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The conscience of a House spouse

To say that Beverly Young, wife of U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, isn't your typical political spouse is like saying a hurricane isn't your typical windstorm. No kidding! The sometimes profane Beverly Young prefers Marine Corps T-shirts to cocktail dresses and spends her free time comforting wounded soldiers and advocating their cause. And she will spice her rhetoric with expletives to get her point across.

Not only does she tirelessly visit injured soldiers at military hospitals near Washington - and around Tampa Bay when the couple is home - but she challenges the bureaucracy if it gets in the way. When she learned that soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan were being charged for their hospital meals, she convinced her husband to lead a repeal of the law that required payment.

While accompanying Beverly Young on a recent visit to wounded Marines, St. Petersburg Times Washington bureau chief Bill Adair saw both her compassionate and combative sides. Spotting the photograph of a nettlesome hospital official on the wall, Beverly said: "See this b----? If she were here, I'd deck her." Soon she was comforting soldiers with down-to-earth talk. "Do you need any country music?" she asked a Marine, whose leg had been amputated, after spotting a snapshot of him in a cowboy hat. "Do you need some whiskey?" she continued, guessing right both times.

Beverly and Bill Young's commitment to the troops is long-standing and not a publicity ploy. They only reluctantly agreed to invite a reporter along after several requests. They're an effective team. While the congressman works for soldier's rights as chairman of the appropriations defense subcommittee, his wife takes a more direct approach, connecting them with charitable organizations

In that way, a medic who had been blinded in a paratrooper jump was able to have his house retrofitted to help him gain independence. Yet according to military rule, accepting gifts valued at more than $20 is prohibited. When Beverly heard that the military was threatening to strictly enforce that rule, she fired off a letter to President Bush. Meanwhile, Bill got a measure added to a defense spending bill that would repeal the rule.

Anyone who doubts Beverly Young's effectiveness should talk to Marine Lance Cpl. Josh Callihan. Partially paralyzed from a bullet wound to the spinal cord, he stopped eating and became unresponsive to those around him. As doctors planned to send him to the psychiatric ward, Beverly gave the soldier a pep talk worthy of a football coach. "I will get Gen. Jones (the Marine Corps commandant) down here and we will kick your ass if you don't get better," she told him. Callihan made an instantaneous turnaround, briefly staying with the Youngs and working in the congressman's office, before returning to Idaho and a good job. "She was instrumental in me surviving," Callihan said. "If it hadn't been for her, I would have literally fallen through the cracks."

With Congress' approval rating in the cellar, officeholders and their spouses should pay attention. If more of them spoke up for the powerless and acted according to conscience, as Beverly Young does, Americans might have a more favorable view of their politicians.

[Last modified December 23, 2005, 01:13:18]