Spreading the Word

Fatigue has set in. I said to my husband the other day, "I have never been so tired in my life". After a year of taking and writing interviews, two months of intensive editing and three months in publication, I have hit in exhaustion interlude. People used to refer to me as the Energizer Bunny, but, at this time it seems as if my get-up-and-go has gone-and-went.

Everything I have been involved in has been enjoyable, but I guess the emotional intensity has reached my limit for now. The problem with this recess is that this is the time I should be in promotion of Reveille in Hot Springs. What began as my contribution to our community and our VA has evolved into a passion for the rights due to our veterans. It is not just for our veterans who use our VA, but for all of our American veterans who served our country, be it peacetime or in combat, and who deserve the benefits our government once promised. They are heading for privatization of benefits and consolidation of health care in the major cities.

The veterans who need emotional health care for PTSD and substance abuse want to recover in the peace and quiet of rural VA facilities. The larger hosptials located in the metro areas have too many triggers that can reverse their recovery, and because of their size, veterans are treated as numbers and patients, not as veterans.

In the private hospitals doctors are not trained to recognize PTSD, agent orange related diseases and the special needs that veterans require for their healing. Also, it has been proven that the most cost-effective way to treat our veterans is through VA centers. It will cost the taxpayers more to have veterans seek treatment in private hospitals.

It makes sense to keep and improve our VA hospitals. It makes sense to give all veterans, combat related or not, their full benefits, much as our representatives in Washington receive after their years of service to our country. I wonder if we will have future soldiers to enter the military when young men and women begin to realize that if they serve and do not get VA benefits for non-combat-related injuries or illnesses, that they will need to obtain insurance which is often beyond their means.

Then there are the homeless veterans, drifting the country, perhaps getting welfare, who are lost in the muddle of the indigent who have never served. Does adding to this cost, rather than treatment and retraining for society make sense?

Oh, yes, I could go on and on, but again, my frustration and anger at this muddled system only adds to my exhaustion. I need to recoup and regroup for the battle ahead.

This morning I got a phone call from someone who brought a "bunch of books" at the bookstore and is bringing them over for me to personalize. She said she is spreading them around the country during her travels. She wants the word out there. So do I. So do I. Thank you to everyone who purchases books, gives them out to others or sends them on for reviews. You help the cause. You help our veterans, and you help out this temporarily un-wound bunny.

If you help spread the word, thank you from all of our veterans. Thank you from me.