Speeches
“When Delegate Ware speaks, we all listen”
--a senior member of the House of Delegates
--a senior member of the House of Delegates
Delegate Ware Calls for Civility in Political Discourse
Speech on the Floor of the Virginia House of Delegates following dramatic gains by Democrats
in the General Elections of 2017.
[The speech can be viewed on Youtube at Delegate Lee Ware (R-Powhatan) "Test of Tradition" Speech - YouTube
Ladies and Gentlemen of the House,
We gather here today amid a great change in the constitution of this body. Nearly a quarter of the men and women who sat here on my side of the aisle just one year ago are gone--swept away at the polls by the sovereign voice of the people in their ballots on November 7.
Such change has become a constant in our lives in a now- continental society given to turbo-capitalism and the continual revolution of science. Still, some realities are impervious to the emotions agitated by the media or the ideologies by which our political parties contend for the right to govern. Still our budget must be balanced. Still we have problems to address that defy simple remedy. Still we will have important issues to debate--and to decide. And, still we need to make our way to a discourse and decisions worthy of the complex Commonwealth we assemble today to serve.
in the General Elections of 2017.
[The speech can be viewed on Youtube at Delegate Lee Ware (R-Powhatan) "Test of Tradition" Speech - YouTube
Ladies and Gentlemen of the House,
We gather here today amid a great change in the constitution of this body. Nearly a quarter of the men and women who sat here on my side of the aisle just one year ago are gone--swept away at the polls by the sovereign voice of the people in their ballots on November 7.
Such change has become a constant in our lives in a now- continental society given to turbo-capitalism and the continual revolution of science. Still, some realities are impervious to the emotions agitated by the media or the ideologies by which our political parties contend for the right to govern. Still our budget must be balanced. Still we have problems to address that defy simple remedy. Still we will have important issues to debate--and to decide. And, still we need to make our way to a discourse and decisions worthy of the complex Commonwealth we assemble today to serve.
***
Two generations ago--in 1955--Wm F. Buckley Jr. defined a Conservative as “someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so.” Probably all 100 of us here today can agree on one thing at least, which is that History did not stop, and much of the social and political order of our parents’ generation has been swept away- - largely by technologies and pharmaceuticals that may prove as destructive of human nature as they are alluring to human appetites.
How can History be ‘stopped’--or even slowed when science dissolves even whole societies’ let alone the individual’s ability to maintain traditional norms—or our fabled American sense of self-government, and independence of judgment? A litany of thinkers has attempted to answer those questions—among the most notable being Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World; C.S. Lewis, author of The Abolition of Man; George Orwell, with whose 1984 or Animal Farm many of us will be familiar.
My own litany of prophetic voices about the fragility of ordered liberty and the sundry threats to human dignity begins with Plato, who well warns that democracies invariably tend—and end—in tyranny. The Framers of our Constitution understood this, and so bequeathed us republican--emphatically small r—forms to channel democratic passions.
More recently, Jacob Burckhardt forewarned in the 1890s that the challenges of modern cities and economies would tempt the masses to choose “terrible simplifiers” to impose a single, totalitarian remedy to the new problems of “modern life”…
Ortega y Gasset in 1932 warned of “the revolt of the masses” against all forms of superior achievement; Tocqueville a century earlier wondered if we Americans, in our preoccupation with equality, would at last subvert liberty through a “mass conformism” that would instantiate a “soft despotism” every bit—and more—tyrannical than the “hard” dictatorships of armed ideologies.
And Christopher Lasch, who in 1979 suggested that the social changes Tocqueville, Burckhardt, and others noticed in the 19th Century led to “an historical period characterized by… [an increasing number of individuals] in a state of marked narcissism with all its pathological symptoms.”
The reference is to our period…to us.
It will come as no surprise to this audience that I define myself as a Conservative. But what, I constantly ask myself, can the Conservative hope to conserve--to do--when Constant Change is the dynamic engine of society, economy, and polity?
My answer is, the Conservative can bear witness to truths that have been tested by time and transmitted by tradition. For example, no matter how high the federal debt becomes, one and one still equals two, and no people can thrive who spend beyond their means. The day may come when voters break entirely with such truths, but still one can bear witness.
This approach is what Edmund Burke described as “the cake of custom.” Custom can be broken, or abandoned, but even then, there remains one creed--one fragment of custom, as it were--that is impervious and equal to all change. That custom is charity.
Indulge a veteran of two decades in these chambers to invite all of us, amid the “sound and fury” that will invariably occur in coming weeks, to remember that, in the end, Shakespeare found it all to signify only “nothing.” “Nothing,” that is, compared to the principles and the experiences that endure.
As an example of this, the oldest of all the traditions extolled by the Conservative, I deeply regret that we will not any longer be practicing one of the most ancient of all customs of the House of Delegates. Of course, I bow to the decision of our constituted authority, but in doing so I am compelled to bear witness to what I believe is the Conservative’s obligatory response to the “Brave New World” upon which we are entered.
And so, to Delegate Ken Plum of the 36th District I say, Sir, no matter how now I must address you in this chamber, and though we will continue to vote differently on a wide array of issues, you will remain for me The Gentleman from Fairfax. The same is true for everyone in every seat in this body, for each of you has been elected to represent the constituents of your district on the terms by which you campaigned for their votes. Congratulations, and Welcome.
May we differ, but never demean; may we listen as well as clamor; and may many of us emerge in mid-March—as Aristotle would have us do—in a kind of friendship that transcends solely partisan obligations and opens us to the cooperation required for us to serve together our common weal.
Two generations ago--in 1955--Wm F. Buckley Jr. defined a Conservative as “someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so.” Probably all 100 of us here today can agree on one thing at least, which is that History did not stop, and much of the social and political order of our parents’ generation has been swept away- - largely by technologies and pharmaceuticals that may prove as destructive of human nature as they are alluring to human appetites.
How can History be ‘stopped’--or even slowed when science dissolves even whole societies’ let alone the individual’s ability to maintain traditional norms—or our fabled American sense of self-government, and independence of judgment? A litany of thinkers has attempted to answer those questions—among the most notable being Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World; C.S. Lewis, author of The Abolition of Man; George Orwell, with whose 1984 or Animal Farm many of us will be familiar.
My own litany of prophetic voices about the fragility of ordered liberty and the sundry threats to human dignity begins with Plato, who well warns that democracies invariably tend—and end—in tyranny. The Framers of our Constitution understood this, and so bequeathed us republican--emphatically small r—forms to channel democratic passions.
More recently, Jacob Burckhardt forewarned in the 1890s that the challenges of modern cities and economies would tempt the masses to choose “terrible simplifiers” to impose a single, totalitarian remedy to the new problems of “modern life”…
Ortega y Gasset in 1932 warned of “the revolt of the masses” against all forms of superior achievement; Tocqueville a century earlier wondered if we Americans, in our preoccupation with equality, would at last subvert liberty through a “mass conformism” that would instantiate a “soft despotism” every bit—and more—tyrannical than the “hard” dictatorships of armed ideologies.
And Christopher Lasch, who in 1979 suggested that the social changes Tocqueville, Burckhardt, and others noticed in the 19th Century led to “an historical period characterized by… [an increasing number of individuals] in a state of marked narcissism with all its pathological symptoms.”
The reference is to our period…to us.
It will come as no surprise to this audience that I define myself as a Conservative. But what, I constantly ask myself, can the Conservative hope to conserve--to do--when Constant Change is the dynamic engine of society, economy, and polity?
