[Vision2020] [Spam] Shameful Neglect and a Shameful Government

[lfalen]

Sue

I agree that something is wrong with the way we care for veterans. I get solicitations for support from six of seven organizations that help  veterans. I support some of these as I can. However I thing that is it the responsibility of the government to provide our veterans with top notch care. It is a disgrace that they have to ask for  private funding.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Sue Hovey" suehovey at moscow.com
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:50:56 -0700
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Spam] [Vision2020] Shameful Neglect and a Shameful Government

> >From a Letter to the Editor in West Hawaii Today: (March 12, 2007)
> 
>   My former husband recently passed away after losing a 40-year-long battle against the effects of the Vietnam War.
>    Mike suffered from Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which physically weakened him, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and acute alcoholism that mentally crippled him.  The former caused him to finally be unable to wield the framers hammer that had always provided his living.  The latter made it impossible for him to be in the company of the family that he loved.
>    Towards the end of his life Mike finally sought the help of the Veteran's Administration.  This was the act of a desperate man as he'd always said that he never wanted another thing from the U S Government.  The long lines and endless paperwork were more than he could tolerate and he died alone at a campsite in the snow.
>   I traveled to Oregon with our grown children to take care of Mike's funeral arrangements.  He wanted to be scattered on "his" mountain.
>    The one thig that he had counted on the government to do for him was denied.  The Veteran's Administration will not cremate one of their own unless they are receiving monetary benefits, are an officer, or if the veteran actually dies in one of their hospitals.  Mike would have received benefits if he could have held on for another six months and his claim had been settled.  It would have been settled in his favor because his type of lymphoma is a direct result of the Agent Orange he had been showered with at age 18.
>   Shame on the United States government.  It killed this man twice--once in Vietnam and again on a lonely, snowy mountain.
>   While the veterans did not bury Mike, they did provide his son with a full-sized United States flag.  A flag of loosely woven fabric and labeled with a large "MADE IN CHINA" tag. 
> 
> Lisa Angelo Wyrick
> Kailua-Kona
> 
> 
>