🔈 OSU Vet Center Director

This is a video transcript and audio of my conversation with the ‪Oregon State University‬ Veterans Center Director on May 6, 2025.

Transcript

Logan M. Isaac: [00:00:00] I'm happy to wait until Nikki responds, but you need to weigh in. Nikki's taking couple weeks, so she's an employee. She can do her job or I can stop holding out hope that y'all give a shit..

OSU Vet Center Director: I will talk to her again. Unfortunately, uh, they were at the desk when you came in the other day and you did not leave a good taste, and.

Logan M. Isaac: I don't fucking care what people think of me.

OSU Vet Center Director: Look, if you wanna connect with somebody and talk, have a discussion with them, you need to at least give a little shit.

Logan M. Isaac: I do give a shit. I've been coming here for how long Willie? 

OSU Vet Center Director: And this is the, this is the exact personality that you've used with those students out there and they're not gonna take,

Logan M. Isaac: and when shots are fired, do you stick your head in the sand? Or do you try and get some situational awareness? 

OSU Vet Center Director: They're not shooting at you. Nobody's shooting at, 

Logan M. Isaac: you're right. They're shooting at US. They are shooting at us. They just named the State of Oregon in two of the three small claims. That means a state of the Union is now gonna try and take away anything that it can from any [00:01:00] protected class. And I can't get a public employee, two public employees to respond to somewhat something of direct and irrefutable relevance to US.

You get to decide if I am a part of the US that you name when you say "veteran." And so does Nikki, so you're right, they don't care or they don't like it. I don't give a shit. Our shit is getting rolled back and it's only gonna get worse and I can't do it on my own. You have a decision to make. You can keep those, i'll print more out of my own.

OSU Vet Center Director: Okay.

Logan M. Isaac: I know you don't like it, but I am under the assumption that we all went and signed on the line and were willing to risk something. Not everything for everybody, but shots are already being fired. Go ahead. 

OSU Vet Center Director: You're never gonna get these folks to talk to you unless you're a human being and.

Logan M. Isaac: What human being gets shit on and stays humbly silent so that they can get a [00:02:00] along 

OSU Vet Center Director: If you're gonna raise, come back in. You're in the fight. They don't know about the fight, and you want to tell 'em. 

Logan M. Isaac: Sure. 

OSU Vet Center Director: Right?

Logan M. Isaac: Mm-hmm.

OSU Vet Center Director: Having this personality coming across to open the discussion, we'll never open the discussion with them. They, they, they have already.

Logan M. Isaac: You and I are operating under different paradigms. I'm never going to agree to that. Did you like your first drill sergeant? I sure as fuck didn't but you, but it kept me alive in combat. You do know about it. You do know about it right there. Women, black, Hispanic, indigenous. You think veteran doesn't belong on that board or somebody with the reins of power, whether that's tuition paying students or tax paying Oregon residents.

OSU Vet Center Director: No. Your problem is.

Logan M. Isaac: You do have an interest. 

OSU Vet Center Director: Your problem is, is you don't see They're all veterans. 

Logan M. Isaac: You're not hearing me. You are taking veterans by lack of action and saying it doesn't, it's not the [00:03:00] same. I'm saying it is. It's black and white. So let me, let me roll it out for you. The state of Oregon thinks it's progressive as fuck.

OSU Vet Center Director: Oh yeah.

Logan M. Isaac: And they don't like that a veteran got all uppity and asserted their own fucking rights that I goddamn served for and watched people die for. So what are they gonna do? They didn insert in themselves, right? The gravity of the situation is the only thing that we disagree on. They don't like it and they want comfort. I don't have comfort. None of us have comfort. 

OSU Vet Center Director: They don't want comfort. They don't know the story.

Logan M. Isaac: You just said they did.

OSU Vet Center Director: They don't know. These veterans don't know the story because you're,

Logan M. Isaac: I'm going through gatekeepers. I am going through the gatekeepers. I'm doing my due diligence, and I will walk and I won't bother you again. But that is real. That is the last fucking thing we have in our, in our union that is going to stand up to shit. So I'll tell you again. Nikki has told me multiple times she'll get back to me. Bup kiss. And you are not in [00:04:00] control, and I understand that, but something isn't working. I see people killing themselves because they don't realize that they should get the same fucking rights that they secured for everybody else.

