The Word from Washington

And so, after all of these years of struggle to keep our very "best of the best" VA facilities in Hot Spring, the decision came from Secretary McDonald, the director of the VA in Washington, that our VA will be closed. There will be bits and pieces left......the call center, the dialysis unit and a clinic, but for most of their health care the veterans from Hot Springs and the surrounding areas will require a longer drive with less personal care.

Since 2011 the community of Hot Springs has fought to save our VA in Hot Springs. It is one of the highest rated VA facilities in the country. Veterans come from all over the country to seek help in the domiciliary. One would think that the decision makers in Washinton would look at the VA ratings and decide to close those that fail to provide quality service. A commitee called Save our VA has been meeting faithfully for over 5 years to keep our VA in Hot Springs and other members of the community came to meetings to strategize, make signs, join protests, listen to our veterans.

Our veterans fought for us. They gave up years of their lives for their country. Now Washington has turned their backs on them. We, in Hot Springs, have not forgotten them. From the beginning we have been the veteran's town. 

"The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten."

Calvin Coolidge

A Promise Kept

I first met Fred in 2012, a few months after the announcement on December, 2011 about the planned closure of the Hot Springs VA. I was taking testimonials from veterans who used our VA and wanted it to remain open. The testimonials were to be sent to the VA administration in Washington, DC.

Fred had fought for his country in Vietnam and he volunteered once again, this time to fight the battle to save our VA. He was hesitant to tell his story. He was modest about his time in the service but resolute about the importance of saving the Hot Springs VA that was crucial to his health care. His diabetes and neuropathy, which had left him house-bound, were connected to his exposure to Agent Orange, the herbicide used by our military to destroy the vegetation in jungles of Vietnam. When Fred went to the VA they would bring out the maps and ask him where he had been in Vietnam. He said that he had received excellent care from the VA.

The following are Fred's words from part of his interview with me: When I joined the Marines and went to Vietnam I believed in the cause. I thought that Communism would spread like the domino effect and I wanted to do my part to keep that from happening. Six months into it I began to realize that it was a lost cause. They were a third world country and couldn't, and, at times, wouldn't defend themselves. It's a tall order to go from a peasant country to a democracy. From that time on I was looking forward to getting out of the service, but I had a personal sense of responsibility and I had made a promise to my country. Now my country is breaking their promise to us.

It was an American policy that when flyers were down they would try to go in and get them to safety. They did everything they could to protect their people and fly out to rescue them. How's a guy from Crawford, Alliance or Pine Ridge Reservation going to feel when they have to take a three hour ride in an ambulance to get to the hospital? It will take an extra hour and a half to get to Fort Meade from Hot Springs. When someone was down in Nam, they risked their own lives to get him out.

Long ago Fred kept his promise to his country even when he no longer believed in the cause. Then he became worried that soon that same government he once served would break its promise and deny him and other veterans accessible and quality health care. Agent Orange left its ugly mark on this loyal veteran of the Vietnam War. His last years were spent in a nursing home in Rapid City.

With quiet determination and dignity Fred fought his final battle by sharing his story. His words will live on in Reveille in Hot Springs, a book of testimonials by and for all veterans, past, present, and those yet to come.

He was buried today with full military honors. May he finally rest in peace.

The End of Struggle

We knocked on his door. No answer. "That's odd. He always calls when he cancels an appointment", I said to Bob.

His bicycle was in the back. I thought he had gone back into the domiciliary as happened once before and he had left no message. I had scolded him then for not notifying any of his clients. We worried about him. He lived alone and had many issues to deal with. He was a veteran dealing with PTSD, substance abuse, brain trauma, and several emotional disorders. We knew he suffered from severe migraines and sleep deprivation. Lately he had used several prescription drugs to help with his insomnia and migraines. He shared some of his issues with us, but none of us really realized the extent of his despair. How could we? Listening to another is not the same as walking in his shoes. We could not feel the pain that lead him to mixing so many meds to ease that pain.

After a few days of no word I called those who knew the ropes and could tell me if he were in the VA for treatment or for medical issues. Not long before he had almost died from kidney failure because of drugs he was taking. His drugs were changed, but he still took many since his issues were many.

