Mayday actually came about in the
1920s. And it’s not English in origin. It’s French, from the word, “m’aider,” which means, help me! The
entire expression in French is, “Venez
m’aider,” meaning, “Come help me!” Bet you didn’t know that!
Well, with events in our country and
around the world seeming to be deteriorating at an alarming rate, I find myself
thinking “Mayday!” a lot. But the event that really got me going here of late
was the Veterans Administration in Phoenix. Here’s what CNN said as their
opening paragraph of this breaking story. “At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at
the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a
secret waiting list.”
Wait! What?
The article goes on to say, “For six months, CNN has been reporting
on extended delays in health care appointments
suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for
appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps
the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far. Internal e-mails
obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew
about the practice and even defended it.”
I couldn’t believe that I was actually
getting this story correct. The Phoenix VA intentionally withheld medical
treatment for sick veterans! The obvious question is, “For what purpose?” Well,
that’s what’s most disturbing in all of this. The Phoenix VA was scheduling
veterans who needed treatment promising them an appointment. When the veteran
would call to find out when their appointment was they would be told it was
being scheduled and they’d get them soon. Instead, the policy at this VA was to
“cook the books.” By taking down the name of a veteran who would be scheduled
sometime in the future, it made the Phoenix VA appear to the big wigs in DC as
being a smoothly operating facility meeting the needs of the veterans in need
of medical treatment.
There
is something between 1,200 and 1,400 veterans waiting to be seen in the Phoenix
area. The way the VA administration in Phoenix gets around this is to have two
lists for veterans. One is the official list which shows the veterans are being
seen in a timely manner. The other is the real list, known as the hidden list.
The official list has the name of the veteran but there’s no indication that
he’d been waiting more than the 10-14 day period required. When the veteran
came in for an appointment their name would be entered into the computer and
then given a hard copy printout, but the information would never be saved on
the computer. Their name would then go on another list for them to be contacted
at some point in the distant future. Months might go by with no word from the
VA. When the 10-14 day window opens, the veteran is contacted for the
appointment, at which point the scheduling looks real good for the VA. As far
as the official record goes, everything looks fine. If what I wrote about
scheduling doesn’t make sense to you, it doesn’t make much sense to me either.
Now,
I’d like to believe that this is a problem that has only occurred in the
Phoenix VA. The head office in DC is supposed to be doing an investigation of
all the VAs to make sure there is no more funny stuff going on.
Our
veterans do not need to be made over because of their service for the country.
In fact, most don’t think they did anything that noteworthy to begin with.
Veterans do, however, expect that the government for whom they served would
also keep their promises in providing them with appropriate healthcare,
disability pay, and other agreed to compensations.
But
I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised that our veterans are being poorly
treated at times. For the last several years various politicians and high
profile personalities have made disparaging comments about veterans. For
instance, one politician called his opponent’s service as a colonel in the Army
reserve in Iraq as not being a “real job
– not demonstrating leadership.”
Kathleen
Belew wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times suggesting, “Veterans are dangerous, violent people that society
should be weary of.” She has a particular distaste for Vietnam
Vets apparently. She claims “the return of [Veterans] from combat appears to correlate more closely
with [Ku Klux] Klan membership than any other historical factor.” She then
linked the murder of three innocent people in Kansas by one man to a generation
of Vietnam Veterans.
HBO
Talk show host Bill Maher had this to say about the Greatest Generation wanting
to visit their newly opened World War II museum accompanied by Republican
Michele Bachmann. “They’re the
greatest generation – nobody said they were the brightest generation.”
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has shown she doesn’t
think much of veterans. “Barack Obama's Secretary of the DHS is stubbornly
refusing to apologize to our nation's veterans for issuing a DHS intelligence
assessment which disparages veterans as possible terrorist threats.” I
wrote about this in an article a couple of years ago. It was written somewhat
tongue-in-cheek, but with the continued denigration of our military I’m taking
these comments a whole lot more seriously.
Our TSA at the Sacramento Airport
just last summer totally dishonored a Marine veteran of Iraq who was severely
wounded. He was on his way to be honored as Veteran of the Year at the state
capital, but not until the TSA shamefully treated him first. Wearing his Marine
Dress Blues, he was sent through the body screener where he was asked to raise
his arms up over his head. Due to injuries which nearly killed him in Fallujah,
he was incapable of raising his right arm much above chest level. The agents
poked and prodded his injured right arm, ran their hands under his rack of
medals, swabbed his shoes (for explosive contaminants), and made him take off
his uniform because it had too much medal! Is there an apology forthcoming from
these TSA agents? Don’t hold your breath.
We have lost our minds! This is
why I want to scream, Mayday!
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