From: Deb      deban22@... 

When I saw the name of this post, I was hoping it had to do with Veterans Rights and Benefits.  Indeed we are Too Quiet, but not just in posting on a website. We need to get involved in a large group action involving All Veterans so we may become one large voice that our government cannot ignore. 

 

Every year we see cutbacks in funding for veterans, and now they are threatening to even take back what they already gave us!  How do they expect to maintain a war ? (whether you feel we should be there or not, we are!).  If the young people are not noticing how Veterans are being treated, they need to be shown! 

 

The VA Dr.s are being told to recommend we buy OTC meds rather than prescirbe to us, to cut our appointments back to half as often as they were, and some vital medications are being taken off the formulary as "unnecessary". Patients in daily pain are being denied medication for it, since pain is not considered "life theratening.  Yet some commit suicide due to inability to live with that pain.  Diabetics only receive testing strips to use every other day, so some are "cheating" and cutting the strips in half to test every day (as it should be done).  How do they expect to attract recruits when they are treating Veterans this way?  I feel the easiest way we can fight back is to speak up, to let the rest of our country know how they have cut benefits year after year, how they are denying benefits to the very ill, postponing approval of claims knowing those Veterans will likely soon die,  and threatening to stop or decrease the checks of 100% disabled Veterans who depend solely on their VA compensation to survive. 

 

We can do two things I can think of:  First, write to our Congressmen regarding a) Supporting VA funding for healthcare, and regarding b)  Opposing the proposed review of already approved claims for the purpose of cutting benefits. The congressmen pay attention when you write.  They know you are conccerned about these issues and will watch how they vote on them.  They know if they don't vote your way, you won't vote for the next election!   And Second, on a local level we can write letters to our local VA administrators about our treatment in their facilities, and to representatives and newspapers regarding our personal experiences.  Let the public know of the fact that our young people now have little to no incentive to enlist in the military since our First President,  George Washington's promise to us has been broken.

 

Feel welcome to throw in your ideas on how to get this the full attention it deserves.  I'm just sick and tired of it and ready to take action.  They taught us to fight for our country (for each other's lives) and not give up, so let's show them how well we learned.

 

Deb