This past week or so has been a little trying for me and my
family. I saw first hand how a nation takes care of its own. Oh sure, you may
think I am referring to the welfare state. People who get money from the
taxpayer to help pay their rent, their food bill, their energy bills, their
phone bill and maybe even help pay for a car. Sure it is important to help
those who really are in need and are down on their luck. Sure it is important to give these people a
hand up.
All to often, however, what we taxpayers end up giving via
our various layers of government is nothing more than a hand out. But these are
not the people I am referring to.
I am referring to the people who risk their very lives to
provide us with safety and freedom. I am
talking about those who volunteer to lay down their lives so that the rest of
us may live our lives fully and in peace. I am talking about our military
veterans. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people who do not know
the truth talk about all the “free” health care that the military gets. Truth
is, its not so free. Never has been. There is always a price. A double price. A financial price for sure but also a human
price. A sacrificial price. Let me be
boldly clear on this. A nation that does
not take care of their own Military Veterans will not remain a nation for long.
You see, every time in history when a nation forgets or
mistreats those that actually do the fighting to keep the enemy at bay will
soon not have those individuals willing to sacrifice everything. Then you end up with a draft.
A conscription of those who do not wish to be a part of the
military and who do not wish to sacrifice everything they have including their
very lives, in defense of the homeland. This is when you have desertion in
large numbers on the battle field. The
non-volunteer soldier thinks that what they do will not be rewarded or
appreciated by the general public so they decide not to risk their own lives
for such ungrateful citizenry and they flee.
Today, in the United States, we are doing this to our men and
women of the military. Those that
populate the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and even the Coast
Guard. These people put everything on the line yet they get little pay in
return. They often get poor medical
treatment at substandard facilities. We
have seen the news reports of how bad the VA Hospital system is yet you
probably think they are still getting their care for free. Well, they don’t get
that substandard care for free. Yes the
vet has to pay at least a portion of his care out of his own pocket. His own pocket!
Yet the welfare mother gets far better treatment at the local
clinic. Their welfare benefits sometimes
are greater than the compensation given to our military. In fact, we treat our military with such
disdain that often times, young military families are forced to apply for and
obtain Food Stamps and other welfare programs. These are ambitious and well
trained individuals who eventually see the light and realize that the citizenry
do not care for them at all. They are
treated worse than dogs in some cases.
They decide they will not put their lives and their families’ lives in
jeopardy for such an ungrateful mass. They decide to leave the service, often
as early as they can. Taking with them
their experience, their training and their dedication and never to return.
You may say that they volunteer to do the job and that they
know the risk. But let me ask you, what
will you do when nobody, and I mean nobody is willing to volunteer to do that
job? Will you volunteer? Why not?
Most likely it will be because you know how poorly you treated those who
came before you and thus you would never subject yourself to such
treatment.
You elect the officials who treat our military vets with
disdain and dishonor and only you can elect officials who will reverse that trend.
After all, if you don’t start believing that our veterans deserve all we can
give them, you soon won’t have anything at all to keep because you won’t have a
free nation that allows you to have what you have.
So let me ask you, if you won’t volunteer to keep you, your
family, your neighborhood, your state, your nation safe and free, then who do
you think will? Maybe we should demand
better treatment and pay for those that do volunteer and so we will always have
those that will volunteer.
The alternative, well lets just say, you would not volunteer
for the alternative.
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