Replies

When I read about this, I fired off a letter to the Seattle Times. Let's see if they publish it:

I have lived and worked in over 52 countries during the course of my career with various foreign affairs agencies. I was appalled by Senator Murray's comments regarding bin Laden, as quoted in the December 21 edition of your paper. Her statements were irresponsible; a slap in the face to countless numbers Peace Corps volunteers, U.S. Embassy employees, and specialists within the U.S. Agency for International Development who have dedicated their very lives to a cause President John F. Kennedy once called "the long twilight struggle for freedom."

For her to say, "He’s been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and...we haven’t done that," is pure tripe. bin Laden is nothing compared to what the United States has accomplished in providing famine relief, eradicating disease and pestilence, building schools, and providing clean drinking water to millions of people around the world. In so doing, industries within cities such as Seattle and Vancouver have benefited directly from the resulting foreign aid project contracts. She and her constituency have eaten well, slept well, and earned a good living indeed while my colleagues and I labored unseen and unacknowledged far from home.

In the rush to blame America first, Senator Murray has forgotten the high price paid in that long twilight struggle. As I write this, I am fighting back the tears, recalling the friends and colleagues lost I've lost over the years to senseless acts of terrorism. How could she be so ungrateful and insensitive? How could she be so ignorant? I would urge her and the students she addressed to visit the State Department building in Washington, D.C. Within the Diplomatic entrance, they will find a granite wall inscribed with the names of those who died in the service of their country, and in service to humanity itself. Many of those names are known to me personally. They fell while on the frontlines of the long twilight struggle for freedom. May Senator Murray never forget that.

My brother-in-law was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s.

While there he met Chris Matthews and they became lifelong friends.

Gary died almost 3 years ago and Chris stayed with him for 2 hours shortly before he passed.

Murray insults all those young idealists who made a difference in the Cold War.