DECEMBER 2005
Gulf Coast Slaves
By Roberto Lovato
Salon.com
Tuesday 15 November 2005
Halliburton and its subcontractors hired hundreds of undocumented Latino workers to clean up after Katrina - only to mistreat them and throw them out without pay. Arnulfo Martinez recalls seeing lots of hombres del ejercito standing at attention. Though he was living on the Belle Chasse Naval Base near New Orleans when President Bush spoke there on Oct. 11, he didn't understand anything the ruddy man in the rolled-up sleeves was saying to the troops.
Martinez, 16, speaks no English; his mother tongue is Zapotec. He had left the cornfields of Oaxaca, Mexico, four weeks earlier for the promise that he would make $8 an hour, plus room and board, while working for a subcontractor of KBR, a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton that was awarded a major contract by the Bush administration for disaster relief work. The job was helping to clean up a Gulf Coast naval base in the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. "I was
cleaning up the base, picking up branches and doing other work," Martinez said, speaking to me in broken Spanish.
Even if the Oaxacan teenager had understood Bush when he urged Americans that day to "help somebody find shelter or help somebody find food," he couldn't have known that he'd soon need similar help himself. But three weeks after arriving at the naval base from Texas, Martinez's boss, Karen Tovar, a job broker from North Carolina who hired workers for a KBR subcontractor called United Disaster Relief, booted him from the base and left him homeless, hungry and without
money.
"They gave us two meals a day and sometimes only one," Martinez said.
He says that Tovar "kicked us off the base," forcing him and other cleanup workers - many of them Mexican and undocumented - to sleep on the streets of New Orleans. According to Martinez, they were not paid for three weeks of work. An immigrant rights group recently filed complaints with the Department of Labor on behalf of Martinez and 73 other workers allegedly owed more than $56,000 by Tovar. Tovar claims that she let the workers go because she was not paid by her own bosses at United Disaster Relief. In turn, UDR manager Zachary Johnson, who declined to be interviewed for this story, told the Washington Post on Nov. 4 that his company had not been paid by KBR for two months.
Wherever the buck may stop along the chain of subcontractors, Martinez is stuck at the short end of it - and his situation is typical among many workers hired by subcontractors of KBR (formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root) to clean and rebuild Belle Chasse and other Gulf Coast military bases. Immigrants rights groups and activists like Bill Chandler, president of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, estimate that hundreds of undocumented workers are on the Gulf Coast military bases, a claim that the military and Halliburton/KBR deny - even after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency turned up undocumented workers in a raid of the Belle Chasse facility last month. Visits to the naval bases and dozens of interviews by Salon confirm that undocumented workers are in the facilities. Still, tracing the line from unpaid undocumented workers to their multibillion-dollar employers is a daunting task. A shadowy labyrinth of contractors, subcontractors and job brokers, overseen by no single agency, have created a no man's land where nobody seems to be accountable for the hiring - and abuse - of these workers.
Right after Katrina barreled through the Gulf Coast, the Bush administration relaxed labor standards, creating conditions for rampant abuse, according to union leaders and civil rights advocates. Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires employers to pay "prevailing wages" for labor used to fulfill government contracts. The administration also waived the requirement for contractors rebuilding the Gulf Coast to provide valid I-9 employment eligibility forms completed by their workers. These moves allowed Halliburton/KBR and its subcontractors to hire undocumented workers and pay them meager wages (regardless of what wages the workers may have otherwise been promised). The two policies have recently been reversed in the face of sharp political pressure: Bush reinstated the Davis-Bacon Act on Nov. 3, while the Department of Homeland Security reinstated the I-9 requirements in late October, noting that it would once again "exercise prosecutorial discretion" of employers in violation "on a case-by-case basis." But critics say Bush's policies have already allowed extensive profiteering beneath layers of legal and political cover.
Halliburton/KBR, which enjoys an array of federal contracts in the United States, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has long drawn criticism for its proximity to Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly Halliburton's CEO. Halliburton/KBR spokesperson Melissa Norcross declined to respond directly to allegations about undocumented workers in the Gulf. "In performing work for the U.S. government, KBR uses its government-approved procurement system to source and retain qualified subcontractors," she said in an e-mail. "KBR's subcontractors are required to comply with all applicable labor laws and provisions when performing this work."
