Received Through Email: [VeteranIssues] 60 Minutes Gets an Honest Answer about Veterans defrauding the U.S. taxpayer:
Web Extra: A Four Year Wait?
This is a follow-up to Gordon Duff’s special report 60 MINUTES RUNS FLUFF PIECE ON VETERANS WOES
Paul Sullivan posted what I believe to be the heart of the problem with the backlog of VA claims in his response to the ‘stolen valor’ question raised by CBS reporter Bryan Pitts.
This video went up on YouTube also
60 MINUTES RUNS FLUFF PIECE ON VETERANS WOES
Veteran’s Activists Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) was on camera when CBS 60 minutes investigative reporter Byron Pitts asked what can be called the Stolen Valor question.
Listen yourselves at what Pitts asked Sulliven – something to the effect of how does the VA balance its responsibility to U.S. taxpayers with its responsibility to America’s Veterans. [This is an outlandish assumption that most Veterans scam and defraud the U.S. taxpayer - hum!]
Paul’s response was short and to the point. The number of Veterans who scam the VA on a yearly basis could be counted on one hand. That is what we need to say to the NEOCONs of the world who have downplayed PTSD, Agent Orange and will belittle any ailment coming out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars – on this we Veterans can depend.
Have we not heard this same refrain about responsiblity to U.S. tax payers before from the likes of B.G. Burkett and Dr. Sally Satel?
After Vietnam, ultra-conservative Veterans, and the conservative politicians that they supported, preached that both PTSD and Agent Orange, but especially PTSD, were the basis of fraudulent claims by Veterans to the VA.Hell, they challenged the very existence of PTSD that must have thrilled a Pentagon in much need of cannon fodder for the last days of Vietnam.
Readers that was what over 35 years ago yet that attitude is still going strong or Pitts would never have asked that question. Later, neo-conservatives like Burkett were joined by at lease ONE neo-conservative psychiatrist named Sally Satel.
The main emphasis of the stolen valor argument was that veterans in large numbers were defrauding the American tax payer by faking PTSD. A mental health condition they claimed was easy to fake.
However, the main thrust of Stolen Valor was on attacking FAKE VETERANS period. Yet, it has never been explained to any intelligent person exactly how a fake veteran gets into the VA system be it during Vietnam, after Vietnam, or today. Anyone vaguely familiar with the VA system knows that it is hard enough for a legitimate veteran to get into the VA.
Does the name Sally Satel ring a bell. It should if you are a PTSD advocate or researcher (regardless of your political biases and yes you have them).
She used the stolen valor arguments of B.G. Burkett right up to 2004, if not beyond, to compare young Iraq and Afghanistan Vets with Vietnam Vets when it came to PTSD. This attitude now entrenched within the VA system is why we will forever have a backlog of claims at the VA.
Taking the ultra-conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) position she represents (if one doesn’t think professional MDs and Shrinks are non-partisan THINK AGAIN) Dr. Sally asked how does one explain the postwar explosion in Vietnam PTSD cases?
The frequently excuse Sally says is that the start of PTSD can be delayed for months or years. This belief, however, has no support in research studies. And consider the striking absence of delayed cases in long-range studies like that of people affected by the Oklahoma City bombing. Such studies have found that symptoms of PTSD almost always develop within days of the traumatic event and, in about two-thirds of sufferers, fade within a year.
She then goes on to attack the early pioneers of PTSD research using words and logic right out of the much biased and politically partisan Stolen Valor by B.G. Burkett. I used Burkett’s roll of toilet paper not to hack his book but to show and example of how the crap he wrote about in that book still has a conservative following given Sally Satel is still around fighting the PTSD fakers.
Sally says that it is worth noting that the concept of delayed PTSD was introduced in the early 1970's by a group of psychiatrists led by Robert Jay Lifton, an outspoken opponent of the war. Burkett used the terminology the Lifton and other LIBERALS at the VA collaborated with Vietnam Veterans of American to defraud the American taxpayer on the degree of PTSD. In fact, Burkett went a step further in downplaying both PTSD and Agent Orange.
