This past week or so has been a little trying for me and my family. I saw first hand how a nation takes care of its own. Oh sure, you may think I am referring to the welfare state. People who get money from the taxpayer to help pay their rent, their food bill, their energy bills, their phone bill and maybe even help pay for a car. Sure it is important to help those who really are in need and are down on their luck. Sure it is important to give these people a hand up.
All to often, however, what we taxpayers end up giving via our various layers of government is nothing more than a hand out. But these are not the people I am referring to.
I am referring to the people who risk their very lives to provide us with safety and freedom. I am talking about those who volunteer to lay down their lives so that the rest of us may live our lives fully and in peace. I am talking about our military veterans. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people who do not know the truth talk about all the “free” health care that the military gets. Truth is, its not so free. Never has been. There is always a price. A double price. A financial price for sure but also a human price. A sacrificial price. Let me be boldly clear on this. A nation that does not take care of their own Military Veterans will not remain a nation for long.
You see, every time in history when a nation forgets or mistreats those that actually do the fighting to keep the enemy at bay will soon not have those individuals willing to sacrifice everything. Then you end up with a draft.
A conscription of those who do not wish to be a part of the military and who do not wish to sacrifice everything they have including their very lives, in defense of the homeland. This is when you have desertion in large numbers on the battle field. The non-volunteer soldier thinks that what they do will not be rewarded or appreciated by the general public so they decide not to risk their own lives for such ungrateful citizenry and they flee.
Today, in the United States, we are doing this to our men and women of the military. Those that populate the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and even the Coast Guard. These people put everything on the line yet they get little pay in return. They often get poor medical treatment at substandard facilities. We have seen the news reports of how bad the VA Hospital system is yet you probably think they are still getting their care for free. Well, they don’t get that substandard care for free. Yes the vet has to pay at least a portion of his care out of his own pocket. His own pocket!
Yet the welfare mother gets far better treatment at the local clinic. Their welfare benefits sometimes are greater than the compensation given to our military. In fact, we treat our military with such disdain that often times, young military families are forced to apply for and obtain Food Stamps and other welfare programs. These are ambitious and well trained individuals who eventually see the light and realize that the citizenry do not care for them at all. They are treated worse than dogs in some cases. They decide they will not put their lives and their families’ lives in jeopardy for such an ungrateful mass. They decide to leave the service, often as early as they can. Taking with them their experience, their training and their dedication and never to return.
You may say that they volunteer to do the job and that they know the risk. But let me ask you, what will you do when nobody, and I mean nobody is willing to volunteer to do that job? Will you volunteer? Why not? Most likely it will be because you know how poorly you treated those who came before you and thus you would never subject yourself to such treatment.
You elect the officials who treat our military vets with disdain and dishonor and only you can elect officials who will reverse that trend. After all, if you don’t start believing that our veterans deserve all we can give them, you soon won’t have anything at all to keep because you won’t have a free nation that allows you to have what you have.
So let me ask you, if you won’t volunteer to keep you, your family, your neighborhood, your state, your nation safe and free, then who do you think will? Maybe we should demand better treatment and pay for those that do volunteer and so we will always have those that will volunteer.
The alternative, well lets just say, you would not volunteer for the alternative.
Rod Eccles is host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Rod Eccles Show.
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