My answer is, the Conservative can bear witness to truths that have been tested by time and transmitted by tradition. For example, no matter how high the federal debt becomes, one and one still equals two, and no people can thrive who spend beyond their means. The day may come when voters break entirely with such truths, but still one can bear witness.
This approach is what Edmund Burke described as “the cake of custom.” Custom can be broken, or abandoned, but even then, there remains one creed--one fragment of custom, as it were--that is impervious and equal to all change. That custom is charity.
Indulge a veteran of two decades in these chambers to invite all of us, amid the “sound and fury” that will invariably occur in coming weeks, to remember that, in the end, Shakespeare found it all to signify only “nothing.” “Nothing,” that is, compared to the principles and the experiences that endure.
As an example of this, the oldest of all the traditions extolled by the Conservative, I deeply regret that we will not any longer be practicing one of the most ancient of all customs of the House of Delegates. Of course, I bow to the decision of our constituted authority, but in doing so I am compelled to bear witness to what I believe is the Conservative’s obligatory response to the “Brave New World” upon which we are entered.
And so, to Delegate Ken Plum of the 36th District I say, Sir, no matter how now I must address you in this chamber, and though we will continue to vote differently on a wide array of issues, you will remain for me The Gentleman from Fairfax. The same is true for everyone in every seat in this body, for each of you has been elected to represent the constituents of your district on the terms by which you campaigned for their votes. Congratulations, and Welcome.
May we differ, but never demean; may we listen as well as clamor; and may many of us emerge in mid-March—as Aristotle would have us do—in a kind of friendship that transcends solely partisan obligations and opens us to the cooperation required for us to serve together our common weal.
Of Monuments and the Complexity of History
Remarks on the Floor of the House of Delegates
The Capitol, Richmond Virginia
By Delegate Lee Ware, February 28, 2026
Remarks on the Floor of the House of Delegates
The Capitol, Richmond Virginia
By Delegate Lee Ware, February 28, 2026
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to a bill that will shortly come before us.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, please allow me to meditate with you as a student of history and, for over thirty years, a teacher of History to high school students of every complexion. I offer the following observations as a contribution to Black History Month.
My great-great grandfather was a Colonel in the 44th Massachusetts. He led troops in the War of 1861 in both North and South Carolina. After his service in the field, he became Military Advisor to the legislature of his home state.
That Union officer’s comrade and friend was Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who was the grandson and great-grandson of U.S. Presidents John Quincy Adams and John Adams, respectively. Charles Jr. served with distinction at Gettysburg, then was named Colonel of the fabled 5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry.
To add to the drama, Col. Adams’s father was Mr. Lincoln’s United States Minister to the United Kingdom, and he was instrumental in preventing Britain from siding with the Confederacy.
You see, then, that these men were opposed to Virginia in 1861.
Yet it was Charles Adams, Jr., who in 1907 was asked to give the Centennial Address of the birth of none other than Robert E. Lee at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
Let us take to heart this great man's pedigree as we remember that he spoke with admiration of the Confederate commander whose army Adams himself had opposed with arms. Indeed, Adams declared that General Lee, in the manner of his surrender at Appomattox, did nothing less than "save the...country," North and South. Saved us, Adams meant, from further years of bloodshed and division and as a people who ought never to have been divided.
At a later speech, Adams confessed that, had he been in Lee's position in 1861 he would have done as Lee had done—side with his State, in opposition to the federal government. For in its essence, Adams believed, the War was about sovereignty, where it rested, either in Washington or in the capitals of the individual States. This is why, to many, the tragic conflict is still known as The War Between the States.
But it was also a Civil War. It was a civil war because it was a war between cousins. In this, the teacher in me calls our attention to the English Civil War of the 1640s, when Oliver Cromwell led an army that defeated the Crown and Parliament and executed the very King of England. Not only before, but especially after that terrible conflict, the English who migrated to this country came either to New England, the land of the original Puritans, or to Virginia, the home of the royal supporters known as—think of UVa--"Cavaliers."
Kevin Philips, in a work entitled "The Cousins' War," traces America's rise to international greatness to the combined effects of the English Civil War, the American Revolution—again, English fighting English—and our Civil War, emphasizing that these wars and their outcomes combined to forge the crucible in which, for example, especially, the study of the history of blacks became possible and has risen to new heights today, in this very chamber.
Soon we will take up Senate Bill 636, proposing to remove the McGuire, Smith, and Jackson monuments on Capitol Square. But have you ever stopped to read the inscription on the Jackson statue? I ask because the Jackson Statue was not paid for by Virginians or Southerners. No, the inscription reads, "Presented by English Gentlemen as a tribute of admiration for the soldier and patriot Thomas J. Jackson.” This was done in 1875, just over 150 years ago.
The story of Jackson becomes even more compelling, because the stained-glass window behind the pulpit of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Roanoke is a memorial to Jackson and quotes his dying words, "Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees." That church is a black church, whose early pastor was the son of parents who were taught the Christian faith, and taught to read, in the Sunday School Class sponsored, and often led, in Lexington, by then VMI professor Thomas Jonathan Jackson. As a lady of the church remarked to the press a couple of years ago, "Jackson was a man of Christ," and as the pastor conceded, the story of Jackson is "complicated."
The complications, the ironies, the imperfections of every individual, and of all of history, was the central tenet, the complicated truth, that I emphasized to the students in all my classes—and which I would emphasize to all of us today.
For example, we recently heard much about the year 1619. But what, I asked my students, of 1519, 1419, 1319?
For the answer, let us go a thousand years earlier. Historians estimate that starting around the year 650 — some seven centuries before Europeans explored Africa and 10 centuries before West Africans were sold across the Atlantic to America — more than 18 million people from east Africa were enslaved by Arabs and taken across the Sahara Desert, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.
From 1525 onward, “90 percent of [Africans] shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to Europeans…”
That last statistic is from a short commentary by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and, as the older among us will know, a distinguished scholar who is black. The title of his principal commentary is “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game.”
Elsewhere, Professor Gates writes, “Perhaps you, like me, were raised to think of the slave experience primarily in terms of our black ancestors here in the United States…Well, think again.”
Starting in 1525, Professor Gates continues, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the…passage. “And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped…to North America?” he asks. “Only about 388,800, …a tiny percentage” [of less than 4 percent].
Professor Gates concludes:
“…the sad truth is that the conquest and capture of Africans and their sale to Europeans was one of the main sources of foreign exchange for several African kingdoms for a very long time.” In other words, he concludes, we must “attribute responsibility and culpability where they truly belong, to white people and black people, on both sides of the Atlantic…”
The patron of the bill soon to be before us has said that he does not want children visiting Capitol Square to see "inappropriate monuments to grotesque people." But do we remember Oliver Cromwell, the Englishman who defeated Parliament and killed a king? Outside Britain’s very Houses of Parliament in London is a towering monument to that one-time enemy of the Crown, Oliver Cromwell.
So, let us indeed add to Capitol Square a monument to another great Virginian, Booker T. Washington. But let us keep Jackson—and Billy Smith and Dr. McGuire—as the contemporaries of Booker T. Washington himself who provide the very context of the raw and imperfect history of the time in which he lived and went on to his great work.
In a similar vein, the patron of the principal bill concerning Virginia Military Institute has denounced men such as Jackson as traitors. But my friends, in 1860 most Americans considered their State, not the federal Union, to be their country. This was because the average soldier in the War, on both sides, had never travelled more than twenty miles from home. Historians call the War the summit of a “Tragic Era” because it forced men such as Jackson to choose between loyalties—to be a traitor to neither one, but to remain loyal to only one. Studying the era is vitally important for our children—of all races—precisely because it was complicated and tragic and therefore a great era in our shared history. There are vitally important historical, political, social, and spiritual lessons in this.
