On Wednesday, August 18th, Col. Keith Gibson, V.M.I.’s Director of Museum Operations, delivered a presentation on the Virginia Military Institute in the Civil War. Founded in 1839 in Lexington, Virginia, V.M.I. supplied the fledgling Confederacy with a large number of military leaders. Almost 2,000 V.M.I. grads eventually served in the Southern army. During the war the cadet corps drilled volunteer infantry regiments as they arrived to defend Virginia, and played a significant battlefield role at the May 15th, 1864, Confederate victory at New Market. When a gaping hole appeared in the Confederate front line, the youngsters were ordered in. The price? Ten dead and forty-seven wounded.
On Wednesday, August 25th, Rick Britton will lead a bus tour to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley town of Lexington. The tour will see the Stonewall Jackson House (the only home the general ever owned), and Jackson’s final resting place nearby. Following lunch the tour will visit Lee Chapel (Robert E. Lee’s final resting place), and the fabulous V.M.I. Museum (where Colonel Gibson promises us a behind-the-scenes tour). Bus tour departs from the Charlottesville Senior Center at 9:00 am. There is a fee for the tour. Call 974-6538 for more information.
The Congressional Candidates Showcase Forum is a biennial event sponsored by the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. This year, two candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic incumbent Tom Perriello and Independent challenger Jeffrey Clark spoke at the event. Republican challenger Robert Hurt declined the SSV’s invitation to attend.
The event took place at the August 11, 2010 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at The Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by best-selling author, historian, political analyst and host of WINA’s “Charlottesville – Right Now!” Coy Barefoot.
Tom Perrillo
Congressman Tom Perriello was sworn into office on January 6, 2009, and is proud to represent the 5th District of Virginia. He serves on the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. During his short time in Congress, he has already successfully passed into law a $2,500 tuition tax credit for college and community college education; worked to extend job training benefits for veterans; and supported economic recovery efforts in Congress.
Born and raised in the 5th district, Congressman Perriello previously served as a national security consultant, working in conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Darfur, Kosovo, and Liberia. His work with child soldiers, amputees, and local pro-democracy groups in Sierra Leone played a significant role in the peace and reconciliation process that ended the blood diamonds war in that country. He also served as Special Advisor and court spokesperson in the prosecution of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, peaceably forcing him from power.
He has also founded a number of nonprofit organizations aimed at bringing together faith communities to fight for children’s health care, economic fairness, environmental stewardship, and responsible solutions in Iraq. Mr. Perriello was educated in Albemarle County public schools, St. Anne’s-Belfield, and has his undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University.
Mr. Perriello has outlined the major issues to be addressed in the 5th district:
Economic R.E.V.I.V.A.L.
Relief for small businesses
Energy solutions
Vocational training and strong schools
Infrastructure
Virginia Workers First
Agriculture
Leadership
Education and job training
Lobbying and corruption
Supporting our troops and honoring our veterans
Health care
Oil independence
Farming
Second Amendment rights
Jeffrey Clark
Jeffrey A. Clark was born and raised in the tide-water area of Virginia. After high School he joined the U.S. Army and served 4 years. He was stationed for two years in Germany and the remaining two in Texas. While in Germany Jeff traveled to other European countries and he took advantage of college classes offered to soldiers. Jeff met his wife Gerri of 25 years while stationed in Texas. They have four adult children and three grandchildren.
After serving in the U.S. Army Jeff settled into a career in hospitality management, managing hotels and restaurants. Corporate relocation resulted in Jeff and his family moving up and down the east coast as well as stints in the Midwest. It was during this period of frequent relocation that Jeff’s wife Gerri began home schooling their four children. Their oldest child was home schooled from 3rd through the 12th grade. Each of their three other children were home schooled until reaching the 9th grade. Three of their children graduated from Tunstall High School in Pittsylvania County.
