Today is the biggest holiday of the year in this part of our peaceful Black Hills. We in Hot Springs and the neighboring areas are not in a peaceful mood. We are arming ourselves for battle against "the powers that be" in Washington. The representatives from the US Department of Veteran Affairs came here in the middle of December to put forth their plan to close our Veteran's Hospital from a thriving, much sought after health care facility serving our veterans from the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, to a small clinic with 55 employees.
Our VA is known throughout the United States as having the best domiciliary treating veterans with PTSD and chemical issues. It is in a bucolic setting, best meeting the needs of our stressed-out veterans who risked their lives for our freedoms, were trained during their undeveloped years to be on guard at all times, and to kill and defend. During the remaining years back home they deserve all of the special care that we can provide to help them to adjust to peacetime lives, even if it takes their lifetime to achieve that goal. Perhaps with extended treatment as needed for each veteran, fewer of them will lose their families, homes, jobs, and even their lives.
In the summer of 2007 the residents of Hot Springs and Fall River County came together to help the victims of the Alabaugh Fire. They collected clothes, food, money, household furnishings and handmade quilts, lovingly donated by the local women.
The people came through in 2007, and they are rallying once again in the winter of 2011 to save the VA that is the main employer in this community, and to help the veterans who want this VA to remain here and do not wish to receive treatment in the regular hospitals. The vets do not want to be a number in the waiting room. They want, and rightly deserve, the loving, family like service that our veteran's home provides. Not only has the hospital given this help over the years, but our town of Hot Springs welcomes and accepts the veterans. Hot Springs is a veteran's town.
The acting director of the VA Black Hills Health Care System said that we had until the end of February to come up with a counter proposal against their closure plans. We had a meeting on December 21. It was snowy and the roads were icy, but the people came. There was standing room only in the American Legion hall filled with business leaders, city council members, county commissioners, the mayor, members of the faith community, local politicians, ranchers, VA employees, retirees and many veterans proudly wearing hats, vests and jackets displaying their service identity.
Speeches were made, committees were formed and citizens signed up, banding together as a team to fight this closure. Passions and enthusiasm were high. Everyone in that crowded room realized that this is a family deal, veterans and members of this community and the surrounding area, united in a common fight. It is ours to lose or win. I am betting on us winning. There is too much to lose.
I hope that you, my readers, will continue to follow our battle, and if you can support us in any way, please let me know. Letters of support to Washington would be much appreciated, as well as suggestions for our committees. If we lose this fight, more veteran's hospitals and services could follow. What a sad legacy to leave our next generation.
Oh, by the way, have a Merry Christmas, and as you sit down to your holiday meal, surrounded by family or friends, remember to thank a veteran.
Contact regarding this issue: goulet@goldenwest.net
For more details go to the Rapid City Journal for December 18 and December 19 or the Hot Springs Star, December 20.
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