It is my suggestion that the only way we can give our children an understanding of history is by eschewing the simplistic slogans of our time and instead teaching our children how to delve into the context of the times that they are studying. Men and women of the past can be understood only in the context of their times. Because history is, to say the least, as the black pastor in Roanoke remarked, "complicated."
Many years ago, in this very Capitol of our Commonwealth, I spoke on the complexity of history this way:
"Lee, Jackson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Christians all, would have appreciated as Providential the proximity of the dates of their birth. And it may well be that even today, or in some great day to come, in the realm where the spirits of the just are made perfect, R.E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Marth Luther King are side by side at the Supper of the Lamb.”
This, my friends, is the understanding that we should bequeath to our children and our children's children—that there has been greatness and goodness in men and women of every race, even when in opposite circumstances in the long centuries of the past. And, that every human being, every human endeavor, is infected with imperfection, even with evil. To their question, Who is responsible for the evil?, I repeat the answer I gave my students: “Everyone is responsible. There is no innocence in human history. But, grace is everywhere.”
If a simpler lesson would suffice, allow me to cite the refrain of "The Heart of the Matter"—and it is to heart of the matter of our history that I am appealing—in the well-known lyrics of Don Henley:
"I've been tryin' to get down
To the heart of the matter
By my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it's about
FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS,
Even if, even if
You don't love me anymore."
Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, please allow me to meditate with you as a student of history and, for over thirty years, a teacher of History to high school students of every complexion. I offer the following observations as a contribution to Black History Month.
My great-great grandfather was a Colonel in the 44th Massachusetts. He led troops in the War of 1861 in both North and South Carolina. After his service in the field, he became Military Advisor to the legislature of his home state.
That Union officer’s comrade and friend was Charles Francis Adams, Jr., who was the grandson and great-grandson of U.S. Presidents John Quincy Adams and John Adams, respectively. Charles Jr. served with distinction at Gettysburg, then was named Colonel of the fabled 5th Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry.
To add to the drama, Col. Adams’s father was Mr. Lincoln’s United States Minister to the United Kingdom, and he was instrumental in preventing Britain from siding with the Confederacy.
You see, then, that these men were opposed to Virginia in 1861.
Yet it was Charles Adams, Jr., who in 1907 was asked to give the Centennial Address of the birth of none other than Robert E. Lee at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
Let us take to heart this great man's pedigree as we remember that he spoke with admiration of the Confederate commander whose army Adams himself had opposed with arms. Indeed, Adams declared that General Lee, in the manner of his surrender at Appomattox, did nothing less than "save the...country," North and South. Saved us, Adams meant, from further years of bloodshed and division and as a people who ought never to have been divided.
At a later speech, Adams confessed that, had he been in Lee's position in 1861 he would have done as Lee had done—side with his State, in opposition to the federal government. For in its essence, Adams believed, the War was about sovereignty, where it rested, either in Washington or in the capitals of the individual States. This is why, to many, the tragic conflict is still known as The War Between the States.
But it was also a Civil War. It was a civil war because it was a war between cousins. In this, the teacher in me calls our attention to the English Civil War of the 1640s, when Oliver Cromwell led an army that defeated the Crown and Parliament and executed the very King of England. Not only before, but especially after that terrible conflict, the English who migrated to this country came either to New England, the land of the original Puritans, or to Virginia, the home of the royal supporters known as—think of UVa--"Cavaliers."
Kevin Philips, in a work entitled "The Cousins' War," traces America's rise to international greatness to the combined effects of the English Civil War, the American Revolution—again, English fighting English—and our Civil War, emphasizing that these wars and their outcomes combined to forge the crucible in which, for example, especially, the study of the history of blacks became possible and has risen to new heights today, in this very chamber.
Soon we will take up Senate Bill 636, proposing to remove the McGuire, Smith, and Jackson monuments on Capitol Square. But have you ever stopped to read the inscription on the Jackson statue? I ask because the Jackson Statue was not paid for by Virginians or Southerners. No, the inscription reads, "Presented by English Gentlemen as a tribute of admiration for the soldier and patriot Thomas J. Jackson.” This was done in 1875, just over 150 years ago.
The story of Jackson becomes even more compelling, because the stained-glass window behind the pulpit of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Roanoke is a memorial to Jackson and quotes his dying words, "Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees." That church is a black church, whose early pastor was the son of parents who were taught the Christian faith, and taught to read, in the Sunday School Class sponsored, and often led, in Lexington, by then VMI professor Thomas Jonathan Jackson. As a lady of the church remarked to the press a couple of years ago, "Jackson was a man of Christ," and as the pastor conceded, the story of Jackson is "complicated."
The complications, the ironies, the imperfections of every individual, and of all of history, was the central tenet, the complicated truth, that I emphasized to the students in all my classes—and which I would emphasize to all of us today.
For example, we recently heard much about the year 1619. But what, I asked my students, of 1519, 1419, 1319?
For the answer, let us go a thousand years earlier. Historians estimate that starting around the year 650 — some seven centuries before Europeans explored Africa and 10 centuries before West Africans were sold across the Atlantic to America — more than 18 million people from east Africa were enslaved by Arabs and taken across the Sahara Desert, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.
From 1525 onward, “90 percent of [Africans] shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to Europeans…”
That last statistic is from a short commentary by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and, as the older among us will know, a distinguished scholar who is black. The title of his principal commentary is “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game.”
Elsewhere, Professor Gates writes, “Perhaps you, like me, were raised to think of the slave experience primarily in terms of our black ancestors here in the United States…Well, think again.”
Starting in 1525, Professor Gates continues, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the…passage. “And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped…to North America?” he asks. “Only about 388,800, …a tiny percentage” [of less than 4 percent].
Professor Gates concludes:
“…the sad truth is that the conquest and capture of Africans and their sale to Europeans was one of the main sources of foreign exchange for several African kingdoms for a very long time.” In other words, he concludes, we must “attribute responsibility and culpability where they truly belong, to white people and black people, on both sides of the Atlantic…”
The patron of the bill soon to be before us has said that he does not want children visiting Capitol Square to see "inappropriate monuments to grotesque people." But do we remember Oliver Cromwell, the Englishman who defeated Parliament and killed a king? Outside Britain’s very Houses of Parliament in London is a towering monument to that one-time enemy of the Crown, Oliver Cromwell.
So, let us indeed add to Capitol Square a monument to another great Virginian, Booker T. Washington. But let us keep Jackson—and Billy Smith and Dr. McGuire—as the contemporaries of Booker T. Washington himself who provide the very context of the raw and imperfect history of the time in which he lived and went on to his great work.
In a similar vein, the patron of the principal bill concerning Virginia Military Institute has denounced men such as Jackson as traitors. But my friends, in 1860 most Americans considered their State, not the federal Union, to be their country. This was because the average soldier in the War, on both sides, had never travelled more than twenty miles from home. Historians call the War the summit of a “Tragic Era” because it forced men such as Jackson to choose between loyalties—to be a traitor to neither one, but to remain loyal to only one. Studying the era is vitally important for our children—of all races—precisely because it was complicated and tragic and therefore a great era in our shared history. There are vitally important historical, political, social, and spiritual lessons in this.
It is my suggestion that the only way we can give our children an understanding of history is by eschewing the simplistic slogans of our time and instead teaching our children how to delve into the context of the times that they are studying. Men and women of the past can be understood only in the context of their times. Because history is, to say the least, as the black pastor in Roanoke remarked, "complicated."
