Enough with the CYA Already!

I was driving to work this morning and listening to NPR and the West Virginia Morning segment of Morning Edition and I heard a story about the VA hospitals in West Virginia, with a focus on the hospital in Beckley. [Author's note: I receive treatment at the VA Hospital in Clarksburg, and my dad, a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, receives treatment at the Beckley hospital.] The reporter was interviewing patients at the VA hospital and they were not giving the most flattering picture of the treatment of our veterans at the VA hospital. Among other complaints, the veterans pointed out that they had to travel several hours to Richmond, VA, Fayetteville, NC, or Winston-Salem, NC, to get treatment when the Beckley hospital lacks the equipment to perform needed tests, and that surgery takes years after the initial complaint, often leading to addiction to painkillers by the time the surgery finally takes place. (My dad and several other veterans have also complained about the VA no longer paying for eyeglasses. The cost of deductibles and co-payments has also increased from $24 to $430 since George W. Bush took office.)

However, this interview was cut short, with a security guard insisting that they were violating federal law by interviewing people at the VA hospital and explaining the crackdown on this rule due to "Walter Reed and a bunch of other stuff." In other words, the VA didn't want the word to get out about the substandard and inexcusable treatment of our veterans at the Beckley VA hospital. Senator Rockefeller and Senator Byrd have made numerous complaints over the years about the understaffed hospital and the horrible treatment of veterans and workers. However, the local officials insist that there is nothing wrong with the VA hosptial and the way it is managed.

For those of you who were never in the military, the CYA approach was the answer to almost everything. Briefings were made on the way to speak to the press, and it was not uncommon for things to be "pencil-whipped," or made to look better on paper than they really are. Recently, efforts were made to fix the situation at Walter Reed, despite years of neglect, but the attitude of ignoring problems in the hopes that they will go away needs to stop. I am sick and tired of seeing my fellow veterans be treated in such a manner. I remember Bill Maher saying in his HBO comedy special Victory Begins at Home that teachers, firefighters and police officers do not receive enough pay even though we say they are our heroes, and then he explains, "Maybe they are our heroes because they work cheap" to a rousing applause point, where he said, "Don't worry. Applause costs you nothing." How many more times do I have to hear George W. Bush and his GOP cronies insist that they are the party that stands behind the troops, while accusing those of us who disagree with them, even those of us who have gone to their bogus war, of treason while cutting VA funding and ignoring the real issues of taking care of our soldiers. Well, support for us is not a pathetic photo-op (I'm looking at you, John McCain.) but it is doing the day-to-day business of actually seeing that those who offered their all are given the treatment promised and deserved when we get home. Oh, and by the way, this applies to those who have those bumper stickers on their cars who aren't writing to Congress and the White House to make such a noise for our troops that these issues cannot be ignored.