Soggy Protest over the ACA Vote

It was definitely a soggy day in Somerset today for our planned protest event at Hal Rogers' office. We, members of Indivisible Lake Cumberland and Trumped Out in 2020,  had hoped for more but rain has a way of dampening spirits (pun intended). So 10 or 15 showed up with the tombstones with their message on them and they were pretty good and it was a motivated crowd. I have to admit that I was disappointed because I had a vision of meeting outside where the Friday afternoon traffic could see us and wonder what all those crazy people were doing at Hal's office. Didn't they know he wasn't there? We did know that but we are pretty upset at the way the vote to repeal and replace the ACA went even though we realize the House was just kicking it upstairs to the Senate. Sort of like the old game of kicking the can. Just make it go away with as little damage as possible. The Congressman had the opportunity to vote in favor of his constituency but turned it down in order to be the good soldier for the party. He really has no need to because it is commonly thought he can't be beat in the 5^th District and needs not fear for his reelection and he is almost 80 for crying out loud. Wouldn't he like to go fishing or something.

As I said, it was a motivated crowd and the Congressman's representatives there at the office were, as usual, very sympathetic and cordial. It's hard to act angry when people are so nice but we gave it our best shot. Amanda Morris spoke for many of us and she is quite articulate. We offered to leave our signs there but in a moment of rare candor one of the women working there said she would be happy to throw them in the trash for us so we took them home. One never knows when a good protest sign might come in handy.

I shot a few photos and the Commonwealth-Journal was kind enough to send a reporter over to cover the exciting event and then we dispersed having voiced our complaints with as much anger and disdain as we could muster.

This is why a good protest must always be in a high visibility area and have enough participants for it to look like a crowd. Unfortunately we all managed to fit inside the office and did so to avoid being soaked. We are still novices at this and it has been a very long time indeed that I have been vociferously involved in a protest. I pledge to do better.

 

this one was mine.  one can tell from the artistry.  plus it is the 

only one I had available to photograph

Legacy

Congressman Hal Rogers

The vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is in and the House of Representatives has voted in favor of repeal and replace. Our Congressman Hal Rogers voted in the majority. In his 5^th Congressional District some 83,000 people gained insurance under the ACA. The 5^th district ranks

dead last of the 435 congressional districts in measures of well-being. It is the poorest district in the United States. In Congressman Rogers' district there are thousands of people who will lose their health insurance, many by having pre-existing conditions. These are all people who every two years line up and faithfully vote for him to return to Washington D.C. to represent their interests.

Congressman Rogers has done very well over the decades in bringing millions of dollars in development money to his district. We have good roads and The Center for Rural Development is a jewel of a showpiece. The 914 bypass is a wonderful and safe road and is a real time saver for driving around the area. It's linkup to the Daniel Boone Parkway by way of the proposed I66 is a vision for the future. Congressman Rogers was first elected to the House in 1981 and has served uninterrupted until now. He eventually rose to the offices of the elite in the House only to be met with an insurgent party that killed the practice of earmarks leaving him without the spoils of victory. He's done a fairly

good job at attracting some industry that locates in our area largely because we work cheap and give out incentives fairly freely. He is involved in the effort to bring potential to Eastern Kentucky through development and broadband services that some believe will open up the mountains to investment capital. I would say though that it is hard for a zebra to change his stripes. Many of those efforts are mired in the same quest by the wealthy to insure that those development dollars end up in their pockets. I have to say though that the vote to strip his constituents of the basic right to affordable health care is the nadir of his career.

The Congressman will turn 80 this year and it is likely he will not serve too many more terms. His apex of power has been reached and now is on the wane. He will be able to retire to his home of Somerset to live out his time with reverence. It is good to be a king. Now, though, he might turn his thoughts to his legacy. After all, our time here on Earth is brief and we live on only in memory of our works and relationships. We have been fortunate here in Somerset and Pulaski County to hold dear another icon who has our love and respect in Senator John Sherman Cooper.

Senator Cooper is in the top 2 or 3 Kentuckians who have served their constituents and their nation with great dignity and distinction. As a young man I became an admirer of his courage when he teamed with Democrat Frank Church to offer the Cooper-Church Amendment to limit funding to the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia. It was the first high level attack on the status of the War in Vietnam and he did it as a Republican during the administration of President Nixon. He always

preferred negotiation with the North Vietnamese and it took a great deal of nerve and righteousness to do that and he was attacked for it. It failed to pass Congress but it still stands as a significant point of resistance to an immoral war. Senator Cooper also served as Ambassador to the United Nations, to NATO, to India and was special emissary for the President on many occasions. After President Kennedy's assassination he served on the Warren Commission that investigated the President's death. A statue in bronze stands on our Fountain Square to demonstrate our respect and to honor his memory. He was in all likelihood the last of the great Kentucky statesmen.

