(Mattis was born in Pullman)
Former Defense Secretary James Mattis accepts WSU’s
inaugural Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service
By Amanda Sullender,
Spokane S-R 4/9/2024
In
accepting the first Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service,
former Secretary of Defense and retired general James Mattis on Tuesday called
on those in the audience to reject political division and cynicism for this
country.
“I
trust some of you young folks in the audience will leave tonight refusing to
adopt the childish practices you see too often on our television screens.
Rather, resolving to embrace the courage, the conviction, the civility and the
dignity of Tom Foley,” Mattis said during the award presentation by Washington
State University’s Foley Institute . The award was given at the John J.
Hemmingson Center on the Gonzaga University campus.
Before
retiring in 2013, Mattis served over 40 years in the United States military,
including as a general at the highest levels in the U.S. Marine Corps. Mattis
was called back into service as Secretary of Defense under former President
Donald Trump. He later resigned and broke from Trump in the lead-up to the 2020
election.
Mattis
is also a native son of Washington, having been born in Pullman and graduated
from Central Washington University. In accepting the award, Mattis said he
hoped he was a good steward for the legacy of Tom Foley, whom he called “one of
the finest citizens our state ever produced.”
The
only Speaker of the House from Washington state, the late Congressman served 30
years. A member of the Democratic Party, Foley was Speaker from 1989 to 1995.
Mattis
called Foley the “quintessential American patriot,” who put his country before
his party and his personal interest. He specifically cited Foley’s roll in
shepherding the Americans with Disabilities Act through Congress in the 1990s.
“You
see this same theme in him looking at people who are left behind on the margins
of our society and bringing them inside and giving them a level playing field,”
he said.
In
Mattis’ view, Foley was also an example of a public servant who actively seeks
to work with those opposed to him. Calling such bipartisanship a “lost art” in
today’s politics, Mattis hopes he is a representative of that same ethos.
“Tom
Foley had a worldview that just one generation ago dominated America. It is
amazing and can even be a bit discouraging, though, to see how much our
political climate has degraded in the past year,” he said.
In
introducing the general, inventor and entrepreneur Ed Schweitzer of Schweitzer
Engineering Laboratories said Mattis had “earned a reputation for technical
brilliance and humility.”
“It’s
fitting and proper that General Mattis, a man who has dedicated his life to
public service into protecting and defending the values of democracy and our
Constitution, should be the first recipient,” Schweitzer said.
More
than his military career, Schweitzer pointed to when Mattis spoke out against
President Trump amid civil unrest seen in 2020. At the time, Mattis called
Trump “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the
American people.”
“There
was a time when our country felt divided, angry, hopeless. Many of our
political leaders use their platforms to inflame tensions. Others remained
silent and said nothing at all. General Mattis spoke out in support of national
unity and civil liberties,” Schweitzer said at the ceremony.
Mattis
only referred to his former boss indirectly. Praising the late 5th district
Congressman, Mattis said Foley did not “whine like a baby” and contest the
result when losing his seat in 1994 by a mere 4,000 votes – an oblique
reference to Trump’s debunked election fraud claims.
At
the center of Mattis’ message was for Americans to reject disunity.
“At
home, we see Americans engaging in contempt for each other and seemingly
unaware of the delight they create in Bejing and Moscow – hoping Americans will
turn cynical and lose their selfless spirit,” he said.
It
was a message WSU senior and Foley Institute intern Nicholas Wong called
“inspiring” for someone who wants a career in public service.
“Mattis
very much spoke to the idea of just being human and how it doesn’t really
matter at the end of the day, we all want largely the same stuff,” he said. “It
felt like he was semi-directly talking to me. It means a lot to hear from a
person of his position to not be cynical when it comes to our country.”
Speaking
at news conference before the event, Mattis also declined to provide his
opinion on the possibility his former boss may win the presidency again this
fall. Asked what a Trump victory would mean for the country, Mattis said that
retired generals should also “retire their tongues” when it comes to politics.
Mattis on VA crisis
During
his tenure as Secretary of Defense in 2017, Mattis was involved in the decision
to have the VA adopt the same electronic health system as the Department of
Defense. Transition to this first system was first implemented in 2020 at
Spokane’s Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center. Since then, The Spokesman-Review
has reported on flaws in the new electronic health
system causing multiple patient deaths and harm to veterans
receiving care.
Mattis
admitted he was not aware of these issues, but defended the decision to create
a single electronic health system between active-duty veterans and those
receiving healthcare from the VA.
“The
idea was if someone left the military after four years or 24 years or 44 years,
they didn’t have to start over. Their name, their social security, their rank.
In other words, we simply keep the system that keeps the military going and
pick that up and take it forward into the VA system – building on what was
already a body of medical knowledge of that individual,” he said at the news
conference.
While
admitting difficulties occur when a new system is implemented, Mattis also
defended current Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough as the right man
to fix any problems that may exist.
“If
anyone can straighten this out, that’s the Secretary of the VA. He’s very
experienced. He knows what he is doing. He will not be deflected by hard
problems, he will overcome them,” he said.
PHOTO April 9, 2024 Updated Tue., April 9, 2024 at 10:37
p.m. PHOTO: Heather Foley, widow of the
late former U.S. Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley, bestows the inaugural Thomas
S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service to former United States
Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis during a ceremony at Gonzaga University on
Tuesday. The award was sponsored by the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public
Policy and Public Service at Washington State University. (COLIN MULVANY/THE
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)