Posted by Dinah on December 6, 2008, at 15:29:49
Office of Construction and Facilities Management
Department of Veterans AffairsI'm not a huge signer of petitions or sender of letters of objection. But I have done it on occasion. I've never received a reply as thoughtfully expressed as the one from Mr. Orndoff's office.
It was a form letter, of course. But it was very detailed in outlining the thought processes involved in the decision to place the new VA hospital where it currently planned. He explained how the concerns I brought up were considered, and what they planned to do to mitigate, as best as possible, the negative impact.
I am still not in agreement with the proposed location, but I appreciated the thoughtful reply and understand the motivations better, and I have a better opinion of the project than I would have otherwise - even if I had researched the pros and cons myself. It would have been easy enough to ignore the letters, or to give a facile and condescending response.
It made me realize what media coverage of these issues could be. Even in articles that aim to present both sides of a topic, there isn't usually that degree of reasoned nuance. At least I hadn't read anything about the location argument that explained the thought processes so well.
poster:Dinah
thread:867060
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20081115/msgs/867060.html