Did C.N.A.’s Demonstration at Whitman Home Result in a Federal Offense?
In this nurse’s opinion the California Nurses Association (C.N.A.) membership hit an all time low this afternoon in Atherton, California. You may wonder what could be worse than threatening opposition nurses, their children, and pets, or stalking opposition nurses, showing up at their relatives homes and calling family members at all hours of the night and day under the pretext of “convincing” the recalcitrant nurse that the C.N.A. is a great organization to join is low -- you weren’t in Atherton. Today, low behavior was when hundreds of C.N.A. members and supporters descended on this quiet neighborhood so they could hold a demonstration at the private residence of California gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman.
Of course this demonstration was accompanied by all the usual hyperbole and misrepresentations that are part of the C.N.A.’s usual arsenal. But to come to a person’s private home is truly above the pale. I’m sure Ms. DeMoro, Nurse Burger and company wouldn’t appreciate say the S.E.I.U. coming to their private homes and demonstrating to illustrate how the C.N.A. has engaged in raiding their nursing unions. But common decency, and socially appropriate behavior seems to be lacking in the C.N.A. leadership DNA.
But what this nurse liked best was that in the C.N.A.’s attempt to garner media attention a nurse delivered a letter to Ms. Whitman by placing said letter in Whitman’s residential mailbox. In doing so this nurse may have engaged in a federal offense. What federal offense, why the law that states only authorized letter carriers may insert mail into a residential mailbox. Oh my! The rule making and rule toting C.N.A. broke a rule themselves – color me surprised! …. More to come.
Worst U.S. Senate Office – EVER!
A little while back some of you may remember a little things called the Health care reform discussions, and if you don’t it might be time that you moved out of that cave you’ve been living in. Anyway after a hiatus of many years from my ever now and then legislative visits to our Nation’s Capitol I was well enough to endure a flight out to DC, and thanks to my electric scooter (for which my daughter had to personally shell out nearly $2,000 to buy so I might have a modicum of freedom – thank you Adventist Health) I was able to scurry around the halls of our Nation’s Capitol and meet with various legislators and their aides and provide them with this nurse’s point of view on the health care discussions that were ongoing at that time.
Since I’m a California resident I always make a point to visit my representative who translates into Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congressman Schiff, but since health care reform isn’t an issue limited to California, or just to Democrats or Republicans I also made a point to visit other Senators and Congressmen/women. Over the years I found that even though Senator Feinstein is a Democrat, she and by extension her staff make a concerted effort to at least provide the appearance of listening to the opinions of the non-Democrats that comprise our fine State, the same unfortunately cannot be said for Senator Boxer or her staff. There has been an ugly trend in her office for her staff to present an attitude of condescension to those who are of a different political persuasion then their boss. This was never more apparent than my visit to her Hart Office.
I arrived on my scooter to follow-up on the appointment request that I had faxed several weeks early to her DC office. The receptionist declared that no such request had been received, but when I presented her a copy of the request (received receipt an all) she amended her statement of denial to include that it had been received by the wrong fax machine in their office to which I responded and no one had the ability to put it in the correct person’s inbox? Shamed by my assertion and at her obvious dereliction of duty she finally acquiesced to my request that I speak with someone from the Senator’s health care team, she hastily picked up the phone, called someone and shortly afterwards a young woman came out to meet with me in the reception area. I introduced myself and asked the young woman to take a seat on the couch so I wouldn’t have to crane my neck upward to speak with her, but lacking all understanding of socially appropriate behavior she insisted on standing, thus towering above me and forcing me to look up for the duration of our conversation. She paid little attention to what I had to say and after she interrupted for a second time to demand that I simply give her a one-line statement on my position since of course she was a very busy person. I took a breath, gathered my thoughts and politely told her that as a RN and a healthcare expert I would not boil it down to “one-liner” for her, but since it was apparent that she didn’t give a damn I would end the conversation. She tried to collect herself and continue the discussion, but for me there was no reason to continue why should I waste my time and energy on a person who had such obvious disdain for a constituent who held a differing opinion from her “illustrious” leader, Boxer.
So off we went to meet with other Congresspeople, including Senator Feinstein, whose office at least attempted to present to their constituents that they cared about their opinions even if those opinions diverged from their own.
Thus after spending several days wandering the halls, thanks to my electric scooter, and meeting with numerous elected representatives I concluded that Boxer’s office staff by far was the rudest and least hospitable to people and they win the award for “the worse office on the HILL”
