Comparing Ho Chi Minh to America’s Founders is a Slap in the Face

I don’t know whether Barack Obama is as clueless as he comes across or if he honestly thinks sucking up to a Communist regime will somehow improve his dismal performance in the Oval Office, but comparing a brutal dictator like Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh is a slap in the face to every American, especially to those of us who actually served in Vietnam during Ho’s reign of terror.

Standing alongside current Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, Obama recently said, “At the conclusion of the meeting, President Sang shared with me a copy of a letter sent by Ho Chi Minh to Harry Truman. And we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson. Ho Chi Minh talks about his interest in cooperation with the United States. And President Sang indicated that even if it's 67 years later, it's good that we're still making progress.”

Anybody who believes communism and our Declaration of Independence have anything in common is sadly mistaken.

To begin with, let’s peek at that “letter,” actually a telegram, that Ho sent to Truman in 1946. Why President Sang had to ‘bring’ Obama copy, I can’t understand since it is readily available in our own Government archives.

But he did and as we can see, Ho used the ploy of “independence” in appealing for America to “interfere” with the French who had held Vietnam as a colony long before World War Two and was reasserting their control afterward, calling for assistance in “support of [their] independence.”

In penning the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence in September 1945 Ho quoted, “All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Of that he wrote, “This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.”

That has been a common ploy of the Communists ever since its beginnings, preach “independence” while actually enslaving.

Shortly before his death in September 1969, Ho tried a similar ploy with then President Nixon in an exchange as Nixon was striving to bring hostilities to an end, Nixon and others not recognizing that the “Tet of 68 offensive” was a resounding Military Defeat for the Communist North Vietnamese, but allowing it to become a decisive Political Victory for them instead.

Outlining how “the United States must cease the war of aggression and withdraw their troops from South Vietnam, respect the right of the population of the South and of the Vietnamese nation to dispose of themselves, without foreign influence,” Ho also said, “This is the correct manner of solving the Vietnamese problem in conformity with the national rights of the Vietnamese people, the interests of the United States and the hopes for peace of the peoples of the world.”

The last U.S. troops left Vietnam on March 29, 1973 in accordance with the negotiated withdrawal outlined in the Paris Peace Accords, recognizing the right of the both the South and the North to determine their own governance. Or so it said.

As we know, soon after the American Congress all but stripped all support of an Independent South Vietnam while the Communist North received much support from both the Communist Soviet Union and China and seeing that America was no longer going to support the South and their freedom, the Communist North launched an all out bloody assault against the South as we witnessed Communist tanks roll into the city of Saigon deep in the South as American helicopters hurriedly evacuated Diplomatic personnel from the rooftop of our Embassy at the end of April 1975.

I previously described that as America’s Most Shameful Day. We sat and watched a free people fall to oppression as the South Vietnamese unable to board the last helicopters, struggled to leave the country, land on our aircraft carriers and a Naval Armada set sail for parts unknown, where they were unwanted.

Lauren Zanolli of George Mason University’s History News Network wrote in November 2006, “Historians have directly attributed the fall of Saigon in 1975 to the cessation of American aid. Without the necessary funds, South Vietnam found it logistically and financially impossible to defeat the North Vietnamese army. Moreover, the withdrawal of aid encouraged North Vietnam to begin an effective military offensive against South Vietnam. Given the monetary and military investment in Vietnam, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage compared the American withdrawal to ‘a pregnant lady, abandoned by her lover to face her fate.’ Historian Lewis Fanning went so far as to say that ‘it was not the Hanoi communists who won the war, but rather the American Congress that lost it’.”

Even though deceased by then, that was the fulfillment of Ho’s idea of being “deeply devoted to peace, a real peace with independence and real freedom.”

Not long after began what we called the exodus of the Vietnamese Boat People as untold hundreds of thousands of freedom seeking Vietnamese boarded any rickety craft they could to escape the “benevolent” Communists as the formerly free South Vietnamese were rounded up, assigned to “Reeducation Camps” never to be heard from again.

How many perished in the South China Sea at the hands of Pirates or weather will never be known. But thanks to Vietnamese author Le Thi Anh, we do know about the bloodbath within the “benevolent” The New Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh’s vision of a “unified Vietnam.”

Speaking next to Obama, Vietnam’s President Sang also said, “I also expressed my appreciation for the care that the U.S. has extended to the Vietnamese who came to settle in the United States and now they have become American citizens and contributing to the overall development of the U.S. And thanks to the support and assistance from the U.S. government as well as the American people, the Vietnamese-American community here in the U.S. has become more and more prosperous and successful in their life as well as work.”

