CARE FOR VETERANS, SERVING MILITARY, AND THEIR FAMILIES
By Ted and Francoise Gianoutsos, December 2008

The most recent outrage to the health care of our warriors – the Pentagon’s redefinition of combat-related disabilities – has provoked the usual outcry of media stories, editorials, and letters to the editor. The letters containing obvious heartfelt laments from family members are the most heart-wrenching to read.

Unfortunately, these usual periodic outcries produce only token cosmetic change. Veterans, serving military, and their dependant family members have always received the least – not the best – health care that the politicians can get away with. The two main reasons for this century-old status quo are simple – money and elitism. The solution is also simple – money and votes!

The vast majority of politicians, especially since the advent of a voluntary military, see serving military as cannon fodder. Veterans are seen as militarily useless cannon fodder. The families are seen as expensive non-productive dependants. Indeed, family members are officially labeled as dependants. Therefore, the less money spent on health care – especially for the disabled, retired, elderly veterans, and family members – the more money to spend on young healthy serving military to fight the politicians’ wars.

The twin elites of America are the rich and the intellectuals. Few rich or intellectuals volunteer to put their elitist lives on the line in the military. They view themselves as too rich or too smart to serve. They see their lives as too valuable to lose. They think it is far better for the “cannon fodder” to protect them. In return, they pay lip service to “honor” serving military and veterans – especially the dead ones to whom they so love to pay tribute and who cost so little in terms of memorials – and provide through their elected political representatives the least costly care.

With rare exception, the politicians - both Republican and Democratic- have the same “cannon fodder” mentality. Since the elimination of the Draft, fewer members of Congress and/or their families have served in the military. Therefore in recent years, lip service has increased while real care has decreased.

The solution is money and votes. Here, in Alaska, there are both an Alaska Veterans Foundation with its Veterans Endowment Trust (V.E.T.) fund, and a Veterans Party of Alaska. We are founding members of both. We have also put our money in substantial amounts where our mouths are for both and have signed up many members for both. By the way, we live on our social security and the small part-time paychecks we earn in retirement.

At least one-third of the population of both Alaska and America are veterans, serving military, and their families. Think for a moment of what that means in terms of a Veterans Foundation and a Veterans Party.

Here, in Alaska, 200,000 members of both the Alaska Veterans Foundation and the Veterans Party of Alaska with each member contributing $1,000 per year to the Foundation’s V.E.T. fund and $100 per year to the Party would produce 200 million dollars per year for the V.E.T. fund and 20 million dollars per year for the party.

In America, 100 million members of an American Veterans Foundation (the Alaska Veterans Foundation can easily be expanded nationwide) at a $1,000 per member per year produce 100 billion dollars for a V.E.T. fund per year.

By the same token 100 million members of a national Veterans Party (there are already Veterans Parties established in nearly half of the states) each contributing $100 per year produce ten billion dollars per year for the Veterans Party – or 5 times the two billion dollars that was spent by all candidates in the 2008 election.

Let us be very clear here. We are talking about $1,100 per year or 3 bucks a day – pocket change or latte money. If vets, serving military, and their family members won’t pony up daily pocket change to guarantee their own best care, they flat deserve the least care that the politicians grudgingly give them!

Does anyone doubt that so many members of a Veterans Foundation and Veterans Party both in Alaska and nationally would have a profound effect on the care that veterans, serving military, and their families receive?

Combining that kind of money and that number of registered voters would more than focus the attention of Republican and Democratic politicians, it would replace token changes whenever new outrages necessitate them, with real substantive and permanent change. The long overdue change from least care to best care would not only apply to health, it would apply to housing, jobs, and education as well.

Is this possible to do? Of course, it is! We are already doing it ourselves now here, in Alaska.  We have already put substantially more than $1,100 each per year into the Alaska Veterans Foundation and the Veterans Party of Alaska since we helped to create them several years ago.

Additionally, we have assigned every penny of our 10 million dollar federal justice compensation to the Alaska Veterans Foundation (please view our veterans gift video on our Web site). It is far too much money for us to blow on ourselves – that would do us more harm than good. Better to go beyond ourselves and help lots of folks! We have also registered more than 2,000 of our fellow Alaskans to vote in the Veterans Party.

So we don’t just talk. We do! Ted has run for U.S. Senate twice (2004 and 2008) and we both ran in 2006 as a team for governor and Lt. governor to promote the idea of a Veterans Party. 

If we can do it, so can others. But no matter what we do, alone we cannot achieve the figures cited above. On the other hand, it does not take very many committed individuals to quickly produce a bandwagon effect. This is especially true when dealing with a group of people who share the extremely strong bond of having put their lives on the line for their country.

We veterans, serving military, and our families have a choice. We can sit back and continue to let the politicians get away with “least”, or we get together where it really counts with money and votes, and replace “least” with “best”.

• Let’s stop complaining.
• Let’s stop depending on the politicians who treat us like dirt.
• Let’s do it ourselves.
• Let’s put our money and votes where our mouths are.

It’s up to us!