Many years ago, in this very Capitol of our Commonwealth, I spoke on the complexity of history this way:
"Lee, Jackson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Christians all, would have appreciated as Providential the proximity of the dates of their birth. And it may well be that even today, or in some great day to come, in the realm where the spirits of the just are made perfect, R.E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Marth Luther King are side by side at the Supper of the Lamb.”
This, my friends, is the understanding that we should bequeath to our children and our children's children—that there has been greatness and goodness in men and women of every race, even when in opposite circumstances in the long centuries of the past. And, that every human being, every human endeavor, is infected with imperfection, even with evil. To their question, Who is responsible for the evil?, I repeat the answer I gave my students: “Everyone is responsible. There is no innocence in human history. But, grace is everywhere.”
If a simpler lesson would suffice, allow me to cite the refrain of "The Heart of the Matter"—and it is to heart of the matter of our history that I am appealing—in the well-known lyrics of Don Henley:
"I've been tryin' to get down
To the heart of the matter
By my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it's about
FORGIVENESS, FORGIVENESS,
Even if, even if
You don't love me anymore."
Remembrance
Delegate Barry D. Knight, R.I.P.
Remarks offered by Delegate R. Lee Ware,
longtime seatmate of Del. Knight (born 1954), who passed away during
the 2026 General Assembly Session, on February 19
Floor of the House of Delegates, February 20, 2026
Delegate Barry D. Knight, R.I.P.
Remarks offered by Delegate R. Lee Ware,
longtime seatmate of Del. Knight (born 1954), who passed away during
the 2026 General Assembly Session, on February 19
Floor of the House of Delegates, February 20, 2026
Barry’s near-neighbor in Virginia Beach, former Attorney General Jason Miyares, captured the big picture of Barry’s passing yesterday, by citing Teddy Roosevelt’s son speaking of his father’s death: “A great lion has passed.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever known a man of greater accomplishment or less pretense. He was a Delegate for 17 years, he served on the committees of General Laws, Agriculture, Chesapeake, & Natural Resources, Counties, Cities, & Towns, and Appropriations whereon he loomed larger and larger until he became Chairman. It is, somehow, fitting, that he entered Eternity leading into budget weekend.
Barry Knight knew the waterfront of his beloved Virginia Beach, just as he came to know the complicated, and interwoven waterfront of Appropriations. He came, over time, to an unparalleled command of its nuances. In that role, he befriended an improbable array of folks – from Governor Youngkin to Senator Lucas.
My first memory of Barry was of him dropping his helicopter on a lawn at the 4-H Center at Smith Mountain Lake, where he and Paula and their boys attended that year’s Legislative Trail Ride. He could make an entrance. He would later show up in that helicopter in my little Powhatan Court House backyard for an event there. It became a small Facebook sensation.
Barry could drive about anything: his Harley Davidson (to 50 States without putting it down), a fuel oil tanker, a long-haul semi, a bulldozer, an excavator. The only one on which he took lessons was the helicopter. With the rest, he just climbed up on the seat or into the cab, fiddled with the controls, and was on his way.
But it was on his farm that the man in full appeared. He knew, respected, and loved the lineaments of the land, its waterways and the buildings that came to serve him… and his pigs. That’s right, Barry was a pig farmer.
I suppose that is why, while he took life seriously, he never took himself too seriously. Can you imagine at a reception, a new acquaintance asks: What do you do outside the General Assembly?
It’s also why he could see a project through, overcome roadblocks, and figure a way to solve often cross-grained problems. That is the life of a farmer. Comments yesterday at his funeral service alluded, properly, to his steadiness. He could be immovable. But only after he’d heard out alternative and conflicting views.
Barry possessed a hard-earned capacity for judgment on property and on people.
In his chosen calling, and in his life generally, Barry lived close to the fundamental things. He loved from early years to hunt and to fish, although his later accomplishments and the resulting financial resources allowed him to fish from Marathon in the Florida Keys to Casco Bay in Maine and to hunt from the forests of Virginia to the fields of South Dakota. In keeping with those pastimes, he was an inveterate storyteller and joke-teller.
Though he would travel, Barry was born and remained a son of Pungo, a rural community in Virginia Beach, whose location - along with his district’s location - was the southeasternmost corner of the Commonwealth.
He had to travel all of five miles to Creed, Virginia to meet his eventual wife, Paula. She stood with him and by him through the lean years as well as the years of bounty. Together they raised three impressive sons. And how many fathers do you know whose each of three sons asked to be the Best Man at his wedding?
Barry’s faith, which he did not broadcast but did live, was nurtured in the good Lord’s great outdoors and at Oak Grove Baptist Church.
He was a patriotic Virginian, with a Jamestown ancestor – Thomas Savage. I still recall his pleasure and astonishment in being named to the board of trustees of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which we joined on the same day.
I’m not sure I’ve ever known a man of greater accomplishment or less pretense. He was a Delegate for 17 years, he served on the committees of General Laws, Agriculture, Chesapeake, & Natural Resources, Counties, Cities, & Towns, and Appropriations whereon he loomed larger and larger until he became Chairman. It is, somehow, fitting, that he entered Eternity leading into budget weekend.
Barry Knight knew the waterfront of his beloved Virginia Beach, just as he came to know the complicated, and interwoven waterfront of Appropriations. He came, over time, to an unparalleled command of its nuances. In that role, he befriended an improbable array of folks – from Governor Youngkin to Senator Lucas.
My first memory of Barry was of him dropping his helicopter on a lawn at the 4-H Center at Smith Mountain Lake, where he and Paula and their boys attended that year’s Legislative Trail Ride. He could make an entrance. He would later show up in that helicopter in my little Powhatan Court House backyard for an event there. It became a small Facebook sensation.
Barry could drive about anything: his Harley Davidson (to 50 States without putting it down), a fuel oil tanker, a long-haul semi, a bulldozer, an excavator. The only one on which he took lessons was the helicopter. With the rest, he just climbed up on the seat or into the cab, fiddled with the controls, and was on his way.
But it was on his farm that the man in full appeared. He knew, respected, and loved the lineaments of the land, its waterways and the buildings that came to serve him… and his pigs. That’s right, Barry was a pig farmer.
I suppose that is why, while he took life seriously, he never took himself too seriously. Can you imagine at a reception, a new acquaintance asks: What do you do outside the General Assembly?
It’s also why he could see a project through, overcome roadblocks, and figure a way to solve often cross-grained problems. That is the life of a farmer. Comments yesterday at his funeral service alluded, properly, to his steadiness. He could be immovable. But only after he’d heard out alternative and conflicting views.
Barry possessed a hard-earned capacity for judgment on property and on people.
In his chosen calling, and in his life generally, Barry lived close to the fundamental things. He loved from early years to hunt and to fish, although his later accomplishments and the resulting financial resources allowed him to fish from Marathon in the Florida Keys to Casco Bay in Maine and to hunt from the forests of Virginia to the fields of South Dakota. In keeping with those pastimes, he was an inveterate storyteller and joke-teller.
Though he would travel, Barry was born and remained a son of Pungo, a rural community in Virginia Beach, whose location - along with his district’s location - was the southeasternmost corner of the Commonwealth.
He had to travel all of five miles to Creed, Virginia to meet his eventual wife, Paula. She stood with him and by him through the lean years as well as the years of bounty. Together they raised three impressive sons. And how many fathers do you know whose each of three sons asked to be the Best Man at his wedding?
Barry’s faith, which he did not broadcast but did live, was nurtured in the good Lord’s great outdoors and at Oak Grove Baptist Church.
