Only the Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease!

by Tom Barnes, Staff Writer 

Is it just me or do the major veterans organizations seem to be out to lunch?

I am a lifetime member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and I have been a member of the American Legion for about ten years now. To be fair, both groups attempted to help me get my IU rating disability and without them, I would not have it. But it took almost eight years and all sorts of effort on my part to get the job done. It was, well, lets just say, it was hell.

Sometimes they were in my corner and sometimes they insisted that I cool it. I never really knew who they were supporting, me or the Department of Veterans Affairs ( DVA). Often, the people at these organizations seemed to act and speak like government agents. It confused me.  And then I did some research.

Now, I am not real active in either group at the local level because they frankly are constantly involved in issues at the national level which I consider to be ridiculous. I want better benefits for veterans and disabled veterans. That is pretty much it. I frankly do not care if someone burns the flag.

That is a bona fide and longstanding American tradition of dissent. It has been a tradition since the beginning of the Republic. And it gets attention. And all Americans have a right to demand that their government pay attention. Is it disrespectful to American veterans? That is a matter of opinion.

But in my opinion, this issue and others like it is taking up way too much focus from organizations that are supposed to be spending their juice on helping us and not spinning their wheels in the mud on these goofy marginal issues that do not help us and our life situations one whit.  I think this is intentional.

Now I realize that flag burning is a hot button issue but I think that is the point.  It is NOT worth the major veterans organizations getting involved in it. Because there are much more important things for them to get involved in…like why did they not do anything to get the Executive Order changed years ago that allowed the DVA to stop payment to IU disabled veterans even when the law was changed in 2008 to get it done? Why?

I will tell you why. Because they were dicking around with flag burning and other equally ridiculous, non jermaine issues. I personally think that the ultra conservative blocs of power in this country push these organizations to get involved with these tangential issues specifically to keep them away from the substantive issues. Because the substantive issues involve paying us more money and giving us more benefits, which is in turn, more money in and of itself.

What I am trying to say is that the veterans organizations have become our worst enemies in many ways. They are simply tools of the ultra right.  They spend their time, energies and resources on tangential issues and I believe that this is done on purpose.  It is deliberate circumvention of pertinent issues that will cost money.

These organizations are now blatant and obvious tools of the ultra conservative elites that do not want to pay out the billions of dollars that veterans are owed. Now I am going to tell you something. I am a left wing Democrat and I can personally vouch for you that the left wing elites do not want the billions to go to us either because that would divert money from other pet projects of the left. I trust neither wing and I am very active in Democratic politics here in Northern Virginia.

My grandfather was a ward leader and heavily involved in GOP politics in Philadelphia when I was a kid. I know both parties and how they operate very well and neither is really a friend to us. We veterans are seen as a pimple on the national rump.

They scratch us every now and then to keep us quiet but neither party and neither extreme wing in either party wants to really do much for us. We are too damned expensive in their view. Veterans never seem to grasp this. We are the perennial red-haired step children of this government because of the expense of treating us correctly. And they give us meaningless congressional ‘thank you’s’ and goofy parades and stupid declarations of support while we have homeless veterans everywhere and minimal pensions that do not fully cover the costs of a normal American life. 

We have waiting lines in Veterans hospitals that are a year long to get an appointment to see a doctor who will tell you that you need more tests.  And that takes another year.  Is it me, or am I living in the Twilight Zone here?

And do you know who I blame? Us. You. Me. And all the veterans that preceeded us. We are too nice. We are too respectful. We are too damned complacent. "The government will take care of me" seems to be our mantra. I am here to tell you. No it won’t. You need to demand that your benefits be honored and upgraded in a timely fashion with a letter to your Congressman at least once a fiscal quarter. How many of us do that? Okay, besides the eight people that you just counted on your fingers, how many are capable of actually doing it?  The answer is 25 million.

Think about it. Pass the idea around. Only the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)