“VETS PREFERENCE” AND NEW ENFORCEMENT OF OLD LAWS NOT ENOUGH
PUT VETS, NOT BANKERS AT THE FRONT OF THE LINE FOR “STIMULUS” HELP
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
Veterans and, especially disabled veterans have always had SOME preferential treatment in federal jobs and government contracting awards. In better times, retirees could start a second career at the post office, competing with endless other “special” groups for jobs and even a few veterans have managed to get jobs at the VA.
Now, combat vets, reservists and National Guard members included, return home, not only to find their jobs given away illegally while our government did nothing but, with worsening conditions, may find their entire company gone, dead, out of business.
We spent $700 billion protecting the rich and the sickening bonuses for the financial crooks. Now we are now spending $789 billion to put Americans back to work. No clear language in any of this is redressing the abuses our vets have been subjected to. This is wrong.
Until every vet who can work has a job and a secure home, not one cent should go to a prop up a crooked bank or send a busload of our financial wizards on a world cruise or anything else.
START BY DUMPING THE DEAD WOOD AND HIRING VETS NOW
Before “making jobs” for vets we need to clean the deadwood out of every federal department that has been staffed with political appointees for the last 8 years. If we have to send a wounded PFC to Belgium as Ambassador and get the Bush political hack out of there, then do it.
I don’t want special judges for veterans, I want special judges who ARE veterans.
If we are putting police and firemen into jobs with federal funding then a veteran should go into every one of those positions. If they can’t find qualified veterans, they better be ready to prove it. We spend millions on TV ads telling kids that their military service will qualify them for good jobs when they get out but when they do get out, we treat them like dirt.
THE LIE OF VETERANS PREFERENCE
Veterans preference is, in reality a fraud and always has been. Vietnam veterans were, systematically, denied employment by, not only many federal agencies, but by state and local governments, government contractors and major employers around the country.
If a veteran applied for a job and wasn’t female and Hispanic, they might as well have stayed home.
THE VA, THE BIGGEST VIOLATOR OF ALL
We have to start at the VA. Every new hire at the VA should be a veteran with disabled vets and combat vets getting all jobs before anyone else. If they are seen as unfit or unqualified and aren’t listed as 100% disabled, then we train and rehabilitate them or pay them as totally disabled, and not just shuffle them off like we have for decades.
We didn’t end up with a faceless and corrupt bureaucracy by accident, it took years of hard work and dedication to see to it that people who would understand vets and support them wouldn’t have the chance or that vets who did “get in” were “outnumbered” and “outgunned” by others hired out of cronyism or ill considered other preferences.
VETS TO THE FRONT OF THE HIRING LINE
If we are building new highways, windmills, energy efficient cars or whatever, veterans can and should build them.
When we learn to employ vets, use their skills and reward their sacrifice, then asking people to service won’t have the hollow ring of lies it has now.
If they are heroes, our best, then treat them as our best.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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