The sheriff came to see me. "We found him dead in his apartment. He was lying on the floor. I saw all of his medications lined up on the table. It did not look like suicide, but we have to wait for the autopsy."

Several of us who knew and loved him gathered at a kitchen table. We talked about all we knew about his final days. We shared our grief, smothered by the shock of so recent a happening. He had been such an asset to the community, helping many of us regain physical strength through his fitness training, specialized to each of our individual needs. He had a rare gift; to be able to see what each client needed and to adapt his personal training to those needs. He treated arthritis, Parkinson's, MS, weight loss, strength gain, body building, or whatever his client requested.

His love and concern for each client showed clearly. He wanted them to be the best they could be. He once told me that working with his clients and watching them achieve their goals brought him the most fulfillment to his life; a life filled with physical and emotional struggles. He loved our VA and our town. He worried about the possible loss of our VA. He did not know where he would go. He needed the closeness of a VA, but he also cherished the warmth of Hot Springs.

We had talked about his loneliness, his desire for a special person to share his life. He worried about a someone who could be a part of his constant struggle in life. Who could be there for his emotional highs and lows, for his migraines, his sleeplessness, his daily demons he fought to be able to be there for his clients?

I met Wade when I interviewed him for a chapter in my book, Reveille in Hot Springs: the Battle to Save our VA. He had been through both the substance abuse program and the PTSD program. His chapter, "Inside the Dom" took the reader through the inner treatment programs at our VA.

One time, after re-reading his chapter, he told me, "I sure am one screwed up dude." He had shared his story, honestly, with a raw edge, but as he re-read it, many times, he seemed to see himself for the first time. It was as if he was reading about someone else, even thought the words had come from him.

I can only speak for me but I know that his encouragement and belief in me kept me going in my training with him. He would say, "You are an inspiration to me, Mary. You help to keep me going."

I believe that all of his clients helped to keep him going. They each inspired him and helped him to deal with his pain. But late in the night, sleepless, with only pills to ease his struggle, he turned more and more to those small prescribed aids to relieve his pain, physical and emotional, and in the end, too many, too soon, took him away from us, much, much too soon. He has left a void. He was loved.

Goodbye dear veteran, my trainer, my friend. You have left a hole in my heart.

Our Time Has Come

It began in December, 2011....the battle of our community and our veterans to save our VA hospital from being cut by the VA administration in Washington. This week of June, 2014 we face off with the EIS (Environmental Impact Study) in an effort, both written and verbal, to challenge the proposed closure of not only the largest employer of our area, but a facility long-established as one of the foremost treatment centers in our country for veterans with PTSD and other emotional issues common to veterans, located in a peaceful environment conducive to long-term recovery. Our town of Hot Springs is a haven for many veterans who, after treatment in our Domiciliary, choose to abandon the cities and remain here as contributing members of our society.

For any readers who challenge my previous blog, I invite them to check out for themselves outside surveys done for accreditation on our hospital. One is JACHO and the other is CARF. Both give glowing reviews to our VA. In September, 2012, our Black Hills Health Care System was "awarded full accreditation by CARF for its residential and outpatient programs related to homelessness and employment services, addiction treatment and PTSD programming. This is the fifth time Mental Health services has been awarded CARF certification for Residential Programming." It continues, "Not only did these programs pass the survey with no noted deficiencies, several best practices were noted." Later, "The services, personnel and documentation reviewed clearly indicated an established pattern of practice excellence and programs of the highest quality."

All of this was documented in a survey taken many years into the numerous cuts in services made to our VA. I have written all of this is my book Reveille in Hot Springs. The book is available on Amazon for any interested enough in our veterans and their care. Readers can listen to our veterans by reading their testimonies. If the VA administration had listened to the voices of their veterans, they would not be in the mess they are in at the present time. Listening to only the upper management in any industry only leads to self-serving in the long run. All veterans need to care about the needs of all veterans. Some can use medical treatment available at any hospital. Others need a rural VA.

Our community listened to the needs of its veterans who use and need this VA. After listening to veterans for over two years, we believe them. We also heard the lies of management. Perhaps if our country and our representatives had listened to veterans years ago who need the services that only a VA facility is able to provide for many who served, our VA would be thriving and would have the personnel to treat all the homeless and emotionally disabled veterans who show up at its front door.

