Wives Support Crider

Dear Editor,

For over two decades, I have watched my husband come home shift after shift, proud of the work he does as a Walla Walla County Sheriff’s deputy. I take seriously his career decisions because they affect his life in a way few outside law enforcement understand. Like the other wives whose husbands daily put their lives on the line for this county, I don’t stand behind my husband in support; I stand alongside him. That is why a group of us came together when we saw that Mark Crider was running for Sheriff and that our husbands wanted him to be their next leader. Keep in mind we did not follow our husbands’ lead blindly; those days have long passed. We are a collection of intelligent, strong-willed, and independent women who do our own research and we concluded that we want Mark Crider to be the next Sheriff of Walla Walla County just as much as our husbands do.

That is why I was troubled when I saw the comments in a recently published letter to the editor in the Union-Bulletin titled “Matt Stroe is vote for integrity of our county history.” The author of that letter marginalized the wives of deputies supporting Mark Crider as a “handful,” suggesting that our support is nothing to consider. The author even went so far as to suggest that the support for Mark Crider was generated out of fear for the current Sheriff and what he might do if support for Mark Crider was not sufficient in his eyes. To set the record straight, no man tells us what to do, and fear of this or any other Sheriff simply does not exist. I know the current Sheriff, and my relationship with him has been anything but fearful.

When you drown out all the noise in this current race, the choice for Sheriff boils down to a handful of issues: experience, qualifications, demeanor, desire, and skill. When you look at Mark Crider’s track record, it’s plain to see that he excels in all these areas. Mark is the leader the men and women of the Walla Walla County Sheriff’s Office need to successfully continue forward into the future.

Our voices may be insignificant to some, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We stand in solidarity with our husbands and support Mark Crider as our next Sheriff.

Dorothy Bush

Waitsburg