Victoria Cintra is the Gulf Coast outreach organizer for Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, which recently partnered with relief agency Oxfam America to help immigrant workers displaced by Katrina. She says KBR is exposing undocumented workers like Martinez to unethical and illegal treatment, even though they are supposed to be paid with federal Katrina-recovery dollars to clean and rebuild high-security facilities like the one President Bush recently visited. Cintra is one of several people fighting to recover the wages owed the workers: She drives her beat-up, chocolate-colored car across the swamps, damaged roads and broken bridges of the Gulf Coast to track down contractors and subcontractors. With yellow legal pad in hand, she and other advocates document abuses taking place at Belle Chasse, the Naval Construction Battalion Center at the Seabee naval base in Gulfport, Miss., and other military installations.
I was with Cintra when she received phone calls from several Latino workers who complained they were denied, under threat of deportation, the right to leave the base at Belle Chasse. Cintra also took me along on visits to squalid trailer parks - like the one at Arlington Heights in Gulfport - where up to 19 unpaid, unfed and undocumented KBR site workers inhabited a single trailer for $70 per person, per week. Workers there and on the bases complained of suffering from diarrhea, sprained ankles, cuts and bruises, and other injuries sustained on the KBR sites - where they received no medical assistance, despite being close to medical facilities on the same bases they were cleaning and helping rebuild.
Cintra and other critics say there's been no accountability from the corporate leaders who signed on the dotted line when they were awarded multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contracts. "The workers may be hired by the subcontractors," Cintra says, "but KBR is ultimately responsible."
"Latino workers are being invited to New Orleans and the South without the proper conditions to protect them," adds Cintra, who recently provided tents to Martinez and several other unpaid Mexican workers who fled Belle Chasse for Gulfport after being dismissed by Tovar. Cintra, a Cuban exile and born-again Christian, has since seen a small tent city of homeless immigrants spring up in the yard of her church, Pass Road Baptist, in Gulfport. "This is evil on top of evil on top of evil," she says. "The Bush administration and Halliburton have opened up a Pandora's box that's not going to close now."
Halliburton/KBR is the general contractor with overarching responsibility for the federal cleanup contracts covering Katrina-damaged naval bases. Even so, there is an utter lack of transparency with the process - and that invites malfeasance, says James Hale, a vice president of the Laborers' International Union of North America. "To my knowledge, not one member of Congress has been
able to get their hands on a copy of a contract that was handed out to Halliburton or others," Hale says. "There is no central registry of Katrina contracts available. No data on the jobs or scope of the work." Hale says that his union's legislative staff has pressed members of Congress for more
information; apparently the legislators were told that they could not get copies of the contracts because of "national security" concerns.
"If the contracts handed out to these primary contractors are opaque, then the contracts being let to the subcontractors are just plain invisible," Hale says. "There is simply no ability to ascertain or monitor the contractor-subcontractor relationships. This is an open invitation for exploitation, fraud and abuse."
Congress has heard a number of complaints recently about Halliburton/KBR's hiring practices, including the alleged exploitation of Filipino, Sri Lankan, Nepalese and other immigrant workers paid low wages on military installations in Iraq. And KBR subcontractor BE&K was a focus of Senate hearings in October, for the firing of 75 local Belle Chasse workers who said that they were replaced by "unskilled, out-of-state, out-of-country" workers earning $8 to $14 for work
that typically paid $22 an hour.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who has been an outspoken critic of the use of undocumented workers at Belle Chasse and on other Katrina cleanup jobs, said in a recent statement, "It is a downright shame that any contractor would use this tragedy as an opportunity to line its pockets by breaking the law and hiring a low-skilled, low-wage and undocumented work force."
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is also against the practice, citing its "serious social ramifications." As he told Salon, it devastates "local workers who have been hit twice, because they lost their homes."
Seventeen-year-old Simitrio Martinez (no relation to Arnulfo) is another one of the dozens of workers originally hired by Tovar, the North Carolina job broker working under KBR. "They were going to pay seven dollars an hour, and the food was going to be free, and rent, but they gave us nothing," says the thin Zapotec teenager. Simitrio spent nearly a month at the Seabee base. "They weren't feeding us. We ate cookies for five days. Cookies, nothing else," he says.
