Hanging Themselves With Red Tape

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Once a quarter my local VA hospital has a "town hall meeting" with officials. These officials include representatives from the director's office, the regional office, patient advocates, and the benefits office. That quarterly meeting was today. I have never been so infuriated in my life. The looks on the faces of the officials as veteran after veteran told of the mountains of red tape they were entangled in (one, a Marine, is dying of cancer brought on by Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam) were looks of complete and total disinterest. They seemed to project facial and body expressions that said, "We're here because the boss made us come. We don't really want to be here." When the subject of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) came up the veteran (who's been trying to get a resolution for over a decade [gee, that makes my 3-year wait for a resolution short by comparison!]) who was discussing it, to the point where he was moved to tears over what he's been through with the VA, was given the cold rebuff about how "this and that and the other" must be met as criteria and then this and that have to be met as well before a diagnosis can be made. I lost it. I piped up and spoke about my friend in Illinois whose son committed suicide last year because the VA hospital near him wouldn't treat him or bother to diagnose him. Entangled in red tape, my friend's son hung himself with that red tape. (Figuratively: he actually laid down on railroad tracks and let a train run over him.) I also pointed out that the recording when you dial the VA hospital's number says something along the lines of, "If you're having thoughts of hurting yourself, hang up and dial [a toll-free number is rattled off]." "A person standing on the bridge isn't going to hang up and dial that number," I said. "He's going to throw his phone into the river and then follow his phone." The VA system is broke. They think because they're throwing liquid on the fire they're accomplishing something. Unfortunately, they're oblivious to the fact that the liquid they're pouring on the fire is gasoline. Meanwhile, 22 more veterans ended their lives today....including one in town who, on Sunday, took his wife and two children's lives before he killed himself.