Fuck.

[sabrina 1]

497. Thank you. The information on the breakfasts had just been sent to me by a Veteran.

He knows that I would be more than willing to make calls, sign petitions whatever it takes to get veterans what they are entitled to. I don't bother with people who play games other than to expose what they are trying to do.

I have sent him the information so that he can take his mind off this as he has so many other issues he is trying to deal with.

My comment was mainly about the suicides. I mentioned the rumor about the breakfasts which I had just read. Curiously, or not so curiously, the game players ignored the most important and documented information on the rate of suicides (and having experienced and intervened in one such case, I know how little help veterans get once they are out of the military, even when they are in it.

I despise people who use veterans for political purposes. I'm glad that at least the breakfast story, unlike the water and showers and benefits for dead soldiers families, was just a rumor. Truly glad, they have enough to worry about.

We lost a wonderful close family friend who was a veteran recently. He had fought for years to try to get the benefits he earned, disability for his condition, Agent Orange, from which he suffered all of his life until it finally killed him. They refused for years and years to just give him his benefits. Two years after his death, he was finally given full disability going back to when he left Vietnam. AFTER HIS DEATH. So forgive me if I err on the side of 'they are screwing the veterans again' once in a while. When I am wrong, I correct it as I did here. I used to drive him to the VA to try to get what was owed to him, sometimes waiting, in his painful condition for HOURS before even seeing anyone.

I make NO apologies for standing with the Veterans. The treatment of veterans is a disgrace and I won't shed any tears if once in a while, people believe that once again they are being screwed, based on past history.

It is instructive though to see how defensive some people here are of those who HAVE denied the veterans so many rights. My friend, eg, could have received better medical treatment IF his benefits had been given to him BEFORE he died.