Veterans Day.....

    It always brings back memories - memories that my beloved tells me I live in far too often. Memories that she says I allow to define me. Yet those memories, those experiences, *have* defined who I am today. My constant reminders are my pain, my cane, and my nightmares.

    But how does one excape the memories when we are deluged with "America Remembers" commercials, when the holiday is only observed by Government offices, banks and schools? When every commercial business has Veterans Day sales to convince me I need everything from a new garage door opener to a US Flag that won't shrink or fade?

    When even the VA hospital shuts down for routine services....

    It seems to me that in many ways, America Remembers the *wrong* things......

    Not less than two weeks ago, I was asked how I could be *proud* to be a veteran of the only war America lost...... How could I be *proud* to be a "baby killer"? How could I be *proud* to be standing here (albeit on crutches) when so many of my friends will NEVER celebrate Veterans Day again? Even if I wanted to put the past behind me (or could), I wonder if I would be *allowed* to forget......

    I would salute Mr. Clinton for his Veterans Day address did it not seem to be filled with the same empty rhetoric. I quote from his message, dated October 31, 1996:

    "Today we salute their service, honor their sacrifice, thank them for supporting this nation in every hour of need............It is our duty to remember what our veterans have done and to uphold our commitments to them and their families."

    If this is true, if the nation is *really* going to uphold its committments, would someone PLEASE answer the following questions for me?

1. Why is the VA hospital, Denver, going to lose (at last estimate) around 190 full-time positions between FY 97 and FY 98?
2. Why does it take between two (normal primary care clinic) and four weeks (audiology) for a *service connected veteran* to get an appointment to see a doctor?
3. Why, when veterans complain of ailments that the young doctors can not find an immediate cause for, are veterans subjected to the humiliation of being publicly accused of simply trying to upgrade their "disability" for monetary purposes?
4. Why, when a veteran has retired from Military service and is then found to be disabled, is their disability payment subtracted from their retirement? My 20 years in the service and my crutches, hearing aids and other disabilities are my testimony that I have earned *BOTH*.
5. Why can't a disabled veteran afford to get private health care insurance (if they can even be insured at all)? If we can not receive adequate care at a VA hospital, could we not receive a subsidy to obtain health care somewhere else?

    Currently Veterans comprise approximately 10% of the US population (over 26 million vets are still alive). I sometimes wonder how long it will take for *our* government to realize that well over half of the voting population of this country is either a vet, or the son, daughter, spouse, brother, sister or parent of a vet.

    Wake up America, your veterans need *you*, not empty words and promises you can not or will not fulfill.

    -jt

 

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