Tom Perriello: Focus on job creation
My top priority as your representative has been finding ways to encourage job growth and economic recovery in Central and Southern Virginia. We have made smart, strategic investments in infrastructure and workforce that position our area to be leaders in alternative energy production, advanced manufacturing, and other industries of tomorrow. But while we are working hard to create opportunity, we must make sure there is a safety net for our friends and neighbors who are unable to find work.
Last week, after months of posturing, the Senate finally extended unemployment benefits that millions of Americans badly need. These benefits are a crucial lifeline while we continue to make progress on our job creation efforts. The House also passed two bills last week to help revive the manufacturing sector and create good-paying jobs in our region, in addition to bills we have already passed to create construction jobs and help small businesses. I urge the Senate to pass these jobs bills before Congress goes into recess in August.
While legislative battles dominate headlines, much of my work is helping individual constituents behind the scenes, particularly when seniors, veterans, and the unemployed are fighting for the benefits they worked hard to earn. I take my efforts on behalf of local citizens as seriously as my votes, because the federal bureaucracy can be a daunting opponent. That is why I have staff in four offices across the district—Martinsville, Danville, Farmville, and Charlottesville—who help constituents cut through the red tape and attitude they too often encounter.
I have made constituent casework and correspondence a top priority and thus far have completed work on nearly 1,100 individual constituent cases. These cases include services like securing veterans’ benefits, tracking down military service records or medals, securing Social Security benefits, Medicare/Medicaid issues, expediting passport requests, securing moneys owed by the IRS, and assisting with immigration paperwork such as overseas adoption or reuniting of families.
In my first term in Congress, I have put over $3.6 million back into the pockets of individual Virginians by helping veterans, seniors, and other constituents struggling with federal bureaucracies. This is money that the federal government owed to our neighbors in our communities, and we delivered not just much-needed financial support but also validation and, in some cases, apologies.
The money returned to constituents comes from a variety of federal sources. Thus far, I have helped secure $2.7 million in Social Security benefits for seniors, $844,000 of veterans’ benefits to constituents who served in our armed forces, and nearly $46,000 from the Internal Revenue Service that was either incorrectly withheld or from wrongly assessed penalties that got waived.
These victories are not just about the dollars returned to families, but also about fairness and recognition for those who have spent too many hours being denied what they earned. Behind every number is a story of a constituent who was on the verge of losing their home before receiving long-overdue back pay, or who was owed four months of Social Security payments, or who had been erroneously kicked off the Medicaid rolls due to a calculation error.
If you’re getting the run-around from Medicare, Social Security, the VA or any federal agency, please call or stop by my office. There’s a great team ready to serve you.
In addition to casework, we have responded to over 27,000 constituent letters and pieces of correspondence this year, bringing the total for the last 18 months to 63,304. Finally, more than 600 requests for tours of the White House, Capitol, and other Washington, D.C., attractions have been fulfilled, and nearly 100 requests for U.S. flags flown over the Capitol have processed.
Tom Perriello represents the Fifth District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives.
EMU grad among DREAM Act protestors arrested
Isabel Castillo, a 2007 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, was one of 21 recent graduates and current students from universities – all undocumented immigrants – from around the United States
who were arrested for acts of non-violent civil disobedience at the U.S. Senate Hart Office Building on July 20.
All of them were brought to the United States as children. They have been raised and educated here – this is “home” to them, since few can recall living anywhere else, Castillo said in an interview at EMU, three days after she was booked and released.
Castillo chose to be arrested, along with four young adults from Arizona, California, Illinois and Texas, by refusing to leave the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., when requested to do so by his staff members.
The protesters initially were welcomed when they visited Reid’s office to ask him to put the DREAM Act – which stands for Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors – to vote in the Senate before the end of this legislative session of Congress.
“I have been waiting quietly since this legislation was first debated in Congress in 2001,” Castillo said. “Looking ahead, I do not think there is going to be a better opportunity than the present to get this legislation passed. I cannot stay quiet anymore.”
