I’m taking a veteran down to Scottsbluff to the Veterans Administration Clinic Wednesday morning. I do this occasionally, as you who read my blog regularly know, a part of my volunteer work through RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program). It is an easy thing for me to do. It is something I can do. It is something I want to do!

The trip is a short one. We’ll leave a bit before 7:00 AM, and most likely be back home before 10 AM. My cats needn’t worry about supper!

This particular volunteer activity is one I feel the Veterans Administration, the US Government have a moral obligation to do but don’t, all in the name of saving money. More about that later.

There used to be a clinic in town. There is a bus to take people to the VA hospitals and clinics that serve this part of Nebraska but they are dependent of having a driver or a full day to devote to the activity. I am a time saver for the people I drive to appointments. When you get to a certain age, time’s at a premium. Let’s be blunt about it. Between riding and waiting to get in for an appointment, lots of time’s consumed in a way that saves the US Government (you and me, the taxpayers) money. Paul Ryan must be proud.

On the other hand, the people I take to these appointments served in war zones, gave up their youth being shot at, sometimes were wounded if not emotionally scarred. What the hell is a little money to you, me, and the money scrimpers in Congress when we’re talking about people like that? I guarantee your Congressman gets better treatment than that. So does your Senator. Yet very few of them ever served in the military, let alone stood in the firing line in a war zone, have to deal with a prosthesis, go to bed and not sleep because they can’t forget the terrors their country had no problem tossing them into.

I think it is a disgrace. Let me restate that:

Oh yeah, Congress. I spend my own money driving these people. If I can’t convince them not to give me money, I donate that money in their name to the Sallows Military Museum. Not because I’m rich. Not because I’m wonderful. But because we owe our veterans more than you are willing to pay. Let me spend my retirement money to do the morally right thing. You haven’t the integrity to appropriate adequate taxpayer money to do the same on a national scale.