Shameful that neither he nor Obama can make the same claim about Ho’s vision for Vietnam, expressed by a young Vietnamese woman married to a pilot I served with during the war, born after the Fall of Saigon in 1975, Do You Really Want to Rear Your Child in a Socialist Society?

In 1787 Founding Father Thomas Jefferson famously wrote: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”

Nowhere will you find any of our Founders working so diligently to enslave an entire nation and place the people under an oppressive rule as Ho Chi Minh envisioned for the People’s of Vietnam.

That Obama can now compare the murderous tyrant Ho Chi Minh to the founding of the United States of America, even with all of our imperfections, is a slap in the face to the American people, the Vietnamese-American community and especially to the memory of those 58,195 names etched on the Wall in Washington D.C. of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in support of South Vietnamese freedom.

Trayvoning of America

One thing we know the left is masters at is creating new words that make the rights effort out to be overbearing, dumb, ridiculous and to demean our traditional values at any cost.

For example, when we stood up as a ‘Tea Party’ movement, they swiftly labeled us as “Teabaggers,” knowing the word was a code word for a homosexual practice that most of us had never heard of. The steady use of it ended up demeaning our efforts and the willing lamestream media readily joined in.

The Tea Party movement today is a mere shadow of what we started out to be.

We now see the left spreading hysteria across the country over the acquittal of neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman for the self defense shooting death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida as protests broke out almost immediately and invoking the name of the youth, even though not one of those out in the streets crying and whining over have a clue who or what he was or may have been.

Intersections and highways are being blocked, false information is being spread in misidentifying people as having served on the jury, in an effort to accost them for reacting to actual evidence over an emotional verdict I believe, death threats are being sent out and the race hucksters are out in full force whipping lo information people into a frenzy.

All because Zimmerman was erroneously identified as a “White” person in the beginning instead of a “Hispanic” and Martin was a “Black” youth.

Race-Baiters, ignoring the thousands of Black youth murdered at the hands of other Blacks and even the massive death count over the years of Whites at the hands of Blacks, have latched onto this single incident in an effort to convince today’s Black Community that they are under constant threat from Whites, are held in bondage to Whites and that “Whitey” is the source of all of their troubles.

The only ones that seem to present any “solution” to the false claims seem to be New Black Panther King Samir Sabazz who publicly calls on others to “kill some ‘cracker’ babies.”

The Race-Baiters only demand Zimmerman be imprisoned, as if that would resolve the plight of today’s inner-city Black youth.

And it is not restricted to Blacks as the “Trayvoner” effort is filled with liberal Whites filled with White guilt over what happened in our country over 160 years ago when most Blacks were held as slaves.

Now ignored in this “Trayvon” movement is all of the strides we have made in improving race relations and so many more doors open to today’s Blacks than ever before, if they are willing to apply themselves, get a good education and put out the effort.

More than ever seen before have done just that and live amongst Whites as equals and at times, ‘betters’ in that their success exceeded that of others, rightfully due to their extra efforts.

But listening to Race-Baiters like Al Sharpton, none of that is true or those that made it are “sell-outs” and “Uncle Toms” who forgot where they came from, meaning in large part, they fail to support Sharpton by donating money to him.

In the end, the “Trayvoning of America” is nothing more than another effort to drive a deeper divide between people in this country. It is the old tried and true “Divide and Conquer” seen throughout history by evil forces that swoop in, takeover and oppress the people, falsely selling them a lie of they will be “free.”

Photo by Allie Morris/PBS NewsHour http://tinyurl.com/n5qlzjw

That they latch onto this single incident while ignoring thousands of others shows the concern is not really over the deaths of Black youth, but that Trayvon Martin has been made into a tool of the leftists to spread more and more discontent.

The acquittal angered people, yes. But can you sow me any high profile trial ending in acquittal that did not anger some? People form opinions based upon erroneous reports, preconceived notions and only seeing some of the evidence presented.

But do they get twisted into a social movement in the streets? No.

Stand up, America. Stop letting them play on “White Guilt” and feed into fears of Whites to Blacks.

Push back and do to the hucksters as they do to us. Label this effort what it really is.

The Trayvoning of America.

An Acquittal, Race-Baiting and Lynch Mob Hysteria

It comes as little surprise to see George Zimmerman acquitted of the charges of second degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida last year. From day one, the evidence to support such an allegation just wasn’t there and none presented during the trial did anything to disprove Zimmerman’s claims.