So somebody's gotta step up. I'm already there. If you guys can't follow me, then fuck it. I will not bother you again. But you will not be able to look back and say you have any plausible deniability, and neither will Nikki. If either of you don't want to do the job, find another sector to work in. 

OSU Vet Center Director: You will not get to connect with these student veterans if you're coming in like a train load of freaking dynamite.

Logan M. Isaac: You're ignoring how many months of me coming in here? Whose story is that? 

OSU Vet Center Director: And, and you come across this way every time you come in here. That's, that is.

Logan M. Isaac: That is patently false. I've been coming here for two years and you think this is the only way that I've been. Bullshit Willie!

OSU Vet Center Director: You and I have had conversations.

Logan M. Isaac: So then you vouch for me to Nikki and get her to do her goddamn job.[00:05:00] 

OSU Vet Center Director: I, why do you think she'd talk to you in the first place? She.

Logan M. Isaac: And how long should I wait to trust her word?

OSU Vet Center Director: 'Cause her sister said, no, there's no way I'm working.

Logan M. Isaac: So then she has to make a decision. She can take her pay or she can put it on the table and find other work.

OSU Vet Center Director: Paid as a,

Logan M. Isaac: why is she an employee? She said she was an employee. 

OSU Vet Center Director: She's a VA work study that works for the VA. 

Logan M. Isaac: Still a public entity. Public sector, disgruntled constituents? She, I'd have to deal with it all the time when I was in. I was told explicitly, civilians outranked me. If that's not a formula that you're accepting, then that's fine, but that's still my formula.

Someone has got to do their job. I closed the door because people don't like it. Fine.

OSU Vet Center Director: Right.

Logan M. Isaac: And I will walk. I will not be upset about it. This is the last time I will come in here and ask you, how much more do I have to do and wait and work for my community to give a flying fuck. That's it. 

OSU Vet Center Director: I'm just saying, come in and act like you're part, not a part [00:06:00] of the community.

Logan M. Isaac: I have been. I have been. 

OSU Vet Center Director: Every time you come in. Not to me. You're cordial to me.

Logan M. Isaac: I haven't talked to anybody else.

OSU Vet Center Director: You, you have, and even the interactions just at the front desk. You come across as.

Logan M. Isaac: Bullshit. I asked, should I come back here? They said yes. I followed the rules. If you don't like it.

OSU Vet Center Director: Oh, that's fine.

Logan M. Isaac: When have I not? I have not stumbled in here. Barged in here saying "this needs to happen." I've come to you and I said, "this is a problem that affects all of us." It affects 17 a day. It affect 23 million of us. So we disagree. I don't care if people need to feel like they like me. I don't give two shits.

People are dying and that's why. You can take an action on it, or Nikki can or don't. This is the last time I'll come in here because I don't believe you when you try and sell me your story that I'm coming in here like a train wreck. I've been coming in for two years and every single time has led up to this point.

What, how much longer should I have to wait? Like you don't I, you don't have to answer that. That is a power that you [00:07:00] have. So I don't care how you feel. There's work that needs to get done because people are dying. You can act on it or you can't. You have my contact. I won't bother you again. I won't bother all the little snowflakes that want, who for better reasons than almost everybody else, to just unplug. I will. And then some fuck up in the administration's gonna catch wind of this fucking precedent, and they're gonna start rolling back all those little DEIs and they're gonna roll back [Civil Rights Act of 19]64. Then they're gonna roll back everything else they can because everybody just wants comfort.

But that's not my paradigm. My paradigm is good work produces fruit. If you want to eat, you have to work. Everybody's used to eating without working. This is a fight. It has to happen. People are dying. I don't know how else to call that, but a fight. You have my email. So does Nikki; do something or do nothing.

OSU Vet Center Director: Okay.

Logan M. Isaac: It is a [00:08:00] choice.