Letters to the Editor Week of 7/29/19
Advocate for vets
To the editor: I want to draw readers' attention to the advocacy of Susan Weber Zeier, of Sandusky, for Burn Pits 360.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. government contractors burned tons of hazardous waste in football-field size pits using jet fuel. Items burned included batteries, medical waste, amputated body parts, plastics, ammunition, human waste, animal carcasses, rubber, chemicals, and more. Exposure to these toxins has caused devastating health conditions such as neurological disorders, pulmonary diseases, and rare forms of cancer, in veterans.
This July 4, we saw our country was willing to spend millions of dollars displaying our military might. Yet we won't use taxpayer dollars to support the men and women who signed up to serve our country, who went to war, and then became ill due to their service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Burn Pits 360 has been lobbying for more than a decade for congress to hold hearings for veterans who are victims and the physicians who are treating them so that their stories can be told. The group is still, 10 years later, waiting for those hearings. The groups that have money get access to meetings; Burn Pits 360 is a small non-profit group that has to fight for meetings and hearings with legislators.
My interest in Burn Pits 360 and also my involvement with American Promise has shown me that Americans must insist on having a greater voice in government decisions about how to spend our money. Citizens' concerns must be heard and taken as seriously as special interests, wealthy individuals, and corporations.
For more information, go to burnpits360.org and americanpromise.net
Ellen Greene Bush
Port Clinton