Memorial Day and the VA scandal: Dishonoring Our Service Men and Women

May 26, 2014

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Do you know veterans who have experienced frustratingly long waits for medical appointments at VA facilities? If so, current allegations in the press won't surprise you.

Many veterans are hurt, angry and feel rejected by what they consider shabby treatment and a lack of respect for their service to their country.

New patients are supposed to see a doctor 14 days after the paperwork is processed. Yet due to an influx of new veterans entering the system there is a strain on resources and appointments got backlogged.

Now we hear the waits go on for months and records are being falsified.There are allegations about two sets of appointment records being kept. One ER doc who tried to address it was transferred.

There are claims being made that dozens have died while waiting. Hard to know for sure how many of these deaths are actually tied to the long waits. But disturbing none the less.

It would be hard not to feel betrayed by the country you have served with your life. And now veterans are being asked to sacrifice their life and heath all over again in their long wait for medical attention.

Some of you have heard me write and speak about my "Diss List" – words that start with 'dis' and mean rejection. For example, "disloyalty" is another word for betrayal. However, of all the diss words I identify, "dishonor" is surely front and center as this story unfolds.

Just in time for Memorial Day, a time to honor the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have died serving our country.

How quickly honor can morph into dishonor where treatment of our veterans is concerned.

And could it be that the list of dead may even be growing because of these long waits for medical and psychiatric attention.

"Each Death Leaves a Hole in the World"

The loss of these lives leaves a huge empty space in the community, family and friends.

I am touched by this quote from writer Susie Madrak: "each soldier has a reason for being caught in a war . . . And when they die in the war, each death leaves a hole in the world . . . No loss is acceptable. Ask the parents, the spouses, the children."  

Last Memorial day I wrote about the Field of Crosses on a hillside in Lafayette, CA.
I took a photo of the hillside sign announcing the number of dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. A year ago it read: 6749.

Again this year on Memorial Day I drove to the hillside. The sign reads 6837 now. When will the numbers stop climbing?

Memorial Day 2014 A portion of the Field of Crosses, Lafayette, CA Photo: Elayne Savage

I've written in the past how Memorial Day has been blurry and confusing for me since my childhood when we did a family ritual of making the long drive every year to the cemetery where my mother and grandmother were buried after the plane crash.
My childhood feeling of dread intruded into Memorial Day every year.

Now it seems I'm finally developing a grown up ritual – by visiting the Hill of Crosses every year to welcome Memorial Day.

Until next month,
Elayne

Elayne Savage is the author of ground-breaking relationship books published in 9 languages.
You can order books and CDs directly from my website:
http://www.QueenofRejection.com/publications.htm

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Categories: Anger, betrayal, Betrayal, CA, Current Affairs, disloyalty, Grief, Hill of Crosses, Lafayette, Memorial Day, Rejection, Rejection, VA medical backlog, VA scandal

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Comments

4 responses to “Memorial Day and the VA scandal: Dishonoring Our Service Men and Women”

Fred

May 28, 2014

I served in the Army from 1969-71, and I am a Vietnam Era Veteran. Specifically, this means that I served during the Vietnam era, but not in Vietnam. However, my brother and other friends and relatives did serve in Vietnam.
Seems like all my friends were either getting drafted – as I did – or joining because they knew they would eventually be drafted. That’s the way things were then in my community.
After my military service I worked for the Dept of Labor in my state for 30 years. About 10 of those years were spent as a Veterans Employment Counselor dealing with job training and employment programs for vets.
My personal experience with the VA has been with getting educational benefits and buying my first home on a VA Loan.
I had no issues about this, and I think most vets don’t, however I do think Vets have issues with the delivery of medical services from the VA.
I feel that for a long time the main problem has been the lack of funding by the president and Congress. This cannot be blamed on any one political party.
The movie “Born on the 4th of July” and Bruce Springsteen’s Song “Born in the USA speaks of this issue of substandard treatment by the VA of Vietnam Veterans. . As the VA Man tells the Vet in The Springsteen Song – “Son don’t you understand.”
Is there a culture of poor treatment by the VA and indifference? Possibly there is, and, if so, it needs to be addressed aggressively. I know there are those who will say throwing money at the problem will not solve it. However, I know this: not funding adequate staff or facilities will not solve the problem either.

Reply
Elayne

May 28, 2014

Thanks, Fred, for describing your personal experiences. And for your spot on thoughts and feelings about what needs fixing with the VA system . . .
Elayne

Reply
Burt Dubin

May 28, 2014

Touching, Elayne, so touching . . .
And what can we do, those of us who’re here,
I don’t know.
Burt

Reply
Rosalie Moscoe, RHN, RNCP

May 28, 2014

Thanks for your touching article Elayne about Memorial Day in the U.S.
We don’t have the same amount of loss or waiting for treatment here in Canada as in the U.S., but I totally sympathize.
After all, the U.S. is always there to help other countries when in need, very often at their own peril – the loss of decent U.S. citizens.
May the losses cease. I hope your article sparks action.
Rosalie Moscoe
Speaker for Stress Relief & Nutrition
Registered Nutritional Consultant Practitioner
Author of Frazzled Hurried Woman! Your Stress Relief Guide to Thriving. . .Not Merely Surviving

Reply