EMU president Loren Swartzendruber and provost Fred Kniss have both spoken in support of Castillo’s efforts. “The DREAM Act is an important and necessary piece of legislation, and I have written to our Virginia senators encouraging its passage,” said Swartzendruber. “We are glad that one of our alumni is working so courageously to promote the DREAM Act.”
Without the DREAM Act, Castillo cannot obtain a social security number. She cannot work legally and thus cannot use her social work degree to support herself. She cannot get student loans if she wishes to continue to graduate school. She cannot even marry someone legally living here and be certain that she would ever be allowed to join her husband as a legal resident. She cannot travel outside of the United States and be able to return to her hometown of Harrisonburg.
For years, Castillo has lived in the shadows in Harrisonburg, getting by with casual work such as babysitting. “I am tired of living like this. I want to have an opportunity to do the right thing – to get in line for [legal] residency and to prove myself worthy of it,” she stated. “[But] I am not just doing this for me; I am doing this for the 65,000 undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools each year and who have no future the way things are now.”
Castillo has decided to gamble that speaking up with her real name – telling her real story to the public wherever possible – will yield better results than continuing to stay in the shadows. She takes solace in a favorite Spanish quotation – “Dios aprieta pero no ahorca” – which roughly means that God won’t place more on her than she can bear.
Castillo said Reid’s Senate staffers pleaded with the protesters not to force them to call in law enforcement officers on July 20. The staff even got Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., on a speaker phone to try to persuade Castillo and her fellow protestors not to risk arrest. (Gutierrez himself was arrested at a May 1 protest before the White House – he said he would not move from the White House fence until he was arrested or until comprehensive immigration reform was signed.)
Castillo listened politely to Rep. Gutierrez, knowing he was sympathetic to her cause. But she and her fellow protesters – including a dozen that Castillo led from Harrisonburg – had previously decided that they must speak up now.
Castillo was born in Mexico and brought to the United States by her parents at age 6 without proper papers. Basically, if a child is brought into the United States in such a manner, there is no method for becoming a documented resident in later years, regardless of his or her academic accomplishments or social contributions.
Like all “undocumented immigrants,” Castillo is at constant risk of deportation to the country where she was born, a risk undoubtedly heightened by her decision to go public with the difficulties that she and hundreds of thousands like her face.
Castillo views herself as an “American” in every way except for having, as she puts it, a nine-digit social security number. She has few recollections of her pre-school life in Mexico. All of her formal schooling took place here. She graduated from Turner Ashby High School south of Harrisonburg with a 4.0 GPA. She graduated magna cum laude from EMU.
Castillo says she could not have made it through EMU without the help of two married employees – Deanna Durham, assistant professor in the applied social sciences department, and Byron Peachey, associate campus pastor. The couple has remained supportive since Castillo graduated three years ago. When she needed help with getting her group to and from Washington D.C., for example, Durham and Peachey drove the group.
Under the DREAM Act, undocumented young immigrants would be given a path to legal residency if they contribute to the United States by serving in the military or getting a college education. The process would still be arduous – it would take at least six years and perhaps as much as a decade – for a young person to satisfy all the requirements for getting a “Green Card.” Yet Castillo said she would welcome such a path, no matter how hard or long, because at least the path would be there.
In a Washington Post article the day after the arrests, Margie McHugh, co-director of the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, was quoted as saying: “It is a bit of a surprise to see how bold and open a lot of the young people are about their status, and that’s changed from the past.”
The Post noted, however, that there are definite risks: “In Arizona [in early May] … undocumented students staged a protest in front of Republican Sen. John McCain’s office. Three were arrested and are in deportation proceedings.”
McHugh told the Post: “I think it’s not possible to say yet if it’s a safe or an extremely risky thing for them to do. They are taking a great risk in putting themselves out there so publicly. In the end, they’ll be judged to have been quite prescient if the law does end up happening and naïve if it doesn’t.”
Story by Bonnie Price Lofton. Lofton is the publications editor at Eastern Mennonite University.
