When I retired from police work I started off paying $580 a month. After 4 years my monthly premium had risen to $880 per month. The city sent out a letter that each year, for the next 4 years, the premium would increase by $100 per month until it reached $1280 per month. At this point I picked up health insurance from my employer at the time and dropped the city plan (which was excellent, BTW). For me it was an inconvenience but I knew guys who retired in the late 70s and early 80s who were probably pulling in about $1500 a month by way of their pension. At that point they were literally past the age of being able to work. What were THEY to do?
Is it fair that the gummint does not do all that is necessary to protect the people who have gone overseas time and time again to do their dirty work? The obvious answer is F**K NO! F**K NO it is NOT fair! These people have sacrificed more than any of us can see on the surface for this government and this country. I have some horrid dreams from 20 years on the street, I can't imagine what the dreams are like after experiencing being overrun by the NVA or watching a buddy get vaporized in an Afghan rocket attack. The game players in DC don't know either and it seems that they don't care.
Maybe, when a young person is beginning to make choices as to what to do with his or her life from this point on they will start to look at the military in a different light. Maybe they will see it as a chore that the pols in DC reserve for only the children of others to perform. Can't allow the kids of their wealthy benefactors go, either. "We'll save this for the kids of the middle class and the poor". The old saying "what if they gave a war and nobody came" springs to mind.
I'm sure I did not win any points for patriotism with this post. But some things just gotta be said.