She notes that these liberal Psychiatrists (remember she is a NEOCON psychiatrist just as there are NEOCON doctors, nurses, and so on). These liberals decided that many former Soldiers suffered what was called post-Vietnam syndrome – marked by “alienation, depression, an inability to concentrate, insomnia, nightmares, restlessness, uprootedness and impatience with almost any job or course of study” – and that this distinguished veterans of Vietnam from those of any other war.
Sally also notes that there was little data to back up the existence of this delayed syndrome, but that PTSD stole a Vietnam Veterans valor. Say what?
It was THE IMAGE of the veteran as a walking time bomb [Rambo] that was a boon to the antiwar movement, which used it as proof that military aggression destroys minds and annihilates souls. Yes, some veterans suffered the crippling anxiety of chronic PTSD. But the broad-brush diagnosis of post-Vietnam syndrome also served political ends. Here she is referring to the conservative MYTH of how THE LIBERALS lost the Vietnam War. Note also that she and other NEOCONs use the broad brush stroke that anyone and everyone who questioned let alone opposed the Vietnam War was a liberal (from media giants such as Walter Cronkite to the mainstream media in general once it stopped selling the war right down to professional medical people who held a diverse political ideology). Today if readers be Libertarians or Independents yet still hold conservative values, she and her kind will still label you a LIBERAL if you question or oppose not only the Vietnam war, but the current wars that she sees as connected and fears THE LIBERALS will once again END and LOSE.
However she also notes there are a couple of other reasons to be skeptical of most troops claiming PTSD. For one, there is an economic incentive to claim suffering. Now more than ever she would agree with Paul Sullivan but for a different reason. The economic meltdown is driving more elderly Veterans to the VA with the intention of scamming the government and ripping off the American people. If that were not a fact, once again CBS correspondent Bryan Pitts would not have asked Paul Sullivan about the incidents of Veterans defrauding the VA.
It is the Sally Satel’s and B.G. Burketts of the world, many of them unfortunately Veterans determined to leave their brothers and sisters behind that will make claims like this. Veterans have an economic incentive to file a VA claim regardless if they are disabled or not.
In her own words, Sally says that a “veteran deemed to be fully disabled [100%] by post-traumatic stress disorder can collect $2,000 to $3,000 a month, tax free. More important, perhaps, the syndrome provides a medicalized explanation for many unhappy, but not necessarily traumatized, veterans trying to make sense of their experience.[Frankly the politically biased doctor who has never seen combat nor worked closely with combat veterans experiencing PTSD fails to mention that very few veterans warrant a rating of 100% with PTSD alone. It has to be combined with other ailments]
In talking about the growing number of Vietnam Vets claiming PTSD later in life Dr. Sally notes that it is in your imagination. She claims that psychological studies have shown that Vietnam Vets tend to reconstruct the past in terms of the present – Vets often exaggerate the degree of earlier misfortune if they are feeling bad, or minimize old troubles if they are feeling good.
Some of the Vets interviewed by 60 minutes, and quite a few Vietnam Vets not interviewed would either find it impossible to prove a combat connection (even if combat stress were the major trigger of PTSD since the triggers vary as much as individual personalities).
However, her kind are proponents of denying VA claims unless there is a clear link to combat trauma.
THIS IS WHY I BELIEVE THAT IT IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUNGER MORE ENERGIZED VETERANS ADVOCATES TO TAKE THE VA HEAD ON IN THIS EXCUSE TO DELAY, DENY, UNTIL WE DIE ATTITUDE THAT REMAINS ENTRENCHED AT THE VA REGARDLESS WHAT VA TALKING DOGS HAVE TO TELL MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!!
Don’t take my word for it, listen to Dr. Sally, “it is vital that researchers corroborate the battlefield events that veterans cite as causes of their PTSD. Unfortunately, researchers on the 1990 PTSD readjustment study did not do the archival legwork to verify the trauma that the veterans reported. Until a better study is done, the “facts” on post-Vietnam PTSD are simply speculation.
CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN VIETNAM, IRAQ, AND AFGHANISTAN
Dr. Sally (though she does not work within the VA thank God, she once did) and others still entrenched within the VA have this attitude not only about Vietnam Vets but also younger Veterans that they view as WEAK as LIBERALS.
They promote the view that “some soldiers will return from Iraq and Afghanistan with severe psychological problems, and we must do everything in our power to help them. The vast majority, however, will be able to adjust on their own – and imposing on them the questionable legacy of Vietnam won’t do them any service. As the British psychiatrist Simon Wessely has put it: “Generals are justly criticized for fighting the last war, not the present one. Psychiatrists should be aware of the same mistake.”
THAT READERS (VIETNAM ERA VETS OR YOUNGER VETS) IS THE BOTTOM LINE ABOUT WHAT REALLY IS THE ROOT OF THE BACKLOG OF VA CLAIMS. EVEN IF DR. SALLY IS ONTO SOMETHING AND SHE AND B.G. BURKETT ARE FULL OF IT, THE ATTITUDE ALONE WOULD STILL HOLD UP OTHER VA CLAIMS THAT ARE NOT RELATED TO PTSD!
Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
Libertarian (Liberal, conservative, you name it)
PS: I got my 100% by knowing how to defeat the Satels and Burkett’s of the world and shake my fist at their kind should they try taking my VA benefits away from me. I earned them!!! She never will, and Burkett degrades what we’ve earned in the name of Stolen Valor!!!
Ref: C-File# 25 564 391
May 3, 2012
Roy C Gilbert
Morrilton, AR 72110
Fax 501-215-4223
Web Sites Gay Vets
Coalition Of Gay Vietnam Veterans
DEPARMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
REGIONAL OFFICE
2200 FORT ROOTS DRIVE, BLDG, 65
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR 72114-1756
Notice Of Disagreement to VA Regional Office, North Little Rock, AR
Denial on the VA claims came as old news to many years of bad blood between the VA and I and too much hate, evil and power involved to make sure they never are. As long as the VA and spineless gutless coward who stuck his nose into my affairs in New Orleans where he had no business nor authorization in the first placed and sucked ass until he got his whiny little greedy way and forced me back to his diseased ridden little cesspool can keep me locked in poverty, the VA and fucking coward can keep me locked in a disease ridden little prison town, a near virtual isolation chamber and in a generalized location that is run by and fueled on nothing but hate and ill will. But as the saying goes all things do end eventually and so it will be with the VA and Morrilton. One of my nephews was awarded a 20% disability from the VA Regional Office shortly after I filed the request through Veterans ON–line Application for him but then he is also straight and in with the inner circle power wheel here, so once again that came as no surprise for me either.
The C-File shows nervousness which has been compensatable since on/or 1959, before during and following military service, which you assholes apparently choose to turn a blind eye to and no I'm not going to make this a coming to you with my hat in hand begging a bunch of haters who have no intention of ever awarding this claims in the first place type of appeal. And I for one have no intentions of even trying to win any type of VA claims that instantly cursed and hopelessly lost forever since 1982
Further I don't need a service organization or VSO to lose for me what I can loose on my own and will never get to begin with. VA Regional Office or the hate filled fucking coward would only offer them a nice incentive to either loose the claims or drop representation all together. It's happened to many God Damned times in the past. As a veteran who served during and in a war zone I am entitled to a non-service connected pension which again you assholes in the VA Regional Office following true to form are again ignoring and turning a blind eye to and using every legal loophole and trick in the book to deny as well. You betcha VA Regional is not going to like the wording of this Notice Of Disagreement nor did I intend for them to like it. I'm not beating a dead horse for anybody, least of all some God Damned gutless, spineless coward that doesn't even have the guts to drop his fucking name in the ring, and most assuredly any of those fucking old trolls in the VA Regional Office in North Little Rock, AR.
