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JIM TOWEY: "VA WANTS WOUNDED WARRIORS TO COMMIT SUICIDE"
BESIEGED COLLEGE PRESIDENT ORIGIN OF RUMORS OF VA SUICIDE PROMOTION
VA DOCTORS AND NURSES SAID TO BE PART OF "SUICIDE PLOT" BY GOP
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
How did the phony "death book" debate involving Veterans Affairs begin? Simple. Fox News owned Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by Jim Towey, former Bush coordinator of anti-abortion activities and political fixer.
Towey is now president of St. Vincent’s College, though he has no experience of any kind as an educator. Further, 80% of the faculty have called for his resignation for falsifying documents. It was Towey, in his WSJ editorial who continually mischaracterized VA attempts to inform patients of choices as an attempt to encourage Gulf War veterans to commit suicide.
The pamphlet itself, Your Life, Your Choices, is far from controversial. In fact it is, if anything, frighteningly conservative and mainstream. The document is exhaustive in its addressing of faith based decision making. Every imaginable attempt was made to see to it that no group, no matter how "wingnut" or extreme, would find anything to complain about. The result was a huge document, though extremely informative, that is too long for anyone to read or at least want to.
The real issue here is how far cheap politicians will go to stir up controversy, even if it involves attacking the credibility of the doctors and nurses at the VA, by far the best part of an institution with serious management problems. In fact, Towey was much a part of the inner circle at the Bush administration responsible for the disasterous veterans funding cuts and facility closings that required emergency legislation to correct.
Towey is a reprehensible political charlatan whose extremist Catholic views have, not only aliented many Catholics but have worked hard to destroy the great educational institution that was pressured to take him on as a highly unqualified leader.
The role of GOP media giant, the flamboyant Australian, Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and a worldwide media empire in attacks on the Department of Veterans Affairs is curious.
Murdoch and Fox have been leaders in the misinformation campaign started by the insurance industry whose scare tactics have been marshalled to leave their corrupt and destructive strangle hold on America’s medical industry untouched.
An industry long famous for denying expensive treatments as "experimental" and advocating "pulling the plug" on critically ill patients as a cost control, now warns Americans that a governement overseen health insurance program would even exceed the abuses the "for profit" groups have been famous for.
The victim of the current scare is the veteran. Any veteran who seeks advice involving medical and legal decisions is now warned that his care provider and the doctors and nurses he has gone to for years are involved in a conspiracy to push him to suicide.
The real result will be dying patents with no wills, no clear directions to medical personnel and no reliable guidelines for family members as to their personal, financial or religious wishes. VA efforts to develop highly credible programs designed to help veterans during the most trying period facing any family have been attacked in the most irresponsible manner imaginable with outrageous lies supported by, not only major media but former Bush officials.
Every doctor, every nurse, every administrator working for Veterans Affairs is now being painted as a heartless bureaucrat devoid of professional ethics and their sworn responsibilty that is at the heart of their profession.
How can a doctor or nurse talk to a dying veteran or his family without the stain of Towey’s smear interfering with this most trying period. If Murdock and Towey have their way, pain medications with be withheld, counseling will be avoided, no wills will be drawn up and death after death will end up in patent agony, guilt, recriminations and court battles. Equating hospice care with assisted suicide is insanity.
We wish to thank Mr. Towey, Fox News and Michael Steele of the Republican Party for causing a real problem and real suffering where only solutions existed.
Is it really worth, not even chasing votes, but sucking up to bankers and insurance companies for huge donations when you have to attack the doctors and nurses of the VA and endanger America’s veterans?
This isn’t spin. This is what was really done. Was it worth it?
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=8480
Posted by Gordon Duff on Sep 5 2009, With 0 Reads, Filed under Vet News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Very, very interesting article.
Yesterday I was having lunch with two friends, both devout Catholics, devoted family men, mid fifties, lifetime Republicans and both GS-14s in the federal government. One used to be my civilian boss just before I retired from the Service and he himself is a retired Coast Guard reserve Commander (O-5). The subject of the expense of caring for disabled veterans came up because I just finished writing a novel about a totally disabled veteran and some other stuff in his life going haywire….I won’t give the plot away….but the whole novel revolved around research that I have done on disabled veterans issues. I expect to have it ready by Christmas.
To make a long story short, the bulk of the lunchtime conversation centered around the huge dollar figures associated with taking care of disabled veterans. Mind you, both men have worn a uniform in the Reserve components of the Armed Forces. These are good men with a solid Service connection.
To my slight disconsternation, this two guys politely informed me that they were not happy with the huge amount of money that it takes to support veterans, even seriously wounded and paralyzed disabled veterans.
