{"id":30221,"date":"2012-06-02T09:34:05","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T13:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=30221"},"modified":"2012-06-02T10:54:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-02T14:54:07","slug":"national-cemeteries-and-caskets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30221","title":{"rendered":"National Cemeteries and Caskets"},"content":{"rendered":"

I ran across a story today<\/a> that leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a summary: some years ago a World War II veteran – Lawrence Davis, Jr. – died in Florida. He apparently had no family willing to make funeral arrangements for him.<\/p>\n

As a World War II veteran, Davis was authorized to be buried in a National Cemetery. VA regulations and Federal law in effect then and today allowed the VA to bury him. But those same laws and regulations did not allow (or require) the VA to provide him a casket. <\/p>\n

So Davis was buried without a casket. In Florida, that\u2019s apparently still allowed; I don\u2019t know how common that is in other states. He was later honored, per the cemetery\u2019s policy, at a periodic ceremony held to honor veterans who die and are buried with no family present.<\/p>\n

The story has sparked predictable outrage. As the cited article notes, a bill has been introduced in Congress (the Dignified Burial of Veterans Act of 2012) mandating the VA \u201creview its burial standards\u201d and authorizing the VA to purchase caskets (or urns) for all veterans buried in National Cemeteries.<\/p>\n

As I said, I have mixed feelings. <\/p>\n

Obviously, everyone – veterans and non-veterans alike – deserve a dignified burial. But is it really the Federal government\u2019s responsibility to provide a casket for each and every veteran who chooses to be buried in a National Cemetery? And what is inherently disrespectful about burial sans casket?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also got serious concerns about how the bill “fixing” this will be implemented and funded if passed. What will the standards be for such government-provided caskets – and what will they cost? (I kinda doubt they\u2019ll end up being the proverbial old-time \u201cpine box.\u201d) And just what else in the VA budget will get cut to free up the funds to buy them? \u2018Cause if you think the VA budget will be increased to fund this \u2013 well, in that case I happen to have a bridge I’d like to talk to you about selling . . . . <\/p>\n

As a Veteran, my heart tells me the bill proposed to “fix” this is a good thing. But as a believer in limited government \u2013 and a fiscal conservative \u2013 my head tells me this could be a really bad idea. And it also tells me that maybe we’re trying to “fix” a problem that isn’t really a problem at all.<\/p>\n

What say you all?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I ran across a story today that leaves me with decidedly mixed feelings. Here\u2019s a summary: … National Cemeteries and Caskets<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,188,118,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-issues","category-reality-check","category-veterans-issues","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}