Simitrio, his co-workers, and the dozens of KBR subcontractors that employ them operate under public-private agreements like federal Task Order 0017, which defines the scope of work to be fulfilled under the contracts. Under the multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contract, KBR is supposed to provide services for "Hurricane Katrina stabilization and recovery at Naval Air Station
Pascagoula, Naval Air Station Gulfport, Stennis Space Center and other Navy installations in the Southeast Region," according to a Defense Department press release.
But the details of the agreements remain murky. "Not only is it very difficult to see the actual signed DoD contracts, but it is nearly impossible to see the actual task orders, which assign the goods or services the government is buying," says Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight in Washington. The military can ask for goods and services on an as-needed basis, he says, which means that the contracts, which add up to tens of millions of dollars, can remain open ended. According to DoD press statements, the contracts call for considerable manual labor, including "re-roofing of most buildings, barracks, debris removal from the entire base, water mitigation, mold mitigation, interior and exterior repairs to most buildings, waste treatment plants, and all incidental related work."
Simitrio and any other workers on the high-security military bases must get permission before entering the guarded gates, where they get patted down by M-16-wielding military police. Responsibility for getting private-sector construction and cleanup workers on the bases rests with the general contractor - in KBR's case, security chief Kevin Flynn. One of Flynn's responsibilities is
to negotiate passes and entry for KBR subcontractors - and their hires - to do the work stipulated by the task order.
Yet, following several complaints by Landrieu, and just a few days after President Bush visited the Belle Chasse base, agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency raided the facility and detained 10 workers who ICE spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback said had "questionable" documentation.
Representatives of Halliburton/KBR do not acknowledge the existence of undocumented workers providing labor for their operations on the Gulf Coast bases. Flynn suggested speaking to the U.S. military, who he said "has real strict control" and would know whether there were undocumented workers. "We have workers from all ethnic groups on the base," Flynn said. "To the best of my
knowledge, there are no undocumented workers."
Steve Romano, head of housing on the Belle Chasse base, said, "We have no relationship with [KBR] at all. I have no idea what that's about." A similar response was given by an official at the base's health facility when asked about undocumented workers who complained about health issues and injuries sustained on the KBR sites. The only military person to acknowledge seeing Latino workers was a watch commander who greeted me at an entry to the base. The commander
estimated there were 100 such workers there. Meanwhile, representatives with the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance say they received calls from undocumented workers at Belle Chasse who estimated there were more than 500, or "about eight busloads" of immigrant workers on-site.
Texas-based DRS Cosmotech is another subcontractor that provided cleanup crews to Halliburton/KBR in the Gulf. Roy Lee Donaldson, CEO of the company, refused to respond to accusations of non-payment and exploitation leveled at his company by several workers, including 55-year-old Felipe Reyes of Linares, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. (Donaldson hung up the phone when I identified myself as a reporter.)
"Mr. Donaldson promised us we'd live in a hotel or a house. We lived in tents and only had hot water that smelled like petroleum," Reyes said. The city of Belle Chasse has been identified in recent years as one of the most toxically polluted areas in the entire region, with several major energy companies operating there. A wide range of advocacy groups have warned about serious
health risks facing Katrina cleanup workers.
"They didn't want to pay us for two weeks of work. So we stopped working. We started a huelga [strike] on the base" added Reyes, who along with other workers, says he was later paid $1,100 - only part of what he says he was owed.
Another KBR subcontractor, Alabama-based BE&K, says it is not responsible for keeping track of the workers. BE&K spokesperson Susan Wasley said, "I can't say that we require our subcontractors' employees to produce documentation for us, because that's what our subcontractor as employer has to do. That's his responsibility."
At the bottom of the KBR subcontracting pyramid are job brokers like Tovar and Gregorio Gonzalez, who helped hire laborers for Florida-based On Site Services, another subcontractor that reportedly failed to pay wages owed to workers in the Gulf Coast. The job brokers find workers by placing ads in Spanish-language newspapers like La Subasta and El Dia in Houston; the ads typically promise room, board and pay in the range of $1,200 a week. Job brokers also run television ads on Spanish-language stations like Univision. And they attend job fairs in places like Fresno, Calif.