One of the guys said something like this: “There were over 16 million guys in uniform in WWII. They never filed all these claims for benefits. They just went to work and supported their families. Why all these benefit claims? Why should I have to pay money to support disabled veterans when they volunteered to go into the Service since 1974. If they got hurt in the Service, they knew that there was a possibility that this would happen. I should not have to pay them these exorbidant pensions because they got hurt.” This guy is a GS-14 equivalent for the Postal Service.
I explained to him that there is more to losing an arm or leg than just the physical injury. The psychological trauma of such an injury can be so life changing that a normal working life, even with prosthetics, is virtually impossible. Both men were sympathetic and conceded my point, however they stood firm. Too much money was being spent on veterans for pensions and such. They did not want to spend this amount of money on pensions for disabled veterans. Period.
I laughed. I pointed out to them that total disability in 2009 for a disabled veteran hovers around $2700 dollars a month without any special compensation (which can take it to close to $4,000 dollars a month). I told them that at that level of support, the disabled veteran could not buy a home, could barely afford a decent life and generally lived a life with no quality of life.
They were unmoved. No. The money was already too much.
Then they agreed to something that I found startling. Mind you, these are good guys.
The general feeling seemed to be that if life was that hard for a disabled veteran then maybe he should think about ending his life and just get it over with. When I pointed out that 18 veterans a day already kill themselves in the USA (that is veterans of all age groups) one of the guys said “That is probably not a significant number when compared agains the nonveteran population”.
I let the conversation end. These two Mass going, Catholic, government working friends of mine just simply were unmoved. Veterans who get seriously hurt should just think about taking themselves out. They never forcefully pursued that point, but the clear inference was there. Veterans are just too expensive…let them take themselves out.
I am still processing yesterday’s lunctime conversation. I am not sure what to do with it.
CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)
Tom,
It should be an article.
g
If these guys were injured on the job in a major industry, or just “wronged” somehow, they would think nothing of suing for a couple of million. Even after paying their lawyers off, just the interest alone on their settlements would be far more than a 100% service-connected vet receives.
Gordon:
I thought about writing an article about it, but your article on the whole veteran assisted suicide thing struck me as the perfect venue to unload my concerns. I didn’t tell you everything.
The guy who works for the Postal Service now is an engineer by trade who was a weapons engineer for years. For years he worked on developing the laser guided bomb. He contends that the death ray that Boeing has made will save lives. We can kill or destroy one thing without having to kill thousands of people to get to him/it. The death ray is a good thing as far he is concerned.
What bothers me is the cold logic of his argument. On many levels, he is absolutely correct. The death ray will be a cleaner kill for us than carpet bombing is. We can "save lives" with the death ray. We don’t have to take down a city to take out a comm center that we want destroyed. He has no problem whatsoever with spending billions to develop weapons and then use them BUT spending billions on supporting broken veterans is completely unacceptable to him. It is much too expensive. He feels the same way about that money going for school books for kids in poor areas or for health insurance for the poor or for cancer research. No way his money will be used for that nonsense! But money for a death ray? No problem!
I find the whole mind set here to be maddeningly twisted but logical. Weapon systems = good. Subsidizing broken veterans from past wars = bad. These are good men. Family men. Men with values and they do not see that they have much of an obligation to support old and broken vets, vets with amputations or anything else. Let them find a way to go to work. They have both served in the Armed Forces reserves and in fact one is a retired O-5 from the CG reserve!
This goes beyond ultra-Calvinist, Protestant work ethic, "what is mine is mine. you get your own" kind of hard line American pioneer spirit. This is downright pathological to me.
What? I am allowed to demand that someone else’s kids serve in uniform to benefit my portfolio? I am allowed to demand that someone else’s kid do the fighting and dying? And then if the kid gets hurt and needs an adeqaute pension, then I am allowed to demand that quality of life payments are out of the question – it is too much money? Seems way beyond Machiavellian manipulation to me. It seems downright sociopathic, that is, I not only demand a victim to my whims, I demand a willing victim. Wow!
These are mainstream American government workers with high education and years of government service. They have been Reservists. And they still believe that they have no real obligation to pay a living wage to a disabled veteran. They seem to feel it is not necessary since in their minds, 16 million returning veterans from WWII did not "need" that kind of outlay in tax money.
It took every ounce of strength and social grace I had yesterday to remain calm during the conversation.
These are mainstream American, hardworking family guys. They totally do not see the value in disabled veteran compensation.
Incredible.
I must tell you though, I did make one comment that got their attention. I said, "I am not sure that it is a good idea for a nation with 22.9 million veterans who have had military training and who are alive in the Summer of 2009 to betray them financially. I think it is a better idea to adequately take care of them. Revolutions have started for much less than this."
They were silent for a full ten seconds after that.
