(P1) Poetical
A Modern Fable by Edward Coletti August 2006
When our Little President Boy declared his first little war,
I patted him on his soft tiny head, "You're a good little boy
'cause evil ugly mens kicked down our great big buildings
which wasn't so very nice at all."
When Little President Boy announced his next war,
it was a big big war, and all I could think was,
"broken bodies broken bodies broken bodies broken."
Does our little president know about real war?
His uncle, the veteran, told him, "Little President Boy,
you smash it, you own it."
But Little President Boy had grown so full of himself
he couldn't listen---
"Bodies break for freedom,
for freedom," Then the bodies broke apart again and
again all over the place but Little President Boy
couldn't wouldn't see them.
Little President Boy was too happy to spoil it all.
He donned his little soldier suit so they all might salute
when our Little President Boy chortled in his joy, "O frabjous day!
Callooh! Callay! My mission is accomplished!"
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(P2) Political
Support For Veterans
Remember back when VA Hospitals were practically synonymous with snake pits, and "Born On the Fourth of July" made us think that this was putting it way too mildly? Well, I, as a Vietnam Veteran and, as one who today still works with veterans, am pleased to point out that, during the '90's, things changed for the infinitely better, and the VA Hospitals have become modern models for the health care delivery system. The "only" problem is that there are shamefully too few such hospitals to serve the burgeoning rolls of disabled veterans. Now that our president has committed our youth to war, first somewhat understandably, in Afghanistan, and then, unconscionably in Iraq, the death toll rises, but the ranks of the seriously maimed exceed the dead many many fold. Of the wounded, a full two-thirds are suffering from head injuries, many inflicted by improvised explosive devices (IED's).
I've been told that the VA medical program is critically underfunded by somewhere between 3 and 5 billion dollars! This is at a time when the administration pays lip service to "supporting our troops and veterans." This is an administration which swore before the war that the entire budget for the war would be only $2 billion from the American taxpayers with the remainder coming from our "allies" and the "profits from the revitalized Iraq oil fields." Well, the American tax payers' pockets have now been picked for something over $100 billion, and the original estimate of $2 billion is being spent every month or two.
So what of the veterans returning with head injuries, other wounds, post traumatic stress disorder in staggering numbers, not to mention other illnesses and disabilities both physical and emotional? We are reading not about increasing the VA medical budget by $3 billion, but rather about "CUTS" to the budget!
Let's stop the madness. Please write immediately to your elected national representatives and demand truly supporting the troops and veterans by putting the money where their senatorial and congressional mouths have been working. As to the President, I don't know what can be done there...
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(P3) Philosophical
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