So the hate filled fucking coward can just keep the fucking strong curse as strong as ever, one raw deal after another and string it out to the God Damned bitter end, irrespective his fucking curse dies with me and for the record military burial honors are hereby rejected with extreme prejudice and contempt for the flag and what it has come to stand for. C-File and military medical records show several stressor events one of which was the attack at Can Tho Delta Triangle aka iron triangle, Mekong Delta by the Viet Cong during the Tet Offensive, extreme panic following said attack, again which you assholes chose to omit altogether, high blood pressure and hypertension are compensatable another of those conditions which you bastards chose to ignore. Alcohol overdose at Vung Tau on/or about Nov. 1968, low testosterone levels that CAVHS has been aware of since on/or about 1974, head injury on/or about Sept 1968, the entire military tour beginning with Basic Training 1967-1969. GI shower on/or about Oct/Nov. 1967 during AIT. Left eye injury Hunter Army Airfield on/or about early/mid 1968 which is shown in military medical records In any case the fucking decision denial by The VA Regional Office, North Little Rock, AR is hereby appealed and not with any hope of any type of compensation non-service or otherwise, but to be nothing more than a painful thorn in the side of the VA Regional Office, North Little Rock, AR. I might misspell the names of places in Vietnam and some of my memories might be vague but that's because it was damned long ago and most of it is buried or locked under tons gray fog.
And don't waste your time setting up any personal hearings, you people are 50 miles away, transportation is non-existent, the fucking ride is to tiring, fucking gas is through the roof and it wouldn't make a difference one iota either way the claims were hopelessly lost in June 1982 when I came out of the closet to a God Damned VA psychologist Dr. Lewis Neal/Neel and the God Damned Hate Filled Fucking gutless inner circle member coward in this diseased ridden cesspool town who hasn't the courage to face me brought down a curse and vendetta of hate against me. Well he can just shove his rotten curse right straight up his fucking ass and not on the right and not the left but right in Z middle where I sincerely hope it causes him unbearable agony, doom and gloom. You can't even get the News Media to even think of going near the VA Regional Office in North Little Rock, AR unless it's one of their stupid "Everybody Has A Story" about some fine thing some idiot did and it never about the shit treatment veterans are having to put up with at Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System, The VA Regional Office nor a homeless veteran.
VA Regional Office In North Little Rock, AR Shits On Me Again:
Well the VA Regional Office in North Little Rock, AR fucked over me again with another denial on the VA claims, came as old news to me the claims were denied. To many years of bad blood between the VA and I and to much hate, evil and power involved to make sure they never are. I will of course appeal the decision when I get around to it before the time allowed expires, not with any hopes of ever having them awarded but to be nothing more than a thorn in the side of the VA Regional Office. As long as the VA can keep me locked in poverty, the VA can keep me locked in a disease ridden little prison town and in a generalized area that is run by and fueled on nothing but hate and ill will. But as the saying goes all things do end eventually and so it will be with the VA and Morrilton. One of my nephews was awarded a 20% disability from the VA Regional Office shortly after I filed the request through Veterans ON–line Application for him but then he is also straight and in with the inner circle power wheel here, so once again that came as no surprise for me.
The non service connected pension wasn't even mentioned.
Sexual Impotence, The Subject Most Won't Even Admit Let Alone Talk About:
I’m gonna have to disagree anyone's assessment sexual libido a purely mental instead of physical thing. I’m an openly gay non-compensated Vietnam veteran and have been clinically impotent since military days 67-69. Before entering military service and yes I did serve in silence I had a great sexual life with no problems with erections. Sometime during mid 1968 during military service and following service I had a great deal of trouble achieving an erection with other people both male and female and following separation from active service although I woke up with morning erections as strong as before entering the military. Just recently through a urologist in Conway I discovered I have low testosterone levels and some of you might wish to give that some thought and have your testosterone level checked, and these days it's simply a matter of simple blood work.