“There were over 16 million guys in uniform in WWII. They never filed all these claims for benefits. They just went to work and supported their families. Why all these benefit claims? Why should I have to pay money to support disabled veterans when they volunteered to go into the Service since 1974. If they got hurt in the Service, they knew that there was a possibility that this would happen. I should not have to pay them these exorbidant pensions because they got hurt.”
The statement is, at its face, the very definition of fascism. An ideology that seeks to individualize profits (into the pockets of Military Industrial Complex parasites) while subsidizing losses (saddling the taxpayer with bank bailouts and propping up failed business models like GM and Chrysler).
America is well and truly a fascist cleptocracy, and not long for this world.
I spent half of last week explaining to a defense contractor that you only spend taxpayer money developing weapons, not your own like any normal business.
Defense is a racket.
The government pays if you "think" during breakfast or make a phone call to a bookie. This is the game.
Defense is welfare. Every system is developed on a ‘cost plus’ basis with companies being rewarded for waste and incompetence.
There are very few American weapons I couldn’t replace with better and much less expensive foreign weapons.
Much of our equipment is junk.
I guess, you can piss money away and tell the world the military is full of fat kids, stuffed on 3 steaks a day, living in air conditioning and sleeping on feather beds while they aren’t having sex with each other, torturing civilians or downloading porn…
as long as there is nobody checking to see if any of this is true or not.
g
i would, simply, have two fewer lunch buddies. why hang with folks so diametrically opposed to your own views/beliefs?
Good Morning Tom,
Welcome to my world of the past 45 years. This is not the exception but the normal. You will also find that Evangelical Christians also shun Veterans and discourage young people from entering military service.
As I’ve been saying from the get go to the new Veterans, get all that you can now, it won’t be there after the shooting stops. I have yet to talk to a Vietnam era amputee who believes that the VA will go providing $50K+ prosthetics to the current group of amputees, and if the past is an indicator of the future they won’t even have dedicated clinics at VAMC’s for amputees or head wounds or eye injury.
The Republicans are the worse.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
I am suprised that anyone would advocate such a policy. Those of my peers who sacrificed their lives for their country deserve to live a life with dignity and respect. I too am a disabled working Veteran. Although I have many health issues, I cannot afford to live off of the VA benefits. I work daily with pain.
Ignore those who advocate destroying our Veterans because of money. Thank God the majority of Americans do not have the same perception.
Tom, the opinions of your friends is absolutely appauling and a sad example of just how arrogant and self consumed our nation is with material crap. I am sorry that folks out there have that opionion, but I gave 21 years of my life to ensure they have the ability to have it. I would not call them friends if I were you.
Deb
carboneclan@yahoo.com
If these two guys condone suicide, they lied when they claimed to be Catholics.
Are these guys related to Hitler? This reminds me of genocide. Let’s think about this! Any disabled Veteran should be pressured to commit suicide because they are taking money from the government. Let’s take this two steps further. There are thousands of disabled men, women, and CHILDREN that are disabled in the U.S. and are getting a disability check from Social Security. We should also persuade them to commit suicide so they’re not a burden on the Social Security budget. Let’s not forget the horrible economy and the men and women that have lost their jobs which leaves them and their families getting welfare so their families can survive. Maybe there should be a cap of a year they can collect. If they can’t provide for their families by then, then maybe we should persuade the family to commit suicide as to not burden the governments budget. If either of these men were put in that position would they walk the walk and not talk the talk and persuade their families it’s time to end our lives. If their child at the age of 18 was to enter the service and acquired a disability would they have the strength and courage to hold them while they watched them die? I am a Catholic and they are not living their faith. They can state they are Catholic but in reality are not or they would be helping these wonderful human being who have so selfishly served our country. God put us on this earth for a purpose and HE alone will take us home to HIM.
All those guys who came home from World War II had unions, and started a huge wave of strikes across the country and got their benefits that way which led to the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, that put limitations on what unions could do.
When I first hit a VA hospital in 1970, I found the system loaded to the gills with WW2 vets, many still recovering from wounds and more being treated for alcohol and smoking related illnesses.
Vietnam vets were left out because the VA was already horribly overburdened with WW2 vets.
Your friends have odd ideas.
g
But when I first entered a VA hospital in 1977, many of those WWII vets had died off, and the rate of attrition was accelerating. VA personnel could see the writing on the wall, they would need more service-connected vets to justify budgets and jobs in the future and for a few years in the late 70′s it was quite easy for a Vietnam vet to have a claim accepted and all the VSOs were suddenly happy to help as their memberships were declining. By the early 80s, the system was operating at full capacity again and service-connection was much harder to establish.
When I tried to first go to a VA hospital in Dec 69, I was refused addmission because the army hadn’t service connected me for the injuries and the VA hadn’t processed my claim.
It took 28 years of fighting from 1969 till 1997 to get s/c for my nerves and from 1969 till 1999 to get s/c for my spinal injury as the VA said i didn’t have a spinal injury but a birth defect.???