Local Girl Scout earns prestigious award
Girl Scout Karri Greenlee of Staunton wanted to teach younger girls about responsible citizenship. In doing so, she has earned the Silver Award, the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can achieve.
Greenlee, a 10th-grader at Robert E. Lee High School, is passionate about politics and government. She decided to incorporate her interests and knowledge into activities designed to help Girl Scout Brownies and Juniors earn citizenship try-its and badges.
With the Silver Award, the project is just one facet of the comprehensive achievement program. The Girl Scout Silver Award represents a girl’s accomplishments in Girl Scouting and her community as she grows and works to improve her life and the lives of others. The first four requirements of the Silver Award help girls build skills, explore careers, gain leadership skills, and make a commitment to self-improvement.
A girl must be 11 or going into sixth grade to begin work on these initial steps. When the first four requirements are completed, a girl who is 12 years old or going into the seventh grade may undertake the Silver Award project. She must complete her project by age 14 or before the start of tenth grade.
Greenlee is the daughter of Kimberly S. Harman of Staunton. She is a member of Girl Scout Troop 365 of Staunton service unit, part of Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline Council. Her troop leader and project advisor is Vicki Bellamy.
Local author publishes memoir in verse
Lena Cantrell McNicholas has done it again. Not only has she won awards for her writings, she has created her own memoir.
Patchwork: Pieces of Appalachia has just hit the shelves and is laced with short stories, poems, songs and essays about her childhood and her friends and family.
All of the stories and poems in the book were written at different times and were meant to stand alone.
“There was never an idea for a book. One day, I had all of the works spread out, and I didn’t know if I should toss them or what. Then I began to rearrange them and realized this is a book. This is something that is different, and it is a type of memoir,” McNicholas said.
McNicholas has been writing on and off for about 20 years. Running a bed and breakfast and taking part in a music society was a main priority.
“Sometimes these ideas would pop in my mind, and I would just have to get them down,” she said.
Thinking about her mother and childhood were obvious inspiration for her works.
“Talking with my mother about my childhood would always spark a story to write about, which is how all of these came about,” McNicholas said.
McNicholas was not the only writer in the famil. Her mother, she said, was a closeted writer. It was not until McNicholas was in college and cleaning out her attic that she came across a couple poems written by her mother.
“First Violets,” which is in Patchwork, is one written by her mother.
The award-winning writer is working on another book that will be coming out sometime next year. In the nearer future, she is going to readings for her new book and trying to get it out there.
The book is available for sale by the author herself or in small book stores in Charlottesville.
Story by Jenny Hypes. Jenny can be reached at jenny.hypes@emu.edu.
Bruce Sallan: Why second marriages are so much harder
One might think that second marriages would be easier and succeed more often than first marriages. At least that might be a first instinctual reaction. But, on reflection and upon learning the statistics, it becomes clear why second (and third, fourth, and more) marriages are actually harder.
First, let’s cite the statistics. I don’t have a source, but I know it’s generally understood and accepted that first marriages end somewhere in the 40-50 percent range, while second marriages end about 66 percent of the time, and third and subsequent marriages fail around 75 percent of the time. These are not encouraging statistics. Thankfully, when I was divorced I didn’t know those discouraging numbers.
So, we now know that the odds are against us. Why? My first thought and maybe many other people’s first reaction was that we’d learn from our mistakes and “know better” the second time around. After all, we know what didn’t work, right?
No, the other adage comes to mind that the older we get, the more set in our ways we become. And, yet another cliché is true that the older we get the more baggage we carry with us. I am witnessing the opposite with my teen son and his “first love” girlfriend. While they certainly bicker, the joy of “young love” is palpable (who remembers the original song by Sonny James and the Tab Hunter cover of “Young Love”?) Frankly, it’s a joy to behold and a reminder for this old guy to pay attention to the romance in my own (second) marriage.
During the years between marriages, we do get used to being single again and, if we have children, doing things just our way. There is no doubt that happened to my boys and me. I was guilty of neglecting certain “mom” things such as anything to do with cleanliness, bathing, and general body and room maintenance. Yes, I’m exaggerating in my opinion, but my wife would likely say I’m under-stating the case.