In 2004 Jeff and his wife chose to make Danville Virginia their new home and soon started a property inspection business drawing on his experience working summers with his grandfather who owned a commercial contracting company. In 2005 Jeff and Gerri purchased a water testing laboratory in Danville. Both Jeff and his wife are Virginia State certified laboratory directors. Gerri runs the day to day operations of the laboratory and Jeff conducts residential and commercial property inspections in Virginia and North Carolina.
Jeff has a renewable energy concept currently under patent consideration. He has presented project details and research to several universities as well as collaborated with the Department of Defense and the Department of energy. In the process Jeff has become very familiar with our country’s energy needs and shortcomings and has a fundamental understanding of the benefits, weakness and limitations of current renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, hydroelectric and current energy storage systems.
Jeff and Gerri’s current household consists of their youngest daughter Erica and their youngest son Jeffrey Jr. and Jeff’s 93 year old grandmother Ruth Clark and his 91 year old great aunt Louise Wilson. Erica is part of the management team at a local theater and Jeffrey Jr. works at the lab and assists his father with inspections. Their oldest daughter Ashley is married and has three children and lives in Norfolk and their oldest Son Donald is in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in California and recently returned from his first combat tour of duty in Afghanistan. They have three dogs a Great Dane named Hoss and two mixed breeds named Lilly and Little Jo.
Jeff has never run for nor held elected office. Like most citizens he has observed the abuses and corruption and mismanagement of Government and thinks things can be, and should be done different in Washington. He believes in the concept of citizen legislators serving in Washington as our Founding fathers had intended. He believes that its time to elect everyday Americans to federal office and to interject some common sense into the daily management of our Government.
On Wednesday July 21st, National Park Service historian Robert E. L. Krick spoke on the Battle of Malvern Hill (the last of the famous Seven Days’ Battles). Fought on July 1st, 1862, Malvern Hill — located approximately 15 miles southeast of Richmond — pitted Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s 85,000 men against a similar number under Union Gen. George B. McClellan. In the afternoon, following a furious artillery engagement (during which the Federal guns maintained their defensive positions, as well as their superiority on the field), Confederate forces made repeated, futile assaults, losing over 5,000 in the bloody work. Although he had won the battle, McClellan withdrew that evening to Harrison’s Landing on the James River.
On Wednesday, July 28th, Rick Britton will conduct a tour of the Malvern Hill Battlefield. In the morning tour participants will take in Richmond’s wonderful National Park Service museum at Tredegar, then lunch nearby at the Tobacco Company. After lunch you’ll walk the fascinating Malvern Hill Battlefield. There is a fee for the tour. Call 974-6538 for more information.
On Wednesday June 23, 2010 Troy Marshall, New Market Battlefield’s Director of Interpretation, delivered a powerpoint presentation entitled "Embattled Eden" about the trials and tribulations suffered by the hard-working citizens of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War’s horrific four years. At least five major military campaigns were fought up and down the Valley during the war. Additionally, Marshall covered the Valley’s most famous fighting unit, the five Virginia infantry regiments that made up the hard-fighting "Stonewall" Brigade (which, of course, won its nickname at First Manassas when it "stood like a stonewall" along with Confederate Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson).
On Wednesday, June 30th, Rick Britton will take a tour bus up to beautiful Winchester, Virginia, where the tour will visit the fabulous Museum of the Shenandoah (with its gardens, exhibits, and historic Glen Burnie mansion), and the Old Court House Civil War Museum. The bus tour departs from the Charlottesville Senior Center at 8:00 AM. There is a fee for the tour. Call 974-6538 for more information.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has invoked the Patriot Act-inspired Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act to demand that the University of Virginia turn over years of private correspondence between former professor Michael Mann and other climate researchers. The demand conspicously omits one requirement of FATA — spelling out exactly how Mann would have committed fraud against the state.
Facing a precendent-setting first-ever use of FATA against an institution of higher education, the university is fighting back. Virginia ACLU Executive Director Kent Willis explains how the Virginia ACLU, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Association of University Professors are joining forces to file a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that Cuccinelli is way out of line, threatening academic freedom with a thinly-veiled political stunt. The outcome of this battle will say volumes about what academic freedom really amounts to in Virginia.