He was a patriotic Virginian, with a Jamestown ancestor – Thomas Savage. I still recall his pleasure and astonishment in being named to the board of trustees of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which we joined on the same day.
Delegate Ware speaks on Burdensome Mandates Affecting Teachers
Floor Remarks in The Virginia House of Delegates
By Delegate Lee Ware March 9, 2016
Floor Remarks in The Virginia House of Delegates
By Delegate Lee Ware March 9, 2016
Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I rise to speak of a matter that properly commands our attention and devotion -- that is, public education. We expend 30 percent of General Fund tax dollars on public schooling, more than any other single item; an entire Article of the Virginia Constitution Article is devoted public education.
Many of us bring bills annually regarding our schools. What I want you to think about as you prepare education bills during coming months are the harried administrators and the teachers who already are swamped with their daily tasks and who would be directly—and adversely—affected by any new laws we add to the Code of Virginia.
A year ago, Senator Janet Howell and I co-patroned legislation leading to a review of the reasons for teacher turnover. We need to determine why so many outstanding teachers leave the profession. Those reasons are many, from becoming jaded to those for whom the job is just not a good fit.
As you head into the off-season, I ask you to consider those people who work with our students every day. Ask yourself if they don't think about class sizes, student obesity, specific facts to be included in classes, the array of matters that enter into daily life in our schools.
I ask you to remember the teacher who this afternoon will head to the store and out of her modest salary buy students supplies to supplement the meager the resources of her classroom. I ask you to reflect on that teacher who teaches all day, then corrects papers, answers e-mail, and turns to freshening his lesson plans, weighing how he can engage that withdrawn student, reach the other student who seems unreachable.
When you contemplate the next great idea, or even good idea, that would add to the duties of our teachers and other professionals in public education, I ask you to recall the words of Oliver Cromwell (overlooking the quaint phraseology, but heeding the lesson): "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."
I ask you to visit your schools. Inquire of teachers and principals; if your schedule allows, volunteer there.
I ask you to think of legislation akin to that championed by the Gentleman from Loudoun, Mr. Greason, to eliminate judiciously certain SOL tests, or the Gentlelady from Chesterfield, Delegate Robinson, to restore control of the school calendar to schools (what a novel idea), or the Gentleman from Augusta, Mr. Landes who has had an ongoing and annual project of reducing the size of the Code of Virginia.
Moreover, think of those exemplary teachers, administrators and superintendents (but don't look too closely at the fine ones who serve the counties of the 65th District) that you know. I implore you: don't further encumber them, assist them; don't needlessly regulate their work, enhance it.
I know that every one of you wants to fortify and ennoble those places we call schools. Remember that the root word of 'school' is schola—meaning leisure. Learning occurs only when teachers and students have the leisure, uninterrupted by new regulations from Richmond, to do so. I urge you to consider with care the practical effect of education legislation you consider.
Many of us bring bills annually regarding our schools. What I want you to think about as you prepare education bills during coming months are the harried administrators and the teachers who already are swamped with their daily tasks and who would be directly—and adversely—affected by any new laws we add to the Code of Virginia.
A year ago, Senator Janet Howell and I co-patroned legislation leading to a review of the reasons for teacher turnover. We need to determine why so many outstanding teachers leave the profession. Those reasons are many, from becoming jaded to those for whom the job is just not a good fit.
As you head into the off-season, I ask you to consider those people who work with our students every day. Ask yourself if they don't think about class sizes, student obesity, specific facts to be included in classes, the array of matters that enter into daily life in our schools.
I ask you to remember the teacher who this afternoon will head to the store and out of her modest salary buy students supplies to supplement the meager the resources of her classroom. I ask you to reflect on that teacher who teaches all day, then corrects papers, answers e-mail, and turns to freshening his lesson plans, weighing how he can engage that withdrawn student, reach the other student who seems unreachable.
When you contemplate the next great idea, or even good idea, that would add to the duties of our teachers and other professionals in public education, I ask you to recall the words of Oliver Cromwell (overlooking the quaint phraseology, but heeding the lesson): "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."
I ask you to visit your schools. Inquire of teachers and principals; if your schedule allows, volunteer there.
I ask you to think of legislation akin to that championed by the Gentleman from Loudoun, Mr. Greason, to eliminate judiciously certain SOL tests, or the Gentlelady from Chesterfield, Delegate Robinson, to restore control of the school calendar to schools (what a novel idea), or the Gentleman from Augusta, Mr. Landes who has had an ongoing and annual project of reducing the size of the Code of Virginia.
Moreover, think of those exemplary teachers, administrators and superintendents (but don't look too closely at the fine ones who serve the counties of the 65th District) that you know. I implore you: don't further encumber them, assist them; don't needlessly regulate their work, enhance it.
I know that every one of you wants to fortify and ennoble those places we call schools. Remember that the root word of 'school' is schola—meaning leisure. Learning occurs only when teachers and students have the leisure, uninterrupted by new regulations from Richmond, to do so. I urge you to consider with care the practical effect of education legislation you consider.
Delegate Ware speaks on "Black History Month"
Black History Month
Floor Remarks in The Virginia House of Delegates
By Delegate Lee Ware February 6, 2014
Black History Month
Floor Remarks in The Virginia House of Delegates
By Delegate Lee Ware February 6, 2014
As an historian, and also as the delegate for a large constituency of black citizens, with many of whom I have enjoyed long years of warm friendship, I accepted at once the invitation extended by a Member "from across the aisle" to offer some reflections on Black History Month.
It is fitting that we set aside time each year to recognize and to affirm the achievements of Virginians--and Americans--who happen to be black. After all, there was a time when the experiences and the accomplishments of blacks were assigned a subordinate place in the narrative of American history. So today, permit me to offer a word of congratulations especially to our fellow members who as blacks rightly take an especial pride in serving as Members of the oldest continuous legislative body in the Western world.
I extend these congratulations also, of course, to all Virginians who are black--and with them to all Virginians, without regard to racial considerations.
* * *
In his immemorial summons to the American people, Martin Luther King, Jr. defined a dream that of course included full participation in the political and economic life of the nation for all Americans, but let us today pay particular attention to his precise words:
"I have a dream," Dr. King declared, "that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Owing in no small part to the lives and labors of the black men and women in this room today—and to their pioneering predecessors--our Commonwealth, and our nation, have advanced a long way toward the realization of that dream.
Race remains important--of course. Yet it is now by no means the primary determinant in our lives, socially, economically, or politically. Much has been accomplished by Virginians in the half-century since the great civil-rights milestones of the 1960s. Yet much remains to be achieved.
One of my own dreams, for example, is that there will come a day when a majority of the honorable delegates among us today who happen to be black are members of my own political party. When that day comes--when race is not at all a factor in the minds of any of our voters--then, then we will have erased yet another hyphen in the self-definition of the Virginian—and of the American, people.
* * *
There would have been no America that we can imagine, and surely there could have been no Southern culture worthy of the name, without our black brethren. I say brethren, because it is indisputable that religion, and specifically Christian faith, is inseparable from the experience of black Virginians, and that an undying devotion to the faith of the Christian, and a courageous appeal to the obligations of Christian love, are among the principal contributions of blacks to Southern life.
Recently two celebrations have occurred in my own community of Powhatan that wonderfully illustrate this point. One celebration was of the ongoing restoration of Belmead Plantation. The other was the annual Martin Luther King Youth Day Community Breakfast.
