Another Veterans Day in the USA
By: Jack Dalton
11/12/04 "ICH" -- Here we are again, another Veterans Day. There will be many parades and many speeches about the sacrifices of veterans and how the nation must honor veterans; Special days so people can feel good, and for the veteran, the day after the parades and speeches, nothing changes.
Year by year more veterans seek help for mind and body at Veterans Administration Health Care facilities only to be turned away in increasing numbers—V.A. has no money, no room at the Inn.
But, once every year on “Veterans Day� there are parades and speeches extolling the sacrifices of those that went to war—and the day after the speeches, for the veteran, nothing changes. Bodies are still broken; minds are still tormented and haunted by nameless faces in the night.
A young man returns form Iraq missing both legs. After discharge from the Army he ends up having to live in his car—where is the “honor our veterans� for this young man?
Stu, 25 year old Marine is in an auto accident within 24 hours of his discharge but has to go to a civilian hospital for treatment and surgery. Why? The V.A. told his family he did not qualify for V.A. care.
Josh, another 25 year old Marine goes nuts while still in Iraq; Instead of the Marine Corps trying to treat his multi-symptomatic PTSD they put him in jail for 5 years.
How does any of this show honor to those that have given their all? It would be easy to dismiss these three as imaginary people, but they are real and their stories are real. The worst of it is the simple fact these three are not atypical.
One generation of veterans after another have been asking this nation to live up to the agreement, the promise, it made to veterans; simply to provide the mental and physical healthcare in an timely manner by qualified medical personnel. To provide disability compensation for those that are unable to work due to their disability; And to stop pitting one group of veterans against another in a fight for decreasing funds in the V.A.
If this nation really cared about “honoring� those that have borne the cost of battle it would make the V.A. budget a mandatory budget line item instead of what we have today. Today not only is the amount of money for the V.A. up for grabs from year to year and voted on, but if there will even be a budget for the V.A.
Where is the “honor for those that given their all?� Keep the parades; keep all the fine speeches. If this nation was really serious about honoring this nations veterans it would provide decent, qualified and timely healthcare for veterans and no veteran would ever be told there is no room at the Inn or that did “do not qualify.�
In short, properly fund the V.A. and that would be a first step at living up to the promises made to those, by this country, that would experience the inhumanity and brutality that is war.
Jack Dalton is a disabled Vietnam veteran that lives in Portland, Oregon. He is an independent writer whose articles have appeared in many, many web publications as well as spurring articles in the Village Voice, the Oregonian and N.Y. Times as well as broadcast media. He is very active in military and veterans issues and may be contacted thru the Project for an Old American Century http://oldamericancentury.org/index.htm where he is a columnist. His direct email address is jack_dalton@ommp.org
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7277.htm
By: Jack Dalton
11/12/04 "ICH" -- Here we are again, another Veterans Day. There will be many parades and many speeches about the sacrifices of veterans and how the nation must honor veterans; Special days so people can feel good, and for the veteran, the day after the parades and speeches, nothing changes.
Year by year more veterans seek help for mind and body at Veterans Administration Health Care facilities only to be turned away in increasing numbers—V.A. has no money, no room at the Inn.
But, once every year on “Veterans Day� there are parades and speeches extolling the sacrifices of those that went to war—and the day after the speeches, for the veteran, nothing changes. Bodies are still broken; minds are still tormented and haunted by nameless faces in the night.
A young man returns form Iraq missing both legs. After discharge from the Army he ends up having to live in his car—where is the “honor our veterans� for this young man?
Stu, 25 year old Marine is in an auto accident within 24 hours of his discharge but has to go to a civilian hospital for treatment and surgery. Why? The V.A. told his family he did not qualify for V.A. care.
Josh, another 25 year old Marine goes nuts while still in Iraq; Instead of the Marine Corps trying to treat his multi-symptomatic PTSD they put him in jail for 5 years.
How does any of this show honor to those that have given their all? It would be easy to dismiss these three as imaginary people, but they are real and their stories are real. The worst of it is the simple fact these three are not atypical.
One generation of veterans after another have been asking this nation to live up to the agreement, the promise, it made to veterans; simply to provide the mental and physical healthcare in an timely manner by qualified medical personnel. To provide disability compensation for those that are unable to work due to their disability; And to stop pitting one group of veterans against another in a fight for decreasing funds in the V.A.
If this nation really cared about “honoring� those that have borne the cost of battle it would make the V.A. budget a mandatory budget line item instead of what we have today. Today not only is the amount of money for the V.A. up for grabs from year to year and voted on, but if there will even be a budget for the V.A.
Where is the “honor for those that given their all?� Keep the parades; keep all the fine speeches. If this nation was really serious about honoring this nations veterans it would provide decent, qualified and timely healthcare for veterans and no veteran would ever be told there is no room at the Inn or that did “do not qualify.�
In short, properly fund the V.A. and that would be a first step at living up to the promises made to those, by this country, that would experience the inhumanity and brutality that is war.
Jack Dalton is a disabled Vietnam veteran that lives in Portland, Oregon. He is an independent writer whose articles have appeared in many, many web publications as well as spurring articles in the Village Voice, the Oregonian and N.Y. Times as well as broadcast media. He is very active in military and veterans issues and may be contacted thru the Project for an Old American Century http://oldamericancentury.org/index.htm where he is a columnist. His direct email address is jack_dalton@ommp.org
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7277.htm