My initial concerns of him receiving a fair trial were in the forefront of my thoughts during the trial, seeing many from the judge going in favor of the prosecution, but in the end, justice prevailed and Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges.

At least, in a court of law he was acquitted. A heavily biased media whipped the Black Community and Liberals into a frenzy since they first made the case national news, editing audio to make Zimmerman sound racist, portraying Martin as an innocent 12 year-old simply buying Skittles and even trying to portray Zimmerman as White, changing that label to White Hispanic when his true ethnicity came out.

We even recently were informed of the Department of Justice, under Barack Obama and Eric Holder lent a hand in organizing and carrying out protests in Sanford, Florida once the Police initially determined Zimmerman acted within the law, defending himself.

Few people are falling for the claim the DOJ was in Sanford, Florida to “keep the peace.”

Thanks to the efforts of race baiters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the lamestream media, the NAACP, the New Black Panthers and Barack Obama claiming “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon, George Zimmerman was quickly convicted in the court of public opinion last year, enraging some now that the courts, viewing the actual evidence and not race-baiting hysteria acquitted him on all counts.

Word was quick to come out of Washington D.C. of the Department of Justice is “weighing a civil rights case” against Zimmerman, responding to pressure from the NAACP and ignoring that in the initial investigation, the FBI found no evidence of racism on George Zimmerman’s part.

This is the same NAACP that is outraged over a Black woman in Houston, Texas being indicted for shooting and killing an unarmed White man over a minor traffic accident with conflicting claims of just what led up to the shooting.

Many legal experts are questioning just why he was prosecuted in the first place given that the original prosecutor saw the case was weak and evidence supported Zimmerman’s claims, not those of a grieving family or the race baiters and especially not the false narrative created by what I label the ‘lamestream media’ eager to sell copy at any cost with no regard of harm to others.

What really should be considered is just why this was even a national story and just why are many up in arms over the rightful verdict?

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is not unique and in fact, the Black woman mentioned above is basing her actions on the same sort of law.

The Tampa Bay Times in Florida maintains a page of cases where Stand Your Ground has been used as a defense and show that it was justified 73 times, before and after the Zimmerman trial.

From a variety of cases, we see Black on Black, Black on White, White on White, White on Black and Hispanics as victims as well as shooters in a mix of cases.

Yet, only one case, the Trayvon Martin case, rises to national prominence and enrages people across the nation because the law saw the justice was to acquit the shooter?

Protesters, carrying signs like “When Will We Be Seen as Human” who never bat an eyelid at the massive numbers of young Blacks shot to death in major cities like Chicago on a daily basis wail as if life as they knew is over, even though they never met, never knew and likely would not have given Trayvon time of day had they met him on the street.

Surely they would not have been outraged had he been shot to death by another Black person as we see so often in our large cities.

Trayvon is just a tool for a much larger agenda now as we see incidents of unrest breaking out and malcontents using him to call on death to others they seem to hate. Admitted Communist Van Jones even enters the fray by comparing Trayvon to Martin Luther King Jr. in a created image.

Not addressed by any of the race-baiters or protesters is the actual evidence, relying instead of the racially biased reporting of the lamestream media who reported it wrong all along, no one ever asking why, if Trayvon was merely walking home after buying his Skittles and Iced Tea, why was he off the sidewalk in a neighborhood unfamiliar to him, where he was visiting his father after being suspended from school for multiple reasons and apparently walking in between homes in the neighborhood, as first described in Zimmerman’s initial 911 call.

Left out too was Zimmerman, after being told it wasn’t necessary to pursue Trayvon as he reportedly ran away, being attacked by Trayvon as Zimmerman stopped the pursuit and was walking back towards his truck. Apparently, Trayvon, who we learned through prosecution testimony, saw Zimmerman as a “crazy assed cracker” doubled back to confront Zimmerman, striking him first and knocking him to the ground, punching him in the face and pounding his head against the concrete sidewalk.

In spite of initial denials, it did come out that the autopsy showed show injuries to Trayvon’s knuckles indicating he was indeed striking Zimmerman, supported by photographs of injuries to Zimmerman’s face and back of his head.

None of the race-baiters or protesters address any of the actual evidence, instead they listen to race-baiter extraordinaire Al Sharpton as he whips them into a frenzy with his call of “We Won't Stop Until Justice Is Served,” while not granting any justice whatsoever to George Zimmerman, who is now a marked man with many calls of “Kill Zimmerman” heard.

