Happy New Year everyone!
This and the next message decision will be for the purpose of working through our backlog of excellent messages that received alot of votes, but were narrowly beaten by other messages.
For more information on Operation: Red Alert, please click here
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So without further ado, here are the messages under consideration this week.
Message #1Supporting Our Troops?
With over 10,000 wounded and maimed soldiers currently in Veteran's hospitals, President Bush & Congress has cheated our soldiers by slashing VA benefits. Meanwhile, the President is spending $50 million on his inaguration party. Where are their priorities? It is shameful to spend $50 million on a party and cut veteran's benefits. This is a betrayal to our troops. It's just not American.
Message #2No End in Sight for War Weary Soldiers
Soldiers are only supposed to be deployed once every four years, but almost a third of US military called to war in Afghanistan and Iraq have served multiple extended tours. The Army National Guard has seen a 30 percent decrease in people signing up. Many soldiers are talking of leaving instead of re-enlisting. Weekend soldiers from the guard and reserve who left jobs and family are deployed more often than full time soldiers.
Message #3New Freedom: Your Child on Drugs ?
President Bush has instructed 25 federal agencies to carry out the New Freedom Commission's recommendations for health care. The main recommendation is standardized mental health screening for all American school children. This sounds fine, but if your child has a problem, their automatic solution is to put them on drugs. This is just plain irresponsible. Do you want your child to be tested and encouraged to take mind-altering drugs for the profit of self-serving drug companies?
I would like to do a message on the tsunami relief (or lack thereof), but I feel we should wait until we see how it shakes out before we go there. As with the intelligence reform message, it may be that public pressure will cause the administration to 'act right', thus rendering our message obsolete. In fact, I stridently hope for this outcome. But just the same, let's keep an eye on the situation, and if BushCo doesn't do the right thing, let's be ready to hit them hard with a really strong message.
Also, one of you suggested we also put the 800 number to congress on our messages as well so that people could call if they were so motivated. I think that is a tremendously good idea. I lost the email with the number in it, so could anyone who knows it post it in this thread or email it to me? Thanks in advance.
Finally, if you feel that one of the messages could be worded better, stronger, or just differently, then please feel free to make suggestions in the thread.