Editor,

As Rob Born called me out personally in a recent letter to the editor and tried to cry victim, I am compelled to defend myself against him.

There is a Bill Russell quote regarding the Watts riots. He said: “I don’t respect people who shoot out street lights. When they start shooting them back on again, I’ll pay attention.” That defines Born perfectly. He likes to shoot out lights. He doesn’t have any answers, he doesn’t want any. He just wants to tear down everything and everyone he comes in contact with.

Remember when he ran Dr. Marquart out of town? In a Jan. 11, 2012 Whidbey News-Times article he said, “If it is because of me, he’s got the thinnest skin I’ve ever heard of.”

Now who has the thinnest skin?

Mr. Born feels he is the victim of unfounded character attacks and that this race “has turned ugly.” I contend this race started ugly years ago when Mr. Born began a character assassination campaign against individuals at Whidbey General.

It remained ugly as his fabrications led to the departure of fine surgeons who felt sullied by his attacks. Born once told an acquaintance of mine that the way he avoided a defamation lawsuit from WGH and Dr. Zaveruha was that he always framed his criticism in the form of a question.

That tells me that he is the type of person who will look for any way to make false accusations, and he will also try to discredit anyone who speaks the truth about him.

He continues to be ugly as he doorbells and refuses to answer questions about what he plans to do to make WGH better. Many have shared with me that his pat answer is, “read my blog.”

One friend said, “I don’t want to read your blog, tell me what you plan to do.” His response was something to the effect of, if you’re too stupid to read my blog, I don’t have time to talk to you.

My criticisms of Mr. Born come from his hypocrisy and his letter is another perfect example, just another tactic to portray himself as a reasonable candidate with the best interest of Whidbey General at heart. Don’t believe it.

I no longer work there, but I still care about the hospital’s future because our community needs WGH. Born does not have the ideas to help it. His single most joy for the last three years has been to tear it down, criticize, and make himself feel pleased as punch in the process. When he criticized us and fabricated half-baked scandal theories on his “blog,” we had to have thick skins and just take it because we were a public entity.

Now that Mr. Born has made himself a public figure, he needs to do the same.

Yes, my criticisms of him and my responses to his lies are strong, because my direct, first-hand experience with him was nothing like this fake, mild mannered, reasonable public persona he is trying to push to the community. He needs to be exposed. He’s not the victim here, but our community will be if he gets elected.

Vote Georgia Gardner for Hospital Commissioner.

Trish Rose

Coupeville