All across the country today, people will remember the dead: the family vet who passed away in some God-forsaken place, an old man who died in a VA Hospital, or the guy who died after a peace time hitch. I often think about the numerous vets from my own ancestry, stretching all the way back to the American Revolution.
Today, I am thinking about the living vet. As a progressive, I would like for our country to do a little better for the Iraq vets. According to the Christian Science Monitor, 170,000 of them have returned home to needless hassles with housing, jobs and health care. Furthermore, the same article tells the story of a Colorado man who came home and had an automobile accident. He suffered severe injuries and was unable to pay for recovery because he lacked insurance.
Without drifting too far from the topic at hand, and with the understanding that voters "rejected" (assuming the votes were counted properly) universal health care, isn't there something we can do for our vets along the lines of health care insurance? You have to know there is a crisis when even a Bush bureaucrat like Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi makes a statement like this:
"If you are killed, you get the $250,000 service group life insurance. But if you are just wounded and lose a leg and your wife is spending six months or a year in Washington, traveling back and forth, and not able to work...what do you do? It is troubling me."
What I don't understand is why these guys don't do more. They have power. Why aren't they doing something?
Most people who join the military have a handful of reasons for signing up. Some have a sense of duty, patriotism or commitment, others want a roof over their head, three hot meals and an education further down the road. Many times these folks come from the end of the line, desperate for help. They join and put their butts on the line every day. How much is it to ask for decent health care?
So today if you stop to think about our veterans, you might mention the living ones, and think of ways to support our men and women...by advocating these people get a fair shot.
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