If you’ve been following the discussion at The Burn Pit, the American Legion blog (Parts One and Two) over the government-funded insanity of disputing first-person accounts of battles in the Pacific by veterans, the discussion went national last night on Hannity.
Some guy named Mothax started the kerfuffle as usual.
The good folks at the PBS station KCET in Los Angeles asked me to show you this video about some of the problems returning veterans are having finding and keeping their jobs. The resources and employers mentioned in the video are listed at the SoCal Connected web page related to this video.
I’m glad to see that some in the media are taking this subject seriously and not piling on veterans to make them look like wild-eyed lunatics as they’ve done in the past. I think it’s encouraging that the media is also reaching out to the blogs to get their message out. Thank you KCET and SoCal Connected for the excellent report and for including us in your audience.
I probably wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for you. No, I don’t mean on the internet, I mean here, wherever I am at the moment. You’ve kept me safe, you’ve touched every part of my life…even when I didn’t notice. Those of you who came before me, those of you who served with me, and those who came after. I don’t have close friends who haven’t come from your ranks because I cherish this brotherhood in which you’ve allowed me to become a tiny part. In my eyes, I haven’t measured up to the example you set for me centuries ago…and just yesterday. What you’ve accomplished over these few and long years is beyond anyone’s imagination.
Those who don’t know you, don’t deserve to know you. Even when you stood on the peaceful fields of Germany during the peaceful war. When you stood on the deck of the behemoth floating on calm seas. When the landing zone beneath your feet was ringed with Southern pines. When the call that came in the middle of the night was just to hear your voice so that they knew where you were. When your enemy only pointed binoculars at you. When your death was just a persistent ringing in your ears that ended with the twist of a tiny yellow key. When your closest enemy was that over-torqued bolt that fought you as you stood on the tropics-heated concrete.
You were always ready and always faithful. Our enemies trembled at the thought of facing you, yet their children held your hand and giggled while they chewed the candy you offered while thinking of your own family so far away.
Memorial Day is for those of our friends who aren’t here, but this day, this Veterans’ Day, is your day. Those who don’t recognize today for what it is don’t deserve what you’ve sacrificed for them, but you sacrificed for them anyway.
Thank you from me and my family, and welcome home.
In a matter of hours it will be Veterans Day. Festive grilling and parades will be the order of the day. But what is also on the schedule is the is the use of pandering veterans for political purposes, 4 day sales at 20% percent off and a day for dress up for the pretend heroes. All of these things have really have a impact on how Veterans Day is viewed as just another holiday. Veterans day should be a day were those who have served honorably should be recognized rather then just the one that we agree with politically. That it should be a day to dismantle every stereotype about Veterans that have endured various hardships, but also endured to live a happy and productive life after the guns go silent. To understand that a receptive ear with a helping hand have a more enduring effect then a free blooming onion. We are one of the few professions that has can provide such a strong and enduring connection with complete strangers. Also the task of making sure that the stories of those who have served before us are preserved for those yet to come. Also to protect them from those that would steal them for their own.
The reason that I started with this post was after watching a video posted by Rethink Afghanistan. In the video it calls to honor the Veterans that oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on Veterans Day. I was insulted not because of the fact that they oppose the Wars, but in the sense that it was all but saying that we should only honor those Veterans with their point of view excluding many that have not be vocal about their views or have been on the opposite side of the fence. Veterans day should not be about scoring political points for your gain , but a overall reflection and respect to those that have served with honor and distinction, regardless their views. It is about the small token of respect that is offered to those who have come before, with and after us. Also in the respect that despite how may people would like to see us as shown by popular media or political organizations. That how highlight how we have lived our lives in and out of the Military in contrast to the unstable loner. Because if we are not willing to do this now then how can we expect others to do this for us in our Golden years?
It should also be a day of family in that when we are deployed that may of us become close because of the hardships, separations and dangers. But that often disappears when we return home, a place were it could be said is needed the most. While family may want to help, it is the basic things like understood terms that help a difficult conversations to happen without having many intermissions to explain military jargon. If the military is to be considered a family then perhaps Veterans day should be looked more as a family reunion. To remember old times and learn of some new ones. We are certainly a dysfunctional family , but I think that is what keeps us coming back for more.
Lastly is to use it to remember the past. That we must be open to new types of media and communications of the newer generations. In one of the past Veterans Day,before I joined the military I took part in a WW2 them table top tournament at a Army Museum in Austin. While we were there we got a chance to talk to those that served in previous wars. One of the stories was about several Shermans going down a hill and the fuel tank breaking open and flooding the the crew compartment. Also it was a lively exchange of stories from retired military , educators, and other history buffs alike. It is preservation of the character of these people that should remember in hopes that the next generation will emulate it.
