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Sunday, May 21, 2017

Illinois VA Bill Worth-less than Veterans Deserve

This is the headline: 

Illinois VA bill would address veteran suicides


But clearly shows the lack of knowledge behind it,
HB2647 is a 10-point plan to prevent the 22 daily suicides of veterans across the country. After three amendments, the bill has passed the House and the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee. It is up for a second reading in the Senate.
"It's about time they do something like this," said Dennis Boden, commander of the Quincy American Legion Post. "It seems to me that vets have been neglected."
The bill amends the Department of Veteran Affairs Act, requiring the department, in conjunction with the Department of Defense, to identify veterans returning from heavy casualty units or units where at least one service member committed suicide upon returning stateside.
I left this comment:

How many more Bills will politicians write but leave veterans still paying the price? Considering I only read the first couple of paragraphs where it has the nauseating misquoted number of "22 a day" which came from the VA along with the fact that it was limited data from just 21 states, from 2012, it shows no one read the report. Then there was the followup research with "20 a day" but that was also the same number the VA found committed suicide in 1999 when no one was making money or a name for themselves "raising awareness" about it. The other fact is there were over 5 million more veterans in the country. You know, the older guys no one talked about and still never seem to mention when they are over 65% of the suicides that still happen. How about politicians actually take the time to understand what has been done, failed and then know enough to actually do something about it?
Did you know that Illinois doesn't know how many veterans in that state commit suicide?

Tom Cullerton advances measures to combat veterans’ suicide epidemicSenator Tom Cullerton
SPRINGFIELD - State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) has started tackling obstacles found during the Veterans Suicide Taskforce hearings.
Cullerton advanced Senate Bill 1693 to allow deceased veterans with military service to include their veteran status, branch of military and the period of time served in the military on their death certificate.
“We need to get to the cause of veteran suicide,” Cullerton said. “The only way to tackle the problem is to have a complete picture. This is a simple way to collect statistics and honor Illinois’ veterans.”
The idea was suggested by DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgenson, who indicated that veteran suicide was under reported since Illinois death certificates do not include information on the history of U.S. military service.


I need to go to the bathroom now since I am sick to my stomach thinking of all the veterans who will still commit suicide while politicians leave them paying the price with their lives. 

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