This week we appear before the EIS. They will present their findings to the VA administration in Washington. The head of the VA will consider their study, the proposal for closure by the VA and the proposal by the veterans and citizens of Hot Springs. What will be the results? Will they favor management or the wishes of the veterans who have special needs best met in VA facilities such as our serene sandstone Dom on the top of the hill in the midst of the healing Black Hills of South Dakota?

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.

Five Minutes More

Do you remember that old song, "Give me five minutes more, only five minutes more, only five minutes more in your arms?"....

Well, SDPR gave me a five minute interview with two of the veterans in Reveille in Hot Springs. My other books received thirty minutes or more of air time but this one gets only five minutes "because of its content."

There we have it! The book seems to be controversial. If it is, I say hooray! Hooray for the voices of our veterans who only ask Washington to keep their benefits they once received. Are these voices calling out in the wilderness of our fly-over zone, or are they speaking to the desert of self-centered politicians who have never served their country in the military, who believe those who say these cut backs will save the taxpayers money or those who just don't care about the numerous reasons to save our VA hospitals and benefits?

If Washington does not care about our soldiers when they return from serving their country, then perhaps, just perhaps, young men and women will no longer care about serving in the military that asks for their service, but denies them the benefits most dear to them.

It gives me pause for thought. I believe that if we could get national media attention for our battle in Hot Springs, which represents the struggle for all veterans in this country, maybe, just maybe, the voices of our veterans will be heard and honored.

Give us five minutes more, and many, many more, in order to explain to the entire country, the veteran pleas. Please, please, who will listen, really listen--and act?

A Christmas Gift

Some gifts come beautifully wrapped. Some come knocking at your door. Others arrive by telephone from loved ones. This year I received a very special gift via the internet. It was an email that sent me a Kirkus Review that was a 100% wonderful review for Reveille in Hot Springs. These editors did not know me, the town or our VA, but they completely understood our battle, the sentiments of the community of Hot Springs, and the views of our veterans who use our VA.

They wrote that this VA should not be closed, but rather it should be cloned in every state in this country. They stated that this book is "an infuriating, stinging rebuke to politicians who leave returning soldiers to their own devices."  They totally got it! I admit that I cried when I read this review from a group of reviewers long known for tough reviews. It was a gift.

To top it off, a few days later I received another email from the publishers who sent their congratulations and said that Reveille had been named to the Kirkus list of the best books of 2013! This news has been announced on the Kirkus web site, their email newsletter and will be published in their January magazine.

This is an additional gift. This is a gift for the veterans, for the editor, Dennis Cass, for Senator Johnson, who wrote the foreword, for the photographers, William Ing and Justin Gausman, for the members of the community who contributed their sentiments, and for yours truly who wove the words into stories that touched these critics.

The ultimate gift would be recognition by those in Washington who have the final say as to the closing of our VA facilities in the rural communities and to the gradual waning of veteran benefits.We don't ask for special wrapping or fancy bows. All we wait for is the word from Washington that our veterans will have their wishes honored.

Tell us Virginia, is there really a Santa Claus?

Homelessness Brought Home

Justin and I went for an interview on KILI radio today. This is the radio station serving the Pine Ridge reservation and nearby Indian populations. Justin brought facts and figures from Save our VA committee,while I came to discuss my book, Reveille in Hot Springs. It was my second interview at KILI. I wrote about the first interview on veterans day in my blog titled "Hindsight."

A new interview....a new experience....new insights. There were three Indians conducting the show, all veterans who use and are passionate about saving our Hot Springs VA. Everyone knew their material and each one shared their points of view with a raw honesty, refreshing to me, as it may also have been to the listeners. There was one moment that took my breath away.

One of the veterans is a columnist for the Native Sun Newspaper. I have been a long reader of his column and was aware that a short time back he had left the paper, citing personal reasons as I best recall. Today I brought up the topic of the homeless veterans and my anger that their needs could be met at our VA, long equipped and capable of housing, treating and training veterans. Why the government was not using our facility was a cause of distress.

This veteran quickly and casually responded to my remarks. "I am one of those homeless veterans. I lost my job and after the market crash I couldn't find another one.  I lost my family and my home in Rapid City. I lived in my car in the Hills. When winter set in my cousin let me live in his warehouse on the Rez. I was so cold that I made a tent around my car and plugged in a space heater. I went to the VA and they helped me. I am back in school again and I am going to write my column for the paper."