And here’s the kicker people and pardon my colorful word but those God Damned Frankenstein freak doctors at Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System have known what the problem was since the days of Vietnam and have refused to treat me or other veterans for the very problem all the way through, but rather in favor of turning us into lab rats and specimens instead. I won’t go into the host of other problems the VA is refusing to acknowledge or treat but impotence and low sexual libido is most assuredly in the top ten. As long as The DOD and The Department of Veterans Affairs can keep veterans locked in poverty, the VA can keep veterans locked in generalized localities and use and heard the veteran like cattle, veterans are replenishableand expendable you know.
Neurological (nerve) damage, an enlarged prostate and stress are all contributing factors. At 64 I am now totally impotent and my libido is one level above zero and now very seldom do I even have morning erections. While mentally may play a great deal in it, physical problems play an even greater role and for years following service my mental sexual libido was at peak 115%, but the physical part of it simply wasn’t there anymore, to state it in other terms the generator was running on full power, but the connecting wires to the appliance simply were either faulty, corroded or the appliance was faulty or corroded. I won't even go into some of the things the hypocritical church people used to tell me for being impotent and why God wasn't going to restore it to me, the very same ones who were beating a path to the doors of the closet cases in the wee hours of the morning and cheating on their wife's.
Further Thoughts About The VA Regional Office In North Little Rock, Arkansas:
When the VA Regional Office in North Little Rock Arkansas does deny my VA claims and they will eventually get around to it probably in about two or three years or so if I'm lucky that is, I plan on appealing their decision not with even the smallest hope the claims will ever be awarded (to much hate and power involved to see that they aren’t) but rather so I can send the VA Regional Office another one of my letters letting them know precisely what the hate filled lying coward that messed it for me in Louisiana can go with himself. There are tons too much, power; greed, hate and outright evil involved for my claims to ever be awarded or any medications to be provided through the (Frankenstein doctors horror of horror stories) at Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System. I’ll also be mailing along with my appeal a picture letting them know why I don’t need sex (my goverment does enough of that to me daily as it is) and to add a few more drops of bad blood to the witches caldron or should that have been the devils caldron, and it’s my sincerest wish the VA Regional office reads into the appeal, and statement of the case all of the hate, animosity and ill will the hate filed lying coward has shown to me and my family over the years here in this cesspool nowhere mud hole town. The only reason it was done was out of nothing more than hate, greed and to hurt me anyway the coward could deny me and hurt me.
See I’m no longer even working toward the goal of having my VA claims approved not that they ever will be, they’d do me about as much good now as all of my prayers have done through the long empty, wasted poverty filled years since I came out to a scum sucking North Little Rock VA psychologist named Dr. Lewis Neal in the early 1980's. Dr. Neal’s mind and personal impression (and I use the title Dr. with extreme contempt) of me was already formed at first sight and before the interview even began, one of those VA jerks who smiles to your face and feels only animosity and treachery for you on the inside. It’s further my sincerely wish the lying hate filled coward where ever he is, has at least the chance to read this blog post and it’s also one of fondest wishes (and if I had the power to bring down curse’s I would do so) the lying hate filled coward has as least the very same curse dropped down into his lap and The Department of Veterans Affairs faces total disgrace, ruination and eventual dissolvement of The Department Of Veterans Affairs and all her Regional Offices as well.
I certainly will not wish for those things for others, and not even one of my fellow veterans, the very things a closed minded hate filled lying coward apparently has the power and connections to continue denying me. For my part of it the VA Regional office in North Little Rock can hold my claims and any benefits that might otherwise be due me, hostage and deny them indefinitely all they have ever been and all they will ever be are myths and pipe dreams, spewed out by the VA Regional Office to string me along. As for me giving the VA Regional Office any kind of co-operation , I'd sooner co-operate with a spitting cobra in the wild. And the really rotten part about all of it, is the VA Regional Office will get to put untold numbers of Iragi veterans through the very same treachery, string along and outright lies. Trust not those in the North Little Rock, AR VA Regional Office and Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System, for they are the living, breathing flesh and blood personification of the father of all lies and of all evil. I'm certainly not going to present any of you in the VA Regional Office nor Central Arkansas Veterans Health Care System with any high marks, or respect when neither are most assuredly not deserving of any.
