Opinion and Editorials

Privatize Privatize Privatize...

Over the years privatization of government services have come and gone, the Post Office seems to be one of the few departments that has met with any success in incorporating the concept into action. Without resorting to any bad puns regarding the workers currently employed by the U.S.P.S. it is easy to see that their job dissatisfaction is only equaled by the increasing demands they do more with less.

On and off over the last decade attempts have been made to inflict the same changes on the VA, luckily the process is so complex that most of the departments in the VA have been unsuccessful in bringing privatization into our world.

That was until now, the Bush Administration is moving in every direction to privatize whatever services it can. Thus transferring the burden of providing government services to the private sector in an effort to live within an ever decreasing budget.

While the administration may be able to save money in the initial term of the contracts it develops the savings over the long run will undoubtedly diminish. 

When you couple this with a loss of control over the quality of the services provided especially to the veterans we serve the move to privatize is unwise. We can see the change in the quality of services simply by looking at the contract services that are already provided to our veterans by our partners in healthcare seen in the satellite clinics in VISN 2. Unless those services are provided by VA providers the overall veteran satisfaction leaves much to be desired.

Visit the AFGE Website and find out what you can do to stop President Bush from leading the VA down the same path the U.S.P.S has gone down before it is too late.

When you visit take a moment to write congress and let them know privatization doesn't work not now and not here.

Stop Privatization before it hits home... Click Here

Check out the latest from the frontline where the fight against privatization continues - Click Here

"What is Truth"

As we travel the road that becomes our life as humans, we struggle to define what we perceive as fact in order to make decisions that allow us to grow into productive members of society.

In the early seventies, yes I remember those years even now, truth took on meaning for me when I heard a song by Johnnie Cash that bore the same name as the one that this column took on.

In this song Mr. Cash sings about a man and his son and the distance that grew between them as his son entered that passage of life's journey known as young adulthood.

Mr. Cash bewildered by the young man that stood before him realized that his truth and his son's truth might not be the same. As he listened to his son though he also realized that for his son his perception of life was equally as true as his.

Much like these two men, the events at Canandaigua have been very different for the veterans and employees whose lives are so much apart of the soul of the facility, than the events and how they have been perceived by the administration that governs it.

When the future of the VISN was being carved out one of the hallmarks of the core values of the administration was to insure that the business it conducted be as an open book. Time after time the network leaders would empower the local leaders to be frank and factual with their employees. It was this approach that built the trust and dedication that would catapult VISN 2 into a cutting edge healthcare network on a national level.

Sadly the events of the past two years has eroded that open book philosophy, indeed the threat of closure or dismantling of what is the crown jewel in performance and customer satisfaction has broken the trust that those employees shared with their administration and it's leaders.

Rumors abound, borne for the most part from sniplets of information and innuendo, nurtured by ignorance and fear. Just like the two men who were horrified by the perspective that reflected their positions in life the two players at Canandaigua have ceased to understand each other or understand why their sides take the positions they take.

Yet the answer to their problems the same as the one that Johnny Cash found so long ago, the easiest way to bring two very different sides together is to take that first step and open that book that closed the day that Mr. Malphurs left for greener pastures.

Just like Johnny Cash and the Son he thought he no longer understood both parties need to talk, openly and honestly for in those qualities will come understanding and respect, in openness there comes with time, trust.

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