When they finally got around to service connecting me , well there is nothing they can do for my injuries now. except hope I die off.
Same old story, we the vietnam veterans were told it’s all the WW@ vets and their claims that have our claims baceked up, now the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are told it’s the Vietnam veterans claims that have theirs backed up. The teuth is it’s the stupid system and all the appleals that we have to file to get our rightful claims throught hat are backlogging the system.
If you don’t want an overburdened system , stop the wars stupid.
I AM SO SORRY WHAT THE PUBLIC DID TO YOU NAM VETS! DID THE GOVT. FOLLOW YOU TOO? WHY DO I LET IT GET TO ME?!
AT LEAST THEY KINDA ADMITTED TO “AGENT ORANGE” THE VA LOOKED ME IN MY EYES AND TOLD ME “DEPLETED URANIUM” IS GOOD FOR YOU AND THEY LOVE IT!!!
DEPLETED URANIUM IS A RADIOACTIVE PARTICLE THAT IS B.S.
PLEASE EAT SEAWEED ALL DAY EVERY DAY EVERYONE; I TRULY BELIEVE IT PULLS OUT THE CHEMICAL POISONING/CANCER/TOXINS…
Suicide is reality
Can Violence exist 9-5-09
Peter Macdonald 465 Packers falls Rd Lee NH 03824 603-659-6217
Newspapers would rather silence my opinion, than let the readers hear the other side. The pearls of freedom can rage in the minds of the citizen whose voices are deemed not worthy. My character is degraded by our elected official, my freedom is taken by our (police, prosecutors and judges) to make the public fear my demeanor as a danger. Editors print biased articles to weaken the voter’s minds from believing the truth. My responses to such articles are censored as a means to justify tampering with the voter’s free choice. People write opinions that the news publishes to instill questions of (did he serve in the Marine Corps)(can the fantastic stories be true)(how can someone with, so many injuries exist)(why does this 100% disabled U.S. Military Veteran not take medication) can reality exist in this person’s personality? The NH Veterans Hospital stopped my medical care to keep on the good side of NH’s U.S. Rep Shea-Porter. This 100% disabled veteran is deemed not worthy of public support because of the danger built by our elected officials to control the public’s opinion. Shea-Porter is so feared by the Dover Police that they act as Nazi’s, intimidating citizens to obey. Judge Peter Fauver is so feared that the Sheriff sends his deputy as an intimidator to make the citizens stay in line. The newspapers and NH government have brought reality into focus that just cannot be accepted by the belief of the freedom that we fought for.
I so much want to describe the mind depressing reality of where I am. Society is not ready to hear the mind of a U.S. Marine that just cannot come home. You the U.S. Public cannot accept the truth. Judge Peter Favuer is a criminal getting away with murdering the American way of life. The Madbury NH selectmen use discrimination and other highly destructive crimes to control the local citizens. I volunteer my time to help others everyday for what? For over thirty years every single day my mind brings me back to where no person should ever be. I have adjusted and accepted as a means to exist in your society my defective ways. I have violated no laws and have given to others as payment for being allowed to come back alive. I never wanted to die as a U.S. Marine and I never let the fear cause hesitation in my duty as a U.S. Marine. I so much want to escape the reality of where this place may be that I ended up that suicide became my reality. Can you grasp the magnitude of a sane person being caught in two worlds for over thirty years with no help? How can some one ask for help if the VA and government destroy veterans that may increase their budget? I do not need medication. We the veterans need you the public to understand and accept what we did.
I am only one individual of many Veterans across the U.S. That is what our U.S. Military are fighting for! The Individual. We fight for every one of you individuals equally. You do not have to hear my words. If NH can do this to a 100% disabled veteran by way of censorship from newspapers across the U.S. it will soon be you that is violated next. I lay here in a benjo ditch wondering if I am here or there. Can such violence be justified as a needed part of Freedom? Is what I do because I have no memory or to know that what will justify my life? Freedom of speech, silenced by the news compared to a gook’s dictated life, where am I?
Peter Macdonald Sgt USMC Semper fi
Thank you for your service and keeping our freedom. There are a lot of us who do care for you and want you safely home.
Dear Peter,
I hear you. I can only understand so much, but I accept that you served without question and with honor. Most people here in America are too protected and not strong enough to hear the mind of one of their own warriors – who will always carry somewhere within – the images and memories of war seared into their soul. Memories that others cannot even begin to imagine. These people believe they are not strong enough and worse… it’s easier to not know and therefore be free of the burden of knowledge… because that then would require reponsibility. I believe your statement is more of a reflection of the general public… and it is sad. Not many can bear the weight. Not many want to. Stay strong, Peter. Veterans like you Peter need a way to unite to have their voices carried to the people and wake them from their slumber and expose the prepertrators who use war for their own gain while using our land’s most precious resource, our children. Thank you Peter for saying how it is. I pray that there will soon be a powerful, peaceful and effective way to reach the people with your message and those that served.
