VA a Broken System

The VA is without a doubt still broken, even after all these years trying to fix it, it isn’t any closer to where it should be. For a veteran just to schedule an appointment is a ridiculous process that no one should have to deal with.

            I remember when I was active duty hearing the horror stories of the VA and thinking they were exaggerations of the system, until one day a fellow combat cameraman who had gotten out of the Marines a couple years before had died. he was suffering from chronic migraines, he tried over and over to see a doctor at the VA hospital only for his appointments to get pushed back and eventually canceled. This would keep going on till he died, after his autopsy they discovered that he was suffering from a brain tumor, if he could have seen a doctor when the symptoms first appeared he still might be here today. Unfortunately that never happened, the VA tried to cover it up by making it look like he was the one cancelling his appointments, they got caught doing this though because they tried to say he cancelled his appointment several days after his death. This is only one story out of many like it.

            You would think after scandals like this the VA would have changed for the better but I’m sad to say that nothing has really changed, we still see on the news about new problems the VA has been trying to cover up. During all of this the veterans are the one who are stuck with this system with no other options. I myself have tried several times to schedule an appointment to see a doctor for the VA just give me the runaround and eventually cancel my appointment without telling me. Just the other day I was on hold with the VA for over an hour to try to schedule one before giving up.

            We need to start allowing the veterans to choose where they can go to seek help, we need to start be proactive towards the problems with veterans instead on reactive. The government needs to fix the VA now, too many veterans are suffering and have no where else to go, only getting worse as time goes on.

America Should Not Offer Free College

In Nahely Garcia’s article “America NEEDS To Offer FreeCollege” She argues that America should get rid of the student loan forgiveness program and instead just offer free college instead. I don’t believe America should do that. Its not the governments job to make sure you have a higher education, it’s yours. People would take the system for granted, I’ve met too many people in my lifetime that have blown off school and classes, I’m sure that anyone reading this article knows at least one person in school that doesn’t try at all. If the government paid for everyone’s school you would get more people with the mindset of “its not my money paying for this class so who cares if I fail it”. Why should the American people be paying for these types of people going to school?

Now having said all that I do believe that college should be more affordable than it has become today. A couple decades ago someone could get a part time job to pay their way through college, today that’s now impossible. I believe if the government is going to get involved with higher education it should be making it so that students can do that again, bringing down the outrageous prices colleges and universities demand from the people attending. The government should offer more programs for people with low-income families that actually want to go to school and better themselves to get the helped they need to attend school, but not to just write everyone a blank check for college. People value things more when they have to pay for it themselves, and take things for granted when other people do.