The Devils Caldron And A Witches Brew
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The Devils Caldron
The North Little Rock, AR
VA Regional Office
And
Central Arkansas
Veterans Health Care System |
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No Title Required, No Description Necessary
The Sheer Hate, Despair And Hopelessness That Is Morrilton, Arkansas:
I don’t even know where to start, it’s just an extremely hopeless deal here in Morrilton. Nothing but damned empty years, poverty, a near virtual isolation chamber in this apartment and a feeling like a fat bloated leach is sucking all of the life, will and energy away and dumping nothing but depression, hopelessness and despair that refuses to be knocked out or elevated by any medications. On top of that I can’t even get into drugs or alcohol, that’s the way my younger brother died, flat drank himself into stupor every single night of the week until it finally killed him. You say one bad thing about this rotten cesspool mud hole town and all hell breaks loose.
This is the kind of things I need to be writing about on my personal WordPress blog, TodaysTHV would never allow it to be posted and as for the local newspaper forget it the editor would trash it. It's reached the point where emails have trickled down to a few from some of the yahoo groups and websites are limited to nothing more than a few news sites and very little else. I’m not surprised so many people are doing themselves in these days, they just reach a point where they literally give up on life completely. And the one good thing about death when I eventually to die is that it will end forever the unrecognized little prison, virtual isolation and outright tyranny that Morrilton is has become for me nor will it be able to do me again ever again. This place utterly force’s failure and what it can’t force failure onto it stagnates it to the point uselessness.....
Please no words like hang in there things will get better because I’ve been hanging in there and trying for decades and they haven’t and all I have to show it is poverty and empty wasted years and they they're not going to get better at least not in Morrilton. Things get better in other states, locations and towns. All they’ll do here is either stay the same or get worse. But the one thing this town will never ever see out of me is a marriage and children and I can’t help it if that piss’s even God Almighty himself off, I was not born heterosexual I was born homosexual and I will die homosexual.
R Gilbert
Of What Value Or Good Is A Tornado Warning System
Of what value or good is a tornado-warning system if the only time its ever used is on Wednesday's when it tested? Before, during and after the recent F1 tornado, not once was the warning system activated, since when does a warning have to be issued by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) or an actual funnel cloud to be on ground in order for the siren to sound. In my book the warning system is pretty much valueless, nothing but a waste of money if a ton of excuses are going to be given for not sounding it even during the possible threat of a tornado. All of the excuses in the World aren't going to change the damage done when a tornado happens. Or some higher authority from NOAA or some news media station is needed to sound the siren.
In fact when you call the news stations you're advised to call your local authorities and such advisories are issued by weather radios equipped with SAME codes and by the news stations during inclement and or severe weather. Why bother even to sound the siren on Wednesday just another waste of money in the cost of electricity, not to mention an irritation to the ears. Perhaps, just perhaps with any kind of luck if and when the next tornado sees fit to pay Morrilton a visit it will take out the siren along with whatever and whomever else gets taken out, that way those responsible for sounding it will have a truly valid reason for not doing so. And if that's not bad enough NOAA then has to come along after the fact and confirm what many people in Morrilton already knew was a tornado. Something's wrong here people if permission has to be given from Little Rock a good 50 miles away from the actual location for a tornado siren to be sounded, this is where local authority comes in and by all rights should be responsible for. R Gilbert
Just Got Banned By KLRT Channel 16 And Account Canceled
OH guess what dudes and dudettes? I got banned and my account canceled at KLRT channel 16 from posting further comments on KLRT because someone got royally P.O.ed about my responses to their comments about me. That's some more of that Bryant and Arkansas hate stuff when they barge into the kitchen and the heat turns out to be to hot for them, boy I'll sure get even you, I'll just get you banned completely, I''ll just report you that's what I'll do..