Robert McGrath moved to Charlottesville in 2007 after retiring from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. For almost a decade before retirement he held concurrent positions as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and also Vice President for Brookhaven National Laboratory Affairs. He is Professor of Physics Emeritus. He did accelerator-based nuclear physics research for most of his academic career. In retirement he has adopted climate change as an avocation, and has studied broadly both the modern scientific literature and literature and/or missives affecting how the public perceives the science. He is a member of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. Mr McGrath spoke at the April 9, 2010 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at The Charlottesville Senior Center. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV Vice President Sue Liberman.
Mainstream climate scientists argue humans must make dramatic reductions in the use of fossil fuels to avoid catastrophic changes to the environment. Calls for action have been out there for decades, but only relatively minor changes in energy practices have actually occurred. Polls suggest the majority of Americans are not convinced strong action is needed. Mr. McGrath reviewed the status of discussion about climate change, presented some simple facts about modeling climate, discussed the IPCC predictions about what the world is looking at for the 21st century, lamented some of the hyperbole and silliness surrounding climate change, and pleaded for the serious debate the subject deserves.
Jim Perkins of the Senior Statesmen of Virgina talks with Coy about the event they are hosting on climate change. The event takes place from 1:30-3:00pm on June 9th at the Senior Center.
On Wednesday May 19th Rick Britton himself delivered a presentation on the Battle of Big Bethel, Virginia’s first Civil War land battle. Fought on June 10th, 1861, 41 days before the First Battle of Manassas, Big Bethel pitted Confederates "Prince John" Magruder and D. H. Hill, along with approximately 1,400 men, against Union Gen. Benjamin Butler’s force of 4,400 from Fortress Monroe and Newport News. Prior to the fight, D. H. Hill had ordered his North Carolinians to dig in, and it was these earthworks that helped the Southern troops hold the field and prevail against superior numbers.
On Wednesday, May 26th, Rick Britton will lead a tour down to the Virginia Peninsula where this early battle took place. The tour will tour historic Fortress Monroe — a must see since it’s scheduled for closing this year — as well as the Mariner’s Museum featuring the turret of the original U.S.S. Monitor and a full-scale reproduction of that revolutionary vessel that the tour will actually board. Bus tour departs from the Charlottesville Senior Center at 8:00 AM. There is a fee for the tour. Call 974-6538 for more info.
Virginia will be a key battleground as Republicans try to take back the House, with a "toss-up" race right here in the Fifth District where Tom Perriello eked out the closest victory in the nation in 2008 and a handful of other House races across the state which will decide which party controls Congress next year.
Isaac Wood is the House Race Editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. He has been quoted in a variety of news publications and broadcasts, including NPR and TIME, and served as an off-air analyst for the BBC’s election night coverage in 2008.
Isaac produces, edits, and composes weekly articles which analyze the political climate and predict electoral outcomes for Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political analysis web site and newsletter created by Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato. His areas of expertise are Virginia politics and U.S. House elections.
Prior to joining the Center for Politics, Isaac held political internships on Capitol Hill and in North Carolina and worked for several Virginia political campaigns. He earned a B.A. with distinction in Government and Economics from the University of Virginia, where he was Phi Beta Kappa.
Obama and the Democratic Congress passed landmark healthcare reform after a rancorous year-long struggle. Republicans are threatening to make “Repeal and Replace” their fall campaign slogan, while Obama has welcomed that referendum and polls have shown a bump in public support for the reform now that it’s law.
What did the law get right? How much will it really do for cost-cutting, expanding coverage, and improving quality? What major flaws of our system remain yet to be dealt with? How will the average American be impacted by the reform? What will it mean for political fortunes in the fall and beyond?
Leading this month’s Left of Center discussion are three University of Virginia professors:
Ann Mallek, chairman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Dave Norris, mayor of the City of Charlottesville spoke at the March 10, 2010 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia held at The Charlottesville Senior Center. Following brief opening remarks by the participants, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV board member Jim Perkins.
