for decades — what jumps to mind when you hear the words, Virginia Military Institute?

Romance, she responded. The soul within.

You mean, as an ideal, I said, adherence to a code of conduct, to tell the truth, to be honorable?

Yes, “but the uniforms help, of course.”

Then she added, “But they don’t always get there. We’re discussing human beings, remember.”

But they do try?

Right, she said. Constantly. That’s the point.

So, the idea, much promulgated by VMI, is that the institute revolves — culturally and practically (there are severe sanctions for infidelity to the truth) — around a long-nurtured concept of integrity.

Of honor, in other words. The school and this thought are one and the same; they feed each other.

Who would think to start such a school today? It would be an interesting challenge, possibly difficult.

But such a school does exist in Virginia. VMI is state-supported and sits in Lexington. It inculcates (demands) a sense of honor in the belief that young people can realize that in themselves and become principled, effective leaders.

It has been doing so for a very long time — the measured results bear out the vaunted theory — but not perfectly.

Because, presently, it’s under investigation, the administration of which was outsourced to Barnes & Thornburg, an Indiana law firm, and funded with a $1 million state appropriation.

Why? Because of allegations published by The Washington Post last fall, which sent official Virginia — all Democrats these days — into a tizzy.

In short order, someone (nameless evermore) drafted a letter for the governor to sign, then ran up and down the corridors looking for other prominent officials to sign it. First line: “We write to express our deep concerns about the clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism at Virginia Military Institute.”

Sentence first, verdict later.

Investigation — a magic, but much abused device. Useful in so many settings. There’s a Virginia Parole Board investigation cranking up. What about that mess in Virginia Beach? Time for an investigation, everyone says.

We all know, of course, that the utility of these investigations pale beside their allure as political theater. But it tells you something else, too, relevant to VMI, relevant to most things Virginia these days: There is a large body of people residing in Virginia — increasingly serving in elective office — who are clueless about Virginia.

And, of those, there is another significant set of people whose ignorance of Virginia is willful and whose hostility to Virginia is pronounced. Can’t dump the history of this place too fast, so why bother to understand any of it? Just cut it loose.

In all its vaunted ideals, with all its assorted imperfections, real or perceived, VMI may be the closest, truest institutional manifestation of Virginia itself. Others will argue other institutions, but VMI gets to the heart of it, romantically-speaking.

Here’s where Virginia set out to do something brave and true and, in many ways, succeeded. But the school, like the commonwealth, involves a high measure of complexity, historical and otherwise.

Or, as someone said about church: many attend, but few understand.

In Virginia, sadly, fewer and fewer understand. Nor care to do so.

So with VMI under scrutiny — the Indiana folks will be issuing a report, with recommendations, help us — there has to be a considered response. It behooves the school, from this point forward, to tell its story with sustained vigor and purpose.

No longer assume that anybody knows anything. Work from there, from the basics, and keep at it.

And recognize, in Gen. Wins, a man of proven ability and shrewd temperament. A leader.

Last week, for the first time in VMI’s 181-year history, a woman was given the highest-ranking cadet position. Kasey Meredith of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, will lead the Corps of Cadets as regimental commander come the fall.

Meredith got the promotion because she earned it. But it’s one more example of how VMI never, ever gives up on itself.

After writing editorials for the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot in the 1980s, Gordon C. Morse wrote speeches for Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, then spent nearly three decades working on behalf of corporate and philanthropic organizations, including PepsiCo, CSX, Tribune Co., the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Dominion Energy. His email address is gordonmorse@msn.com.