Race-baiters have latched onto this case to further drive divisions between the people of this country and even appear to want major race riots between Whites and Blacks where the only possible winners can be the race-baiters and politicians who have long wanted to change our country from a freedom based Republic into a Socialist Oligarchy.

Anarchists’ are using it to call for mayhem and even killing of Police as they perform their duties.

In the end, there is no justification for the outrage, the unrest or even the continued persecution of a man who wanted to see burglaries stop in his neighborhood and who defended himself from what appears to have been a cocky teenager out of control with testosterone, thinking he was invincible (as many of us also once did) and chose the wrong person to attack, like many others did in the Tampa Bay Times page linked above.

The young lady mentioned above from Houston is entitled to her day in court as is the dead man’s family.

But like in the Zimmerman case, even though he never should have been prosecuted, let the evidence speak, not race-baiters or the agenda driven politicians who have tried to capitalize on the Zimmerman case.

Above all, we better find a way to shut out these hot heads and race hucksters promoting this division among us and come back together like we tried to do back in the 1960’s before they saw a way to build their own wealth by misinforming people and causing unnecessary unrest.

Light Rail Can’t Fix Stupid

Amidst audible groans and moans, the Columbia River Crossing light rail project died as the Senate Coalition majority gaveled the end of the second special session in Olympia, having defeated a last minute effort by Democrats to force the $10 Billion Transportation Bill to a vote.

Years of scheming, planning, fearmongering and wasting over $170 Million went up in smoke as proponents saw the bill that would have funded the CRC light rail project and other mega-projects around the state dissolve, due primarily to proponents steadfast refusal to listen to voters and taxpayers who have been rejecting Portland, Oregon’s light rail forced upon them since 1995.

The anger coming from elected officials in support was immediate and continues, many vowing to keep pushing the project in one manner or another, others just lashing out in angry outbursts directed at Washington State Senate Republicans who actually listened to and abided by the voices of those who elected them.

Continuing the false narrative long promoted by proponents, Oregon Governor Kitzhaber released a statement saying in part, “I am extremely disappointed that our legislative partners in the Washington State Senate failed to address the clear and present safety and economic need for this essential I-5 bridge.”
Yet, he is also who let it be known that he would kill any hopes of a new bridge if it did not include Portland’s financially failing light rail system being extended into Clark County.

He has yet to address how extending light rail improves bridge safety or helps Clark County’s economic needs, since it was seen early on that Clark County would foot the lion’s share of the projected Multi-Billion expense of construction and operations and maintenance of the light rail extension from well inside Oregon to the short distance proposed into Clark County.

Washington State Governor Inslee, who earlier traveled to our community to encourage proponents to “increase the decibels” and drown out concerned voters and taxpayers voices issued this own statement saying, “I’m beyond disappointed in this inaction. The failure by the Senate’s Republican-led majority to act on the transportation plan stops us from making important investments in maintaining and preserving our roads and bridges and ensuring the safety the public deserves.”

We are among the states with the highest gasoline tax now and Gov. Inslee wished to jack up that tax by another 10.5¢ per gallon, tax bicycle sales over $500, increase license fees on cars and more to fund his ‘pie in the sky’ plans to cave to Oregon’s demands.

And like Gov. Kitzhaber, he too does not explain just how a short light rail extension does anything in regards to “preserving our roads and bridges and ensuring the safety the public deserves.”

Representative Jim Moeller (D. Portland / Vancouver), famous for suing constituents to have their votes invalidated when he doesn’t like the outcome and for seeking ways to bypass voters completely to impose his socialist will and tax increases upon them showed his own mini-meltdown with “I’m very disappointed in the shortsightedness of some of my colleagues on this CRC issue. They simply failed to embrace the simple fact that transportation is about investing in the future. It’s about jobs and families and businesses and public safety” and “I will oppose any package that the state Senate proposes doesn’t include funding to begin anew on the CRC… Because the aging, outdated and dangerous bridges are still there and need for their replacement hasn’t changed.”

Yet, he too went along with the “no light rail, no bridge” meme promoted by Oregon, basically placing the very bridge he deems “unsafe” hostage to a financially failing and often unreliable light rail system from another state.