Ann Mallek
Ann H. Mallek, was elected for her first term to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors beginning in 2008 representing the White Hall District. She was elected chairman earlier this year.
Ann grew up in Albemarle County and graduated from Albemarle High School. She received her B.A. in Zoology from Connecticut College. Since 1983 Ann and her husband, Leo, a general dentist with a practice in Earlysville, have managed the family farm in Earlysville where they raised their two daughters. The farm produces grass-fed beef and pesticide-free vegetables.
Ann is the educator and program coordinator for Central Virginia for the Virginia Museum of Natural History.
She is a member of the following boards, commissions and committees: the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission; Albemarle County Fire Rescue Advisory Board; Piedmont Workforce Network Council; Acquisition of Conservation Easements; and the Building Committee.
Ann is a member of the League of Women Voters; Albemarle County Farm Bureau; Charlottesville-Albemarle Chamber of Commerce; Piedmont Environmental Council; Southern Environmental Law Center; Rivanna Conservation Society; Ivy Creek Foundation; and the League of Conservation Voters.
Ann cites her experience on County boards focused on zoning, transportation, development, and conservation, and describes herself as a strong protector of the environment and rural spaces, and of growth areas that are developed only after rational, long-term planning and proper funding of necessary public services.
Dave Norris
Dave Norris was first elected to the Charlottesville City Council in 2006 and was elected mayor in 2008. He is the executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge and previously was the executive director of PACEM. Other positions include the associate director of Madison House, interim director of PHAR (the Public Housing Association of Residents), founding director of the Connecting People to Jobs Initiative (a joint venture between PHAR and Piedmont Virginia Community College), and coordinator of the Virginia Economic Development Corporation’s Micro Loan Program for low-income, minority and female entrepreneurs.
Dave has served on a number of boards and commissions including the Charlottesville Redevelopment & Housing Authority, Monticello Area Community Action Agency, PHAR Advisory Board, Piedmont Housing Alliance, Westhaven Nursing Clinic Coalition, Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless, and the Jefferson Area Board of Aging 2020 Community Plan for Aging.
Dave graduated from high school in Stuttgart, Germany, and received a B.A. in Politics & History from Curry College in Milton, MA, and an M.A. in Government from the College of William and Mary. He recently bought an old house in Belmont and is happy to call Belmont home. He has two children, Eli and Chloe.
Dave is a graduate of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Charlottesville program and a graduate of the Quality Community Council’s Explorations in Excellence leadership development program. He was named one of the Distinguished Dozen by the Daily Progress and was honored as Virginia Citizen of the Year by the Virginia Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors for his work with PACEM.
Central Virginia has always been known for its fascinating inhabitants. This six-session series featured: Dr. Thomas Walker, discoverer of the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky; James Monroe, forgotten hero of the American Revolution; Dolley Madison, our nation’s first "First Lady"; Claudius Crozet who built the world’s longest railroad tunnel; Ben Ficklin, founder of the Pony Express; Cyrus McCormick who invented the reaper; the "Moon Ghost" who haunted southern Albemarle; self-made millionaire Samuel Miller; Maud Coleman Woods, "America’s Most Beautiful Blonde"; lunatic and philanthropist Archie Chaloner; Congressional Medal winner Frank Peregoy; and "Anastasia," the Romanov family pretender who once convinced the world!
In a county famed for its wealthy eccentrics, John Armstrong Chaloner stands alone at the head of the class. He began his professional life well-educated, well-heeled, and well-connected. He became a poet, a novelist, and a playwright (of sorts), a patron of the arts, a philanthropist, and a dabbler in eastern philosophy and the occult. He believed he had special powers and could contact those beyond the grave. Chaloner’s bizarre behavior, and weird writings, were the source of cocktail-party snickering for close to four decades. "Virginia was his earthly tabernacle," wrote J. Bryan III, "but in spirit he lived Through the Looking-Glass, a congenial neighbor to the Mad Hatter and the White Knight." Despite his many oddities, however, Chaloner was loved by Albemarle County’s poor and disadvantaged. It is doubtful whether we will ever see his like again.