Belmead was the plantation home of Philip St. George Cocke, the son of one of Thomas Jefferson's closest friends and a general in the Army of the Confederate States. After the War, Belmead was purchased by Katharine Drexel, daughter of a wealthy Northern industrialist. She had converted to the Roman Catholic communion--my own communion--and in time became one of the first American women to be canonized by the Church as a saint. And with the wealth from her family, and with the faithful labors of The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the religious order she founded, Belmead--home once to a slave owner--became, for many decades, a school for the education of the children, and the grandchildren, of former slaves.
* * *
MLK Youth Day was hosted by Little Zion Baptist Church--a “black church”--and was held in the building of Powhatan United Methodist Church, a "white" church. Over 200 men, women, and children, black and white--and Indian, too--came together to remember Dr. King's original dream and to enjoy the fellowship of a dream that has largely become a living reality of our community.
As I will state in a Resolution about the event, In every tradition that manifests a revelation of the eternal there is a summons to accord equal respect to all individuals within the hierarchical communion that is crowned by the Divine, and without regard to the ephemeral considerations that often enough prevail in social, political, or economic matters; and
"…within the Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions from which the American order derives, the highest expression of the bond of fellowship finds expression in the declaration that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.""
This is the belief—and it is emphatically a religious belief--that was central to the summons proffered to the American people by Martin Luther King, Jr. And it this appeal, broadened of course to embrace men and women without regard not only to race but to religion, that is the justification for the observance of Black History Month.
One day, I hope, there will be no need for a "black history month." That day will come when we will have achieved Dr. King's dream—when we will have crafted the national narrative that so effectively embraces all of us that no consideration whatsoever will be given to color, and none to "race"--except the human race.
It is fitting that we set aside time each year to recognize and to affirm the achievements of Virginians--and Americans--who happen to be black. After all, there was a time when the experiences and the accomplishments of blacks were assigned a subordinate place in the narrative of American history. So today, permit me to offer a word of congratulations especially to our fellow members who as blacks rightly take an especial pride in serving as Members of the oldest continuous legislative body in the Western world.
I extend these congratulations also, of course, to all Virginians who are black--and with them to all Virginians, without regard to racial considerations.
* * *
In his immemorial summons to the American people, Martin Luther King, Jr. defined a dream that of course included full participation in the political and economic life of the nation for all Americans, but let us today pay particular attention to his precise words:
"I have a dream," Dr. King declared, "that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Owing in no small part to the lives and labors of the black men and women in this room today—and to their pioneering predecessors--our Commonwealth, and our nation, have advanced a long way toward the realization of that dream.
Race remains important--of course. Yet it is now by no means the primary determinant in our lives, socially, economically, or politically. Much has been accomplished by Virginians in the half-century since the great civil-rights milestones of the 1960s. Yet much remains to be achieved.
One of my own dreams, for example, is that there will come a day when a majority of the honorable delegates among us today who happen to be black are members of my own political party. When that day comes--when race is not at all a factor in the minds of any of our voters--then, then we will have erased yet another hyphen in the self-definition of the Virginian—and of the American, people.
* * *
There would have been no America that we can imagine, and surely there could have been no Southern culture worthy of the name, without our black brethren. I say brethren, because it is indisputable that religion, and specifically Christian faith, is inseparable from the experience of black Virginians, and that an undying devotion to the faith of the Christian, and a courageous appeal to the obligations of Christian love, are among the principal contributions of blacks to Southern life.
Recently two celebrations have occurred in my own community of Powhatan that wonderfully illustrate this point. One celebration was of the ongoing restoration of Belmead Plantation. The other was the annual Martin Luther King Youth Day Community Breakfast.
Belmead was the plantation home of Philip St. George Cocke, the son of one of Thomas Jefferson's closest friends and a general in the Army of the Confederate States. After the War, Belmead was purchased by Katharine Drexel, daughter of a wealthy Northern industrialist. She had converted to the Roman Catholic communion--my own communion--and in time became one of the first American women to be canonized by the Church as a saint. And with the wealth from her family, and with the faithful labors of The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the religious order she founded, Belmead--home once to a slave owner--became, for many decades, a school for the education of the children, and the grandchildren, of former slaves.
* * *
MLK Youth Day was hosted by Little Zion Baptist Church--a “black church”--and was held in the building of Powhatan United Methodist Church, a "white" church. Over 200 men, women, and children, black and white--and Indian, too--came together to remember Dr. King's original dream and to enjoy the fellowship of a dream that has largely become a living reality of our community.
As I will state in a Resolution about the event, In every tradition that manifests a revelation of the eternal there is a summons to accord equal respect to all individuals within the hierarchical communion that is crowned by the Divine, and without regard to the ephemeral considerations that often enough prevail in social, political, or economic matters; and
"…within the Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions from which the American order derives, the highest expression of the bond of fellowship finds expression in the declaration that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.""
This is the belief—and it is emphatically a religious belief--that was central to the summons proffered to the American people by Martin Luther King, Jr. And it this appeal, broadened of course to embrace men and women without regard not only to race but to religion, that is the justification for the observance of Black History Month.
One day, I hope, there will be no need for a "black history month." That day will come when we will have achieved Dr. King's dream—when we will have crafted the national narrative that so effectively embraces all of us that no consideration whatsoever will be given to color, and none to "race"--except the human race.
The Civil War Trust
Morning Hour remarks to the House of Delegates
By Delegate Lee Ware, January 2014
Morning Hour remarks to the House of Delegates
By Delegate Lee Ware, January 2014
Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, Exactly 150 years ago today armies of hundreds of thousands of men were huddled in their winter quarters. Most were exposed to the elements, and most camps were merely extensions of battlefields. Two nations were fighting to the death for principles in a catastrophic collision.
Today, whichever side each of us may adjudge to have been in the right, probably all of us recognize the sacredness of the farm fields and woodlands, the rivers and seas, on which the American Iliad—the War Between the States—was fought.
Richmond of course was then the capital of one of the contending countries. And, Virginia was the site of fully 123 of the 383 significant battles fought during the four cataclysmic years of 1861-1865. Forty-one of our counties and seven of our cities contain sites of major battlefields of the War.
In 2006, anticipating the sesquicentennial of the War, the General Assembly established the “Virginia Civil War Sites Preservation Fund.” To date, over $12 million in grants have been awarded by this fund to preserve 6,500 acres of hallowed ground. Just last year, through our splendid Department of Historic Resources, $2.2 million was spent to save 1,263 acres of Virginian battlegrounds.
Leading the way in the preservation of these lands is the Civil War Trust. Organized in 1987, the Trust in the 27 years since has—through private donations coupled with grants from the several States—preserved 20,504 acres of battlefields in Virginia alone.
All told, The Civil War trust has saved for posterity a total of 38,552 acres in 20 states. Since 1999 the Trust has saved more than four times as much land as has The National Park Service. (As an aside, please permit me to quip that, since it was the national government that turned our private lands into battlefields in the first place it will not surprise Virginians that private hands, and private treasure have led the way in preserving these sacred sites for future generations.)
Today, we are privileged to have with us, in the Gallery, the president of the Civil War Trust, Jim Lighthizer. This evening, we all are invited to a reception and dinner being hosted by the Trust across the street at the Library of Virginia.
Join me, then, please, in welcoming Jim Lighthizer to the House of Delegates, and let our round of applause testify to our abiding admiration for his indomitable labors in behalf of the places made holy by the lives—and too often the deaths—of our forebears.
Today, whichever side each of us may adjudge to have been in the right, probably all of us recognize the sacredness of the farm fields and woodlands, the rivers and seas, on which the American Iliad—the War Between the States—was fought.
