OUR SACRED OBLIGATIONS
I am writing this column on Memorial Day.
It is always a very moving experience for me to celebrate our fellow
Americans who have paid the ultimate price to protect us as well as to
thank those veterans who returned home from their service.
I am
not unmindful that many of those who survived their years of service
returned physically or mentally wounded. For some of them, the rest of
their lives included wrestling with the road to recovery and for some
wrestling with the bureaucracy charged with caring for them.
I am told that problems have existed in the Veterans Administration
for many years. Our current president, during his campaign for the
office, identified these problems and promised to solve them.
How
many Americans know that the Veterans budget is second only to the
Defense budget in size. If we are allocating huge financial resources to
serving the needs of our veterans, why is it not working?
One paper recently talked about millions of dollars spent on
redecorating a reception area at a Veterans hospital while needy
veterans were waiting weeks for appointments.
It was not so long
ago that we read stories that veterans were buried in the wrong graves
at Arlington Cemetery, were buried on top of each other in the same
grave, and that a lot of back-up information as to names of the dead was
incorrect.
Now comes news that 26 hospitals throughout the country were cooking
the books. Pretending to serve vets but leaving them for long periods
of time without care. Some of them died from the delay. This isn’t one
problem hospital. This is systemic.
It has been my pleasure to have been asked to speak on a number of
occasions on Memorial Day or Veterans Day at the Massachusetts Veteran
Cemetery in Winchendon, MA. This year I felt it important to acknowledge
that we are falling short of what Americans want with reference to
serving our veterans and honoring those who have died.
Let us not permit our country to fail in the important task of
honoring those who died for our nation and those who returned from the
wars with serious physical or mental problems or to say thank you for
your service to every man or woman who put their lives at risk.
Obviously we have not performed well with reference to our veterans.
With such a huge budget and such a large number of people who need
treatment the problem is one of management.
My message to President Obama and Secretary Shinseki: you need to INSPECT what you EXPECT.
