Back Stabbing our Veterans

It is a strange world. I have belonged to it for many years and still have trouble believing what is occurring, especially in the political arena.

I received an email this week regarding my book Reveille in Hot Springs. The reader has just finished reading it....carefully and thoughtfully... and sent along his insights.  One of his comments reads, "I congratulate you on the effort expended to compile and render genuine for the reader the moving content of authentic voices, suffering voices, abandoned voices, hidden voices...the narrow, the shriveled, the displaced. A grateful nation does not always find its expression in the actions of an expedient government."

In yet another sentence the author writes, "But expediency is the lifeblood of government. I am not optimistic."

My mind wrapped around his choice of words....expedient government....expediency....Such an interesting and insightful choice of words in describing our government. It always seems that entities such as our government look for the utilitarian, profitable solutions, but not necessarily the most moral. The word expedient also implies opportunistic and self-serving.

Is the VA in DC concerned with themselves or their veterans who served them? Their decision to alter the way they classify historic properties and remove most of them from the historical register makes you wonder.Is it yet another attempt, in the name of "expediency" to close a VA that is most helpful in their treatment of veterans with PTSD and other traumas associated with life in the military. Is their slow bleed of services and personnel an invisible war to gradually drain the very soul of one of the best VA facilities in our country? Why do they insist on following a plan that will be more expensive to the taxpayers? Why do they treat veterans as expendable? Why are they harassing our veterans who have been vocal against their decision to shut us down? Looking into their medical records? I mean, really, how low can they stoop? I can't help but compare all of this to the 3rd grade bullies who threaten and intimidate the smaller kids. Is it really to get their way, or is it to make themselves feel powerful?

My questions for you is, "Who stands to profit from this far-reaching, painful decision?

Play around with the word "expedient" and see what conclusion you reach.