Letter to the editor: We didn't 'deploy' Reschenthaler

I recently received correspondence soliciting financial support from our 14th District representative, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler. I don’t know whether to be angry or frightened or both by his campaign stationery. Both the return address on the envelope and masthead on his stationery show his military service, not an address as is usual with correspondence.

I am not anti-military; I have relatives who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and peacetime, and I am proud of them all. They and all who serve answer to civilian authority: the president as commander in chief and Congress, which controls the purse strings. Former military can and should seek elective office. They bring a unique perspective to governing. However, we elect civilian representatives.

Also, last month I watched as federal officers cleared a peaceful assembly from a public park near the White House using pepper spray and rubber bullets.

In the letter, Reschenthaler wrote that we had “deployed him to Washington, D.C.” Deployed? We, not me but a majority of the district, did not deploy him; we elected him. Webster’s Fourth Dictionary uses only military terms in its definition of deploy. The emphasis on the military causes me to wonder if Reschenthaler is waiting in the wings for a military takeover of the federal government.

Lafayette Square, Tiananmen Square …. Reschenthaler’s emphasis on the military is frightening.

Martha L. McFadden

Washington, Pa.