How Do We Keep Lincoln's Promise to Veterans and their Families?

Veterans have a lot of things that are hard for them to have access to. Some of them don’t have access to much money, or when they return to civilian life some of them don’t have access to a place to live because they might have been away for so long. Lincoln said, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” So how do we do this? One of the things that many people see is that veterans don’t have homes or jobs once they get out of the service.

Getting veterans in a home or maintaining a job is something that I think needs to change. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has things that can help solve this problem but I think they need more. The VA provides home loans that you pay little interest on, and they provide few benefits for unemployment. But what else can we do? Another thing is that the military does offer benefits for veterans and their families, but is that enough?

Being a dependent of someone who was in the military for over 20 years, I know how difficult benefits are. Some policies don’t cover much, and some won’t make a dent in the payments that families have to make because of health issues, or problems that the service man or woman has come across. I think that this country could do more for our veterans. I’m not saying that we need to be paying full coverage for everything that they can go through but I do think that they could pay a little bit more. They’ve sacrifice their lives for this country and I think that they deserve that and more. The last thing that I know is very hard for some veterans is that some of the VA offices you have to wait a few days because of how busy things are.

If there is a veteran who is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, do we really want them to have to wait days to be able to talk to someone, or to see a doctor? Veterans who need someone shouldn’t have to wait days, I think that the VA offices should have more than one or two counselors and they should have a hospital full of doctors to assist them when they need it most.

Our veterans have done so much for us. So how about we try to keep the promise that Lincoln made, and take care of the veterans who have served, to take care of their family and make sure that they have all they need. Let’s pay them back because they have risked so much for the rest of us.