A couple days later, Moeller ranted, “As expected, there will be many an arm-chair engineer who will have their bridge ‘alternative’ ready. And as usual, they refuse to deal with the facts. Regardless, the only real culprit in this tragedy is the Washington Senate Republicans. It was them who refused to deal with the House Transportation Package,” completely ignoring his own refusal to support constituents and fellow legislators who have for several years opposed Portland’s light rail bring forced upon them even though he later wrote, “First, we must reach a compromise for the state to move forward. Secondly, Clark County must get something other than just a chance to pay more gas tax. And finally, salvaging some part of 10+ years of planning and efforts on this bridge is also important otherwise it truly was a waste to the both Oregon, Washington and the feds.”

Again, ignoring his own refusal to even consider accommodating constituents who have voted against light rail and any measure perceived to fund light rail since 1995.

Joining Moeller’s smoke screen and anger over voters and taxpayers winning one, fellow Democrats from the 49th district, Rep. Sharon Wylie and Senator Annette Cleveland chimed in with “It is easier to kill legislation than to build a future together. We came here to do what is right for our collective future. That may not be easy or always popular. The need to repair our infrastructure will still be here later and it will only get more urgent and expensive” from Wylie and “I am saddened today that not all of us in the Legislature are willing to be partners in the prosperity of our state. The very foundation for this prosperity is investment in our state’s transportation infrastructure…. The short-sightedness of refusing to invest in this state’s future will have repercussions for generations to come.”

Both women also ignore constituent opposition to light rail and mask their desire to impose ever increasing taxes and fees on an already struggling middle class as an “investment” and not the burden it would have been, considering Clark County has seen over four straight years now of double digit unemployment.

There too, neither woman has ever made any effort to actually lay out the benefit to Clark County citizens who would have been stuck in increased traffic congestion for at least eight years to build a new bridge to carry light rail since there is no other alternative bridge to cross the river except for one a few miles upriver.

Apparently displaying complete denial that the tax increase Democrats promoted is now dead, Sen. Tracy Eide, whose district sits some 150 miles north of Clark County, felt the need to chime in with “we still have until September to meet the deadline for paying Washington state’s share of the CRC. I hold out hope that those who have stymied the project so far will realize the stakes and join with the governor and us in moving our state forward in everyone’s best interests.”

Apparently she also refused to peek at the tea leaves to see Clark County voters have steadfastly opposed and voted against this boondoggle project she promotes as “in everyone’s best interests.”

Do voters and taxpayers not matter to Democrats at all unless they cave to their demands?

Far from it only being elected Democrats upset over taxpayers opting to retain a little more of their paychecks in order to care more for their own families, a handful of citizens, Democrats too, added their outrage in stronger terms in Letter to the Editor submissions to the Lazy C.

Roy G. Wilson wrote on July 6, “If the Columbia River Crossing is really dead, it is the people of Vancouver, Clark County, and Washington state who are the real losers. Apparently they are being governed by losers.”

Ryan McAbel added the following day, “Can you believe the stupidity of the Washington state Senate? They are a bunch of overpaid blithering idiotic baboons that couldn’t find their own brain if they had a map and a compass…. I’m going to laugh my head off when in three years’ time if the old bridge collapses and they all look stupid.”

Former Democrat School Board candidate Bob Travis said, “Hopefully all you anti-CRC types are on the rickety old bridge when it collapses and you can swim you’re dumb selves back over to economically isolated Vancouver.”

Called on his vitriolic outburst by me, Travis added, “Light rail just works Lew. It makes sense. Perhaps that’s why you sheep can’t handle it. The leader of the whiners talking about whining? That’s too funny, even for Facebook! Not a sore loser at all Lew, because those of us that can see beyond today, the progressive thinkers, haven’t lost-we suffered a setback. As did Vancouver and Clark County.”

Yes, as usual, those of us who cherish our independence, freedom and liberty and stand up against the Socialist Democrat efforts to strip us of them are just too dumb to see what is really good for us.

Writing for the Oregonian, Elizabeth Hovde added her op-ed, Without the CRC, get used to being stuck on this bridge, never acknowledging the real congestion problem is not the bridge itself, but poorly planned and maintained freeway structure in Portland.

She laments on the opposition to light rail, “we need to get the problem-solving about a river crossing away from political fights that mimicked on-the-ground wars between light-rail supporters and detractors,” “And given our region’s love and hatred of light rail, a replacement bridge should devote something less costly and less permanent to a crossing for a commuter option. Then should Vancouverites be smart enough to choose group transit, great. If they don’t, we don’t have an empty, expensive mass-transit component taking up a lane that dictated much of the bridge’s design” and “A continued light-rail fight is only good for providing material to ‘Portlandia’ and other spoofs about where we live.”