I was stunned. How do you respond to such honesty, announced to the entire listening radio audience? His words overwhelmed me. My anger at veteran homelessness had a face. He was sitting across from me, speaking into a microphone. He had a name, a reputation as a writer, an admirer of our VA and my book, and a veteran who had fought for our country, and he had been homeless in our beautiful Black Hills.

The interview was over and this veteran disappeared from the studio. I know no more, but I do know that today I looked homelessness in the face. He is not a statistic to me. He is a human being who worked hard all of his life, fell onto bad times, and who, at one time, by serving his country, served all of us.

What's Up?

Yes, it is one bleak November. Well, at least for us in the southern Hills. We are used to more days of sunshine than in much of the rest of the country.

Our Christmas cactus is beginning to bloom. That is the one that bloomed over and over last year, lasting until after Valentines Day. Our smaller cactus is in full bloom, but in a few days it will be done for the year.

Bob brought home a small orchid yesterday. What a treat during the dreary November days! He also bought a colorful Mexican, decorative wall hanging. It shows the moon saying goodnight to the sun with a kiss, no less. Bob knows how to brighten up any day.

I am lining up interviews for Reveille in Hot Springs. We are in a time bind to save our rural VA hospitals and benefits for our veterans. I have done several interviews, with some more to come, but none of these will gain us national media, which we sorely need. Many residents of Hot Springs are sending copies of the books to friends and relatives throughout the country, hoping that someone, somewhere will notice our battle. It is difficult with so many books and so many battles out there at this time. Whatever we do, we do for our veterans. They deserve to have their voices heard, but will anyone listen before it is too late? We are in the "fly-over-zone" in more ways than one. The two coasts are wrapt up in their issues, but they do get major attention from the press.

So, we are in the bleak November, but we continue fighting and hoping. Sometimes it seems as if that is all we have left..... the fight and holding on to hope, and someone to bring home an orchid and a cheerful, hand-painted plaque.

Hindsight

The doe and her fawn were standing frozen in our back yard by the headlights of our car as we pulled into our driveway from a long day on the Rez. In front of them was a fat rabbit, also caught immobile by our lights. We sat watching for some seconds when the doe casually walked off, followed by her doe, tailed by the rabbit.

It was a fitting end to a fascinating, educational day doing a lengthy interview on KILI radio station located on Pine Ridge reservation.

For several days I had panicked over a TV interview last Sunday. Looking back, all the stress was for naught. The reporter did the best she could after an hour of interviewing, condensing everything into her one minute and 25 seconds of allotted time. She focused on one point, but even then I received many emails and several phone calls commenting on that brief segment.

"You will save the VA single-handed with your book", was one response.

I really doubt that, but the caller's comment was much appreciated. Our time is limited and we need to have an impact on the powers that be in Washington to save our very special VA and other benefits for all of our veterans.

The following day, Veteran's Day, two of the veterans from my book, RJ and Sylsvester, my husband and I drove to KILI radio on Pine Ridge. Sylvester had driven with his wife from Rosebud. The entire experience at the station was casual,hilarious and welcoming, all at the same time.

Our interview was scheduled for 1:00 that day. The previous guests, scheduled for noon, arrived late. The host, Tom Casey and I were visiting, when he looked up at the clock and casually announced that he had to go teach a class at the college and I would have to conduct the interview by myself.

"After all, you do interviews, don't you? You interviewed all of the veterans, including the two who came with you."

"No way", I responded. "When do you get back from teaching?"

"I will be back about 4:00, but what will you do until then?"

Well, all of us went to lunch at an intimate restaurant about 15 miles away, probably the closest available place. It was located with a motel in the center of the reservation. Who would ever come to this remote location for rooms or food? It turns out there were some ranchers and some residents from the reservation who had stopped in on this bitterly cold day. Everyone who came in knew the veterans that had come with me for the interview. One of them, RJ, had taught and been a principal on Pine Ridge for many years, and the other, Sylvester, was a Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation, three hours to the north.

