Despite attempts to help my fellow veterans, I find that so many actually don’t want help. Some don’t want help because they don’t want to put the effort in, some don’t want the help because they feel they’ll only get denied over and over again (which is how we get beat down by the system), and some just want to complain, but do nothing about it.
I cannot make others care about their disability claims, and/or options that exist, but I also cannot patiently stand there while someone complains while explaining why they refuse to help themselves in their case. Life it too short to be a sounding board that will never be heard.
The sad reality is: there are still so many VSO agents/areas/locations who don’t care to fight for the veteran community, which leaves those vets vulnerable and at risk for disappointment, anxiety and depression. The flip side to that is: there are still some good agents out there, who will fight for the veterans in their community. The hard part is to find those ‘good ones’ out there.
Bottom line: If you don’t care passionately about your disability claims, why would expect a VSO agent to care passionately about your disability claims? Who are you to them? That’s correct, deep down inside you know the answer…”A NUMBER”. You are a number to them, a statistic that the national headshed can claim in their successes when they ask for more money.
Don’t believe me? Good! Start reviewing the Committee on Veterans Affairs sessions on YouTube (if they haven’t been taken down yet). Listen to the softball questions that our elected ‘fighters’ ask the VA, of which bills they actually fight for, then look up those bills and see how far they’ve gotten in committee.
Sadly, the laws, bills, actions in D.C. are public record, but you’d have to want to pursue that information, to see what actions are actually being taken. If you’re bored, or want to call BS on me, please go to Congress.gov and start doing some digging. You’ll first see, if you go to the VA committee for Congress, that there (again) well over 550 Bills in Committee.
Once you bring up that filtered area, feel free to look at how many of those Bills made it into law and when those bills were proposed. Then look at each Bill, starting at the beginning, and read them thoroughly…pay attention because you’ll have to embrace the facts of certain politicians who submit Bills for the exact same thing, but omit the other party from cosponsoring.
Look to see which bills made it through the VA Committee in Congress and sent to the Senate. Then look to see who sponsored those bills that were passed up to the Senate.
What you will find, and this is only to prepare you for the facts, is that renaming clinics took head of the line positioning ahead of important veteran bills that could’ve saved some veterans and/or their families. Yet, they remain buried amidst the sea of garbage. The sad part is: few notice this. Worst part is these politicians know exactly what they’re doing.
Who do you think cares about you? If the answer you first come to isn’t: me, then you are in for a very sad future. Politicians don’t care. Your VSO doesn’t care. Your battle buddies don’t care (as much as you should). Your fellow veterans don’t care (as much as you should). The list goes on and on and on some more. Sad reality, but reality nonetheless.
The moral of the story is a simple one: Care enough about your case to invest the needed time to gain knowledge and information that can help expedite your claim.
Again, if you don’t care enough to take a proactive approach and investment in your case, why would you expect others to?

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