Again, ignoring that the main opposition is voters and taxpayers in Clark County and joined by several who live in Oregon, evidenced by a half-hour press conference held in January 2012 by 15 speakers and officials from both states.

Hovde almost hits on the problem in her op-ed with the ongoing distress over light rail, but stops short of acknowledging it is Oregon’s Governor who steadfastly refuses to budge and is determined to force taxpayers into accepting their light rail, even though voters and taxpayers have repeatedly rejected it, leaving us no choice but to demand the entire project be killed and start over without the light rail component that required a new bridge be built with unsafe clearance for river traffic and ignoring that one-fourth of all bridge collapses in America since 1940 were caused by collision from water craft.

The Lazy C, the Columbian, the so-called ‘newspaper of record’ for the community, should be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy again, given their efforts to denigrate potential subscribers opposed to light rail, labeling us “Hounds of Whinerville,” “Ankle Biters,” “Cockroaches,” and “Banana (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything” by editorial page editor John Laird.

Then too, this blog was among those leading the way in exposing the Lazy C’s efforts to ignore or cover up discrepancies’ and questionable practices by the Columbia River Crossing project.

The Willamette Week seemed to be the only media source willing to engage the CRC properly with numerous articles written and published by Nigel Jaquiss.

Couv.com began with many exposés as well, but seemed to fall towards more of what I refer to as “fluff issues” along the way.

The demise of this seriously flawed project was also due to several others who joined in much later. It was truly a community, citizen led effort.

Throughout it all, none of the proponents ever addressed just how their claims of an “unsafe bridge,” “easing congestion along the I-5 corridor” or “improving freight mobility” were to be improved by extending Portland’s unreliable light rail about one mile into Clark County and at a cost of $3.4 Billion before any interest on bonds were to be added or that Clark County residents could end up stuck paying $8 each way to cross the bridge, that would have added nearly $2,000 a year in expenses to the estimated 60,000 Clark County residents who work in Oregon, our elected officials failing to adequately attract jobs to our community.

Light rail would have done absolutely nothing to change the driving habits seen daily as some whip across several lanes on the bridge to make the Hwy 14 exit or to get across a few second sooner.

It would do nothing to widen or increase the ability of Portland’s narrow freeway to accommodate the increase seen over the years in traffic.

Governor Inslee not too long ago, encouraging a skeptical Cascade Bicycle Club to support the CRC lamented to them, “We move a lot of freight, but we do not move a lot of freight by bicycles. A new bridge is the only way to keep the I-5 corridor moving.”

Somehow it escapes him that the light rail he joins Gov. Kitzhaber in demanding does nothing to move freight either which is indicative of how the “debate” was promoted on false pretenses, claiming unrelated reasons and trying not to mention this was solely a light rail project all along.

Even though defeated, proponents have vowed to begin anew, Jim Moeller saying, “We need to start again. The next plan has to engage the general public better, has to be more inspiring, less utilitarian, something that people want to leave behind … for their children, or their children’s children” completely ignoring that he took the lead in is shouting down citizen concerns, demanding light rail be included and furthering the false premise of the bridge may collapse any day.

Also ignored by Moeller and Vancouver’s Mayor Tim ‘the Liar’ Leavitt is the many alternative plans proposed by citizens as well as bridge engineers such as the Third Bridge Now, Common Sense Alternative and another proposed by Bridge Architect Kevin Peterson in 2010.

To that end, all are invited to come out to the Academy, 400 E Evergreen Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98660 on July 11, 2013 from 4:30PM - 9:30PM for an open house and information meeting by the Economic Transportation Alliance.

If Jim Moeller is being honest in his call for “The next plan has to engage the general public better, has to be more inspiring, less utilitarian, something that people want to leave behind,” he and others will hopefully attend, get back in touch with constituents and learn what we want, what we will support and what we have to propose. Far from being the “arm-chair engineers” he accused us of, we are all concerned citizens who want to see our community thrive, prosper and not be used by Portland, Oregon to bail them out of their estimated $1.6 Billion in unfunded liabilities.

Republican State Senator Don Benton says, “The main lesson I hope that government bureaucrats have learned from this is, you should listen to everybody from the beginning. The CRC has been less than honest with people about facts, about deadlines.”

But above all, we are citizens that fully realize, light rail can’t fix the stupid that has been being pushed off on us for so long.