Well I just dropped KLRT Channel 16 as one of the news websites I visit and I will get over it and I will move on past it and KLRT will like most of the bad experiences and the two years in the Military, the bad times in Vietnam with CAVHS and The VA Regional Office in North Little Rock as well as a great deal of people here in Morrilton will in time become buried under tons of blessed fog. This is also some of the very same tactics used by some of the doctors and staff at CAVHS and The VA Regional Office and staff in North Little Rock, AR, like CAVHS and The VA Regional Office and apparently KLRT doesn't especially take kindly to gays and bans without even so much as a by your leave. Goodbye KLRT wish I could say it was nice visiting, but the truth is I can't and I won't. Hmmm would appear the cowards are at it again I see, so what else is old news in Arkansas.
R Gilbert
Gays, Lesbians And Minority Groups:
Blacks have long been recognized as a monitory group, as have several ethnic groups including Native Americans and Hispanics. Gays and Lesbians have been persecuted throughout history, as have Blacks, Native Americans and even Protestants and religious leaders who were not of the Catholic faith, during the rein of Henry VIII. Not withstanding progress and change happened through the years either through open revolts, wars and conflicts, The Magna Carta, The Founding Fathers, The Declaration of Independence, The War of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are prime examples. Further Through peaceful and some not so peaceful demonstrations, through assembly of the people and through marches. Through the riots of Stonewall, long since recognized as the turn point in gay history and through the works of the poet Allen Ginsberg.
To borrow a line from an old television series I'll Fly Away some progress has been made but there is much progress still to be made, the historic repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the allowance of gays and lesbians to serve openly in all branches of the Military to name only one, is and was on par with the desegregation of Blacks serving in the Military during the Administration of Former President Harry S Truman. If so what would be the channels for adding gays and lesbians to a monitory group status who by their very orientation are non-recognized monitories in the work force as well as in American Society. Would such a bill be possible and how would such a bill be composed and drafted, how would it then be submitted and presented and would such a bill stand a chance of passing, a time may very well come possibly even in the near future when such a bill will be drafted and submitted. Any gay or Lesbian person that qualifies in a minority group and is automatically special and preferential treatment under the articles of that minority, this places an extreme unfair advantage on any Gay or Lesbian who doesn't qualify under a minority group.
R Gilbert
C-File Treachery by The Department Of Veterans Affairs & The VA Regional Office:
Finally got a copy of my entire C-File, over 30 years worth of them weighing about 20 to 25 pounds from the VA Regional Office and only then after an attorney filed a request under the Freedom Of Information Act. I haven't read through entire file in depth, because of the sheer number of documents contained in them, but one glaring condition sticks out like a big ugly sore thumb throughout them and the condition has been on the VA books since on or about 1959 as compensatable and is reflected before, during military and service while serving in Vietnam and throughout the years following my military service.
Since breezing through only parts of this C-File I am no longer surprised why the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't want me to be represented by a qualified legal source and why the VA Regional office doesn't want anyone digging through these records. I am further not surprised by the Department Of Veterans Affairs has held this C-File hostage and applied endless miles of red tape, intentionally delayed them while dissecting this C-File until they could find a way to either delay them further until a reason for a denial could be found, these VA claims were intentionally deadlocked and the entire deck intentionally stacked against me from the word go. Little wonder the number of claims is hopelessly backlogged.
R Gilbert
Arkansas Occupy Wall Street Protesters An Utter Insult To The Very Movement Itself:
I guess the Occupy Wall Street protesters don't feel veterans are that important or anyone else for that matter, one would think the OWS would be camped out on the lots of the VA Regional Office in North Little Rock, CAVHS in Little Rock and the white house parking lots for better and fairer treatment of veterans and conditions in Arkansas and not to mention veterans along with them, but apparently veterans don't count, unless of course veterans want to join their movement and even then veterans would only tolerated and wouldn't be welcome to protest against VA Regional corruption. But then that's the way it is Arkansas these days protest start off pretty good and then just like a big stinky fart in the wind just kind of thin out and drift off into the blow zone. One would think in view of the number of veterans and especially homeless veterans and the homeless living in Arkansas tons of them would be coming from all over the state of Arkansas and be jumping on the bandwagon like ugly on a ape.
