Investigate ‘advocates’
Dear editor:
Some people have stooped to some real lows lately and they say they are advocates for people and issues, but what they are really doing is nothing more than a poor attempt to plug their candidate. It’s a good thing The Sentinel-Record saw through their ploy and didn’t give them the ink that they desperately wanted.
Last week some people, who were definitely supporters of a Democrat who is a congressional candidate, were protesting a school safety program at Lake Hamilton School. They had to find some reason to protest because Congressman Bruce Westerman was there on campus with Attorney General Jeff Sessions promoting school safety. It is amazing to note that the multi-phased school safety program that includes coordinated efforts with law enforcement, private security and school staff has been supported by the community and the school board for several years. But these supporters of the Democrat congressional candidate, most of whom were not from Hot Springs or the Garland County area, kept their “protesting” going.
Then this week another supporter of this Democrat congressional candidate attacked Congressman Westerman under the guise of being an advocate for the disabled. The reason I know she is a supporter of Westerman’s Democrat opponent is she promotes the Democrat on her Facebook page. And, her staff criticizes Westerman on their Facebook pages.
This attacker runs an organization that is supposed to assist disabled people and is funded mostly by federal and state grants. She pulls in $90,000 a year and it appears that most of the public tax funds pay for her salary and the salaries of her staff. The website of the organization never says how many people they serve with the taxpayers’ funds they receive. I wonder how disabled people feel about that?
People are tired of these “advocates” who line their own pockets with taxpayer money and then go out to become political activists under the pretense that they are helping people. I think it’s time for an audit by the IRS and investigations by the state and federal agencies that provide funding to that organization to ensure taxpayer money is not being used for political reasons. Then, maybe we can find people to run an organization who can be real advocates rather than politicians. W.R. Cowan Hot Springs