Diane Benson "says what she means and means what she says"--especially when it comes to our veterans

Diane Benson (second from the right) plus her team and Vietnam Veteran Mo Bailey

Late in July, Writing Raven and I had a fundraiser at Phil Munger's house for our trip to Denver...and Democratic Candidate for the Alaska At-Large Congressional seat, Diane Benson was kind enough to show up and donate. It was then that I asked her the question that had been bugging me for months. "Did I meet you about 14-15 years ago?"

The answer was "Yes."

I was heavily involved in Blues music in both performing and the tech side. She was continuing her history of fighting for the rights of those who need protection. In this case, it was her fellow Alaska Native actors who were being exploited by the entertainment industry. We discussed that many people don't realize how much discrimination occurs in all aspects of the performing arts nor do they understand how hard it is on women in non-traditional roles.

Diane Benson is about as non-traditional as it gets. I've had incidents where I've told a few of many colorful experiences living and working for 25 years in Alaska...pretty typical stuff for most Alaska women...and folks have thought that I was making it up.

Diane's life makes mine sound uneventful, as recounted in a much-coveted article by The Nation:

Benson's strength and determination stems at least in part from her background. She "grew up in logging camps, boarding schools, foster homes and even on boat houses," according to Indian Country Today. At times she was homeless. She worked her way through college as a Teamster truck driver and was one of the first women tractor-trailer drivers on the Alaska Pipeline – she often was the only woman on the jobsite. Benson said that was a tough job to get.

"I could prove that I could do the job and the union stood up for me," she said. "And they stood up for me time and time again, and I will never forget that."

Educated in Alaska, she earned her Bachelors Degree, a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and is now working on her Masters in Public Policy. She also attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and co-produced a PBS documentary about Alaska Civil Rights. She ran sprint-races as a dogsledder and – along with her son –had 32 dogs at one time. But it wasn't until 2005 when her son, Spc. Latseen Benson, was injured by a road-side bomb in Iraq and was a double amputee that she turned to politics. She spent three-and-a-half months with him and his fellow-soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Those experiences have made her an outspoken advocate of Veterans and their issues.

Benson was surprised that in a recent debate she was the only candidate to repeatedly bring up veterans issues – one of the other candidates brought it up maybe once, if that. With 80,000 veterans in the state, responding to their issues is a key part of her platform.

It was from Walter Reed, her third trip back since her son's stay, that Diane held a press event today.

Diane Benson had a lot of praise for the caregivers at Walter Reed and the many improvements--especially the addition of the new Military Advanced Training Center, which "greatly improves the services to the wounded."

She also had a great deal of praise for The Washington Post's continuing coverage of Veterans as well as conditions at Walter Reed, which got the ball rolling.

However, Diane's primary message was that of holding the government responsible to care for the Veterans who have served their country so valiantly:

"I am embarrassed by the fact that our government is using the same techniques to deny benefits to veterans that insurance companies use to deny care to sick patients" said Benson. "There are nearly 400,000 veterans waiting for their claims to be processed. That's outrageous. The President and Congress should fix the system and make veteran health care a priority."

Benson mentioned the 1.8 uninsured Veterans in this country as well as the 290,000 Homeless Veterans. "We can't just rely upon the Good Samaritans of America to take care of our Veterans," she stated.

She also discussed the difficulty of receiving long-term care by severely injured Veterans, like her son, who is still using "temporary legs" because he has been unable to get the services to prepare him for his "permanent" ones.

Diane Benson also emphasized the importance of getting care to the Veterans for the "less visible" injuries like PTSD.

I had a discussion about PTSD and Veterans with Diane, which included a discussion about dealing with women veterans recovering from sexual assault and the VA's hesitancy to specifically target funds for their recovery.

"Anyone who knows anything about the trauma resulting from rape and sexual violence in general knows that it is a lifelong devastation to the spirit and the emotional well-being of that human being. PTSD comes from this as much as it comes from combat fatigue or being in war zones."

Diane Benson speaks with authority on this topic and has been an advocate for the protection of Alaska women and children; Alaska leads the rest of the country by an alarming margin in its rate of domestic violence and sexual assault. Benson has been one of the few candidates for ANY political office who is willing to discuss it much less propose solutions, so it is not a surprise that this advocacy extends to the women (and men) in the battlefield.

I have heard Diane Benson in previous discussions and at past appearances describe with great fondness her encounters with veterans, disabled and otherwise. She talked about one especially touching encounter where she told a meeting of veterans in Rural Alaska that she felt "at home" there and one veteran responded back, "because you are at home." In a rare moment, the retelling actually misted-up the former-union trucker as well as the crowd of Vietnam and Iraq-era veterans and supporters around her.

That kind of emotional response from an audience of veterans only happens in the presence of credibility. Diane shouldn't be at all surprised that the other Congressional candidates try not to bring those issues up.

Barbecue with Diane Benson, Veterans, bloggers and a bird

Picture: "The Benson Team" with Diane and Vietnam Veteran Mo Bailey

Let me "show my hand" at the outset...yes, I am a fan and supporter of Diane Benson. However, it's always been mostly from afar. Until Sunday, I had never introduced myself, asked her a direct question or spoken to her much other than in a stage manager capacity...and in an apologetic way...at the Gathering. But that's another story...

Friends of mine, Veteran Mike Stanton and his wife Betty had a private get-together Sunday so that some of their Veteran friends could meet Diane and get to talk to her. Luckily, I was invited too and brought along Writing Raven (Alaska Real) so she could meet Diane as well. I was also excited to see Phil Munger (Progressive Alaska) there, which explains the title Veterans, bloggers...and a bird. (I'm getting to the bird part.)

This is the first time I've heard Diane speak in an intimate setting. She's even better than she is in front of a large crowd, and that's saying something. She always grabs me when she speaks because she exudes a level of sincerity that's just not common among most politicians. The story she told is familiar to her supporters; she spoke of growing up in Alaska as a Native woman, driving trucks for the Union along the pipeline to raise her son and put herself through school, the tragedy of the near-fatal, life-altering injuries suffered by her son in Iraq and how that made her decision to run against Don Young in 2006. However, her telling is captivating and packed with raw emotion every time. I always get misty when she talks about her time at Walter Reed; I get angry when she recounts the fact that Don Young "couldn't drive 30 minutes" to visit her son and the other injured Alaskans there even though she asked him.

After her speech, she was even more impressive when dealing with questions from the guests. I'm going to save a discussion of the actual issues for a later post (we arranged an interview). However, it can be sait that this was not an "overly-friendly" crowd...meaning that a number of the Veterans were not identified as Benson supporters. They literally came so they could make up their minds and while polite, they asked some pretty tough, sometimes very loaded questions. There were several times I was boiling over but Diane answered everything calmly and respectfully. There was one time, when discussing Rural issues that I did see her eyes flash. One of the "undecideds" said later that she was easily tough enough to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in Congress.

So after we ate and when the conversation was lighter, Betty brought out "the bird"...their rescued Cockatoo. The bird instantly liked Diane, who clearly liked her back. She also ran to Mo who was NOT a bird fan and ran the other way. I wanted to see what her talons felt like (she was gentle) so I got her to get on my finger. She promptly climbed all the way up my arm and sat on my shoulder, making noises that activated my "the bird is gonna peck out my eye" phobia. (Damn you, Alfred Hitchcock!) I lived through it, but realized I've been burned too many times by dogs to ever trust any pet owner when they say "Oh, she'll NEVER bite!" I was on high-alert the whole time she was on me.

Anyway, I walked away from there a bigger fan of Diane than I was before. Later in the week, I'll talk more about the issues behind it.