Screw a Purple Heart! Give Them All a Mercedes

This morning, on my way to work I noticed something that made me nearly sick to my stomach. While at a traffic light, I pulled up next to a tattered jalopy with a hodge podge of hubcaps and wheel coverings, peeling paint and aggressive puffs of smoke funneling from the exhaust pipe. The license tag was one of those special, premium plates with a logo and it said that the owner of the car, whom I assume was driving, was "Wounded in Combat" and had received a Purple Heart.

As I gazed at the side profile of the veteran as he sat in his Buick LeSabre [that's not it in the picture], I thought to myself, "What a way to thank someone for really putting their ass on the line...." He was an older white man of maybe about 66 or 67 and I don't know anything about his character or present day way of life, but if that LeSabre is any indication, life for him hasn't been a crystal stair.

What kind of country is this where we encourage, encourage, encourage young men and women to "Join the Armed Forces" with promises of the opportunity to see the world, earn money for college and serve your country, only to have them come home to near poverty and psychological ills for decades to come? Especially war veterans.

I'm not very patriotic. Let me not even feign such. There was a time during my youth when I wouldn't even stand during the singing of the National Anthem and such and I still begrudge it slightly now, but I do appreciate living in this country enough to know that we can better serve veterans than we have/are.

My father's father was a World War II veteran and I used to hate going to the V.A. with him, even before I was enlightened enough to know that most of them are nothing more than the armpit of the health care industry. One of my friends' fathers is trying to get benefits for the psychological damage he endured while serving in Vietnam and the stories she tells me are horrific. Finally, "they" are trying to pay those guys for putting them in the middle of hell, but not without poking and prodding to "make sure" that they were really negatively effected...WTF????

Veteran's Day has normally just been another day off for me, but seeing that guy in that jalopy this morning really gave me pause. Here I am in my comfortable, luxury model car, having never taken so much as a spitball to defend this country, while he's probably in somebody's auto repair shop every other month trying to keep that thing on the road. Downright disgusting. Maybe I need to focus my volunteer efforts on veterans for a little while. It's always good to spread the love. Now, let me go donate some rice (www.freerice.com). --SUGAR