She, on the other hand, had been single for about a decade after her first marriage and had created the ideal single life, with the perfect neat, organized, very adult home, which she thoroughly redesigned and remodeled to her exact specs. Everything in its place; everything just the way it “should” be! Clairvoyance is not required to predict what happened, but I’ll get to that later.
And, of course, age settles us into habits, longer relationships (with friends and family), and more ups and downs. All this experience can’t help but inform who we are as we progress on the journey of life. Also, our emotional guards and walls are stronger having more than likely had more experiences and disappointments than younger, innocent, newlyweds and children. Yes, the rigors of living harden us sometimes.
My wife and I experienced considerable adjustments when she became a member of our family. The Oscar and Felix syndrome was evident immediately. Oscar and Felix, for those that don’t remember, were the magnificent characters in Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.” Oscar was a poker-playing, complete slob while Felix was a neatnik, to put it nicely. I’d say he was overly anal-compulsive. Do you wonder which one I resemble?
So, my Oscar and my wife’s Felix clashed mightily over order and chaos in the house–struggling much of the time. My wife, however, had the odds stacked against her, as she was the “odd man out,” so to speak, because the boys and I had become comfortable in our Oscar ways of living. This became our first big issue as a couple. I didn’t want to change, nor did my boys. But, with time, we did because I began to recognize what an important contribution my wife was bringing to us and I was tired of getting berated (just kidding).
She was a blessing for the three boys as I’m counting myself as one of “the boys,” in this respect. But, if not for her strength and character, even this one thing could have broken us apart.
And, in our case, she was a first-time step-mom at a point in her life where that was the last thing she expected to be happening. This created an internal struggle for her that added to our challenges in the early months of our union.
So, is it any wonder, just using my own family as an example, that second and subsequent marriages might be difficult? I don’t think so. I also think too many men and women jump into another relationship or marriage without really considering the consequences to all involved. We’re human beings and we don’t like to be alone, for the majority of us.
Based on my own life, my simple advice is to take the time to really understand all the consequences of a new relationship with all its apparent “blessings.” I don’t want any of us to be adding to those high-risk statistics.
Listen to “The Bruce Sallan Show – A Dad’s Point-of-View” Thursdays at 11 a.m. PST on KZSB AM1290 in Santa Barbara or on the Internet via a live stream. For that link and all information about the show and Bruce, visit his website: http://brucesallan.com.
Nan Russell: You don’t need an expert
You don’t need an employee engagement expert to confirm what you already know and Gallup polling substantiates: the majority of employees are disengaged at work. You don’t need an employee survey to tell you why discretionary efforts are tamed, passions for work are fleeting, and ideas are tethered. And you don’t need a consultant to explain why cynicism is up, enthusiasm is down, and trust is the new workplace currency.
All you need is to reread the children’s story, “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg.” Remember that story about the greedy farmer who wanted more than one golden egg each day? By the story’s end, he had killed the golden goose and was left with no golden eggs at all.
Every day company leaders unintentionally kill enthusiasm, ideas, and initiative. They eliminate resources while still expecting immediate results. They shut out dialogue and limit open communication, while still requesting candid feedback. They pocket stock options and bonuses, while reducing staff salary and benefits. They reward unfavorable behaviors, while operating with myopic interests and escalating bureaucracy. And then they wonder why those they are striving to engage are alienated, distrustful, and fed-up.
You don’t need an expert to tell your organization that while basic productivity and job presence can be bought, staff ideas and discretionary efforts must be earned. In this era where intellectual property (the golden egg) is the competitive edge for most enterprises, organizational survival is contingent upon natural followership. So, a 20th century mindset that sees employees as interchangeable pieces won’t fuel innovative products and services, or enhance customer impressions in this now 21st century.
You don’t need an expert to tell you that out-of-touch leaders operating like medieval warlords with refrains like: “just make it happen;” “there’s no budget;” “I don’t care what it takes;” or “they should be thankful they have a job” fuel employee mind-sets akin to a scene in the movie, Stone Cold.