COME HOME TO ME! WE NEED TO HAVE EACH OTHERS BACKS IN THIS TIME AND AGE BEFORE THEY JUST ORDER SNIPERS TO TAKE US OUT FOR WHAT 25 CENTS? THOSE YOUNG 18 YEAR OLD TRIGGER HAPPY RECRUITS WOULD LOVE TO~WITHOUT A CLUE
WIth a profound community Veterans Today provides; our Husbands have not died in vain.
The War Widows
Veteransjustice@aol.com
http://www.veteranschamberofcommerce.org come join free membership
Tom find new friends
Hey chief Barns……….. I would guess that they get their news from faux news. Propaganda works!
AS FUNNY AS THIS WAS…. YET NOT EVERYONE GETS SPOILED LIKE SOME..
MY FRIENDS GET EVERYTHING THEY NEED FROM THE VA FROM VITAMINS TO TOOTH PASTE TO PHONES; I HAVE ASKED ALL I GET IS B.S.
PLEASE BE MORE UNDERSTANDING BECAUSE YOU MUST EITHER BE ON REALLY GOOD MEDS OR DRUNK-
HELLO WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE RIDICULOUS SUICIDES IN THE MILITARY & VETERAN’S ADMINISTRATION.
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT TOUCHY SUBJECT BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE COMING HOME BUT YET THEY ARE STILL AT WAR, AND TO TAKE THEIR OWN LIVES…
JOKING IS NOT COOL BECAUSE THE SYSTEM IS DIFFICULT AND YOU PROBABLY DON’T USE IT OR ARE THE ONES GETTING SPOILED….
Well,
First thing off the bat, the guy who owns Fox and many other company’s, is a Democrat…check it out, next his son is a liberal and when the main guys goes, the son will take over.
However the article was cleverly written to make it look like everyone who does any thing bad is a Rep…hey, hey..how about the bombings and the destruction of personal property the liberals and democrats do, or the recent biting the finger off and old man..nice people you libs and dumbocrats.
For every war since the VA began there has been problems and there always will be, its the nature of the breast. How about the civilian hospital where a women was left to die waiting in the emergency room? Huh what about that? Or have any of you been to the emergency room in a civilian hositipal? Its terrible..my neigbor went about a year ago because she was having problems with her hip replacement, after 4 hours of wating and bleeding all over the place did they see her..and I mean bleeding….
The problems with the VA are not Rep problems they did not create them, but I can bet you a 50 I can find a democrat or liberal who will say the same thing those GS-14′s did…
The VA problem is a government problem and no President and I repeat NO PRESIDENT has EVER corrected it all the way…Not Clinton, Carter, Obama..or any Rep President..its a game to wit out live us…
Clinton hurt us big time….by him taking away the retirement benefits for retiree’s to making them pay, they went to the VA and paid at the most a small copayment. I sat next to some guy up at the VA who own a damn business and was filling out paperwork for VA treatment, he had no service connected problems but was in for a brief three yrs and want the health care on the cheap. He say crap I pay a small copayment, get my drugs for 8 bucks…can’t beat that and I don’t have to pay payments for BC/BS or another one…
This is the kind of crap that is killing the VA, its over loaded with people who served, have no S.C. problems, but don’t want to pay insurance premiums (sp), so they use the VA on the cheap.
Next time you go to the VA count the number of new high price cars you see in the parking lot, they don’t belong to the docs…then while your waiting for your appointment look around and see how many high price rings and watches you see, of course they will be wearing dress down clothes…
“LOVE YOUR COUNTRY BUT NEVER TRUST THE GOVERNMENT”
Some of the info here raised or brought up a situation a good friend of mine ran into about 8 years ago. He was Oscar Johnson, Medal of Honor reciepent who came back from WWII and served 30 years in the National Guard and retired as a WO4. He never used the VA Hospital. Three weeks before he passed on, he was ill but had the strength to go to the VA Hospital. He filled out the necessary paper work, never gave him any additional info and the gal told him he was over income and couldn’t get in!!!! He got up quietly and went to a civilian hospital and checked in. This was in my opinion, the height of being insulted. He told me not to worry about it. He died some weeks later. This is not a new issue, a guy in my unit received two Silver Stars and was over income. This kind of treatment puts the VA in a bad light. What else is killing the VA is NON SERVICE connected disability pension. I a guy who served ONE day in a period of war and twenty years later falls off a bar stool in….where ever, he can be eligible for a $1,000 per months pension. What makes this sad is some poor vet trying to get 10% for ten years can’t. Oh yeah, they named the VAMC in Iron Mountain MI after Oscar.