But lastly is the protection of the character from those that wish to steal it. Normally a medal is viewed a strand of fabric with a shiny signet. That it can infuse the wearer with respect and purpose just by wearing it, the more medals the larger the respect would be come. But it it not the undeserved praise that is greatest insult but in that many a times these medals come at cost, some more then others. The cost can be time, hardships, pain and longer natural life. If it were possible for these medals to allow these pretenders to relive what many had to do to earn these medals, then perhaps there would be less of a desire wear them.. But that will never happen, so it is up to us to keep a good look out and find these people. Because it is a crime not because of the honor taken from real honest to God Veterans, but because they are unwilling to endure the hardships to wear that strip of colored cloth.
All in I hoped I would not get too wordy in this, though I believe I failed in that. I wanted to say with a detailed answer of what it means to observe Veterans Day and what we can do to make it have real meaning rather then just another four day weekend on the calendar.
You probably remember TSO’s well researched and documented article last week entitled “Criticisms of the New IAVA Scorecard (Actually, ALL Scorecards)“. Well Veterans Today decided that Michael Farrell would do an article on the IAVA scorecard, too, but apparently they wanted to the complete opposite – just cut and paste without a moment’s research.
The part that got me was this line;
It’s hard to be an upstart organization for Vets and be totally nonpartisan but IAVA tries.
Are you serious, numbnuts? March 6th last year, I wrote about how “nonpartisan” are IAVA and it’s Executive Director, Paul Reickhoff. Reickhoff is as non partisan as I am – the difference is that I’ll admit it. That’s probably why I got an email from Reickhoff a few weeks ago asking me to attend some piece of shit IAVA event. Funny how that came just before the scorecard was released, huh? Probably because Reickoff was still smarting from the first spanking TSO gave him over the 2008 scorecard.
The Veterans Today article is entitled “Maybe someday we’ll wake up as a group …” From what I can tell, the crew at Veterans Today is in a deep coma with no chance of waking up if they think Paul Reickoff, the founder of OpTruth, the Army lieutenant who gave the Democrat response to one of President Bush’s Saturday Radio Addresses, is trying to be nonpartisan.
Take this one that Farrel takes at face value;
A couple of other interesting trends: one Democrat in a tough race went from an A+ rating to an A (Barbara Boxer) while another went from an A to an A+ (Blanche Lincoln).
Yeah, poor anti-war Barbara Boxer, who berated a general for calling her “Ma’am” instead of “Senator” fell from an A+ to an regular old “A”. Poor thing. I guess that’ll teach her. Farrell takes the “fuckstick” title I bestowed on Reickhoff once.
Thanks to TSO for the link.
From the CATO Institute:
If you listen to Democratic campaign ads in Colorado, Nevada, or Delaware, among other places, you will discover yet another perfidious plot by evil Republicans — they want to “privatize the VA.”
Which makes one respond, “This is a horrible thing because … why?”
I know that even the mention of privatizing certain functions of the VA causes heads to explode at VoteVets and IAVA, which means the idea must have some merit. Personally, I am open to the idea. Jonn, myself, and others frequently post horror stories about the VA healthcare system in addition to using VA benefits ourselves. Despite a 11 percent increase in demand as a result of the GWOT and 95 percent budget increase, wait times are actually getting longer, quality of care isn’t improving, and almost every veteran I know who is attending college has to battle with the GI Bill office over something every semester. At least trying a pilot program where certain health benefits are paid for using debit cards like the ones they use for Health Savings Account is worth a shot.
For those of you who use VA benefits, what are your thoughts about this?
My friends have weighed in on the VFW PAC issue, which I started last week. Mr Wolf from Blackfive has a post at Breitbart’s Big Peace and he’s still advocating that you to burn your VFW membership card. Well, I can’t do that – mine is aluminum. Yes, I’ve been a member that long – nearly twenty years as a Life Member.
That guy who calls himself Mothax, has a really well-written post up at The Burn Pit about the pitfalls of a VSO trying to remain non-partisan in a political environment. He approaches the subject from an historical perspective without dick-punching the VFW.
Me? I’m sticking it out for reform of the VFW PAC. I don’t know what their procedure is for endorsing a candidate, but obviously it’s wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. But, I don’t think that the answer is to disband a hundred-year-old organization. I’m also sure that organizations like VoteVets and IAVA are salivating at the thought of of the 2.1 million members of VFW, and their dues, in the wind.
And, admit it, all of those guys who wrote that THIS is the reason they won’t join the VFW now, were never going to join anyway. I’ve seen the power of blogs in relation to certain organizations, and I’m putting my money on the folks who stick rather than the folks who bail on the VFW.
Mr. Wolf says the VFW has kicked the can down the road by putting off for the next convention what they should be doing today. It’s only kicking the can down the road if that’s what we let them do. Mr. Wolf has a point, and I’ll admit that resigning my membership was my first reaction – but then I realized that it would probably do more damage than good.
It also worries me that some of the leftists have joined in the feeding frenzy.
But I’ll tell you what, as a twenty-year Life Member of the VFW, when a receptionist at the VFW PAC takes my name and number, and I’m like the VFW’s last ally on the internet…they’d better call me back. They’ve already called Bev Perlson back and she’s not even a member.