It’s a sad day…A good man died last night…(9/18/2013) …it was Ron Chesnik aka “Fozzy Bear”, who was a Carpenter in local 1977 in Las Vegas, NV. Ron had a great family, especially his wonderful wife Bonnie; we want to let them know they have our deepest sympathy. Since my service in Viet Nam only a few people’s death has had significant impact upon me. Ron’s passing has created a strong outrage which requires a response. Ron did everything you were supposed to do to find that elusive “American Dream”. He was a hard worker who would work 16 hour days with no complaint. He was a member of the Carpenters Local 1977 in Las Vegas. I met Ron in 2000 when he was a foreman for a framing and drywall company that we had contracted to build the BLM building in Las Vegas. I spent the next 12 years working with Ron in multiple positions and projects. He was probably the best framing layout man I ever met. Ron’s last job was as a superintendent for Clark Construction on a joint venture with Hunt Construction. They built Phase IV of the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System’s new 150-acre medical campus. This $364.9 million hospital project is the largest construction contract ever awarded by the VA. Phase IV’s scope of work includes building a seven-story, 790,000-square-foot medical center that has a 90-bed inpatient care unit and a 20-bed mental health facility. The center provides complete medical services, including ambulatory care, radiology, laboratories, a pharmacy, diagnostic and treatment clinics, and educational facilities. Clark also managed the build-out of a 47,000-square-foot central plant and energy center that allows the hospital to remain fully operational with four days’ worth of power, water reserves, and wastewater storage capacity. That project completed in 2011… Ron was laid off. Now layoffs are normal in the Construction trades, but when coupled with a disastrous economic downfall, life gets very difficult very quickly. Ron had planned for economic hard times…but not for the duration of this one. After months of no work, he soon could not pay his Union Dues and Medical Insurance. He would survive financially, or at least he thought so…until he got the diagnosis that he had bladder cancer. As soon as his diagnosis was received he began praying and seeking medical attention. Here is where my anger comes in. The man who built the largest VA hospital contracted in Las Vegas was not able to get any help from anyone. Ron was about 3 years away from retirement when the Union turned their back on him and our wonderful government began a series of useless waiting periods for medical treatments because he still owned a home (which was upside down). Ron spent the remainder of his life (about a year) being treated like a second class, unimportant person. Had Ron been broke or an Illegal immigrant, he would have qualified for medical care right away which may have saved or significantly extended his life. Heres my Anger List; I blame our government for failing to provide the needed medical care for a good man who had fallen upon bad times. Illegals would have received treatment. I blame our government for letting the housing market and unchecked banking systems nearly destroy our economy which decimated the construction industry. I blame the mortgage industry con artists who economically raped and pillaged the American people in the name of greed (and were never punished for this) resulting in the real estate crash I blame our politicians, republicans and democrats alike, for authorizing the laws to change which caused our economic downfall, then gave Billions of taxpayer dollars to the rich bankers and car companies to prevent their money institutions from falling. Over the last few decades our uninformed politicians, who are never held accountable for their actions, set in motion the events which caused an honest, hardworking man to find himself in a position where he could not get treatment for his cancer…which killed him. This man did not need to die…and I have much anger at many for this. America will survive…but it now seems it will do so in spite of our politicians, not because of them. …like I said…it’s a sad day! Rest in Peace Ron! An interesting side note…after General Motors was “bailed out” with our money, they are now offering me the same ¾ ton 4x4 Silverado that I paid $23,835 for in 2007, for a mere $59,632 in 2013. Guess that means they should pay us back an additional 150% more than they borrowed.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 00:38:00 +0000