A simple question in the world of Veterans Affairs, always seems to have a confabulated answer, usually one without a logical reason.
Why are benefits for disabled veterans so disparate and varied from one state to the next? Is all this States Rights stuff really good for the overall order of the American way? I think not. In fact I think it has contributed to a very unique form of City/State narcissism.
Taking on the Federal Government and its largess has become a religion. ( Religion is from the Latin root “religere” meaning to rebind oneself to nature- nothing institutional in the word.) Just talk to a Second Amendment citizen and the whole subject commences right after their Cheerios in the morning and dogs them until bedtime. As of today, their are absolutely NO changes in gun laws. My guns and yours are still clean, operating and safe. I for one do not believe this will ever change. Anything else is disguised fund raising for ego causes.
But back to disabled vets. Why do so few get lathered up about them? Why not a national movement to help families of deployed soldiers whose wives have to pawn the family car for the mortgage payment?
While one of our own veterans and State Representative Frank Antenori wants to bear down on the disenfranchised and food stamp abuse, he may do well to understand that many of the reservists and active duty soldiers and Marines are on Food Stamps to survive. Why no lather here?
Why do so many states have tuition waivers at State Universities for the dependents of disabled veterans? They take Federal monies willingly. Why not return the favor to those who provide the liberty and academic freedom to exist? Take it out of the undisclosed parking revenue. No outrage here. Largely because veteran causes do not provide a mirror to see yourself in while lathering.
Why do so many states exempt 100% disabled veterans from property taxes? Not Arizona! The home of two of the largest military bases in the nation, is the most backward in offering gratitude to its veterans. Our Senator John McCain did not even vote for the new GI Bill. He abstained on the first go around. How heroic is that? JD Hayworth would help, I am sure, if his picture was on something.
I proposed the tuition breaks for dependents of 100% disabled veterans to the State Legislature on three occasions. Not very novel, just a copy cat proposal from other states. It never gets out of committee. Yet we say; ” Support The Troops.”
Would anyone mind telling us what Arizonans or Americans at large have sacrificed to support the troops? What did you do last week to support the war effort and our young men and women coming home?
Where is Rosie the Riveter when we need her?
My daughter just “came home”. Our conversation was about trying to understand just what you implied in this article. WHY? Why is there not more action taken to support troops returning? Why is the Govt reducing bonuses and wages? WHY? The Govt did not expect the numbers of wounded soldiers, visible and invisible, to be so high. My opinion is they did but ignored it thinking the situation will take care of itself. The five year plan to eliminate homeless veterans does not seem acceptable. As you stated: If we can get lathered up about things that do not effect life or death, what are we not getting lathered up about the life of our soldiers willing to die and now willing to survive in what seems to be a Third World America. Rosie is alive and well, gathering her “latherers” for our troops. America, “we the people” are rising up to go beyond a bumper sticker and do something even if for ONE soldier at a time. Americans are becoming more aware of the devastation our media does NOT report. Veterans are NOT receiving the help they deserve. We are waking up. You’re article is timely and right on. Thank you.
Well said Tric. I think we need a nation of women like you to take over for Rosie! God bless you Tric.
This is due simply to the mis-alignment of the politics of the military which arose during the Vietnam War.
As a result – especially under Reagan – the politics of most career military became strongly Republican.
The result is people who have spent their entire lives as government employees ranting about big government and claiming that the government can’t do anything right and budgets and taxes should be cut – and electing politicians who do exactly that.
Under FDR vets were strongly Democratic and elected politicians who took care of veterans.
Today’s vets vote for politicians who don’t believe the government should help anyone, and then whine about not getting any help.
How wild Tip. Your observation about FDR just happens to be a thesis of one of our presenters at our second Veterans Forum at Himmel Park Library this Sunday, 28th from 1-4pm. He was an Army Lt. and platoon leader in Vietnam.
The theme of the forums is focused on increasing the knowledge of the community of the needs of returning veterans. There are a ton of outreach programs for the vet, but virtually nothing for family, friends, neighbors, and employers. You are so correct about FDR Veterans preference, the GI Bill and many more programs had their roots in his administration. Since Vietnam, we have had to work to simply restore those benefits and sometime enforce them.
There is no doubt that you have a fund of knowledge that is packed with American History. And for that reason, you have been one of the most engaging commenter’s that we have read since the beginning of these blogs. Thanks for hanging with us. Wished we knew more about you. Are you a teacher? Or just a really well read dude?
Wished we knew more about you. Are you a teacher? Or just a really well read dude?
– I’m happily retired.
Hey – I can’t claim to be that well read – it is more a matter of having lived through it
To clarify the comment a little bit about what happened:
Democrats were perceived as anti-war so the military naturally gravitated towards the Repubs who seemed more friendly towards the military.
When this happened, with the usual simple minded “with us or against us” mindset of sports fans, the military also adopted the rah rah capitalism anti-big-government ideology of the Republican fat cats even though they had always been the biggest beneficiaries of big government largess.
the dem party in fdr’s/truman’s day is not the same dem party of today.
“arose during the Vietnam War” really? and the vnam conflict started under whose watch and then was escalatedinitially under whose watch. eisenhower the initial instigator and then jfk and johnson, with the later being the biggest, were all war mongers for the American way.
the va benefits and programs have been atrocious under all the regimes ……. dem and reps. period. this nation has never treated its’ vets right. ever. not after ww 1 or ww2 or korea or vnam ……. not ever and not now. it is better than it was but far from where it should be.
who is to blame ……… the American people.
the dem party in fdr’s/truman’s day is not the same dem party of today.
I think it is more fair to say that it is the repub party that is not the same today as it was under Eisenhower. It was inexorably changed under Nixon’s Southern Strategy when it absorbed the former Dixiecrats and became the current party of religious right rednecks.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. – Eisenhower
escalatedinitially … much cooler word that escalated
That is cool ‘mopkoe’. You should submit it to the Urban Dictionary. I just put one in, “anal detention” defining the U.S. Senate. Or “Weapons of Mass Dilapidation” Gotta do something in retirement!