asking Al Gore to run in 2008!
I am angry
Posted March 2nd, 2007 by mousewoman
in
Dang - is that what I'm supposed to say? I have just learned that because I was not receiving the mail sent to a wrong address, I will be liable for $1000 bill from the VA. It is disgusting, in lieu of the fact I by rights should receive money from the VA, but because I never missed a day (okay, maybe one) sick while in 4 years honorable service, and indeed volunteered for a tour of duty in the Gulf when the war broke out in 1990, I cannot prove my illness began in the service. I was ill, I lost my job, they gave me a desk job. I never saw a shrink, and, I should have. And now, I am faced with problems that they say are fair - because, I had time to complain? No! I got a letter that said, if we don't hear from you within 30 days of this letter (dated Feb. 1), then we will report your debt to the Treasury. I walked three miles and paid 6 dollars to phone the hospital, and she says, no, you didn't mail your waiver you asked us for until today, you said. I have to say, man! Holy mackerel! I got a letter saying, if we don't hear from you! that's all. They heard from me! Is today not within 30 days? Now I don't know how I'll pay my rent. And I shouldn't pay the VA...but I didn't get to requalify, a new requirement that puts vets in the street, when you didn't have to, in the past. It sucks. And Bush has the temerity, after cutting VA benefits, to order a review at Walter Reed? Well, let's get him on this one. I'm hoping that my waiver will go through, because I only get $650 a month from the government, my SSD, and need to ask family to help, but they're running out of money. I need a job, and it's not easy, when you're mentally ill. I sure hope my VA benefits, that will probably give me $200 a month more, come through. Anyhow, I needed to vent. Here's the link to the VA bullshit, about Walter Reed - where they fly vets who have no legs or arms but will live, at night, still, I believe: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070302/ap_on_go_pr_wh/walter_reed and here's the reality: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/16684548.htm. I only could get home without yelling at someone because, it's about time I felt the pinch, my family has been good to me. And yet, holy shit - I guess that's the only way I can feel good about this. Not right. Veterans Benefits should be sacrosanct. And how many billions go into the war effort?
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congressional support
You know, I thought of that tonight, and I wrote to Congress (as in, Representatives for Virginia, last place I registered to vote, kind of important as, I'm in Netherlands now and don't even know who my Representatives are!) for the first time ever, tonight, choosing some at random who were Democrats; I sent email, and then thought, sh*t...and I'm going to do it right, tomorrow.
I also will phone that woman at the agent cashiers office for the hospital that billed me, and let them know They are at fault for not updating their records, for the VA Does have my right address, and also, I'll fax her my letter to Congressmen, and I'll send them her name, if I can't get satisfaction just by threatening - which I recall (from a comedy traffic court -I mean, school -class I attended, of all things!) is sometimes good enough to get results.
: - )
Thanks again, you guys, for caring. I had only talked to my VFW guy, to date. I'll follow up with the other avenues you suggest, eddie.
"I have no plans to do a nude scene. I have no intention to do a nude scene. I don't expect to do a nude scene. But I haven't made a Shermanesque statement about it."
- Al Gore
mental health
Sorry,
I had no idea that you were not in the states.
I'm sure that there are some avenues to get help if you need it.
mental health
You should be talking to folks like Mental Health Association for starters.
Did you contact your Congressman or Congresswoman or your Senators?
And of course there is the Americans with Disabilities Act that most probably covers you too.
Forgive me if you have already talked to these folks but that's a start.
Dang Dang
Can't offer any realistic help, but can comment that some things just never change.
A good friend of mine was a late sending in the form saying he was making acceptable progress enrolled in an accredited college. He hand-carried the information to the draft board office, but it didn't matter. He got a draft notice and six months later was in VN.
thanks for caring
I hope your friend got through that okay. Came home in one piece, I mean.
Trouble with mental illness and the military is, military is good at creating it. Only, to get service-related compensation (the bucks that make a difference), you have to prove a pre-existing illness, exacerbated by military service. That's hard to do, unless you had a military doctor, while you were in, give you a diagnosis (within the DSM lV, I think). They try to avoid that.
I think it's a damn shame that the VA has had to resort to getting funding they should get from the Federal Government from their own patients - those they're there to serve. And what galls me is, when I went in for emergency service, they sent me out-of-state, by private taxi, with a nurse and an EMT driver in a brand new SUV, and the driver said, "this is a $6,000 fare".
Tell me someone isn't getting kickbacks.
"I have no plans to do a nude scene. I have no intention to do a nude scene. I don't expect to do a nude scene. But I haven't made a Shermanesque statement about it."
- Al Gore
one piece, yes
he did take a bullet and get to come home early. he spent some time in a halfway-house type hosp in NC for other than physical injuries
he is one of the finest men ever to walk the planet.