Not all subcontractors refuse to discuss their links to KBR. Luis Sevilla is pretty open about it if you can get to the crowded hangar on the restricted premises of the Seabee naval base where he and his crew sleep and work. Sevilla put together crews for KBR subcontractors to remove asbestos and do other construction work; his workers told me they are paid and treated well. Asked about the people who own the R.V. with a "KBR" logo outside the hangar where his workers crowd into small tents, Sevilla says, "They contract with many, many companies." Interviews with members of Sevilla's crew revealed a number of undocumented workers.
Despite the evidence of undocumented workers cleaning up after Katrina, Halliburton/KBR maintains that it runs its operations within the bounds of the law. "KBR operates under a rigorous Code of Business Conduct that outlines legal and ethical behaviors that all employees and subcontractors are expected to follow in every aspect of their work," spokesperson Norcross said by e-mail. (She did not respond to several requests for a phone interview.) "We do not tolerate any exceptions to this Code at any level of our company."
Standing in spitting distance of the KBR-branded R.V., which is parked as if it were guarding the hangar, Jose Ruiz of Nicaragua knows that his role in the Katrina cleanup is anonymous at best. "I don't have any papers, kind of like in that song by Sting - 'I'm an illegal alien,'" says Ruiz, who lived in the United States for many years before arriving to work for Sevilla at the Seabee base.
"That's the way it is."
THE REAL AMERICA
| Dear Friends, I
have recently received a lot of mail on people's
perspective on what is the REAL AMERICA, and
never being at a loss for words, I would
like to add my two cents into this discussion, as
we must be realistic about what America has
become. America at one time was one of the
finest nations in the world. This is no
longer the case. And I know most of my
readers are not the argumentative type, and so I
am not worried too much about, the love it or
leave it responses. In the first place there is no REAL AMERICA. There is only a perceived America, and perceptions vary from one end of the spectrum to the other. You could say that depending on one's perception, there is a RELATIVE AMERICA, which simply means, America is a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but it is no longer a Unified America. So the term REAL AMERICA is relative as I stated its how you look at things through your eyes. This is what I see as being the America I know. As an academically trained historian, I always start from a historical perspective and work my way forward to find out how we got where we are at. Historically, this nation was never intended to be founded on Christianity, as King George, the Spanish, the French, and the other imperialists, looked at America from a financial standpoint, and you can go back and look at the original English charters, and it will so state. The Spanish were a little more religious oriented, but this all had to do with MONEY, and WORLD TRADE, as what was Columbus looking for, a shorter route to the Far East for trade. If he made some Catholic Converts along the way, so be it, but that was not his primary or the Spanish Monarchy's prime motivation. The Spanish were really minor players as far as the USA goes in settling this country, and their interests laid further south. France on the other hand, was more involved to the north of the present day USA, and it was really the English that did most of our settling, and colonizing. Religion played a part, was never the prime reason the English came to America, although it worked out well, for those who wanted out of England, or other European countries, because they knew they would have more religious freedoms in the new world, but again it was never a basis for our formation. King George and Parliament were more concerned about establishing another market and another shipping route in their quest to become wealthier in the competitive world trade market. When we finally had enough of King George's tyranny, and taxes we decided it was time for a split, and declared our independence, a document eloquently written by Jefferson, but basically a document that meant nothing. Basically it could have been three or four sentences letting the British know we are fixing to go it alone, and if that did not suit them we would fight for what we believed in, which basically was that we were tired of doing all of the work, and not getting all the money. It has always been about money, as the early education of our children was only for the wealthy, and if it had not been for men such as Benjamin Franklin who opened up the Pennsylvania Academy, for the poor, and less fortunate, the rich would have been even more in control today than they