Just because someone calls themselves a democrat or republican, liberal or conservative doesn’t make it so. “Judge a person by their actions not words.” by that criteria Rupert hardly qualifies as a Human being much less a democrat, assuming you are implying democrats are in favor of human rights, healthcare, labor unions, ect….
I don’t know why you wrote “a brief three years” but that disqualifies a lot of draftees from the Vietnam era, not to mention the fact you are using the VA yourself. What gives you the right to the VA care you would deny so many others? Why aren’t you out there starting a business so you can buy your own insurance? What qualifies you to judge the service of others?
Good Morning Duff,
To support the general topics that you have been posting of late there is a current book out; “Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement From The Margins to the Mainstream”, by Leonard Zeskind, FGS 2009. It’s a door stop of a book and not really a fast read, but I thinks it’s a decent over all outline of where the ultra right power conservatives came from and where they might be going next, I don’t think President Obama is mentioned at all in the text.
Mr. Zeskind does leave some gapping holes such as the roles that alcohol and methamphetamine play with in this group and he is a bit to conservative on calling out who are funding these idiots.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Duff: Your a smart Officer, but Iam going to give YOU a clue about this Medical insurance issue. The electronic records ajenda and the insurance issue are almost one in the same. Both deiny and indipendent seperate opinion by medical professionals. Everyone should know by NOW that it is not the practice of Doctors to go against the opinion of other Doctors. This idea of making every ones personnal medical info open to all medical professionals individuals come in contact with in order not to duplicate procedures, eliminates the chance of discovery, of other diagnosis . In other words JUST LET THEM DIE. It also prevents soldiers from collecting outside oppions in order to better their claims against the Government. NOW ITS’T THAT A WARMING SOCALIST CONCEPT OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS. you do understand the tie between open records and socalism don’t YOU ?
Another classic example of bean counters, the politically connected, conventional
wisdom and conservative agendas beyond the pale. The military-industrial complex is a monster disguised as patriotism when it comes to procurement fraud, negligence,
favoritism, boondoggles, fraud and outright criminal activity.
This is not fresh news. Its been going on in one form or another since the US Civil War.
THANK YOU BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW IT IS TRUE
Tom Barnes said:
“I must tell you though, I did make one comment that got their attention. I said, “I am not sure that it is a good idea for a nation with 22.9 million veterans who have had military training and who are alive in the Summer of 2009 to betray them financially. I think it is a better idea to adequately take care of them. Revolutions have started for much less than this.”
They were silent for a full ten seconds after that.”
I thought that was worth repeating and thinking about.
It’s never anybody’s reality until it happens to them…. oh so tempting. Send them to the front lines…. oh please, can we?
Oh yes, I’m angry. I’ve seen these attitudes. I’ve seen the quiet veterans that only have their memories of what is truth and reality. I’ve seen them scorned for not being good enough for society. “What’s their problem?”, people think. I’d love to see some ‘Reality Therapy’ for your very confused and unknowingly twisted friends Tom… and everyone like them.
You are a much better person than I Tom. Much better. I have no patience for contemptuous cowardliness spitting in the face of true courage and honor. Oh! This makes me mad! So… now what do we DO? Tell me please. I want to know. annieusmc@live.com
Annie, to answer your question, I am not sure exactly what we do! However, be aware that no one really understands a disabled veteran and his/her world unless it is another disabled veteran. It is the same thing as asking someone who does not have MS or a brain injury or pancreatic cancer to try and put themselves in the other guys shoes. Largely, that is impossible. It is not their experience. It is our experience.
I guess the logical thing to say is that we organize as best we can and do what we can as often as we can to make sure we get adequate government compensation for disabled veterans. We do not have that yet. There has never been an effort to compensate disabled veterans for what the attorney’s call "quality of life" in pension disbursement.
We have to make the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees aware of the fact that disabled veterans, in line with modern thinking about disability compensation, start to recieve an amount of money each month which is in line with standard "quality of life" guidelines for similar disability cases in the American workplace.
Please understand, I am not in any way an expert on pension plans or anything that has to do with the legalities of this stuff. However, I have been led to believe from fairly significant research on this issue for the novel I just finished writing about disabled veterans that presently in the Summer of 2009 the experts hired by the D.A.V. to argue the case for quality of life compensation for disabled veterans in front of Congress believe that present pension amounts are 25% to 50% below where they need to be to meet civilian standards.
In other words, according to those attorneys hired by DAV to research and argue the case in front of Senator Akaka three weeks ago, disabled veterans should be receiving 25% to 50% more money in their disability pensions than they are presently receiving this summer of 2009.
That is the best information that I have available at this time. I suppose we should all take this seriously enough to mount an email campaign to Congress.
