Veteran's issues have always been close to my heart, as an Iraq War veteran and Operation Enduring Freedom veteran I've seen first-hand the physical afflictions of war as well as the mental strain on those who have shared these experiences. I was both gratified and heartbroken when I learned of yesterday's 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals' ruling on Veterans for Common Sense vs Eric Shinseki et al. The Court ruled that the VA displayed incompetence in dealing with veteran's mental health issues and failed to fulfill their responsibilities to our nation's veterans.
According to an e-mail from VA Deputy Secretary Ira Katz, and noted in Judge Reinhardt's opinion, on an average day 18 of our country's veterans take their own lives. No you did not just misread that statistic, each day we lose on average 18 of our nation's veterans from nothing other than afflictions that have gone untreated by those charged with their care. An additional 1000 of our veterans attempt suicide each month and according to a 2008 study by the RAND Institute 18.5% of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These are appalling statistics.
But the VA, Congress, and the Bush and Obama administrations addressed this right? We must have anticipated that waging 2 wars would result in a huge influx of VA claims? Apparently not. According to Judge Reinhardt it takes on average more than 4 years to fully adjudicate a claim for benefits. Currently there are 756,000 pending claims according to VA budget documents with over 84,000 waiting for mental health care. In the meantime congress has kept itself busy by slashing the budget, extending tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans, and attempting to redefine what "rape" is by passing a bill to make illegal what already is illegal via HR 3.
Why is this ruling and the problems identified by this lawsuit not front-page news? I need to give credit to my hometown paper the Kansas City Star for running an AP story on their front-page regarding this issue but after scanning the Internet there has been next to zero coverage of this, and any that I can find is buried. Where's the outrage? Where's the public outcry? We are a nation that is appreciative of our veterans, but we only seem to express this appreciation on Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, and Independence Day. I flew in full desert uniform on my way home from Iraq in 2006, nobody seemed to notice nor care. Sure we'll spend days covering a royal wedding, a birth certificate, and who will be voted off Dancing with the Stars but when an organization sheds light on the neglect of the needs of those who volunteered to sacrifice everything for us where is their support? Where is their voice? Who will speak on their behalf?
I am issuing a call to serve those who served. The American people need to be the voice of our protectors, we need to demand justice for our veterans. First we need to contact the Veteran's Administration and demand that they do not appeal this ruling, they need to address their shortcomings as identified by the 9th Circuit and draft a real plan to address these issues. Next we need to contact our representatives in congress to pass legislation necessary to hold the VA accountable and to provide protections and venues to our veterans who are not receiving the care they need. We then need to tell congress to stop worrying so much about the budget and authorize any funding necessary to help the VA facilitate care. Finally we need the Obama administration's leadership in helping to coordinate these efforts just as they have done with other policies as of late. And after we've made our voices heard by those who have turned a deaf ear each of us must look into ourselves to evaluate what we've done for our veterans lately. There are organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) who are always looking for volunteers to assist veterans, they're just waiting for you to answer the call.
The call is out, will you answer? Each day we delay action we lose another 18 veterans, we owe them more. We owe them everything.
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