The recent events at the Veteran’s Affair’s (VA) Medical Center in St. Louis cannot be described in any other word then atrocious. Nearly 2,000 veterans have been exposed to either HIV or Hepatitis at a facility that was lax on the importance of sterilization.
The men and women who put their lives on the line or devote vast amounts of time away from friends and family to defend our freedom deserve better then the treatment they have received at our local VA hospital and the overall treatments across the country.
It’s true feelings toward v eterans has come a long way from the bottoming toward vets during the Vietnam war, but how we treat our veterans still isn’t good enough.
People wave flags and say they support the troops, but as soon as the job gets hand- on is when we disconnect.
Plenty of foundations collect donations for care packages sent to troops over sea but many that say “they support the troops” don’t donate when it becomes an issue of putting your money where your mouth is.
It’s great that most Americans believe that the Westboro Baptist protests at fallen service-members funerals as something that shouldn’t happen but still many don’t support our troops enough.
Many service members come home from the war with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or needs that are not met, unemployment among young veterans is 7 percent greater than the national average (for veterans it is at 17 percent)
This is unacceptable. These men and women gave it all for our country and to defend our freedom and we walk past them on the street scoffing at them for going from a hero to a homeless individual.
More should be done to support our veterans past and present and it would be a very unfortunate day when people see out service members as just being workers in just another job.