Perhaps the OWS protest leaders have taken a deal of some kind and sold out the movement or never really had the heart for it in the first place, while half heartedly keeping the movement alive or only wanted a little bit of public attention in Arkansas because it just happened to be a world wide movement. People the Hippies of the Woodstock 1969 generation would have called them a sell out to the establishment and would have launched an all out protest against the Occupy Wall Street Protesters. Not much is heard of the Occupy Wall Street protesters these days, most likely because the movement like most things in Arkansas has become stagnated and bogged down to the point of uselessness and obscurity. The Civil Rights movement would have never stood still for such a small turnout and Central High sure as hell never did.
R Gilbert
My Only New Years Resolution:
My New Year's resolution, well I have only one and it's move away from Morrilton as soon after the new year begins as I can possibly do it. I've been here 7 years now since returning from New Orleans and in that short amount of time the poisons that obviously are in Morrilton have sent my health, sleeping patterns and nerves literally to hell in a hand basket. Anxiety and panic attacks here are constant and the only things available are those idiots at Counseling Associates and I wouldn't send even one of my dogs or cats to them for help.
My New Years resolution is make arrangements to return to New Orleans as soon into the new year as possible, even if I have to live on the freaking street. My BP is always way to high and blood work, a Cat Scan and an EKG all came normal. That's poisons here in Morrilton and there are people here who know what those poisons are and are refusing to do anything about them. Morrilton has become nothing more than a mud hole that is drying up and the only place Med Tech will haul me to is St. Anthony's who doesn't even have resident psychiatrist on call here in Morrilton when this crap hits and on top of that I can't even get admitted for test to pin down and get any of this under control.
Obviously there is a hell of lot better medical care outside the state of Arkansas and I do have enough money coming in to go it. Let this town die and rot right on into the dust of oblivion, but it can dam well do it without me. I have received and can receive and get light years better health care, doctors, treatments and reasonable happiness outside of Arkansas. And add to that the fact there are health care people in New Orleans who care more about getting me well instead of just turning a blind eye to my health problems. I answered a telephone survey about my treatment at St. Anthony's ER here in Morrilton a few days ago, one of the questions asked was. How likely are you to recommend people to St Anothony's ER for treatment and my response was "Not on ya damned life" the guy said "Excuse me" and I repeated "Not on ya damned life".
R Gilbert
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New Orleans VA Hospital | | 
Little Rock,AR McClellan Hospital
The Very Worst Medical Care In The Country | | 
Atlanta,GA VA Medical Center |  |
Over the years I have become very disappointed and disgusted with the VA health care system in Arkansas and disillusioned and dismayed with the VA in general. I've filed a Civil Rights Discrimination Complaint against the VA Regional Office in Little Rock AR and the VA hospitals as well in part due to my openly gay status, however I feel in view of the White Supremacists mentality described below, that to is being held hostage in the same manner my VA claims were and finally denied in the early part of 2003. Well it wasn't held hostage, all material I faxed to them was flat out mailed back by CAVHS.
Conway Arkansas will be holding their annual pride parade this coming June. The following is copied in part from a news story that aired on Channel 11 KTHV 4 years ago (at the time of this writing) during Conway's 2nd annual pride parade and illustrates the type of hate group mentality faced by openly gay people and doubly so for gay veterans in Arkansas. Shortly before the first annual pride parade Cow manure was spread on the Gay-Pride Parade Route.
The self-proclaimed white supremacist group from Russellville, held signs and yelled at the walkers. They also had their children holding signs.
White Revolution chairman Billy Roper says, "The homosexual agenda is unhealthy, it's perverse. Society in general, America, would be better without homosexuals." The group had two signs the police deemed offensive. They were ordered to roll them up and put them away.
Roper says, "We don't think what we're saying is any more radical or obscene than those fairies and *%@* prancing up there."
R Gilbert
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