I have taken the liberty of writing an email. Here it is:
I am asking you to introduce legislation for immediate passage in Congress to increase disabled veterans compensation for totally disabled veterans 25% over present amounts. This would be in order to compensate for quality of life negation by the severity of their service connected disabilities. This would be for both schedule rated 100% totally disabled and individually unemployable totally disabled veterans and should be enacted immediately so as to take effect in 2010.
The 2008 General Convention of the Disabled American Veterans passed a resolution concerning this problem of quality of life inequity for totally disabled veterans. Page 14 of the resolutions passed at that convention reads as follows:
14
RESOLUTION NO. 058INCREASE DISABILITY COMPENSATION
WHEREAS, it is the historical policy of the Disabled American Veterans that this
Nation’s first duty to veterans is to provide for the rehabilitation of its wartime disabled;
and
WHEREAS, the percentage ratings for service-connected disabilities represent, as
far as can be practicably determined, the average impairment in earning capacity
resulting from such disabilities in civil occupations; and
WHEREAS, compensation increases should be based primarily on the loss of
earning capacity; and
WHEREAS, disabled veterans who are unable to work because of service
connected disabilities should be entitled to compensation payments commensurate with
the after-tax earning of their able-bodied contemporaries; NOW
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Disabled American Veterans in
National Convention assembled in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 9-12, 2008, supports the
enactment of legislation to provide a realistic increase in Department of Veterans Affairs
compensation rates to bring the standard of living of disabled veterans in line with that
which they would have enjoyed had they not suffered their service-connected disabilities.
ALTERNATE REQUEST FOR TAX EXEMPTION LEGISLATION
If the request outlined above cannot be met due to excessive cost, I am asking you that in place of this legislation, other legislation be enacted. The alternate course of action is to allow totally disabled veterans both schedule rated 100% and Individually Unemployable Totally Disabled veterans to be exempt from taxes.
All veterans gauge the government’s degree of responsibility toward veterans by how the government treats totally disabled veterans. That treatment is the measuring stick of effectiveness for all veterans.
The recent wars in Southwest Asia coupled with the American overseas military adventures of the last fifty years have brought us volunteer armed forces manned almost entirely with the sons and daughters of the working class or the lowest of the middle class. It is now clear that they have been introduced to Service realities and the danger of action for the almost exclusive benefit of America’s elites and their business interests.
Injuring these young people for the financial gain of relatively few wealthy Americans with portfolios linked to the war industries is unethical. But largely ignoring their needs once they have been injured and are unable to care for themselves is flirting with civil war. You must take this warning seriously.
When among themselves and believing that they cannot be overheard, veterans often talk of organized violence due to this betrayal. We are talking about almost 23 million people with military training. This is an extremely dangerous situation that must be handled immediately. The danger here is very real.
The disability system is broken. We all know that. Veterans are watching very closely as to how the government will rectify the longstanding abuse and neglect of disabled veterans. Properly taking care of the totally disabled veterans is the key to defusing this situation. It will be a bellwether measure for action by veterans. Totally disabled veterans are in a situation that approaches a nightmare reality few of us can appreciate. Please take care of them now, in this legislative year, for all of our sakes.
I do not need to be contacted however, if you wish to reply to this message, please contact me at my email address noted above. Please act immediately on legislation that enhances quality of life for totally disabled veterans.
Tom
I recognize the strong feelings and responses this topic can bring forth. Strong feelings often lead to strong words. People also can be easily manipulated by those who know what ‘hot buttons’ to push – as in… “Every doctor, every nurse, every administrator working for Veterans Affairs is now being painted as a heartless bureaucrat devoid of professional ethics and their sworn responsibilty that is at the heart of their profession.”
I don’t think your overall characterization and his views are fair. Your “Towey is a reprehensible political charlatan …extremist Catholic…” comment lowers considerably what you bring to this debate; from a thoughtful participant and contributor to simply a smoke machine operated by a ‘staff writer’.
Good work, Gordon.
