Reader believes veterans and tax payers deserve better

"The gleaming temples of Democracy that tourists visit in Washington (D.C.), the marble shrines to great leaders and great ideals, are no longer an appropriate emblem for the nation's capital. Washington (D.C.) now is more aptly visualized as a grand bazaar - a steamy marketplace of tents, stalls, and noisy peddlers. The din of buying and selling drowns out patriotic music." (William Grieder, author, Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy, April 1992.)

Do the self-serving grand-standers in Washington D.C. own this country or do the tax paying citizens who pay the salaries and benefits that congress sets for themselves own this country?

It is bad enough that we are being debarred entrance to our national parks, but the insult of keeping us out of our memorial monument sites makes the word "insult" wholly inadequate. The additional outrage of the spectacle allowed within sight of the barricaded World War Two memorial, where the usual pompous grand-standing politicians welcomed illegal immigration supporters, boils the blood of our veterans and their families.

Yet it is those same locked-out tax payers who will be forced to bear the costs to clean up the trash and repair the damage to the lawn left by that event.

I don't recall the exact words, but to paraphrase George Washington...The willingness of future generations to serve in this nation's military will be directly proportional to the perceived treatment of those who have served before. They and we deserve better.

Jon Smith,

Moses Lake