Hello John,
Once again, the Republican Party has betrayed our veterans. They don't give a damn about us once we come home. When we enlist, they promise us the world, and when we serve in active-duty, they will do whatever it takes to get us back on the battlefield – especially guys like me. I served in active-duty combat zones for the majority of my military career.
I love my country, make no mistake about it. But I question how much it loves me when days like today happen. I am furious! In the last 5 years alone, I’ve had over 30 cysts removed from my body. Luckily, they’ve all been benign, but each procedure hurts like hell and they keep multiplying and no one can tell me why. I’ve been exposed to depleted uranium and breathed in human flesh in burn pits. I’ve been blown up and have had my fair share of broken bones and surgeries. I am not alone in these struggles. My brothers and sisters-in-arms have also gone through the same things I did, not to mention the immense psychological and emotional trauma of active-duty warfare. I am 52 years old. I take close to 20 pills a day, and again, I am not alone.
This is what serving your country means. We put our lives in harm's way, and then when we come home we get stabbed in the back over and over again! Betrayed by the same people who promised us the world, who told us that they’d take care of us after we put our lives on the line for them. So many of us will never live to see our children grow up because of them. Our families suffer for their transgressions.
The anger I have now can't be put into words, and the conversations I’m having with my fellow veterans echo my grief. We are fed up! I am telling you this right now – I promise that as veterans we will never stop fighting for our country, and for those that stabbed us in the back we will never forget your names. To the 42 Republican Senators that voted “no” today on the PACT ACT: we are coming for you. Your phones will not stop ringing, your offices will have veterans lined up outside for you daily. Come election time, get ready for us veterans to show up to your meet-and-greets – there, you’ll have to look us in the eye and tell us why we don't deserve our VA benefits to be expanded.
I don't share this publicly too often, but as veterans, we’ve had conversations among ourselves, and in the back of our heads, we wonder sometimes if the VA would rather just let us die so they wouldn’t have to deal with us anymore. For major procedures, we don't go to VA hospitals. We don't trust them. They are completely overworked and woefully understaffed. 42 Republican Senators voted today to keep them that way.
It doesn't have to be this way, which is why I’m a Democrat. Did you notice that not a single Democrat voted against this bill? I sure as hell did, and I guarantee that my fellow veterans did as well, including the ones who are Republicans or Independents and the ones who don't care at all about politics. Help us reach them! Pitch in what you can, and we will be making sure that everyone knows what the Republicans did today.