Wednesday, June 21, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
23
Commentary...
Dying in committee: Playing politics with veterans’ lives
Craig Rullman
Columnist
“No person was ever hon-
ored for what he received.
Honor has been the reward
for what he gave.”
— Calvin Coolidge
No sitting governor of
Oregon has ever refused to
meet with a Medal of Honor
recipient. Until now.
On June 8, Governor
Kate Brown snubbed Master
Sergeant Leroy Petry as he
stood waiting — at her invita-
tion — outside of her office in
Salem.
Maybe you’ve heard
of Master Sergeant Petry.
In 2008, he and his fellow
Rangers from the 2/75th
Ranger Battalion were fight-
ing in Paktia Province,
Afghanistan, where, dur-
ing an intense firefight with
nearly 40 Taliban, he self-
lessly grabbed an enemy gre-
nade and attempted to toss it
away from his fellow Rangers
and himself. The grenade
exploded, took his hand off,
and peppered him with shrap-
nel even as he applied his
own tourniquet and continued
to lead his men in the fight.
This after he’d already been
shot through both thighs.
For his heroism, MSG
Petry was awarded the Medal
of Honor by President Barack
Obama.
Even more impressive
has been his work afterward.
MSG Petry has become a
tireless advocate for improv-
ing the available treatment
for veterans with physical and
mental injuries.
In the words of retired
Green Beret and Oregon
resident Greg Walker, Pacific
Northwest Ambassador of
the Green Beret Foundation,
who hosted MSG Petry’s visit
to the capitol, Petry “is an
American hero.”
Strangely, Governor Kate
Brown doesn’t seem to think
so. And she wasn’t alone.
Democrat State Senator
James Manning, appointed
to his office by Lane County
Commissioners in 2016, also
refused to meet with MSG
Petry, sending his wife and
“legislative aide” Lawanda
out to deliver the news to
MSG Petry.
Manning, apparently,
offered to be “unavailable,”
despite having been notified
of MSG Petry’s desire to pay
him a professional courtesy
visit.
I’ll get back to Senator
Manning later.
Because Governor Brown
and her office refused to
answer my requests for com-
ment, we are left to speculate
as to why she would violate
virtually every standard of
decency and protocol MSG
Petry’s bonafides demand.
So I will.
Perhaps it’s because of her
party’s opposition to Senate
Bill 1054, which seeks to
remedy the unconscionable
absence of available psychiat-
ric care for veterans in Oregon
by easing the “Certificate of
Needs” process, an archaic,
cost-prohibitive stricture
under the suspect Oregon
Health Authority which gov-
erns the building of new hos-
pitals and health facilities.
As State Senator Brian
Boquist, himself a Special
Forces veteran — and whose
son, a Navy veteran, took
his own life last year —
wrote in a guest column for
Oregonlive: “The Oregon
Health Authority is holding
our veterans and their fami-
lies hostage collecting ransom
payments from providers. The
so-called ‘certificate of need’
is the go-ahead hospitals need
from government before they
can build new facilities. The
health authority’s process is
bureaucratic terrorism.”
Senate Bill 1054 is
staunchly opposed by most
Democrats, who appear to be
more concerned with protect-
ing union and corporate stran-
gleholds on potential com-
petition than the mental and
chemical dependency-related
health needs of veterans.
Some 30,000 of Oregon’s
estimated 300,000 veterans,
men and women who enlisted
believing they would receive
a minimum of benefits in
return for their sacrifice—
many of whom now live in
desperate need of care, can’t
get any because under the
Certificate of Needs process
it is prohibitively expensive
to build, or operate, new care
and treatment facilities.
Perhaps the Governor
snubbed MSG Petry because
she is profoundly aware that
the State of Oregon currently
ranks 49th in the availability,
and quality, of mental-health
care available to veterans. Or
maybe she doesn’t know that.
It’s hard to say which fact
would be more derelict.
Perhaps, as Senate
Republican Communications
Director Jonathan Lockwood
told me in an interview, it’s
because “Kate Brown uses
veterans as props while
blocking their ability to get
mental-health care.”
Alas, only the Governor
really knows why she snubbed
MSG Petry. Whatever the
reason, there are some addi-
tional facts to behold. In the
entire state of Oregon there is
only one specialty, military-
focused, behavioral health
program. One. To make
matters worse, the Oregon
National Guard ranks at the
very top of the list for Guard
suicide rates nationally, and
has consistently ranked at the
Hope for a child. Change for a nation.
There are a million perfectly understandable reasons not to help.
Thankfully, love trumps them all.
$37 a month. All the difference in the world. Sponsor a child with a local organization at
HopeAfricaKids.com
This ad sponsored by The Nugget Newspaper.
top for the last six years.
There is so little available
care for veterans in Oregon
that the VA’s office in Boise,
Idaho, must run a satellite
clinic in Burns, which covers
three Eastern Oregon counties
as well. And the VA, as most
everyone knows, is broken.
While Governor Brown
and Senator Manning hide in
their offices, afraid to shake
the prosthetic hand of a Medal
of Honor recipient advocating
for better care, Oregon veter-
ans just keep dying, too many
by their own hand.
Will Naugle was a combat
medic who spent a year in
Afghanistan with the National
Guard. Unable to find treat-
ment for his deep psycho-
logical wounds, Will went
missing late last January. His
body was later found in a
ravine at Powell Butte State
Park in Portland. One of the
principle reasons MSG Petry
was at the statehouse was to
present Will’s family — who
have lobbied hard for SB1054
in the aftermath of Will’s sui-
cide — with visible comfort
and support.
Will’s sister, Julie Terry,
told me in regard to SB1054:
“I’m not a politician, I don’t
have a political affiliation.
This should be about what
is right. The bill won’t cost
the state anything. This is a
choice they are making and at
least they would have some-
thing started to fill the need
that is so obviously there.”
One would think that
a Governor who can find
the time for photo-ops with
troops deploying to fight our
nation’s conflicts (she posed
at an activation ceremony
only days before) — events
which can now rightfully be
seen as cynical and oppor-
tunistic pandering — would
somehow find the time to
meet with an American hero
who is leading the way in the
desperate fight for veteran
healthcare.
But Kate Brown, appar-
ently, can’t be bothered, and
James Manning went AWOL.
After learning of the
Governor’s behavior, I spoke
to MSG Petry, who has trav-
eled the country speaking
with elected officials, includ-
ing presidents of the United
States, who confirmed that
he had never been treated so
crudely by public servants,
anywhere.
“I was appalled (by their
behavior),” he said. “It was
rude. Having knowledge
that I was going to be there,
to be snubbed like that was
something.”
To be certain, not every-
one in our statehouse was so
obtuse. MSG Petry, in full
dress blues and wearing his
Medal of Honor, met with
several officials, including
Democrat Senate President
Peter Courtney. MSG Petry
was effusive and gracious in
his thanks for those public
servants who did arrange the
time — and keep it — to meet
with him.
There was an ugly
See DYING on page 25