"Veterans Deserve the Honor of Being Trusted First."

Ginmar:

I'm an old bitch and I can handle myself but young soldiers are not used to this kind of thing. I wonder about the Marines that recently commited suicide here in Minnesota after being denied care at the VA, and I wonder how much skepticism greeted them upon their requests for help. I wonder how many suicides have fallen below the radar, how many soldiers, sailors and Marines, at the most vulnerable points in their life, got a taste of this penny-pinching skepticism when they needed help most of all.

I'm afraid of the answer.

A subtle problem permeates these notes, and it takes a while to dawn. It's the lack of respect that gets you, the lack of recognition that the person so disparaged in the notes fought for their country and would do so again if given the chance. Rather, one would think that the interviewee is someone untrustworthy.

Veterans deserve better. Veterans deserve the honor of being trusted first, and cared for. They should not have to run a gauntlet at a time when they are least able to survive it. They deserve the respect due a veteran, and they deserve the benefit of the doubt. I wasn't given this, and still have not recieved it. I suspect many others are in the same position as well. At the very least, it comes down to this: the VA should not set itself up as another enemy for soldiers, sailors and Marines to fight. Not trusting soldiers when they have risked their lives for their country is a slap in the face, and it should render the person offering the insult untrustworthy, rather than reflect on the person so insulted.

We deserve better.