I testified in support of HB 2556 and HR 4 — legislation to Keep the Guard in Oregon — on March 11, 2009, before the Oregon House Rules Committee. Thanks to Assistant Majority Leader Sara Gelser and Rep Chris Edwards for ensuring an early committee session for this crucial legislation. Following is my testimony to the Committee.

Testimony of Todd A Barnhart
in support of HB 2556, HR 4 & SR 1

Chair Roblan, Members of the Committee, my name is Todd Barnhart. I live at 6831 SE 48th Avenue, Portland, and I am here today with the Campaign to Keep Oregon's Guard Home, Military Families Speak Out, and as a citizen.

Thank you for providing this opportunity for me to speak before this Committee and to ask you, and the Oregon Legislature, to show unconditional support for the men and women of the Oregon National Guard by passing and acting upon HB 2556, HR 4 and SR 1.

I come before you today in my two most important roles: citizen and parent. Both roles have the same goal: to tell you in no uncertain terms that the scheduled deployment of the Oregon National Guard must be stopped.

As a citizen of this state, one who has served his country in uniform and one who continues to serve through civic and political involvement, I have learned over the years what it means to serve one's nation. When I joined the Air Force out of high school, I had little idea of what a commitment to service meant. Nothing has taught me that lesson more thoroughly than my other role, the one that has transformed my life since the first moment I held my first son, that of parent.

As a citizen, nothing matters more than the law. You've heard from legal experts on this matter, and you'll hear from more. Here is what I believe about the legality of HB 2556:

The Legislature's job is not to pre-determine what a court might decide if a law is challenged; the Legislature's job is to pass the right law. In this case, the right law is the one that protects Oregonians and honors the commitment our state has made to the men and women of our National Guard. The right law is HB 2556.

And here is why HB 2556 is the right law, the law that must be passed by this Legislature and signed by the Governor: HB 2556 is a tangible demonstration of our commitment to our fellow citizens, telling them that we respect and honor — and love — the members of Oregon's National Guard too much to sit by idly while their bravery and commitment to duty is given to a war we believe to be unlawful and improper. HB 2556, in conjunction with HR 4 and SR 1, is our state's demand that our Guard be called to war only when a constitutional authorization exists for that service. I do not believe such an authorization is in effect, and, therefore, the deployment of my son's Guard unit is not justified under law.

Both of my sons wear their nation's uniforms today, as I once did. Jesse, my younger, is on his way to the seas off Central America on his first Coast Guard assignment aboard the USCG Cutter Midgett. Alex, his older brother, is weeks away from deployment to Iraq.

I will be honest with you: I did not agree with his decision to join the National Guard while our nation was involved in a war that I felt was morally unjustified. But Alex is a strong, intelligent young man, and this is the choice he made: to serve Oregon in her home guard. As his father, I made my own choice: to insist that his service be what National Guard service historically has been: protecting Oregon, in Oregon.

I am here asking you to give your support to these measures because my son is too precious for a war, as President Obama said, that never should have been authorized and should never have been fought. Alex's life is too precious for a cause so unworthy. HR 4 and SR 1 demonstrate that American forces no longer serve a legitimate aim in Iraq: There is no enemy and there are no weapons that threaten our nation as the Authorization of 2002 falsely, but legally, declared. There is only a nation we occupy at the cost of more American lives.

I cannot bear the thought that my son might possibly be one of those lives.

Please give your vote to HB 2556 and HR 4. Do not worry about what the courts may or may not do, or what the Governor is likely to do. You must do the right thing for my son, for those who serve with him in the Guard, and for all their friends, families and loved ones. You have been sent to this capital on behalf of your fellow citizens. On behalf of parents like me. My son's willingness to serve must be honored with a commitment from you that that service will be in a just and legal cause. The deployment to Iraq is neither. Your vote for these measures will send a message to our state, our country and the world that we in Oregon will back our Guard fighting for a just and legal cause — and nothing less.

Thank you again for this opportunity to speak in favor of HB 2556, HR 4 and SR 1.