At this stage of his career Congressman Rogers has the opportunity to rise in his comparison with Senator Cooper. The Congressman is already revered in his district regardless of his actions that have not served his disadvantaged constituents all that well. He is not likely to return to the echelons of power that he once held but he can become a well known and renowned member of his party to help put the partisan gridlock that exists in our government away. It is thought that he is unbeatable in his 5^th district and that may well be true. Without fear of losing an election he is in a unique position to reach across the aisle to form coalitions with the opposition that will bring real improvement in well-being to his constituents who have been battered by persistent poverty, drug addiction and pollution. He, too, can become a beloved icon and maybe someday get his own recognition on the square.

My Take is that our Congressman can do a lot to cement his legacy by focusing on bipartisan relief for the Kentucky 5^th District which only recently was named the worst in the country for access to affordable health care.

Worst healthcare in the nation. 

I Am A Citizen

I Am A Citizen

War is the ultimate expression of the failure of humankind.

I thought now might be a good time for me to write a bit about war since the rattling of sabers is become louder by the day. I often express my dislike of war and my disdain for its effects. From those comments many of those who I encounter seem to think that I disrespect our men and women in uniform and take me to be less than patriotic. I want to make clear that I respect our men and women in uniform without reservation and appreciate the difficult and hazardous job that they do. They answer the call of their country out of different motivations but they make themselves available to be used as weapons when their country deems force to be necessary. Without the sacrifices made by hundreds of thousands of them we would not be living in the comfort and freedom that we do. What I have a problem with is the decision making that sends all those people into harms way. If I criticize military action I am not criticizing the soldier, sailor, airmen or marine who is doing the fighting. I am criticizing the people who make the decisions. Sometimes, rarely, I agree that military

action is necessary and proper. Most of the time I think we raise the sword too quickly. One of the things that I have noticed is that military leaders are not all that anxious to go into battle but once they are given the go order by the civilians that are in control of our military they set out with purpose to do the job. I think that many forget that the founders placed that in the founding document because they were well aware of what happens when a military is answerable only to itself. To their eternal credit our military leaders acknowledge this and honor it. With the civilian leadership we have these days that is proving to be a welcome practice.

We maintain the largest military in the world. Maybe not in bodies but certainly in war making ability. We spend more on the defense budget than the next 9 or 10 countries combined and that

includes Russia and China. An argument can be made that it is necessary to do that to make the world safe for democracy but that is a bit specious. Mostly what our worldwide projection of power does is make sure that markets remain open for our corporations. As a matter of fact it is estimated that as much as 80% of our defense department expenditures are devoted to this purpose and that only 20% is actually spent on national defense. On the other hand, keeping markets open also has the effect of maintaining global economic alliances that translate into security alliances. This was the point of the Trans Pacific Partnership but narrow minded people focused solely on the economic details and ignored how it would create a unified front against Chinese expansion in the South China Sea and the Pacific Rim. This isn't to say that the economic details could not be negotiated but that it had value beyond trade. Now, in the absence of such an alliance China is forging ahead with its colonization of the South China Sea and making alliances with other countries in the region. Eventually this will prove to be detrimental to the interests of the United States and maybe sooner rather than later. It appears that foresight is not a trait this administration possesses.

So, now the President is tweeting about North Korea not behaving and threatening to make them behave if China can't. This is what passes for diplomacy these days but that is not surprising since the State Department has been hollowed out and management positions still remain unfilled 100 days into the new administration which betrays an alarming lack of understanding of global affairs. Now, nobody wants North Korea to become a nation that has the ability to attack anyone with nuclear weapons. Especially Japan and South Korea but, if a shooting war starts, these are the two countries that will bear the brunt until the United States can respond. If we begin shooting in North Korea without exhausting every conceivable diplomatic effort then I will once again criticize those who send our men and women to war. Do I have the right to do that? Darn tootin' I do but that does not make me unpatriotic or unappreciative of our military. If we commit our military to any effort other than to degrade ISIS in Syria I will be critical of the decision making because no one has ever

answered the question of what we do afterwards. This is what happened in Iraq. It happened because the civilian decision makers chose to go to war based on faulty assumptions of what would happen. The military was not all that anxious to do it but once the orders were given they did it to the best of their ability which was pretty darned good. Everyone knew that a political solution would have to be reached to bring peace and that peace could not be gained militarily but on we went. It was a terrible decision that is still causing repercussions and will for decades yet. Shoot yeah I'm critical of that but not of those thousands who gave their lives or came home damaged. They did what was asked of them.

So, My Take is that I have every right to be supportive or critical. I hold the highest rank possible in the Republic. I am a citizen.

rmoore@somerset-kentucky.net