VA Nurse investigated for "Sedition"

[mburbank]

VA Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition' for Criticizing Bush
By Matthew Rothschild
The Progressive

Wednesday 08 February 2006

Laura Berg is a clinical nurse specialist at the VA Medical Center in Albuquerque, where she has worked for 15 years.

Shortly after Katrina, she wrote a letter to the editor of the weekly paper the Alibi criticizing the Bush Administration.

After the paper published the letter in its September 15-21 issue, VA administrators seized her computer, alleged that she had written the letter on that computer, and accused her of "sedition."

Here's what her letter said.

"I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence of this government," it began. "The Katrina tragedy in the US shows that the emperor has no clothes!" She mentioned that she was "a VA nurse" working with returning vets. "The public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder," she wrote, and she worried about the hundreds of thousands of additional cases that might result from Katrina and the Iraq War.

"Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Brown, and Rice should be tried for criminal negligence," she wrote. "This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and resources rather than killing for oil. . . . We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.

Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times."

After her computer was seized, Berg wrote a memo to her bosses seeking information and an explanation.

Mel Hooker, chief of the human resources management service at the Albuquerque VA, wrote Berg back on November 9 and acknowledged that "your personal computer files did not contain the editorial letter written to the editor of the weekly Alibi."

But rather than apologize, he leveled the sedition charge: "The Agency is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents sedition," he said. "In your letter . . . you declared yourself 'as a VA nurse' and publicly declared the Government which employs you to have 'tragically misplaced priorities and criminal negligence' and advocated, 'act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.' "

[Chojin]

Thank god we caught that one early.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

great...now if you critisize, you are attemting an overthrow.....

[KevinTheOmnivore]

You can't lobby the government on the government dime. The same thing would happen to me if I tried that. There's nothing "now" about it, it's simply the law.

And, btw, it's a good one. She should've done it on a different computer, and simply identified herself as a healthcare worker in NM. :/

[mburbank]

Mel Hooker, chief of the human resources management service at the Albuquerque VA, wrote Berg back on November 9 and acknowledged that "your personal computer files did not contain the editorial letter written to the editor of the weekly Alibi."

Apparetly, she didn't do it at work, unless she brought her home computer to work with her.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Regardless, she essentially slapped the VA hospital's sign of approval on her e-mail. She can't do that.

ALthough the specific charge of sedition does seems a bit inappropriate.....

[AChimp]

I think this has more to do with her stating that people should "act forcefully" as opposed to her criticisms of the government. We know what she meant, obviously, but it could also be taken as condoning and inciting rioting.

Explicitly mentioning her workplace while expressing her opinion is also a no-no.

[kahljorn]

Why is mentioning your workplace some kind of violation? Like a hundred doctors and crippled patients are going to rise up and take over the government? As if a hospitol has any political sway. How did she use where she worked in the letter?

Did she say, "my company and I are going to kill you!" or did she say something like, "I work in a hospitol in va as a healthcare provider for VETS that come from WARS and frankly I don't want to see anymore health problems for no reason due to the guberments war-like ways that make more vets that make me cry at night!!!". Seems like she had a good reason for stating her occupation that was quite relevant to what she was saying, rather than using it as a, "We're all going to gang up and beat you down" type of lingo.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

She specifically threw her job title and location in there to give her some "cred" in the letter. She works in a veterans hospital, so she knows what's going on, etc. etc.

[kahljorn]

For credibility? I could understand then, maybe, but it seems more likely she threw it out there because she works with the discarded results of the war(Vets). That's credibility, sure, but it's not credibility towards rebellion, it's credibility towards why she feels the way she does. She sits there and treats people who got hurt from wars, she doesn't like the war. Seems like a pretty easy connection to make, and it has absolutely nothing to do with rebellion.

I don't know, though, it wasn't a complete letter that was posted and she did say, "Forcefully" so I guess I could see how some people would be assholes about it.

LET'S REMOVE THE GOVERNMENT FORCEFULLY IM A LOYAL POSTER ON I-MOCKERY DOT COM SO I KNOW ABOUT THESE KINDS OF THINGS>

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by kahljorn

or did she say something like, "I work in a hospitol in va as a healthcare provider for VETS that come from WARS and frankly I don't want to see anymore health problems for no reason due to the guberments war-like ways that make more vets that make me cry at night!!!".

"She mentioned that she was "a VA nurse" working with returning vets. "The public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder," she wrote, and she worried about the hundreds of thousands of additional cases that might result from Katrina and the Iraq War."

[mburbank]

Her job title does give her some 'Cred', moreso than say 'anonymous person' or 'school bus driver', since she works with returning veterans. It's completely germain.

Where in her letter do you get the idea that she's implying she speaks for the VA itself?

Why can't she do that? What law has she violated? Does this mean that no one professionally involved with soldiers is allowed to comment on the war in any non official capacity unless they remain anonymous?

[AChimp]

*sigh*

There's nothing wrong with giving your job title, it's your company that you can't mention without permission. It's bad for business when people start associating controversial opinions with a company name. Since everyone knows and accepts this, when someone goes ahead and does it, it implies consent.

For example, I couldn't go around saying, "Hi, I'm a software developer at ABC, Co. and I think that all fags need to be killed." Why? Because it would attract unwanted attention to my company.

If you don't believe me, Max, try writing a letter to the editor about a controversial topic and putting your museum's name after your signature.

She has every right to say what she did, but she went about it stupidly and brought other parties into the discussion. Now that she's apparently made a stink over the sedition charge, I'm sure that she'll be looking for a new job in a few weeks.

[kahljorn]

What happens if you are "Prosecuted" of sedition?

She didn't announce where her business was or what it was(from what I saw). Also, saying you're a VA Nurse is almost like saying you're a pediatrician. Is there some kind of peditrician alliance that will stun any pediatrician who says they are a pediatrician against the government? "Veterans Affair Nurse". "Registered Nurse" "X-ray Technician" "Janitor" "Scientist". It doesn't get much vaguer, especially if you're trying to express the fact that you are actually involved with the war to give what you are saying a little more meaning.

But again, she did say force.

[El Blanco]

Veterans' Affairs doesn't refer to her specialty or field. It is the organization she works for.