After lunch we all travelled back to the radio station and waited another 20 minutes or so until the host returned from teaching. We had some great conversation time with a DJ who was manning the station and with one another, including the wife of one of the veterans. It was all worth the wait. When Tom returned he interviewed each of us for an hour and a half, bringing out the best in the former principal and Vietnam veteran and the Lakota Vietnam veteran from the Rosebud reservation.

He also had me at ease, enjoying his skills as an interviewer. I was bursting in pride for my two veterans who so willingly gave of their time to once again support the Hot Springs VA. RJ remembered to thank all of the women...mothers, wives, children, grandparents of the veterans who had "put up with us on our return from the service."

Sylvester ended the hour with words in Lakota to all of the listeners. I don't know what he said, but his voice was filled with sincerity and I heard the words "Hot Springs VA" several times.

Looking back, both of these interviews were nothing to fear. In fact, they were thoroughly enjoyed, and I learned a great deal. What more can anyone ask?

Panic Time

"You have one minute and 25 seconds of air time", I was told by the TV person in charge of my interview. "You may bring one veteran with you and you can have 6 seconds to read from his chapter. The reporter doing the interview is inexperienced so please be concise and make only a few points".

Well, I'll be.....What was the old expression?...a monkey's uncle, as I remember.

I am comfortable doing a radio interview. I have two coming up this month. One gives me 60 minutes and I may bring as many veterans as I wish. The other is 50 minutes. During these two interviews I have time to discuss the book, Reveille in Hot Springs, and bring up many pertinent issues.

TV is another matter! I have never done this type of interview. How am I going to promote the book, as well as bring up the crucial issues, read a passage, and allow time for the one veteran that will be interviewed with me? If I had at least 20 minutes I might be able to manage all of that.

I admit, I had a sleepless night. What to say, what to do in order to give the audience some ideas of the importance of this issue to all of our veterans present and future?

The book tells the stories of veterans from WWII through Afghanistan, from all branches of service, who have served their country, given up three or four years, or more of their lives to the military, and who were promised health care for life, much as our politicians who have also served. Now those promises are being whittled away...one by one, with the ultimate goal, it appears, to privatize all health care for veterans. In this process the VA will not cover medical issues unless they are directly service related. We know that many veterans need increasing medical care as they age...the same as all of our retired politicians. Many of these veterans cannot afford private insurance and do not know what they will do.

To add insult to injury, veterans are being shifted away from VA facilities..."outsourced" is the term...to be treated by medical professionals untrained to recognize PTSD, Agent Orange, toxic poisoning and all of the accompanying emotional issues facing our veterans.

Veterans suffering from combat trauma do not heal well in larger cities, surrounded by triggers to send them back into their addictions. The VA in Washington is focusing on closing the peaceful, rural VA facilities that are more condusive in the healing of veterans and helping them regain their places in society. The veterans have told me that they are treated like a number in the huge VA hospitals. In our VA they are treated as a veteran and a person.

I could go on and on, but I have one minute and 25 seconds to share the plight of our veterans with viewers who do not know. They need to know. Washington needs to know.

Now my job is to focus on the most important point in the time alloted. I was hoping if I wrote down these thoughts it would help my concentration, but there is more to share and in looking back I know that I have passed my time limit. I have until tomorrow to decide how to narrow down the meat of my book and the struggle of our veterans. Many have fought before and now they are fighting again...this time for their benefits and the benefits of future veterans. This book is their story and their struggle. They want the country to hear them. They want you and all of the citizens of this country to speak out for them. They deserve nothing less.

A Veteran Understatement

We were in a gathering at the American Legion. One of the veterans I had interviewed announced the following:

"I was visiting my mother in Aberdeen. She brought out a copy of South Dakota Magazine and pointed to the article about Hot Springs. It was the review of the book, Reveille in Hot Springs. I told her that my story was in the book. She was surprised because she didn't know that. I guess I'd better send her a copy of the book."

We Had a Celebration

Many of them came. They walked in quietly to our American Legion hall, ready to celebrate the publication of Reveille in Hot Springs, the book that they had each been involved in creating, if by their story or their quote, proofing, photo or inspiration.

There was one who drove up from Nebraska, one from Rapid City and one from Eagle Butte, a drive of more than three hours. The others were from the area. Those who were physically and emotionally able joined our celebration.

Most were veterans from WWII through Afghanistan who had shared their stories, some with great difficulty, with one thought in mind..."to save our VA and our benefits that we once earned serving our country".