Richmond of course was then the capital of one of the contending countries. And, Virginia was the site of fully 123 of the 383 significant battles fought during the four cataclysmic years of 1861-1865. Forty-one of our counties and seven of our cities contain sites of major battlefields of the War.
In 2006, anticipating the sesquicentennial of the War, the General Assembly established the “Virginia Civil War Sites Preservation Fund.” To date, over $12 million in grants have been awarded by this fund to preserve 6,500 acres of hallowed ground. Just last year, through our splendid Department of Historic Resources, $2.2 million was spent to save 1,263 acres of Virginian battlegrounds.
Leading the way in the preservation of these lands is the Civil War Trust. Organized in 1987, the Trust in the 27 years since has—through private donations coupled with grants from the several States—preserved 20,504 acres of battlefields in Virginia alone.
All told, The Civil War trust has saved for posterity a total of 38,552 acres in 20 states. Since 1999 the Trust has saved more than four times as much land as has The National Park Service. (As an aside, please permit me to quip that, since it was the national government that turned our private lands into battlefields in the first place it will not surprise Virginians that private hands, and private treasure have led the way in preserving these sacred sites for future generations.)
Today, we are privileged to have with us, in the Gallery, the president of the Civil War Trust, Jim Lighthizer. This evening, we all are invited to a reception and dinner being hosted by the Trust across the street at the Library of Virginia.
Join me, then, please, in welcoming Jim Lighthizer to the House of Delegates, and let our round of applause testify to our abiding admiration for his indomitable labors in behalf of the places made holy by the lives—and too often the deaths—of our forebears.
Delegate Ware Opposes Education Mandates
Remarks on Education Bills, Floor of the House
By Delegate Lee Ware January 30, 2014
Remarks on Education Bills, Floor of the House
By Delegate Lee Ware January 30, 2014
Before we vote on this and other well-intentioned bills for education, let us pause for a moment and ask ourselves if adding more state mandates and regulations to our teachers’ and principals’ duties will truly benefit the schooling of our children.
Regarding the Standards of Learning (SOLs) —we’ve heard a lot about the need to unshackle teachers and pupils from testing-focused instruction.
Just so, this bill, and other bills to follow, though well-meaning, could have in being implemented the effect of both burdening our teachers and distracting them from their highest priority: instructing our children.
The Code of Virginia (at Section 22.1-298.1 C & D) already burdens our educators with a too-long list of state-mandated programs.
After 32 years in the classroom, including two years in administration, and as a former member of the State Board of Education, I urge you to hesitate to compound the labors of our teachers as they would have to integrate yet more mandates into a coherent order for their daily duties.
Regarding the Standards of Learning (SOLs) —we’ve heard a lot about the need to unshackle teachers and pupils from testing-focused instruction.
Just so, this bill, and other bills to follow, though well-meaning, could have in being implemented the effect of both burdening our teachers and distracting them from their highest priority: instructing our children.
The Code of Virginia (at Section 22.1-298.1 C & D) already burdens our educators with a too-long list of state-mandated programs.
After 32 years in the classroom, including two years in administration, and as a former member of the State Board of Education, I urge you to hesitate to compound the labors of our teachers as they would have to integrate yet more mandates into a coherent order for their daily duties.
Guidance for Elementary School Graduates
A Father's Creed for a Full Life
Remarks to Goochland Elementary School Graduates 2014
A Father's Creed for a Full Life
Remarks to Goochland Elementary School Graduates 2014
It is a pleasure to be back with you at Goochland Elementary School for this landmark day for the 5th grade class. Your graduation today brings you to the next stage, the next chapter of your lives. Earlier this year, I had the chance to observe many of you and your teachers at work. Seeing the learning atmosphere and accomplishment made it a rewarding morning for me.
This morning I want to take you back 90 years to the graduation at a three-room grade school in tiny Centerton, in central Indiana on a day very like today. A boy named John, who’d grown up on a farm nearby – a farm with no electricity or running water – got dressed in clean overalls for the big event.
Here’s how John described the occasion: “My dad gave me something that day that would shape my entire life: my work, my marriage, my goals, my philosophy. It was a card on which his Dad had written out his creed. At the top, it read: 'Seven Things to Do.'
Those seven things:
John played basketball in the barn with his three brothers and went on to be an All-American player at Purdue University in Indiana.
When he left Purdue, John taught high-school English. He especially followed his Daddy's guidance about drinking deeply from good books.
Some of the wisest, funniest, and best-traveled people who have ever lived have written their stories. Those stories are found in books that are here in the Goochland Elementary School library, or just up the road at the Goochland Public Library. They are waiting for you to discover, and I hope you will make it a priority to discover them. Ask your favorite teacher, or Mrs. McCay, or your Mother or Daddy; they will have a good recommendation, and a long summer is right ahead. "Drink deeply from good books."
“Make each day your masterpiece.” John followed that advice in his classroom, in his 50-plus year marriage, and on the basketball practice court. John coached high school and college basketball, very well. He would start practice by explaining to his players how to wear socks, then he would teach his players how to shoot free throws (John once sank 134 free throw in a row during his playing days), and he taught them to master the full-court press. His teams, whether small and athletic, or led by a tall, dominant player, were trained in the daily masterpiece of John’s practices.
John viewed his practices and the teams he shaped and molded as a chance to – "Help others."
Help others John did across four decades of coaching and advising young men. When the lists of the greatest coaches of all time are drawn up, they always include John’s name. His UCLA Bruins’ teams won an unrivaled 10 national championships and once compiled an 88-game winning streak. His full name, as many of you have guessed, is John Wooden.
When people asked John Wooden how he achieved what he did – the first man to make the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, for example – he pointed to the creed taught to him by his father, Joshua Wooden. And he pulled out a card he carried with him from the day of his grade school graduation, a day much like today:
Congratulations to you graduating fifth graders. May you build solidly on the foundation that has been laid by your parents and your Goochland Elementary School teachers - - the foundation upon which you now have the skills to begin to construct your life.
This morning I want to take you back 90 years to the graduation at a three-room grade school in tiny Centerton, in central Indiana on a day very like today. A boy named John, who’d grown up on a farm nearby – a farm with no electricity or running water – got dressed in clean overalls for the big event.
Here’s how John described the occasion: “My dad gave me something that day that would shape my entire life: my work, my marriage, my goals, my philosophy. It was a card on which his Dad had written out his creed. At the top, it read: 'Seven Things to Do.'
Those seven things:
- Be true to yourself.
- Help Others.
- Make each day your masterpiece.
- Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
- Make friendship a fine art.
- Build a shelter against a rainy day.
- Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
John played basketball in the barn with his three brothers and went on to be an All-American player at Purdue University in Indiana.
When he left Purdue, John taught high-school English. He especially followed his Daddy's guidance about drinking deeply from good books.
Some of the wisest, funniest, and best-traveled people who have ever lived have written their stories. Those stories are found in books that are here in the Goochland Elementary School library, or just up the road at the Goochland Public Library. They are waiting for you to discover, and I hope you will make it a priority to discover them. Ask your favorite teacher, or Mrs. McCay, or your Mother or Daddy; they will have a good recommendation, and a long summer is right ahead. "Drink deeply from good books."
“Make each day your masterpiece.” John followed that advice in his classroom, in his 50-plus year marriage, and on the basketball practice court. John coached high school and college basketball, very well. He would start practice by explaining to his players how to wear socks, then he would teach his players how to shoot free throws (John once sank 134 free throw in a row during his playing days), and he taught them to master the full-court press. His teams, whether small and athletic, or led by a tall, dominant player, were trained in the daily masterpiece of John’s practices.