are. It is also worthy of mention that religious institutions were the providers to the wealthy, when it came to education until Franklin came along in 1752, and opened the first public school, and was the first man to ban prayer in public school, as he understood you did not have to verbally state anything to have a relationship with your maker if that is how you believed, as you could always speak in Church on Sundays, and no one could ever tell you what to think to yourself. We also were a nation founded on LIARS and THIEVES. We lied and stole from the Native-Americans, continuously. A practice that would continue until we finally reached the Pacific and there were no more Indians to lie or steal from. These are the REAL BEGINNINGS OF THE REAL AMERICA, quite a basis to start a nation, and then pretend we were something we were not. Our leaders practiced open genocide, theft, and basically took what they wanted, after we won our Independence, and started abusing the Constitution, before it was barely printed, as in 1803, John Marshall believed apparently there were magic powers in the Constitution, that were not enumerated, and again apparently, that Marshall could only ascertain, and so he implemented, and expanded the powers that were not enumerated in the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, concerning Judicial Review, the first MAJOR INFORMAL AMENDMENT TO OUR CONSTITUTION, and the Constitution has been used by President, Congress, and the Judicial to suit their needs ever since. This is REAL AMERICA. NOWHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION IS WRITTEN ANYTHING ABOUT OUR JUDICIAL BRANCH DECIDING ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF LAWS OR ACTIONS TAKEN BY OUR GOVERNMENT, and why it is an INFORMAL AMENDMENT. There were ideologists along the way, people such as Noah Webster who spent twenty-eight years of his life inventing an AMERICAN ENGLISH for the NEW AMERICAN CULTURE, like FRANKLIN REALIZING THAT ALL CLASSES OF PEOPLE HAD TO BE EDUCATED IF WE WERE TO EVER HAVE AN AMERICAN CULTURE. Even though immigrants came in daily, they knew they would have to learn the language, and pass the tests to become an American. We ALMOST PULLED IT OFF TOO, but something called the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION CAME ALONG, making inventions more available, along with more innovations, and technology, and all of this added up to MORE MONEY. We had slavery, and continued Indian genocide for almost the first hundred years of this nation's existence and we wonder why we have so many different people that do not trust anyone, and we grew at such at rate, that even before the Civil War, people who would run for elective office saw all of the money the government was starting to accumulate, through duties, import fees, transactions fees, and other forms of revenue, and this was long before the sixteenth amendment which established INCOME TAX. In fact about twenty years before the Civil War, there was so much money in Washington we developed into a two party country, to control the elective offices, although at that time it was the Whigs and the Democrats. But the slavery, and other issues split the Whigs into so many factions the Republican Party was formed in the late 1850's, and promptly elected our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, who did implement a temporary income tax, and more dues to the government so he could fight the war, when no Constitutional Authority denied those states that seceded, the right to do so, but with the MONEY being at stake since the Cotton Gin was invented, and with the MONEY cotton brought in, and the vast farmland the US needed, Lincoln was not about to let the Confederacy get away. BECAUSE OF THE MONEY. Then came the rape and theft of the South during Reconstruction by the Northerners, because of MONEY, and we wonder why now no one trusts anyone else, when we have mass murdered the Indians, and kept the Blacks as slaves for half of this country's existence, and then had the carpetbaggers steal and pillage the South for all it was worth, and wonder why we have so much violence today? THIS IS AMERICA. THIS IS YOUR AMERICA. THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE ALLOWED HAPPEN BECAUSE YOU DID NOT WANT TO GET INVOLVED AND STOP THESE MADMEN, and now it has started to creep into your backyard, and we have began to open eyes for the first time in years. Oh we cannot leave out the invention of the telephones, and massive communications, moving pictures, and RADIO, so we could spread more lies and propaganda, and people could accumulate MORE MONEY. We now have so called CHRISTIANS THAT HAVE SO MUCH MONEY, know one knows, because they have non-profit status and protection to make more MONEY. I think you have a clearer picture of how we have arrived