VETERAN'S DAY

[Texsox]

Is it s*** to discuss how Vets are treated? I thought Dems had cornered the market on hollow gestures. Posting miles of smileys does a lot of good. This is the same thinking the same people have who believe supporting the troops is waving a flag and cheering as some go off to die is patriotic, while questioning why they are going, and actually thinking they should not go, is somehow not supporting the Troops.

 

The fact remains, Veterans are not always treated well. Down here in the Rio Grande Valley, a magnet for retirees, with a substantial Veteran population, the closest VA hospital is over 200 miles away in San Antonio. yet Valley lawmakers have been rebuffed countless times in securing funding for a medical facility.

 

A dedicated group of Veterans marched, carrying full size flags, to San Antonio, to publicize the lack of funding.

 

To follow your rules, talking about that would be making this political.

 

I guess if all you want to do is talk about it, go for it, but leave me out of hollow b.s. gestures. I'd rather fix what's broke. You buy a smiley and a magnet.

 

BTW, if anyone wants to actually do something to support the efforts to have a VA Hospital where one is needed, please write your congressman and senators.

 

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/.../D8DMG49OB.html

[Texsox]

See, this is what ticks me off. While we waste time debating the proper way to post a message regarding Veteran's Day this crap is happening. Hey Bush, how about dropping the tax cuts and building a damn hospital? Or is that too political?

 

By LYNN BREZOSKY  / Associated Press

 

Gray hair and weathered skin offsetting his green fatigues and black POW beret, Vietnam veteran Jose Maria Vasquez began a six-day, 225-mile trek Saturday to protest the distance he must travel to reach the nearest veterans hospital.

 

Vasquez was joined by about 100 others, a few trailing on horseback, others driving vehicles laden with plastic bottles of water and other supplies for the trip from the Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas to Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital in San Antonio.

 

The protesters planned to spend nights at Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion halls along the way, ending with their arrival in San Antonio on Veterans Day.

 

Some state and local officials donned sneakers and pledged to walk at least part of the way.

 

"This is a march, walk, crawl, ski club jump ... whatever way we can, we're going to make it over there," Vasquez said. "Veterans are being left down here. We're the ones that give the most war contributions yet we're the ones that are getting less. We're angry. We want to show the nation that this is it."

The lack of a veterans hospital in the four-county region along the Mexican border has long been a point of local contention. With the Rio Grande Valley population now pushing one million and the region continuing to send young people to fight wars, veterans say situation is even more dire now.

 

Largely poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic, the part of Texas south of San Antonio counts more combat veterans than anywhere else in the nation, Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia said.

 

Sylvia Handy, a county commissioner, said the region has more than 60,000 veterans and counting.

 

"Today our Valley veterans are getting killed and wounded in Iraq," Handy said. "Where are they going to be treated?"

 

Area veterans seeking care in San Antonio are reimbursed by the government for the trip and there are a buses leaving at least weekly. However, no lodging is offered to relatives, and treatments such as chemotherapy can mean weeks away from family.

 

In recent years, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed adding 10 beds at a Harlingen hospital.

 

Roger Roehl with South Texas Veteran's Healthcare System in San Antonio said there are two large outpatient clinics in the Valley offering a wide range of services, with plans to expand one of them.

 

But the veterans say they what they most need is a hospital with specialists to treat them.

 

"Nobody knows how much we need it like the veterans," said Donald E. Warner, a 73-year-old Korean War veteran who has been mostly wheelchair bound since his back "got all busted up" in the war.

 

"There's so many boys down here that are so sick, and they have to ride all the way up there," he said. "The last time they came and got me in that ambulance from San Antonio just about killed me. Left there on a stretcher all the way up there — it was really hard."

[kapkomet]

For one day, I wanted to stay away from that. You are right. There are issues, but I wanted to keep it away for one day to express our gratitude. FOR ONE DAY you couldn't do that.

 

The thread wasn't about how Vets get treated. Nice hijack, chief. And that's my point. Thanks for making it.

[Texsox]

For one day, I wanted to stay away from that.  You are right.  There are issues, but I wanted to keep it away for one day to express our gratitude.  FOR ONE DAY you couldn't do that. 

 

The thread wasn't about how Vets get treated.  Nice hijack, chief.  And that's my point.  Thanks for making it.

 

I'm sorry, why not split off the meaningless gestures then? I thought is was about showing gratitude and respect. Maybe for one damn day we could actually care and do something instead of posting a flag smiley. Maybe instead of stomping your feet and pouting over your thread, you could have done something that would actually do something for the Veterans?

[kapkomet]

I'm sorry, why not split off the meaningless gestures then? I thought is was about showing gratitude and respect.  Maybe for one damn day we could actually care and do something instead of posting a flag smiley. Maybe instead of stomping your feet and pouting over your thread, you could have done something that would actually do something for the Veterans?

You don't know what I do and don't do. So don't question me like that.

[Texsox]

You don't know what I do and don't do.  So don't question me like that.

 

fair enough. damn, you got me on that one. And right in the middle of a good righteous indignant speech.

 

And just for you bud

[Soxy]

God bless! And I hope for a safe return for all of our men and women in uniform.

 

Today in church someone's son was home from Iraq on leave. So, he was there in his dress blues and medals--look *very* nice. Anyway, the crazy old ladies sit behind me just went gaga over him. A decent amount of speculation about how they wish they were younger, and if anything was more attractive than Marine dress blues.