My view of the Veterans Administration

Sixty some years ago I delivered papers like many young boys and girls.  I had a fairly large route of 124 customers and delivered the Seattle Times every afternoon and in the morning on Sundays.  One of my stops was the new Veterans Hospital on Beacon Hill where I left any extra’s I had for the men there.  I usually kept about 6 or 7 extras for this stop.  What I saw at that hospital has had a profound effect on my life.  Many guys wandering the halls half dressed with wet pants mumbling to themselves aimlessly sauntering around.  These were the same guys who had without a thought for their own safety had brought our enemies to their knees in Germany, France, Italy and the South Pacific.  

I thought this is what a Veterans Hospital was, a place where they put the guys whose families didn’t want them.  Being a young boy in the 50’s I knew someday I would be a veteran too and I vowed I would never go to a V.A. hospital and to this day I haven’t.  I have been lucky as I have been able to afford outside insurance for all these years.  Many of my friends aren’t so fortunate and have to go to the V. A. for treatment.  Now we see that the atmosphere hasn’t changed that much as far as the attendants are concerned.  The mentality that would lead to making false appointment lists just to feather their own financial being is no different than what I saw as abusive non attendance when I delivered papers.  It’s the mentality of Civil Service and it permeates our government in all areas.  I’m not accusing every Civil Servant of this malaise but when they allow it to happen on their watch they are just as responsible as the bad ones. 

As the war winds down and we are inundated with the large muster out that Obama is planning for our military we will have more and more veterans who require these services standing in line, if not changed this program will only get worse.  It is beyond a government’s ability to administer such a program when it is besieged with bureaucracy.  This should be in the minds of every citizen as we are now faced with the ultimate test where all citizens’ medical decisions will be handled by bureaucrats rather than their own doctors.  With the advent of unionization for government workers it is impossible to fire or even reprimand bad employees. 

The answer lies in the public sector through outside insurance programs and benefits for the medical profession not based on hours worked but by personal achievement.  Free enterprise will always do a better job through competitive programs.  The idea that a centralized medical system with layer after layer of reports and repetition is better is nonsense.  The V.A. should be turned over to a private system that is paid on true performance of duty.  It should be run by trained hospital administrators and doctors who are familiar with a medical program and understand their potential personal psychological problems that come from working with badly injured and mentally impaired patients.  The money that is being spent including the fraud on Veterans care would more than cover the expense of a properly run private program.  We must wake up to the fact that our turn is just around the corner with the total implementation of Obama Care.  Good luck to us.   

Memorial Day

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and before you spend it at the lake or out in the desert think about what it means.  Memorial Day is a tribute to young men and women who loved life just like you, who looked forward to holidays to spend with loved ones and just loved life in general.  They didn't grow up with the thought of dying for their country, they grew up just like all of us with great plans for their future.  The few moments it will take you to say a prayer of thanks for their sacrifice won't interfere with your weekend but it will make you feel better knowing you are honoring those who can't be here to celebrate with you.  God Bless them all, they are our heroes not to be forgotten,

Written by a friend but I just had to share it with you

            

Dear Al and Jack:

Wow, guys, in just a matter of days June 6th will be upon us again and we’re already beginning to hear the flattering term  "Greatest Generation" bantered about. Who’d a' thunk it back when we were kids? But “D-Day" gets a lot of print by the clueless media when 99% of ‘em don’t really know what it was about, how critical it was. But then, so many Americans don’t really know much about our history. That’s understandable ‘cause their teachers and professors don’t know either.  We used to think our teachers were clueless. Hah!

But good buddies, I'll never forget what it cost. More importantly, not many days pass that I don’t think of you.

Jack, I’ve still got the German bayonet you sent me on the wall and somewhere around the house I’ve got the newspaper clipping of you my mom clipped from the 1944 L.A. Times. You should have been on a recruiting poster in your full battle gear with that 101^st “Screamin’ Eagle” patch on your shoulder. We never learned exactly how you were killed. Was it the single German bullet or the artillery round later that day that landed on the makeshift medical tent? I guess it really doesn’t matter. We lost you. The How is academic.

