Last Thursday, we had a caller, a wife of a Vietnam-era Vet with Hep C who was having the devil of a time getting service connected. The problem was her nexus-or lack thereof. Using Internet cites and VA’s famous FAST letter of 2004, you can have a short trip to nowhere as most know. VA will kindly oblige and provide one (a nexus) for you. They are soooooo thoughtful.

Unfortunately, in spite of my giving her my email, I have yet to hear from this woman. This puzzles me. Why would anyone with this problem not have heard of HCVets or asknod and come forward for help sooner? No less than five hundred-plus folks, and a lot of them wives, have been the prime mover in their husband’s win. This is the rub of the radio show today. Where do you go for good help and can you trust it?

As most  know, we were discussing the gulf of animosity between a certain pink Veteran’s site and other sites.

https://asknod.org/2016/05/11/hadit-com-radio-show-thursday-evening-at-1900-hrs-eastern/

The quality of advice and the “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter In” sign over the portal would scare the knowledgeable Veteran away from this site. Add in the propensity to airbrush out personalities who are brusque and confrontational and you have a perfect recipe for brainwashing. If the advice and personnel offering “assistance” were useful, there would be no quarrel. Quite the contrary, anyone who dares vocalize any dissent with their perceived treatment by VA or VSOs are considered persona non grata.

We accept that. This is America, fortunately for them, and they have the right to remain stupid. Our beef is simple. Why deprive Veterans of knowledge? Why train your VARO employees to the lowest level to accomplish nothing? Where is the duty to assist- both at the VSO level and the RO? Veterans are not leagle beagles. Absent any way to file, they turn to VSOs. If computer savvy, they eventually stumble across one of the bigger sites. And here we are.

Knowledge is power in this business. Our  mission-everyone’s- all disabled Veterans- should be to stand shoulder to shoulder to obtain our due. We can’t be having one site erasing good ideas because they are too controversial or might flame unstable Veterans into physical confrontation. If you want to talk ‘physical confrontation’, I’d like to point you to all the dead Veterans across America who died waiting for their number to be called. I didn’t see the big confrontation and riots at VAMCs. I saw Veterans who died from VA indifference. Is this the VA the Pink Site is so fond of? Is the four year delay getting a seat at the BVA Appeals table somehow our fault?

We didn’t make foreign policy. We enforced it. When the chickens came home to roost from burn pits and AO, the contract suffered ‘gaps’. What about the great stonewall of Camp Lejeune for the last decade?  Is this the VA everyone at VBN is crowing about? I don’t pull punches. Either you are all in and for Vets, or…. what? Your site is Pro-Vet but you disdain controversy? Censorship exhibits the hubris that you alone know what is best for Veterans. It’s an ‘us against them’ with the “them” being VA naysayers. Given VA’s track record for the last century, I don’t see the silver lining  in this that warrants any praise for their technique.

The call in number remains

347-237-4819

And the gal who greets you is still

Call us and ask a question. Meanwhile we’ll chew on the quandary of why anyone-most especially a Veteran of America- would want to set him/themselves up as superior beings like the pigs who voted themselves the new overseers of the farm in George Orwell’s beloved Animal Farm. Can it be some pigs are more equal (and thus more knowledgeable about everything VA) than others? Call in and give us your opinion. We want to create harmony and spread knowledge. What Veteran would wish stupidity and ignorance on another? This VA poker game requires new techniques and new methods with every year we see new regulations. You cannot allow your claims knowledge to lie in stasis. You were taught the theory of offensive attack is far better than passive defense in the military. The rules have not changed. The need to know far outweighs the danger that too much knowledge might beget a violent response.

Showtime in 21 minutes. I apologize for the short notice. My mother in law is dying and we are setting up Hospice for her today.

P.S. Short round. I just called Jerrel and found out the show was yesterday. Sorry folks. We’ll organize this roundup next week after everything settles down a bit. Jerrel and LawBob Squarepants are due to have a tête á tête with VLJ Barbara Copeland next week up in St. Louis so we may have to delay or even have a special on that. VBN isn’t going anywhere- both literally and figuratively.