We Must Make it Right

I was watching 60 minutes last night and a World War II veteran was talking to a Vietnam veteran about D-Day. On the 6th of June it will be 70 years since the D-Day invasion. This veteran after almost 70 years had to stop several times because the memories were too much for him to bear. He would break down and tell the other veteran, "you know, you've been there in war". I haven't been and I don't know. I cannot fathom the horror of it. The sights, the smells, the sounds, the chaos. It is beyond my ability to comprehend. I shared something on Facebook the other day regarding the Republican blocking of a bill to provide more money for veterans medical care, jobs and training. I look back at it now and feel it wasn't completely fair. Both sides deserve blame here. They need to sit in a room and not be given food or water until they are dead or reach an agreement that provides veterans with the benefits they have so bravely earned. The legislation should have nothing in it that does anything but provide for the needs of our veterans and their families. No side issues at all. No talk about how it will be paid for or how much it costs. Those were issues that seemed to have no relevance when we sent our soldiers off to war. They sacrificed their youth, their limbs, eyes, emotions, and in many cases their lives because we asked them to do so. When they return it is our obligation to see they receive the care they were promised and are owed. Whatever care that might be at whatever cost. No excuses, no delays, no secret waiting lists. In his second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln stated it clearly. He looked ahead and saw our obligation to those who served and sacrificed.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace  among ourselves and with all nations."

It is almost 150 years since Lincoln spoke those words. We still have not managed to keep the promise he made to our veterans and their families. It is wrong and shameful. Both parties in Congress should be ashamed of what they have done and continue to do. When you look at a veteran who is clearly suffering 70 years after his experiences in combat you develop a new appreciation for the sacrifice these citizen soldiers made and the debt we owe but can never fully repay. Their medical care, pensions, job training and education are a just and fair beginning. The expression of a grateful nation in honoring those who served. We can and must do better.