In that movie, Tom Selleck plays a small community police chief at odds with the town council who is telling him how an investigation should be handled. “We can fire you,” the council tells him.” “Yeah,” he responds, “but you can’t tell me what to do.”
Employees know what many leaders haven’t figured out yet. Parental, top-down cultures are as old-school as one-size-fits all print-only marketing approaches. What’s needed to change the direction of suffocating the geese with the golden eggs is a balanced understanding, which includes:
This is Not an HR Problem to Fix: If you’re one of those leaders (or companies) that proclaim employees are your most important asset, then either make that statement true, or stop saying it. What’s wrong in workplaces across America can’t be fixed with HR programs. Better recognition, more communication, or enhanced training isn’t enough to build trust and develop mutual respect.
Recognize We’re In this Together: Yes, there are problems with some leaders. But there are problems with some of the rest of us, too. Finger pointing, blaming, perpetuating an “us vs. them” mentality exacerbates the problem. Bottom line? We need each other to survive and thrive. Disengagement costs jobs and future opportunities.
Own Your Piece: If you’re a leader, take a look in the mirror. Yes, you’re under extreme pressure to meet goals and quarterly numbers, but ask yourself: are you killing the initiative of those around you with terse emails and escalating demands? Are you caught-up in a single-player game? And what about the rest of you? It’s not your company’s responsibility to make you engaged at work. This is your life, your career, your challenge. Ultimately you work for yourself, no matter who signs your check. Own your motivation and your future.
What’s Ahead?
We are approaching an era where the strongest performers, those with the golden eggs of ideas, experience, solutions, and innovation will accept nothing less than workplaces that enable them to do their best work.
These winning cultures will fuel the next generation of exceptional organizations that understand, in the big scheme of things, it’s only when we’re all winning that we truly all win. And no one will need an expert to explain why these are the magnet 21st century companies that thrive.
Column by Nan Russell. Nan is on the web at www.nanrussell.com.
Photo Slideshow: ACC Football Kickoff 2010
AFP editors Chris Graham and Crystal Graham were busy taking photos at ACC Football Kickoff 2010. See what they saw at the event in Greensboro, N.C.
ACC Football Kickoff 2010
Sandefur wins seventh, Generals beat Luray, 2-1
Taylor Sandefur was the man again for Waynesboro, going eight and a third innings and giving up a run on five Luray hits to get his seventh win in a 2-1 Generals victory Sunday night.
The win didn’t come without some drama in the ninth. Sandefur (7-0) hit Luray catcher David Villasuso with a pitch to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Then after getting Mike Jones to fly out to center for the first out, Joel Capote reached base on an error by Waynesboro third baseman Grant Fillipitch. Andrew Blackwell came in to close the game out, but he walked the first batter that he faced, Nick Rickles, before striking out Michael Broad and getting the final out on a ground ball off the bat of Jonathan Murphy.
Blackwell recorded his third save of the season with his effort in the ninth.
Fillipitch had two hits and an RBI for Waynesboro, which improves to 19-18 on the season with the win.
The Generals have Monday off before going back out on the road on Tuesday with a game at Haymarket.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Winchester knocks off Waynesboro, 6-4
A three-run sixth got Waynesboro back in the game, but a ninth-inning rally ended in dramatic fashion with Cody Hudson thrown out trying to steal third with two outs, sending the Generals to a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Winchester Saturday night.
The Royals had jumped out to a 6-1 lead with a three-run fifth off starting pitcher Brian Atkins seeming to give them control. The Generals scored three in the sixth, with T.J. Kuban getting things going with a two-out single. Devin Smith worked his way back from an 0-2 count off Winchester starter Matt Zahel (2-0) to reach on a base on balls. Jared King, who had already doubled twice, tripled on a 1-2 count to score Kuban and Smith. King then scored when Winchester centerfielder Kevin Brashears lost a Haskell Fink flyball in the lights.
