Futrell: We fought for the sick, veterans, school children, commuters

On today, the final day of my term in the Virginia House of Delegates for the 2nd House District, I wish to say, thank you.

My family and I are grateful to have been trusted to serve the Commonwealth of Virginia in this capacity. When I began working in the community, I never intended to run for political office, I was just a young guy who wanted to help improve my community. Our community.

It has been a blessing to work with so many of you. It has been inspiring to see so many of the accomplishments, and it has been humbling to be given the opportunity to be your voice when the time was needed in the General Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you to all of the Stafford and Prince William delegation for your advice and guidance no matter where we stood philosophically. Thank you to Delegate Luke Torian for all he has done to help guide my political career and for always being someone I could depend on.

Thank you to Harry Wiggins and Bill Card, the chairs of the Prince William Democratic and Republican committees, for pushing me and giving me the thoughts of those that represent.

Thank you to Bishop Lyle and Deborah Dukes and the Harvest Life Changers Church family for praying with us and keeping us encouraged. My Christian walk and work I strive to accomplish in this community is a direct reflection of you.

To my beautiful wife and wonderful children, thank you for allowing me to share the one thing that I cannot get back: my time. You made sacrifices that no one will see, but you did it because you knew the task was great. I love you with all that I am.

And to the people of House District 2: While I am grateful for all we have done together, I look forward to all we will accomplish together in the future. Thank you for trusting me with your voice. I love you all. If you’re ever around, come visit me at Harvest Life Changers Church some Sunday, I would love to have you as a guest!

Together we fought for veteran and military families, not just by adopting our Veteran and Military Family Bill of Rights, but by adding action to policy and working to create Veteran Resource Fairs to help vets do everything from find employment to mental health screenings.

I was blessed to work with organizations like Women’s Veterans Interactive, community activist Tami Lambert and Councilman Derrick Wood to start this initiative and adding on Delegate Rich Anderson has only helped grow out our vision for those that have sacrificed so much more than we will ever imagine. This program will continue to help be a resource to our service men and women. Please add the group on Facebook if you would like to assist our upcoming events.

Together we stood hand and hand with our schools and educators. On the day I announced, I said, “as a former teacher, I realize it doesn’t matter what issue you come up with, it all traces back to education” and that is why as an elected official I spent so much time with our children in the schools.

I enjoyed reading to over 1,500 students and visiting all of our schools. I was excited to drive home every Friday during session and work the concession stands for our local high school athletic games. Rather fighting for better funding for our school systems to raise teacher pay or Dmeeting with parents and educators to discuss their thoughts on SOL reform, I have always done it with our kids best interest in mind.

While my legislation to create Regional Innovation Business Councils that would bring together business owners, educators, and community activists to discuss the jobs and skills of the future may not have passed, I am encouraged to see some of the things we attempted to do being done in the Prince William Chamber of Commerce with our schools. As my father always told me, “once a teacher, always a teacher!”

I love our schools, and will continue working to improve the lives of our young people, rather through my nonprofit Make The Future, or through my latest duty, coaching the 9th grade boys basketball team at Gar-Field High School (come check us out this season!)

Together we fought for the well being of the voiceless.

We took on the Medicaid Expansion fight, not because it was the popular thing to do, but because it was the right thing to do. Many of you know that I lost my mother two weeks before the Senate Primary. She died of cancer.

When I went with her to her final meeting with her Oncologist, I asked how did we get to this point, and the doctor said that they found her cancer so late, but did the best they could. When I asked my mother why they found it so late, she said it was because she could not afford health insurance and was unable to get the routine checks that would have normally caught it.

Well before I ever found out about my mother’s cancer, I used to say in speeches to those opposing Medicaid Expansion that the longer we wait, the more people that would die. I knew it to be fact, but I never imagined that I would see first-hand the impact of a state refusing to expand Medicaid. Though I may not be taking a vote on legislation, I have reached out to my counterparts on both sides of the aisle to discuss what can be done to save lives.

I don’t care what they call it, I don’t care who get the credit, but what I do care is that no other child has to look a dying parent in the eyes and hear those same words that echo to me every time I see my mother’s picture.

Together we confronted the topic of social justice with the Community Policing bill, which brought a sensible approach to tracking complaints and created ways to utilize body cameras to protect both citizens and law enforcement. While this did not become law, Prince William did agree to bring in body cameras, and I have been told by our Attorney General’s office that a lot of the frame work from our approach to the bill was taken for their plan on body cameras.

Together we hosted a special screening of the Oscar nominated civil rights motion picture Selma before it was in theaters. The panel discussion discussing the recent issues of police brutality was nothing short of powerful. I made sure that this event was free of charge because I wanted everyone to join the conversation. I am grateful that Paramount Pictures saw my vision for this discussion to happen in our community, and I am thankful that you were a part of it all.

Together we fought for relief from being prisoners in our own homes due to traffic gridlock. From creating a program that would connect Stafford and Prince William’s bus systems to working to fund our transportation projects; I wanted to make sure that you were able to spend more time at home with your families.

It was no secret that I wanted to bring the metro to Woodbridge, and all I ever heard was “we can’t afford it,” so I created a way that we could! I put in legislation that would create a State Infrastructure fund. The fund would allow private investors or other states to invest in medium to low risk infrastructure projects.

This has potential to bring in billions of dollars to the Commonwealth that could be used on any number of projects. I will continue to work with the Governor’s office to help bring in these and other dollars that can improve our economy.

Together we worked to make a difference. I am thankful for each and every one of you. Everyone who walked into our office got the same speech “before you walked through that door, you had a pretty good idea on where we agreed and disagreed.

You are well within your rights to yell at me and tell me why I am completely wrong, but the only thing I ask is that before you walk out, we identify 2-3 things that we can agree to work together on, because it is impossible to disagree on everything.” This has always been my motto. This is why I sent my staff to both Democrat and Republican monthly meetings some time, because I was elected to represent EVERYONE.

We may not agree on 95% of things, but we can work together on that 5%. As we move forward, let’s strive to work on the things we can come together on instead of what separates us. This is not goodbye, more like see you later! I’ll catch up with all of you on the other side of the Delegate title! Be blessed.