Veterans, the same nation you were willing to die for needs you still

by
Chaplain Kathie

The same nation you served, either by draft of by enlistment, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, or any humanitarian mission, requires more of you now. It requires you to pay attention to it, to the facts and the truth with as much interest as you had when you wore your uniform.

There are many false emails floating around the country as much as there are false claims being made on some cable stations. This is nothing new. People will say all kinds of things to support their own political ideology and that is why you need to find out if what you are reading or hearing is the truth or not.

First and foremost, President Obama is not, repeat, not an enemy of veterans or the troops. He is not cutting the military. He is cutting wasteful spending. The same kind of spending that produced so much profit for Halliburton and KBR at the same time they were treating our troops like crap and dangerously neglected their care with everything from contaminated water to shoddy electrical work that electrocuted soldiers while they were taking showers. Obama has been slammed for cutting defense spending but it's been twisted into cutting the military.

Next is the email floating around that President Obama thought the troops wounded in service to this nation were no longer worthy of being taken care of. This came from a true report that he was thinking about private insurance paying for wounded veterans. When you know the truth however, you would not be so offended considering that until a claim is approved by the VA, the wounded veterans have to pay for their treatment. This congress did in the 90's when they thought it was a good idea for veterans to have to pay for using the VA. What it boiled down to is that until a claim is approved by the VA, it is "non-service connected" and they have to pay. The insurance companies will not pay for the treatment the VA gives because they say it's the responsibility of the government to do it and pay for it. This leaves the wounded veteran paying out of his own pocket until the claim is granted. Considering there are over 900,000 claims in the backlog pile according to Veterans for Common Sense think about how long it will take to have a claim approved, compensation given and repayment for the money the VA attached and forced veterans to pay for. Think you can get away without paying? Think again. If they happen to have a job and manage to get a tax refund the VA attaches it and takes what they billed the veteran for.

President Obama was on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and received high marks for his votes on veterans issues. He takes veterans very seriously. He is especially interested on PTSD and has been for a long time. Consider that I spend on average 70 hours a week focused on this and have spent most of my life on this. There isn't much I miss. When Obama was a senator, he had a lot of other things to pay attention to, especially running for the office of the Presidency. Yet with all of that going on, Obama zoned in on a fantastic program the Montana National Guard came up with to address PTSD and suicides. Not only was Obama aware of the problem, he showed he paid enough attention to know this program was great. Think of the fact he had hundreds of other programs he could have supported but ended up picking this one. The same one I supported with paying attention all these years as if my life depended on it.

His votes in the senate and his actions so far have been wonderful but he does have a lot to learn. The fact is, he is trying to learn because it's important to him that veteran are taken care of. When you had the heads of the major service organizations meeting with President Obama over the insurance issue, he listened and decided that his thoughts were not a good thing to even begin to plan on. He listened to them and they were very pleased he did. The problem is, nothing Obama gets right will be reported on people from the other side of the political scale.

This is why I'm asking our veterans to remember they did not serve one political party in combat, but served an entire nation. They were not all Democrats and they were not all Republicans. They were just Americans risking their lives for what the nation asked of them. You need to pay attention to the truth no matter what political affiliation the current President has. The problem is that too many didn't pay attention when the President happened to be a Republican because they simply assumed he would be good for veterans. This didn't happen and the facts are what they are. From the VA budget being cut with two occupations going on producing more wounded, the fact remained there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than there were after the Gulf War. Too much happened because veterans listened to and trusted the wrong people because they didn't pay attention to facts.

When you hear a rumor or hear something on cable TV that does not sound right, invest the time and find out what the truth is. Also do not simply assume everything is fine when they do not talk about problems. Consider how little you hear about Iraq and Afghanistan right now and then understand it's because the media doesn't really care about either one. Then consider how little you hear about PTSD and TBI as the wounded come home suffering. Veterans need to pay attention all the time and then let your voices be heard. Whatever you do, just make sure that what you do say is the truth because the men and women you served with are deserving of only the truth. When you find out you were lied to, then slam the one lying because they have just insulted you and all the men and women you served with. Your service was too valuable, your lives should matter too much and your futures depend on what we do now. It all matters too much to take any of this lightly or blindly.