Proud of Jeffords

Charles S. Smith, RN, MS · May 25, 2001

Originally posted by moonshadeau:
As this whole issue of changing sides before the Memorial Day weekend throws a major curve ball to the Republican party; I just want to say that I am proud of Jim Jeffords for sticking to his morals. To all those that accuse Jeffords of quitting the party just because he wasn't invited to the national teacher of the year award is preposterous. I lived in Vermont for many years before moving and Jeffords has been a senator there for as long as I can remember. Vermonters have a different outlook on life. They believe that integrity to do what is right is more important that to follow party lines. (in my humble opinion) I hope know that the democratic party is in power after June 5th that we can accomplish some of the issues such as reducing medication costs for seniors, giving more rights to patients and hopefully assisting this healthcare crisis. I just wanted everyone to know how proud I was of his decision and that for all the bantering that I will recieve for being from vermont, I will always call myself a Vermonter.

As a Virginian, I too am very proud of Jim Jeffords. As a human, I am even more humbled by the sacrifice of self he has made to "do the right thing" by his heart. What would our country be like if more people stood up like Jeffords and made this kind of statement? In a nursing context, what would nursing look like if we all took away our masks, our lip service and our guilt and actually stood up for what we believe? We can all take a lesson from this man.

regards

chas

PeggyOhio · May 25, 2001

Agreed. I think it took a lot of courage.

I e-mailed him and told him so. Then I reminded him to keep up the good work on the nursing shortage.

[ May 24, 2001: Message edited by: PeggyOhio ]

CardiacRN · May 28, 2001

As a native Vermonter, I must say I was very pleased with his decision. Certainly well done.

cargal · May 28, 2001

Could someone fill me in on this? This sounds very interesting. Thanks,

Carrie

PeggyOhio · May 28, 2001

cargal

Senator Jeffords from Vermont, left the Republican Party.

There was up until, this happened, a 50-50 split in the Senate. 50 Republicans, 50 Democrats. Now there are 49 Republicans, 50 Democrats and 1 Independent (Jeffords)

This a small quote from his website.

"Increasingly, I find myself in disagreement with my party. I understand that many people are more conservative than I am, and they form the Republican Party. Given the changing nature of the national party, it has become a struggle for our leaders to deal with me, and for me to deal with them."

You can read the entire statement here:

SenatorJeffords

[ May 28, 2001: Message edited by: PeggyOhio ]