The GOP shouldn’t bother thanking me for my military service. Unfortunately they, and many other Americans, voted for a draft dodger — a man who called veterans suckers and losers, and now intends to defund the VA, starting with eliminating over 80,000 positions.
I’m a credential volunteer for the Veterans Administration. I volunteer at three other organizations that serve our wounded heroes. My experience is that all of these organizations are already doing more with less. The Portland VA clinic where I volunteer has had medical personnel staffing shortages for years. There’s a waiting list to get into individual and group therapy, and doctors and nurses are harder to schedule. Whole health programs need more practitioners and so on.
What concerns me more is that qualified doctors and health care professionals won’t want to work for the VA system that our president wants to decimate. They won’t, thus creating a greater void.
So, the GOP should please not thank me for my service. They don’t have the right.
Richard Stoker, USCG, retired
North Yarmouth
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