Privatization Produces Putrefaction

The deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Hospital recently exposed by the Washington Post article are in my opinion, the direct consequences of privatization. Since The Bush Administration and the Republicans took control of the government in 2000 Walter Reed Hospital like so many other institutions were targeted for privatization. A year ago on February 21, 2006 the U.S. Government Accountability Office announced it was awarding a contract to IAP Worldwide Services, after years of hearings and protests. The entire five-year contract is valued at more than $120 million, according to the IAP press release, and includes support and environmental services, transportation functions, community activities, information management, logistics and public works. IAP’s performance history and quality of service has not been good. Perhaps you remember the failure of FEMA to get ice to the hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. That was IAP’s responsibility. Environmental services, transportation functions, community activities, information management, logistics and public works are IAP’s responsibility at Walter Reed Hospital and once again they where incompetent, greedy and too arrogant to recognize the difference much less the need to make a correction and once again at the cost of American lives. If left to the conservatives’ privatization would be virtually all encompassing. They see it as ripe for the “pickins” or like my Daddy said “like a bird nest on the ground”. We have already seen attempts to privatize, the education system, the military services, disaster relief, and the social security system. What next and what catastrophes await us as a result? How many more lives injured, lost, and their dreams destroyed? Now is the time to stop this corporate take over of our country. It’s a frightening fact that more and more power is being given to big business at the expense of the individual. Speak out against privatization and stop the putrefaction it produces. Tell your congressman and your senators that you’re fed up and demand a change.

Save the Environment- Save the World

An article in the New York Times today March 3, 2007, which just happens to be my granddaughter's 16th birthday, gave me pause to think about what the environment will be like when she is 26. The article starts with this headline U.S. Predicting Steady Increase for Emissions. The Bush administration estimates that emissions by the United States of gases that contribute to global warming will grow nearly as fast through the next decade as they did the previous decade, according to a long-delayed report being completed for the United Nations. Read the entire article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/science/03climate.html?th&emc=t
For the sake of our children and grandchildren I urge to attend a nationwide demonstration presented by Step It Up http://www.stepitup2007.org/ In the Texoma Sherman/Denison, TX area on Saturday, April 14, 2007, 11:00 AM to 02:00 PM at Loy Lake Park. Bring your family, friends, relatives and anyone who wants to make a difference in this most critical issue. Climate Change, Global Warming or what ever you wish to call it, is now just as potentially devastating as an all out nuclear war. BBC News reports: Climate resets 'Doomsday Clock'. Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilization have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind. As a result, the group has moved the minute hand on its famous "Doomsday Clock" two minutes closer to midnight. Read the entire article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6270871.stm .