In a move on par with broken treaties with various tribes in the 1800's, the brutal repression of the bonus marchers in the 1930's and the internment of Japanese-Americans in the 1940's the Supreme Court has turned its back on America's veterans who were promised free medical care and who have been denied it since 1995. According to a story in the Washington Times by Frank J. Murray, from the beginning of WW II to the middle of the 1950's every person entering military service was promised that if they served for 20 years they would have free medical care for life but Congress never approved the benefits. Now veterans are the victims of unfulfilled promises. On June 2, the Supreme Court refused to overturn the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The appeals court advised the veterans to seek help from Congress. This is like someone standing on the bank of a pond watching someone else drowning 20 feet away. They throw a rope out 15 feet and when it isn't enough and the other person drowns says "Well, I met them more than halfway." The thing that really upsets me about this is the way people who have sacrificed 20 years or more of their life based on a promise made to them by our government are being tossed aside like used tissue paper. It doesn't matter whether the Congress authorized the promises made, recruiters acted on the authority granted them by the various branches of the service to make those promises and the veterans had every reason to believe that after they had served their country honorably and well the benefits would be there. The government we have is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people. It is supposed to be responsive to the needs of the public it serves. In this case it isn't, and the people it is letting down are the people who have given of themselves in service to the country. The veterans have a right to receive the benefits because they kept their part of the bargain, they put in their time. In many cases they and their fellow service members were maimed and killed for their efforts. How many veterans seek medical benefits for injuries and diseases picked up in foreign lands protecting us, the vast majority of Americans who never took up arms for our country? How many veterans have spent years, even decades, in pain because of honorable service that is now being cast aside? We, you and I, are in debt to these honorable people and we should be ashamed by lawmakers trying to weasel out of that debt. It is time for the public to get in touch with their senators and congressperson to let them know that this injustice cannot stand. Our country is the greatest in the world, for now. If such injustice is allowed to go unrectified this country cannot maintain its position in the world and it won't deserve to. This is something more important than cutting taxes, income tax reform, and eliminating deficit spending. If our elected officials won't correct this situation on their own, it's up to us to get busy and make them. It's our turn to fight the good fight, lets get out there and do it.

To contact Senator Kit Bond, 274 Russell Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510 or call (202) 224-5721; Senator Jim Talent, 316 Hart Building, Washington, D.C. 20510, or call (202) 224-6154; Ike Skelton, 2206 Rayburn Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 or call (202) 225-2876.