Patriotic ambivalence

Sitting here stunned by the news about veterans being mistreated by the VA. No, not for what is happening today but the simple fact it has all gone on way too long. 

I grew up surrounded by veterans. My uncles all served in WWII. My Dad was a Korean War veteran. By the time I met my husband in 1982, I thought I knew all about veterans since my Dad was 100%. I knew how hard he had to fight to have his claim approved and then how hard he fought for other veterans. At least once a month he made the trip into the DAV office in Boston with donuts or other treats.

It wasn't until 1982 I had my first rude awakening. My Dad said "he seems like a nice guy but he has shell shock" the night he met Jack. Back then research had to be done at the library and the only books on the subject were clinical books. I was an avid reader but having look up a word in every sentence to know what the hell they were writing about was frustrating. It had to be done.

Vietnam veterans were going homeless, killing themselves, ending up in jail, saw families fall apart, had hard times finding jobs, the list goes on, but not many people knew about them and few cared.

The truth is, everything veterans are facing today has gone on through more than the last 5 presidents.

40. Ronald Reagan
41. George H. W. Bush
42. William J. Clinton
43. George W. Bush
44. Barack Obama

It has gone on longer than all the sessions of congress, politicians showing up at veterans conventions and holding hearings while they never seem to do anything with what they hear.

Take a look at the numbers from the VA on where the claims are coming from.

The largest group in new claims and backlog claims are Vietnam veterans but everyone seems to want to pretend the problems are all new. Simply stunning.

The average American has no clue how long any of this has gone on so politicians get to play games and act as if they really care when history has already shown they really don't. If they cared then they would have fixed all these problems when Korean War veterans were fighting to have their claims approved but reporters just didn't care to cover their issues. It would have been fixed when Vietnam veterans came home being eaten away by Agent Orange, PTSD, TBI and problems getting claims approved so they could be taken care of by the VA.

Had they really cared, then by the time this generation of veterans came home, they would not still be suffering from "patriotic" ambivalence.

Nothing has changed but more years gone by, more money spent on making and breaking promises and the veterans, well, they just go on fighting for what they should never, ever have to have fought for, staying alive after surviving combat.