Obsessive Compulsive

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Cranky old man! Retired!

Monday, June 02, 2014

Our senator and the VA mess

Our Senator, Patty Murray, has been in the senate for 23 or so years. Following is a copy of an email I sent to her official contact site on May 21, 2014.

Dear Senator Murray,

What started out for me as a simple question for you has, after visiting your official web site, turned into more than one question.

How is it that a senator of 23 years who purportedly is a staunch supporter of our veterans didn’t know about the horrendous treatment going on in the VA hospitals? Surely in talking to veterans (you do talk to them don’t you?) you would have run across more than one horror story of the treatment the VA has been providing? As a senior member of the Veteran’s Affairs Committee I would have expected that you would never allow such a situation to ever develop in the first place.

And after visiting your official website I find the first item on your list is protecting a woman’s right to an abortion from the evil GOP? A right you say is somewhere embedded in the Constitution of the United States? I have yet to find it there. I find your stance on this and your willingness to abort nearly three million babies a year a moral disgrace on your part. This alone should be sufficient for the moral people of your district to insure you don’t return to office after the next election. Add to this that the item is number one on your list despite the current uproar over veteran’s medical benefits and the outrage increases.

Checking the next item on your official website I find a map of the state of Washington. Kudos to you and your staff as this appears to be the only thing you got right. And thanks for the 6 new public busses. I’ll just mention that I believe $333,333.00 is a bit steep for a bus but hey, it’s not like it’s your money.

Moving on to item number three I find you are sponsoring legislation to help our vets. Is legislation really necessary? It would seem some common sense and justifiable public outrage, not at the service our vets are getting, but at those who are supposed to be providing it would be in order. I get the impression it’s easier in Washington to hide behind more legislation than it is to hold people accountable for their performance. Is that what the people of Washington state sent you to DC to do, add to the already unmanageable mountain of legislation? Or were there no laws or contracts broken in the outrageous service being provided to vets?

Which brings us to item number four, the saving of a cherished local landmark and critical tours attraction, the Green Mountain Lookout. Since my wife and I really enjoy the outdoor opportunities available in Washington State I thought this might be an opportunity for some small amount of praise but I quickly came upon this Seattlepi article, dated April 15, 2014:

“The four-mile trail up to the Green Mountain Lookout is reached by the Suiattle River Road, northeast of Darrington. The upper reaches of the road were washed out in places by a great late fall storm in 2003.
The Suiattle Road is gated at the 11-mile point. From there, it is six miles to a turnoff to the road up lower slopes of Green Mountain, and four miles from the turnoff to the trailhead.
Hence, getting to the Green Mountain Lookout is — at the moment — a 28-mile round trip. The Suiattle Road blockage also lengthens access to several famous trails into the Glacier Peak Wilderness, from fabled Image Lake to the southern end of the Ptarmigan Traverse.
A lawsuit by the extreme wing of Washington’s environmental movement blocked initial plans to rebuild the road, and forced extensive environmental studies.”

It would seem this issue has been going on for 11 years. But thanks for saving the lookout. Perhaps you could look into the extreme environmental groups in the state that not only cut off recreational access to our state but also kill jobs in an effort to stop ‘global climate change’, an item I found curiously missing from your web site.

And the last item on your list, number five, deals with another piece of legislation to curb harassment and bullying at colleges and universities across the country. Is this a federal responsibility now, stopping bullying and harassment? After reading of the issues at the colleges and universities across this nation in regard to commencement speakers I would strongly suggest you let the colleges deal with this. It seems the students and faculty are fully aware of what bullying and harassment are and how to use them to prevent being subjected to a diversity of opinion.