at where we are, and why our government has abused its own citizenry, and protected their own asses for decades through the biggest CRIME SYNDICATE THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN, THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM, and we want to claim we are a nation of majority Christian, when most Christians cannot even tell you who compiled the Bible, or when, or what it even says, and it is but one compilation of short stories we have studied over two hundred years now for at least once a week, since we have been a nation, and not a hardly a Christian one can tell you why we even have Church on Sunday's, and now you want to complain because they want to take MERRY CHRISTMAS OUT OF THE CHRISTMAS TIME MARKETING, when it has never been about the birth of Christ, as astronomers proved years ago, according to Scripture, if you do believe in what is says, according to the stars, it was determined Jesus was born sometime in April. And most Christians believe this is when he was supposedly Crucified. WHAT IRONY? Well boys and girls, THE REAL AMERICA HAS ABOUT SEEN ITS FINAL DAYS, and DISNEYLAND IS ABOUT TO CLOSE because simply we as the USSR did, we have outgrown, and outspent our merry way out of a US GOVERNMENT, and it will not be long before the first state secedes again, as the US Government has become nothing but liars, thieves, whores, and murderers. The REAL AMERICA IS HAS BECOME A NATION OF 300 MILLION, and our government was never designed to efficiently take care of that many people, and why, geographically, and economically compatible states will begin to form their own governments, and the only thing federal government will be good for is providing a proper defense, and a stable trading currency. We have become so culturally diverse, and the white man is finally fixing to find out in many parts of this country what it is like to become the minority. The supposed Christians who do not know what the first word of Scripture says, will not be able to stop it, as most of the people running the religions in this country are as big as crooks as those we have in Washington. Can we turn this around, while those who are upset about Christmas becoming a marketing holiday, bitch and moan, when they should have been electing honest people, and keeping a better eye on their government? It is highly unlikely, as nothing lasts forever, although if we start throwing out the bums in Washington, and turning off the lying media on our TV's, we may still have an outside chance, but sooner or later reality sets in, and the truth comes out, and having to face reality, is going to be difficult for most. We can make this a REAL AMERICA AGAIN, only if we do away with the Two-Party System, and if we clean out Congress. And clean out our state legislatures as well, otherwise, its time to kiss the baby, and get ready to become self sufficient again, as our monetary system is make believe, most of our causes are cover ups for the wealthy to make more money, and we no longer have a social conscience. If you want a REAL AMERICA AGAIN IT IS UP TO US AND WE BETTER ALL BE AT THE BALLOT BOX, REMEMBERING TO VOTE ABSENTEE, REMEMBERING NOT TO VOTE IN ANY PRIMARIES, AS THEY DISCRIMINATE AGAINST INDEPENDENTS AND THIRD PARTIES, AND THE GENERAL ELECTION IS NOT UNTIL NOVEMBER ANYWAY, SO NO NEED TO VOTE TWICE. WE MUST LET THE IDIOTS IN THE CONGRESS KNOW WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE, AND WE MUST REMEMBER GOVERNMENT IS NOT A RELIGION OR A THEOLOGY, IF WE DO NOT DO ALL OF THESE THINGS, YOU CAN TALK UNTIL YOUR BLUE IN THE FACE ABOUT REAL AMERICA, BUT IT WILL MAKE LITTLE DIFFERENCE. WE MUST BECOME INNOVATORS AGAIN, AND STEWARDS OF THE PLANET WE LIVE ON CONSERVING OUR RESOURCES, AND CONCENTRATING ON BEING HONEST AND HONESTLY EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN. THESE THINGS MUST BE DONE IF YOU EVER WANT A REAL AMERICA AGAIN. I do not like to be harsh or rude, and hope I have not come across like that, but I will not lie to you, and there is no reason for dishonesty, as it is clear beyond a reasonable doubt THE REAL AMERICA is only make believe. BUT WE ARE A RESILIENT PEOPLE. THERE ARE MORE AVERAGE AMERICANS THAN THERE ARE WEALTHY AMERICANS, AND THINGS WILL HAVE TO CHANGE THINGS DRASTICALLY. BASICALLY WE WILL HAVE TO START OVER. WE MUST BUY FROM AMERICAN COMPANIES WHO MAKE THEIR PRODUCTS IN AMERICA, OR DO WITHOUT, AS MOST IMPORTED ITEMS ARE NOT NECESSITIES ANYWAY. We need to concern ourselves with our country, and our country only, and taking care of our own. Taking care of our ELDERLY. We must get back to honesty, and we need to stop listening to people who have not the first clue about what they are saying, like most of our leaders. LIKE IT OR NOT PEOPLE, THIS IS AMERICA, THE REAL AMERICA. Thanks for your time. Respectfully, Guy Camp |