Why Doesn’t The Left Give Our Veterans The Respect That They Deserve?

Michael Snyder is the publisher of , The American Dream Blog and The Truth

Our veterans deserve the very best, and yet way too often they get the very worst.  The Department of Veteran Affairs is a disaster, it takes forever to get claims processed, and VA facilities are often extremely dirty and poorly managed.  Rates of unemployment and suicide are far higher for veterans than they are for the population as a whole, and yet the left is strongly backing the NFL players as they disrespect our veterans when they refuse to stand for the national anthem.  There are more than 18 million veterans in the United States today, and more than 9 million of them (including my father) are over the age of 65.  As a society, it is time for us to make it exceedingly clear that we are not going to put up with mistreatment of our veterans any longer.

There was one promising sign on Sunday.  It is being reported that for the first time this season, every player stood for the national anthem…

No NFL players protested during the national anthem during Sunday’s early games, according to multiple reports.

The NFL Players Association unanimously passed a resolution earlier in the week calling for a moment of silence during Sunday’s games in honor of Veterans Day.

Players who previously knelt or raised their fists during the anthem stood this week. Tennessee Titans receiver Rishard Matthews walked onto the field holding hands with soldiers, then stood for the anthem, The Associated Press reported.

Hopefully this show of respect will continue in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, we have a ton of work to do in order to make things right for our veterans.

Things got especially bad during the Obama administration.  Obama did not make our vets a priority, and it showed.  At one point it was taking an average of seven months to get an appointment at a VA facility, and thousands upon thousands ended up dying as they waited for treatment that they desperately needed…

A leaked document shows nearly one-third of the 847,000 veterans in the Department of Veteran Affairs’ backlog died while waiting for treatment, amounting to more than 238,000 patients, according to documents obtained by the Huffington Post.

Are you angry yet?

And as I mentioned above, many VA facilities were found to be in absolutely horrific condition during the Obama years.  An ABC News investigation from a few years ago discovered the following conditions at facilities around the nation…

*Bathrooms filthy with what appeared to be human excrement.

*Dirty linens from some patients mixed in with clean supplies.

*Examining tables that had dried blood and medications still on them.

*Equipment used to sterilize surgical instruments that had broken down.

*Some patients were forced to beg for food and water.

*Veterans that were neglected so badly that they developed horrific bedsores and dangerous infections.

The federal government needs to get this fixed, because our veterans deserve far better treatment, and if I get elected I am going to fight for our vets as hard as I can.

During the Obama years, one study discovered that 22 military veterans were killing themselves every single day.

Just think about that.

At the time, that accounted for about 20 percent of all suicides in the United States.

And on any given night, about 200,000 homeless vets are sleeping in the streets.

We can do better than this, and we must do better than this.  Our veterans fought to defend the liberties and freedoms that we are enjoying today, and we all need to work diligently to make sure that they receive the respect, care and treatment that they deserve.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

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