Al, I regularly clean the carbine you were aiming when the FW 190 strafed Omaha beach (and sadly,  you). I haven’t ever had the bullet-clipped front sight repaired 'cause it indicates you were firing at the German aircraft when you were hit. How’d I get hold of it? Your barracks bag was returned to your dad with all your personal effects (they apparently gave Senators who'd lost sons special considerations). Your dad understandably didn't want the rifle and gave it to my family. After the war, I wound up with it.

And speaking of rifles, you remember Calvin. You were already gone by early 1945 and wouldn't know his B-24 was blown up over Europe.  When he enlisted, he handed me his favorite possession – his Daisy BB gun -- and said, “Will you take care of this for me till I get back?” He and I had saved our money and, in 1936, I bought a “Red Ryder” BB gun and he bought the Daisy. As I write this, and after all these years of looking after it, his “Daisy” is still leaning in the corner of my closet with his BBs in it. I can’t find any of his kinfolk to pass it along to.  Maybe I’ll have to deliver it in person?

But back to D-Day. Below is an aerial photo of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on the shores of France, the final resting place of 9,386 young American's who died during the brief and bloody Battle of Normandy. It always gives me a strange feeling to realize your names are on two of those tiny white markers. The enormity of the setting would ordinarily lend impersonality – if I couldn’t see in my mind’s eye the two young guys I knew so many years ago. It’s absolutely of no solace whatsoever but to me you’ll always remain young and zany, while I’ve been turning old and gray.  And jeez, guys . . . can you believe seventy years have flown by!

I often wonder what you’d look like had you lived. I especially wonder what you’d think of the results of your sacrifices. What would you think of the 180-degree turn in what we once called “patriotism?” I remember you both nearly broke your legs hurrying to enlist when you turned old enough. In contrast, over the ensuing generations the young people nearly broke their legs hurrying to Canada or otherwise avoiding something as dangerous and uncomfortable as serving their country. You wouldn’t find it easy reconciling with the selfish, immoral attitude of a large percentage of our population. You surely would wonder why you had paid such a dear price to create a nation now ruled by morons and thieves. Guys, you wouldn't believe the country you paid your lives for . . .

I can’t properly express my sorrow at the fact that all your dreams were ended prematurely. Often I feel guilty that I have had all these additional years of life with its experiences and opportunities. There can be no fairness in that. But rest assured, I love you guys and all the others sleeping beneath those crosses. We owe you more than we can ever repay. Sleep well, guys. 

Your buddy,
--Ron

 

                                         NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
  

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Pet Peeves from a friend of this blog

   

                                                                                                              

     . . .  Hangin' on by a thread !

                                 

                            

                                                                     

                                                                                  Pee-Pee
That was not an order . . . those phonetics stand for “Pet Peeve” – something I don’t usually write about. But today I’m going to make an exception because this pet peeve of mine actually affects every one of you, regardless of how you make your living or what contribution you make to society.

I’m aware that some of you, maybe many of you, are employed in some segment, some tier, of government: federal, state, county, or city. I guess that’s understandable – it’s one of the only “careers” that remain somewhat impervious to the economic tsunami that is eroding our shores. But whether you’re in the private sector, the public sector, or the “welfare sector,” you should share this peeve.

A few days ago we got our first glimpse of the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it was ugly. The preliminary number revealed only 0.1% growth — the weakest performance in the U.S. in about three years. This number fell significantly short of the estimate of 1.1% growth and the fourth-quarter 2013 GDP of 2.6%.

Today, if you asked a group under thirty what “GDP” stood for, most would look at you with glassy eyes and go back to their texting. The next older age-group might fare a little better. Maybe. In actuality studying the nation’s Gross Domestic Product can be compared to an MRI or blood test or a biopsy. It’s like regularly poking a thermometer up the national orifice to see how healthy our country is.

But times have changed. No matter what you’ve heard from Washington recently, the U.S.A. is not only unhealthy, our once-peerless homeland should be in Intensive Care.

At the risk of overly-simplifying, GDP measures the economic well-being of a country. It’s the market-value of all officially recognized  goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita can also be considered a good indicator of a country’s standard of living.

(For purists, GDP = C + G + I + NX.  "C" is equal to all private consumption, or consumer spending, in a nation's economy. "G" is the sum of government spending. "I" is the sum of all the country's businesses spending on capital. "NX" is the nation's total net exports, calculated as total exports minus total imports.)