I was proud and humbled in their presence. They had taught me so much, and by letting me enter into a part of their world, had changed me forevever. For this gift they have given me I am grateful.

They poured coffee, admired the large cake decorated with an exact replica of the cover of the book, selected food, sat down with other veterans and citizens from Hot Springs, read by way of the name tag that I had provided, the part that one another had played in this book of their battle, perhaps their last one, and gradually became close to one another through the common struggle they were sharing..

As the comfort levels increased, the conversation and laughter grew accordingly. By the time they were signing the 50 books that we were sending to our representatives in Washington, the warmth could be felt throughout the room. We, the regular folks, and the veterans, were united forever through this undertaking.

Last night we had a community celebration. Those veterans who could face large crowds came once again, proudly wearing their name tags identifying their part in this book, and signed books for the townspeople. They were proud, as they should have been.

As for me, so many came up and thanked me for writing this book. I could only reply, in honesty, "It has been an effort of love and I have been given far more in return than I could have ever imagined over a year ago when I began this project".

These veterans who brought me into their lives, took photos and purchased books. Some of them bought many copies of the book...to spread the word everwhere....in order to help fellow veterans everywhere. It is a battle they have chosen to fight for themselves and all veterans present and to come.

I am humbled in their presence. I am filled with wonder and love.

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.

Feedback on Reville in Hot Springs

An email concluded with "thanks for doing what you do". It got me to thinking about what I do. It certainly isn't for monetary gain. I was only hoping to break even on this project about our veterans and community attempt to save our rural VA in Hot Springs, SD.

One of the emails that came from those who have read my book calls the stories "poignant". Another feedback used the word "compelling" testimonies from the veterans. Feedback such as these keep me in the battle to help our veterans.

The response from those who bravely shared their stories for the world to read have only reinforced my goals and desire to promote and spread this book - a work by the community and the veterans - for the community and the veterans.

While I was selling books at the traveling wall a veteran, who has his story in my book, told his wife that she was not going to keep his copy of the book. He told her he wanted to be buried with it.

On Saturday the woman who travels with the Quilt of Tears sent word to me to stop at her booth. When I arrived she said, "I just had to have a copy of your book. Some veterans in the book have told me how proud they are to have their stories written for all to see and understand".

Another veteran in the book, who travels over three hours to keep his appointments at this VA in Hot Springs, thanked me several times for writing this book and including him in the cause. He and his wife stopped at the house yesterday on their way home from the VA. After more thanks,  his wife, clutching the book to her heart, said, "This book will remain for our children long after we are gone".

In response to that email I received from a fellow writer sending thanks for doing what I do, my reply to her and to myself is my reward is from all of those who have taken this project to their hearts. That is why I do what I do. Thanks for your thanks.

At Last!

After a year of doing interviews of veterans who use the Hot Springs VA, and six more months of editing, proofing and publishing, the book about the battle of the veterans and the community of Hot Springs to save our VA will be arriving in town. I will be selling copies at the Traveling Wall coming to town during July 31 through August 4, and copies will be available on line at Amazon and at the local book store in town, Black Hills Books and Treasures.

It will also be available in time on other Internet forms, but for now, the feel of the book in my hands is all that matters to me. I love book-in-hand and am reluctant to include the speedier, more accessible means of accessing these stories.

And these stories!!! What can I say? Veterans from all conflicts and branches of service have offered their testimonials, at times a most painful experience, in order to try in some manner to influence the powers that be to save and grow this VA facility that has become a special healing part of their lives.

The stories are compelling, honest, raw and eye-opening! I have been honored to be included in some small way in the lives of these veterans who have served our country in peacetime and war, through soggy jungles, freezing waters, dusty deserts or dangerous front lines. Some guarded, some patrolled, some set up communication or worked behind the lines. What all had in common was obedience to a higher authority, a loss of ultimate decision making in where they served or what they did. For a period of their lives they gave up personal gains in service to their country.

Now these same veterans are asking for all the benefits that they were once promised for their years of service. They also want this VA to remain where it is and where it has been healing veterans for over one hundred years.

What I did was to listen and write their testimonials. What you can do is to listen to their stories, walk for a brief time in their shoes, honor their wishes and thank them for their service.