John viewed his practices and the teams he shaped and molded as a chance to – "Help others."
Help others John did across four decades of coaching and advising young men. When the lists of the greatest coaches of all time are drawn up, they always include John’s name. His UCLA Bruins’ teams won an unrivaled 10 national championships and once compiled an 88-game winning streak. His full name, as many of you have guessed, is John Wooden.
When people asked John Wooden how he achieved what he did – the first man to make the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, for example – he pointed to the creed taught to him by his father, Joshua Wooden. And he pulled out a card he carried with him from the day of his grade school graduation, a day much like today:
- Be true to yourself.
- Help Others.
- Make each day your masterpiece.
- Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
- Make friendship a fine art.
- Build a shelter against a rainy day.
- Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.
Congratulations to you graduating fifth graders. May you build solidly on the foundation that has been laid by your parents and your Goochland Elementary School teachers - - the foundation upon which you now have the skills to begin to construct your life.
Chairman's Welcome to the GOP Convention 2014
Remarks to the Republican State Convention - - June 2014
By Delegate Lee Ware, Chairman
Remarks to the Republican State Convention - - June 2014
By Delegate Lee Ware, Chairman
Good morning, Virginia Republicans.
Your presence here on a late spring Saturday is testimony to your commitment to righting the ship of state and to candidates who pledge the same. I am Delegate. Lee Ware from the 65th House District, and I bear greetings from Chesterfield, Goochland, Fluvanna, and Powhatan counties in central Virginia.
As we meet late in spring, there are signs too, that it is late in the Republic. The need of our time is for leaders who cherish the sturdy political principles of our past and will champion them bravely and cheerfully in the days ahead.
The men who will shortly appear on this stage, each of whom offers himself for our nomination to the United States Senate from Virginia, know the urgency of the fight to sustain the rule of law, a sane and balanced budget, an energy policy that taps our own abundant natural resources, and judges who will interpret the Constitution - - not spin confections of their favorite ideological flavor.
These candidates know, too, that it will require diligent, steady work to restore America’s standing as a dependable and respected presence on the world stage.
It is an honor to join you as we select our standard-bearer for 2014. Unlike the man he will replace come January, our next Senator from Virginia will not vote for Harry Reid as Majority Leader nor support President Obama with his votes 97 percent of the time.
So, let us hear these men today, measure their merits, and make our selection - - and emerge from this assembly wherever we sit and for whomever we vote as a united party prepared to labor together and to fight as our nominee will fight – happy warriors for our convictions, for our Commonwealth, and for the country we hold dear.
Your presence here on a late spring Saturday is testimony to your commitment to righting the ship of state and to candidates who pledge the same. I am Delegate. Lee Ware from the 65th House District, and I bear greetings from Chesterfield, Goochland, Fluvanna, and Powhatan counties in central Virginia.
As we meet late in spring, there are signs too, that it is late in the Republic. The need of our time is for leaders who cherish the sturdy political principles of our past and will champion them bravely and cheerfully in the days ahead.
The men who will shortly appear on this stage, each of whom offers himself for our nomination to the United States Senate from Virginia, know the urgency of the fight to sustain the rule of law, a sane and balanced budget, an energy policy that taps our own abundant natural resources, and judges who will interpret the Constitution - - not spin confections of their favorite ideological flavor.
These candidates know, too, that it will require diligent, steady work to restore America’s standing as a dependable and respected presence on the world stage.
It is an honor to join you as we select our standard-bearer for 2014. Unlike the man he will replace come January, our next Senator from Virginia will not vote for Harry Reid as Majority Leader nor support President Obama with his votes 97 percent of the time.
So, let us hear these men today, measure their merits, and make our selection - - and emerge from this assembly wherever we sit and for whomever we vote as a united party prepared to labor together and to fight as our nominee will fight – happy warriors for our convictions, for our Commonwealth, and for the country we hold dear.
Delegate Ware Welcomes Convention of the States
The Proposed Convention of States
Remarks by Delegate Lee Ware, Powhatan, January, 10, 2014
The Proposed Convention of States
Remarks by Delegate Lee Ware, Powhatan, January, 10, 2014
Any gathering of citizens devoted to preservation of the liberties that are uniquely ours as Virginians, and as Americans, is to be commended. In a famous assertion often attributed to Jefferson, but probably uttered by an Irish contemporary of his, we are reminded that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Tonight, the Convention of States (COS), a nation-wide endeavor, comes to Powhatan, and I both welcome you to our county and congratulate you upon undertaking labors that cannot but contribute to the well-being of our Commonwealth and, one may hope, our country.
One of my own political lodestars, Edmund Burke, a contemporary of our Founders, urged his Irish and English countrymen to remember that it is the "little platoons," that is, the small communities, in which the virtues necessary to liberty are established, cultivated, and maintained. The COS meeting this evening is just such a "little platoon."
When he left the Presidency in 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned our parents' generation that there had arisen "a military-industrial complex" that threatened to accrue vast new powers to the national government in Washington. And he emphasized that, "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." I have emphasized the phrase, "an alert and knowledgeable citizenry," because the building up of just such a citizenry is what the COS project intends to achieve.
James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 51, predicted that the "mediating" structures, or associations, by which he meant private clubs, organizations, and so forth, would be the most important bulwark protecting the American people from the appetite for power of some of the politicians and bureaucracies in Washington. So I would suggest this evening that we remember that, while political associations and activities are urgently important, still, the genesis and the guardian of our liberties are alike to be found in maintaining the integrity and vitality of our free associations, that is, our private, civic, and religious organizations.
Much of the impetus of the COS endeavor derives from the fact that our national government has amassed a debt that threatens the very well being of our children and our grandchildren--and even the younger among us in the room tonight. So I conclude these welcoming remarks by quoting yet again from the Sage of Monticello, who, well over two centuries ago, remarked, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
May the COS contribute to the great cause of preventing our national government from wasting our labors and encroaching upon our liberties!
Tonight, the Convention of States (COS), a nation-wide endeavor, comes to Powhatan, and I both welcome you to our county and congratulate you upon undertaking labors that cannot but contribute to the well-being of our Commonwealth and, one may hope, our country.
One of my own political lodestars, Edmund Burke, a contemporary of our Founders, urged his Irish and English countrymen to remember that it is the "little platoons," that is, the small communities, in which the virtues necessary to liberty are established, cultivated, and maintained. The COS meeting this evening is just such a "little platoon."
When he left the Presidency in 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned our parents' generation that there had arisen "a military-industrial complex" that threatened to accrue vast new powers to the national government in Washington. And he emphasized that, "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." I have emphasized the phrase, "an alert and knowledgeable citizenry," because the building up of just such a citizenry is what the COS project intends to achieve.
James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 51, predicted that the "mediating" structures, or associations, by which he meant private clubs, organizations, and so forth, would be the most important bulwark protecting the American people from the appetite for power of some of the politicians and bureaucracies in Washington. So I would suggest this evening that we remember that, while political associations and activities are urgently important, still, the genesis and the guardian of our liberties are alike to be found in maintaining the integrity and vitality of our free associations, that is, our private, civic, and religious organizations.
Much of the impetus of the COS endeavor derives from the fact that our national government has amassed a debt that threatens the very well being of our children and our grandchildren--and even the younger among us in the room tonight. So I conclude these welcoming remarks by quoting yet again from the Sage of Monticello, who, well over two centuries ago, remarked, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
May the COS contribute to the great cause of preventing our national government from wasting our labors and encroaching upon our liberties!