Despite the administration’s efforts to sugarcoat the GDP, things look BAD for America. Since 2009, annual growth has averaged around 2% -- well below our national historical average of 3.3%. What little job growth we’ve seen has been limited to low-paying positions. In fact, business investment in equipment (which includes hiring new employees) dropped 5.5% in the first quarter of 2014 —– the largest drop in five years. The housing market has slowed. Business spending has slowed. Consumer spending (other than utilities and mandatory health-care spending) has slowed. And while it may be hard to believe, even government spending as slowed.

I am peeved at a White House occupant that has put his egocentric motives ahead of the well-being of every American, living today or yet to be born. I am peeved with a White House occupant that refuses to bend to the obvious needs of the middle- and lower-class; who refuses to deny the demands of his contributors -- his cronies -- allowing such as pipelines and other job-creators. I am peeved with a White House occupant who refuses to compromise or admit he has erred, with such as the disastrous "Obamacare." I am peeved with a White House occupant that shows deference to our Muslim enemies and rudely offends many of our allies. I am peeved with a White House occupant who, in the midst of an historic economic upset that exceeds even the Great Depression, pees taxpayer money away by the millions on vacations, holidays and pure frivolities, as though to say "Screw you, America, you may be doing without, but why should I do without?" I am peeved with a White House occupant who claims to have been a professor of Constitutional Law, then goes out of his way to walk all over the Constitution whenever he can. I am peeved with a White House occupant who wiggles and squirms his way out of his scandalous irresponsibilities (e.g., Benghazi, IRS, Fast and Furious, NSA, etc.) by "investigating," "looking into" or otherwise shelving, procrastinating or hiding from.

There was once a rabble-rouser named Saul Alinsky. He advocated "revolution" in the U.S. and unashamedly published his radical plan: 

                                          (1) Control healthcare and you control the people

                                          (2) Increase the poverty level as high as possible. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live.

                                          (3) Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty.

                                          (4) Gun Control – Remove the ability to defend themselves from the government. That way you are able to create a police state.

                                          (5) Welfare – Take control of every aspect of their lives (food, housing, and income)

                                          (6) Education – Take control of what people read and listen to. Take control of what children learn in school.
                                          (7) Remove the belief in the God from the government and the schools.

                                          (8) Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to take (to tax) the wealthy, with the support of the poor.

Can you see any similarities between Mr. Alinsky's plan and what is currently taking place in Washington? Our current president was an ardent devotee of Saul Alinsky's philosophies, attending classes and instructing in his doctrines.

Okay, I've about run out of peeves. But why can’t this current government be truthful? Why do they insist on lying to us at every turn? They can't be stupid. Close, maybe, but it doesn’t take a Mensa to see that America's in grievous trouble. Okay, I know I’ve mentioned this before. We – the Americans living here – are skilled, intelligent and usually, ambitious. A large percentage of the 300 million plus people are self-sufficient and have the drive and initiative to care for themselves. But they can’t . . . won’t . . . if the government keeps telling us that we’re recovering, that we’re on the road to riches, that everything is coming up roses. If Mark Twain were alive today, he'd tell us," There are three kinds of lies: plain lies, damn lies, and claims by the White House."

Dammit, friends, the recovery they brag about is  non-existent. Our resurgence is going nowhere! Our land of milk and honey is failing! China has surpassed us as the number one economy in the world.  There is a disappearing distinction between our middle-class and lower class. We – YOU AND I – owe others about 127 TRILLION DOLLARS!  Our chances of recovering under the guidance of these nincompoops in Washington are Slim and None (and Slim has expatriated to Uruguay).

Hey, I don’t write this stuff to encourage jumping out of windows or drastic stuff like that. But we should ALL know what the hell is going on. ALL of us should be aware of the problems we face because it will take ALL of us to orchestrate a TRUE recovery. The president and his toadies that lie to us daily about how great things are do us a terrible disservice. We can’t fix things if we don’t know they’re broke!

In eight and a half decades I’ve never seen a government so hopelessly ineffectual and so deceitful. They must know they’re setting us up for a deadly fall.  With debt still rising and jobs scarce, the economic picture is bleak. America is fast approaching a precipice that could send the United States down into violence and chaos the likes of which this country has never seen. I guaran-damn-tee you, we can't recover if our administration continually lies to us . . .

Maybe that's their objective?