To the editor:
In the past couple of weeks, there has been a spotlight shown on the Department of Veterans Affairs. Comedian/TV host Jon Stewart has been one of the driving forces behind the increased awareness of the completely chaotic state the Department of Veterans Affairs is currently in.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki has resigned from his position.
The whole situation is honestly just disgusting to me. There is so much money that is being injected into things related to the military and the creation of military goods, yet the well-being of our veterans is being essentially ignored and swept under the rug.
The people who give so much to our country are not having the same devotion reciprocated back to them. Of everything that money should be given to, I think helping out veterans out should be among the top of the list.
We claim to love and support our troops with mere words, but when it comes to actions and legislation it seems that this is not the case. The Department of Veterans Affairs epitomizes the worst of bureaucracy in government. The lives of millions of Americans are being valued less than looking good to superiors and meeting quotas.
No system of government is going to be perfect, but I think it is obviously that the current system leaves quite a lot of room for improvement. There really needs to be some substantial changes in the running of the government for a real impact to be felt. Unfortunately, however, it seems that changes of those sort are few and far in between.
I hope for the sake of the current and future veterans that there is some sort of change for the better. At this point, it seems hard for the department to get much worse.
Grant Jurkowich
Hillsborough