Waynesboro got two on with two out in the seventh with singles by Jon Clinard and Grant Fillipitch, but Kuban lined to second to end that threat. The Generals were able to send the winning run to the plate in the ninth when Fillipitch came up with two on and two outs. Hudson was thrown out at third trying to steal on the first pitch to Fillipitch.
Atkins (1-4) took the loss, working seven and two-thirds innings and giving up six runs on 12 hits.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Five-run rally lifts Waynesboro to wild 15-14 win
A four-run top of the 12th seemed to give Woodstock one of the wildest games in the 87-year history of the Valley League. But we weren’t even close in terms of how wild things were going to get.
Five consecutive two-out walks, the last one drawn by nine-hole hitter Jon Clinard, gave Waynesboro an improbable 15-14 win at Mathers Park Friday night.
Clinard had led off the 12th with a walk off Zachary Tobolowski. Colin Harrington followed with a single, and Chase Worthington flew out to center for the first out of the inning. Drew Turocy picked up his fourth hit of the night with a flare to short left-center that loaded the bases. Grant Fillipitch followed with an RBI fielders choice that scored Clinard and made it 14-11, but left the Generals with two outs.
That’s when things got crazy.
Devin Smith walked to reload the bases, and Chase Cowell, a catcher, was summoned in with the River Bandits short on available pitchers to get the final out. Waynesboro reliever Andrew Blackwell, in his second plate appearance of the season, drew a walk to force in a run that made it 14-12. Jared King walked on a 3-2 pitch to draw the Generals to within 14-13. Catcher Alan Stoupa walked to tie the game at 14, leading to another pitching change, with second baseman Foster Dunigan brought in to face Clinard. Dunigan wasn’t close on any of his four offerings to Clinard on the walkoff.
The win improves Waynesboro to 18-17 on the season and gives the Generals a three-game playoff-berth cushion between where the Generals are in fifth place and Woodstock and Staunton, an 11-4 loser at Winchester on Friday, are at 15-20 and in a tie for ninth place, with nine games to go in the 2010 regular season.
Blackwell (2-1) picked up the win in relief.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Y, Augusta Health team up to fight obesity epidemic
Sixty percent of adult Americans are overweight, and thirty percent are obese. And our bad habits are affecting our kids, whose life expectancy, shockingly, sadly, will be less than our generation, a major step back in quality of life that is entirely preventable.
“It’s not just about the elderly and people who have had heart attacks. It’s not just about those folks with a lot of stress. It’s also about the kids, and the Y has a great representation of children. So we thought, If we come out and have some things that are interesting for the children, we can get them engaged in their own health and health outcomes,” said Arlene Macallero, the director of physician recruitment at Augusta Health, who has been working with the Waynesboro YMCA on the development of a preventive-wellness program that gets the message of heart health out to the masses.
The two organizations teamed up on Thursday to present a community health fair at the YMCA that focused on health education – for kids and their parents.
“There’s a lot of misinformation in the public with regards to their health. They can get on the Internet and go to a million sites, but not all of them present accurate information. The goal of these kinds of events is to educate the public with the right information and to let them know what we have to offer in terms of education programs, classes, et cetera,” said Kara McGill-Meeks, a clinical dietitian at Augusta Health.
The pressures for kids today come from all sides. Schools have been cutting back on physical-education classes to be able to commit more time to classroom learning to meet standardized-testing output objectives. Kids are less likely to be active with parents more protective of them in the face of fears of abduction by strangers and gangs and other illicit activities – and the increasing popularity of video games that have them plopping in front of the TV for long stretches.
And what we feed ourselves and our kids has ratcheted up dramatically in terms of caloric intake.
“We’re not asking people to starve themselves to death or give up everything. We’re just saying, Let’s look at moderation. We’ve been overeating salt, overeating fat, overeating sugar, underactivity. We need to change that whole culture,” said Jane Blosser, the clinical coordinator of the Clinical Nutrition Services Department at Augusta Health.
That goes for all age groups. The buzzword at the health fair was prevention.
