Editor’s note: the following is in response to the Wally’s World column in the March 30 edition.

Well, Wally, your article somewhat surprised me. Having experienced the 1960s  and early ‘70s also, we both had a decent, well-rounded education and experienced the biggest shift in the American way of life since our Founding Fathers. I can excuse guys like Brian Beckley for confusing history and facts, but you should know better.

So, “how about those screwballs who stand in front of the post office and have the gall to compare Obama to Hitler?” Those screwballs are members of the LaRouche Movement; yeah, the fringe, left-wing group formed by Democratic Party member and founder of the U.S. Labor Party, Lyndon LaRouche. He’s the guy that ran for president once under the U.S. Labor Party in ‘76 and then seven times after that starting in1980 in the Democratic Party primaries; he even won some delegates.

During the discussion of U.S. health care reform in 2009, LaRouche’s organization took exception to what he described as Barack Obama’s proposal that “independent boards of doctors and health care experts (should) make the life-and-death decisions of what care to provide, and what not, based on cost-effectiveness criteria.” Which were in fact in the draft proposal created by the president, Reid and Pelosi, but was not meant for the public to know about. When the draft hit the Senate Finance Committee on Aug. 7, 2009, Sen. Chuck Grassely shared it with the public and because of him, Sarah Palin and LaRouche, it was removed on Aug. 14. Now let’s remember that Brian climbed into a bomb shelter around Aug. 7 and did not crawl out until sometime in early 2010.

Now how about those Tea Party followers, asking to see a real birth certificate; it is the law that before a person is nominated by a party as their choice as president they provide one. In this case that was not done. A “Certificate of Live Birth” was provided which is not a birth certificate. The problem was the copy was in the format one used in 2008 and not that of one used in 1961. This raises real concerns with many people and rightfully so since it was supposed to be a copy of one issued in 1961; wow, a real bummer. The real question is why doesn’t he just provide one and why has he spent over $2 million blocking people from seeing a birth certificate. As for the Muslim comment, the press seem to be the ones hung up on this and not the different Tea Party movements.

Now let’s talk debate. The first two years of this president’s term was debate free, so I can understand your frustration. During the health care fiasco Pelosi limited debate on the House floor to the allotted three minutes per representative, during the committee hearing on the Joint Resolution no debate was allowed. Since Boehner took over all bills must be posted for a minimum of three days before debate is opened. Last week the House passed the 7th Continuing Resolution which had been made public on March 31; Harry Reid refused to allow it on the Senate floor for debate. Why? Because the it was a bipartisan resolution with 6 percent of the Democrats voting for it. Then Paul Ryan’s committee proposal for 2012, it’s been in the papers for over four weeks now and the final bill out of committee, to be debated on by the House floor, was published on April 5.  Again Reid has stated it’s a non-starter and he won’t allow debate.

Wally, I won’t go into the polls on heath care. Let’s just say only one in the last month has the “favor” column higher the “oppose” column.

So Wally, maybe you just had a ‘60s moment and maybe if HB 1550 survives we can have more real ‘60s moments in 2013.

Jacque Duvall

Enumclaw