The emails began this weekend. I was hearing from parents. I was hearing from grandparents. I was hearing from people who were just plain fans of the United States military. They were angry at what Governor Kulongoski had done.
He’d appeared at some of the Muster ceremonies where troops are being assembled in Oregon. They will be heading off to further training and then on to Iraq.
What did the Governor do? He gave long speeches about how dangerous it was over there. Something that all of those military families already knew all too well. And then what he did was worse.
He had decided he was not going to shake hands with anybody for fear of spreading the flu. I don’t know if that is a legitimate fear or not, but that is what he decided to do.
He could have kept his mouth shut, but instead he told the troops, “I’m not going to shake your hands because I’m worried about spreading the flu.” Instead, he gave them little containers of hand sanitizer.
The Governor didn’t have much class.