“That’s exactly what we’re trying to do – to get the community to change their culture into a preventive culture,” Blosser said. “We’re excited to be a part of that. I want to motivate the community to say, Hey, this is the way to go. And it’s so much cheaper. It’s so expensive to have heart disease, to have diabetes. You can make it through your life with so much less expense related to health care if you just take some simple steps.”
“It’s important that we focus on preventive health,” said Eric Wilson, the fitness coordinator at the YMCA. “This event goes a long way to showing people the benefits of watching your nutrition, getting a good workout in. Obesity is becoming a national epidemic, and the thing is, just reducing your weight alone reduces your risk of stroke, heart attack diabetes, any number of those issues.”
Baby steps. That’s all it takes.
“This is about getting the public in, showing them how easy it is, and how much it makes a difference,” Wilson said.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
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John Castellaw: Listen to the military leadership on START
Posted on July 27, 2010 · Leave a Comment
The treaty is now before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and may come before the full Senate for a vote on ratification this summer.
Over the last several months, America’s military leaders and national security experts—from both Republican and Democratic administrations—have testified before Senate committees, all with the same message: the treaty’s modest mutual reductions and strengthened verification regime improve our national security, and the Senate should ratify the treaty.
On the benefits afforded by the treaty, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen was clear: “Through the trust it engenders, the cuts it requires, and the flexibility it preserves, this treaty enhances our ability to do that which we have been charged to do: protect and defend the citizens of the United States.”
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made it clear that Admiral Mullen was not alone: “The New START Treaty has the unanimous support of America’s military leadership,” he wrote.
Testimony in favor of the treaty has also come from former Secretaries of Defense James Schlesinger and William Perry, former Secretaries of State James Baker and Henry Kissinger and former National Security Advisors Brent Scowcroft and Stephen Hadley.
In fact, 30 high-level national security experts from across the political spectrum – including Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Frank Carlucci, Chuck Hagel and John Danforth – published an open letter in support of the treaty.
One of the most compelling reasons for ratifying the treaty is the enormous risk involved in failing to do so. Rejection of this treaty would amount to voluntarily giving up our decades-old capacity to keep tabs on the Russian arsenal.
As General Kevin Chilton, STRATCOM commander, testified, “If we don’t get the treaty, [the Russians] are not constrained in their development of force structure and … we have no insight into what they’re doing. So it’s the worst of both possible worlds.”
Some who oppose the treaty have repeatedly raised concerns that the treaty somehow limits U.S. missile defense capabilities. Again and again, Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen and others have assured Senators that those concerns are unfounded and that the treaty does not limit missile defense.
Director of the Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, was even more emphatic, stating that, “Relative to the recently expired START Treaty, the New START Treaty actually reduces constraints on the development of the missile defense program.”
Despite the remarkable bipartisan consensus in support of the treaty, its fate in the Senate is hardly assured.
Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee may well set the tone in determining whether the bipartisan support the treaty enjoys among the military leadership and national security experts is reflected in the Senate. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Ranking member of the committee, has announced his support for the treaty and called for its prompt ratification. Sens. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., have announced their opposition. Those undecided are Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., James Risch, R-Idaho, John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
The importance of the treaty demands a statesmanlike approach to this debate. As the vote approaches, the pressure to politicize the issue will increase. But this is an issue that should be above politics. The expert consensus is clear, and those who would disregard the facts and the advice of our nation’s military leadership in an attempt to make political hay do so at the risk of our national security.
The undecided members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee deserve recognition for the seriousness with which they have approached this debate. Having weighed the issue, let us hope they, along with the rest of the Senate, decide to stand with our nation’s military leadership and the combined experience of security experts from Republican and Democratic administrations alike when it comes time to vote.
As Secretary Gates noted, “For nearly 40 years, treaties to limit or reduce nuclear weapons have been approved by the U.S. Senate by strong bipartisan majorities. This treaty deserves a similar reception and result – on account of the dangerous weapons it reduces, the critical defense capabilities it preserves, the strategic stability it maintains, and, above all, the security it provides to the American people.”
John Castellaw is a 36-year retired U.S. Marine Corps general, now living on his family farm in Crockett County, Tenn.
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