Too bad Veterans suffering is just another headline

Shirley MacLaine had a great line in Steel Magnolias, "I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for 40 years." but in my case, it has just been a little over 30. Unless what happens to veterans when they come home is personal to you, you'd have no way of knowing what has been going on or for how long. That is just the way it is with everything. Sure people care about veterans but when you consider that Memorial Day is this weekend and more people are planning shopping trips and cookouts, not many remember the sacrifices made we are supposed to be taking time to honor and remember.

For all the years of crap veterans have had to face because they were sent to fight this nations battles, most would do it all again. That is just the way they are. They risked their lives for the sake of virtual strangers one minute and then considered them family the next second. Memorial Day for them is more than just another day in a long weekend. Veterans Day is more than November 11 when we are supposed to remember them because they are remembering everyday what it is like to do what they did for other 92%. Currently serving are less than 1% and veterans, well they are less than 7% of the population.

For all the troubles they go through, you may think that the whole of almost 22 million veterans are in the VA system but the kicker is, there are less than 4 million receiving compensation according the latest report. Yep, we can't even take care of a fraction of our veterans without a big hoopla going on while reporters compete for the grandest headline and end up failing wretchedly to tell the real story.

Imagine the headline if they actually did some fact checking on how long all of this has been going on!

Veteran: "You're gonna get crushed" by VA health care bureaucracy
CBS News
By STEPHEN SMITH
May 22, 2014

When Marine Sgt. Michael Jeffords returned from Vietnam in 1966, he went to a Veterans Affairs hospital because he was having hearing problems after an IED exploded near him during combat. He says he had to wait a month before they would see him, then he had to jump through bureaucratic hoops just to prove his condition was authentic.

"I had to prove where I was, when it happened and how the incident occurred," Jeffords said from his Janesville, Wisconsin home. "It's kind of a frustrating experience because you think the government should know all this stuff."

Jeffords, now 71, said that the VA health care he has received over the years has generally been good - but the system designed to administer that care leaves veterans feeling disrespected and demoralized. He said the current allegations of treatment delays, preventable deaths and falsified records at VA hospitals nationwide doesn't surprise him.

"When you get between the gears of a big bureaucracy, you're gonna get crushed unless you're strong enough to get through it," he said.

Jeffords' sentiments were echoed by other veterans who spoke to CBS News this week. A few had complaints about VA medical care. Most were critical of the VA's administrative failures. None was surprised by the current reports of misconduct and treatment delays.
read more here

If you read Wounded Times you know their stories and you know that there is no reason any of this is still going on. As for me, the longer this goes on the more I am sure I was crazy to think all it would take was for the American people to be aware of the problems so they could make sure we did the right thing for our veterans. PTSD and suicides, TBI and sexual trauma, homeless veterans, you name it, has all been going on for far too long. We get excuses. We get all kinds of speeches but no accountability and the one sitting in the chair gets the blame because no one really cares to demand answers and the truth.

The current administration has had 5 years and the past was 8 years following 8 years and 4 years following 8 years. None of them fixed anything!