Bottom Line this is about MONEY Towey has written his own end to life guide and has been trying to force the VA to purchase a 1/2 million copies of it since 2001, it is simple greed………
Veterans Today Brings Hope. 9-08-09
Peter Macdonald 465 Packers falls Rd Lee NH 03824 603-659-6217
(Veterans Today) web site published a letter that I wrote 9-6-09 that I had no idea that these were my words at the time writing it. I have spent the last couple of days in a different world. I just finished reading G. Duff’s (Veterans Today staff writer) article about suicide and the responses. I was surprised to see that I had written a response from the mind of a disabled veteran that the VA is attempting to force into suicide. Society is unwilling or incapable of grasping the difficult path even today, which a returning veteran must face and endure. Granted I am not your typical 100% disabled Veteran. I was injured many times during my tour. During four separate times (three combat related) these injuries became permanent life changing disabilities. For over thirty years believing that my returning to where no one should go was normal became a part of me. The VA hospital or medical was a dreaded place back then, to go. Long lines and care from foreigners that did not speak English just did not make since. A policy that gave immunity for wrongs inflicted on the veteran by those burdened with caring for us allowed experimenting with our lives protocol. The long lines have become a part of the past because of the wasted money on impressive new building to spread the lines out. Now most if not all the doctors at least speak broken English. The newspapers now manipulate the facts instead of just ignoring them to protect the politician. The perfect example is NH’s US Rep Shea-Porter. The news makes her out to be the Veterans answer but fails to tell the other side of her brutal destruction of veterans that can or will not help her public image. The newspapers censoring my opinion on government wrongs makes the Veterans Today Web a hope that just might enlighten the public that Veterans are people also.
I read a great article in the Dover NH paper today about (Seacoast group to expand suicide prevention efforts). At no time does the prevention include the Veteran. Medical conditions of our returning military may not appear for years after discharge. The VA through miles of paper work and extensions can destroy the balance left in our minds before costing their budgets. We lose our wife’s, family, friends and dreams that built the desire to come back. We become isolated or homeless that society rationalizes as the once child that had potential, turned out to be just a loser. The VA silently prays for suicide before the public can understand that we are people also. Killing in a civilized society is wrong so for this society to grasp how routinely we learned to do it is taboo. We look for a way to step to that next adventure to escape the brutality of this one. It is just like being there and becoming complacent with the fact in seconds you will leave the hell of this benjo ditch and be in the next world. It is like the veteran is praised for the political image of people like Shea-Porter then swept under the rug hoping suicide will allow the budget to promote their pet projects instead. Opinions like this one must be censored to protect society and suicide prevention from helping those that gave so much from costing them more than they are willing to spend. If a site like Veterans Today can publish my letters the liability question holds no truths. Maybe the returning veterans of today will some day be allowed to hold their head up in a society that so far has been unwilling to understand whom we are.
Peter Macdonald Sgt USMC Semper Fi
VA has determined that I am permanently and totally disabled but without a percentage. I have been applying since 1988 and received my last denial of benefits September 4. I have had two hip replacements and one revision; three back fusions; rotator cup surgery; surgery on a pinched nurve in my neck…. Why is it so difficult for VA to recognize my situation. My condition was caused from injuries received during active duty. I can remember places but not names and faces and so I am in a “Catch 22″ situation. My records were lost–or so I was told, then someone stole the information–that was publicized. I turned down a purple heart because I was told if I accepted it I would be sent home. Is there no record of the offer? I went to the hospital twice in Nam. What does a veteran have to do to get the benefits they deserve? The psychiatrist is pumping me with pill, but each day, I feel like I am falling deeper and deeper into a mental funk. HELP! I don’t want to kill my wife!
it took 3 purple hearts to get a “get out of Nam free card” remember the big stink they made about John Kerry and his 3 purple hearts? since you can prove you were in nam and you can’t get your physical injuroes SC, what about your mental issues? PTSD is a valid claim and you say the shrinks are filling you with pills, at a minimum you should be getting a pension unless you get SSD and if not and get SSI the VA should still pay you the difference between SSI and the Pension to bring you up to the minimum. threatening to harm your wife is not cool you do NEED help
Send me your phone number and your exact address with a zip code. I will get you help.
Tom1052@verizon.net
I am a disabled veteran and some of these articles really make a person think. I guess that’s what they are for. When I read some of the articles, I see alot opinions. Why aren’t your articles referenced? I’m not sure if I believe everything I read here. I would like to use some of Gordon’s writtings for my college classes but can’t do it without proof.
OH YES!!! THE VA BAKER ACTED ME ON A VA 52 ON LABOR DAY?!!
I BELIEVE I CURSED OUT THE WRONG NURSE!
I AM A SICK SICK B#TCH (WHATEVER) FROM COMBAT IN IRAQ ALL THE WAY FROM 2004-2005 WITH THE 66TH TRANSPORTATION COMPANY; I DEVELOPED THE POST B.S.
IF YOU ARE TOO PLEASE WRITE OR CALL ME! ALYCE_D4LIFE@YAHOO.COM
813-313-7206
I FEEL LIKE I AM BEING WATCHED, TARGETED AND MESSED WITH HEAVILY BY THE VA/GOVT./AND ETC. THIS MONTH MY DISABILITY CHECK DID NOT COME!
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL ANY TIME BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE A COMBAT VETERAN WITH ISSUES LIKE “PTSD”/CHEMICAL POISONING/DU/ETC” THANK YOU AND LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR STAYING STRONG AND AT LEAST KEEPING FAITH!