VA-sicu Versus Veteran 1

Shame on you left-possessed American media – you blacklist the “deplorable”, you snitch to upper swamp and tell tall tales but you keep silence about Veterans who fight for their survival.

Shame on you cowardly pseudo right wing media who cherry-pick to please censors just to keep your pathetic half-truth outlets – but you won´t let a voice of Veterans who fight for their lives to be heard.

Here is one of the stories to be told and one of lives to be saved:

In Lakhota, the term « wasicu » describes a greedy, dishonorable person who “takes all the fat” regardless that there is nothing left for others. For many Veterans, VA has for long been acting like VA-sicu, mismanaging funds and “sharing the wealth” with cronies.

Paraphrasing the saying “Sure you can trust the government, just ask an Indian”, our Veterans (many happens to be Native American) have every right to utter: Sure you can trust VA –just ask a Veteran…

Ask Frank Sherman – a Marine Corps Veteran who needs a kidney transplant.

Why would VA refuse to place him on the long transplant list? Because he is just “one of these Veterans” who got kidney failure as a service connected “bonus” in toxic Camp Lejeune, or because his mother tongue is Ojibwe?

In “We don´t have these on the reservation: VA Racism threatens Veteran´s Life” https://www.disabledveterans.org/2018/08/17/indian-reservation-va-racism-threatens-veterans-life/ , Benjamin Krause writes: ”The patient is average-risk for a transplant, perfectly capable of caring for himself(as his commitment to excruciating dialysis clearly shows),and definitely SC for this kidney failure. At this point, a person has to ask: what WOULD it take to get this guy approved?”

The “SC” in history of Mr. Sherman´s disease stands for “service connected”. Between 1953 -1987 USMC service members and their families living at the Camp Lejeune base were treated to contaminated water, with levels of toxic chemicals up to 3400 times exceeding the limit defined by safety standards. Not astonishingly, the poisoning was followed by nightmarish diseases and organ failure of Lejeune dwellers; shockingly VA tries to “overlook” the fact that the department simply owes help to our Veterans whose life and health were negligently damaged.

VA´s “cognitive tests” which are to determine if a Veteran “can take care for himself after a transplant” are both preposterous and eliminatory. In case of Frank Sherman, he wasn´t sure about word “elevator”- maybe because his mother tongue is Ojibwe, or maybe because as he says “We don´t have those on the reservation”. This “linguistic crime” allowed VA to diagnose our Marine Veteran with “neurocognitive deficits” and drop him from the transplant list with a sigh of relief.

How about disqualifying VA´s examiners due to ignorance and bad will? Maybe the lazy quizmasters should be given the taste of Commod cheese from the rez, instead of lavish undeserved bonuses?

As much as I agree with Benjamin Krause´s sharp and thorough: “VA’s given reasons for refusal of Sherman´s needed transplant is actually a race-induced complication”, I profoundly believe that for VA, every-no matter how revolting or dishonorable reason is good- if eliminatory.

VA´s disgusting behavior couldn´t be tolerated for so long, if our society honored and recognized our real heroes, instead of Hollywood “stars” or NFL´s “serial-kneelers” cherry-picked by the politicized media. The selective compassion of the  “politically correct” era propagandists have “normalized” treating our Veterans as an unimportant “minority”, and this cannot go on.

I hope President Trump will reach to our ailing Marine, Frank Sherman – because Mr. Sherman is a true fighter, a warrior who inspires others and who never gives up.  In his quest to “drain the swamp” President Trump will have many challenging tasks, among them – to get rid of VA-sicu in VA, and to heal America´s value system. Hopefully his government will make honor and sacrifice sacred again and will be the first to truly use potential of our First Nations for the cooperation and support in many honorable battles that lie ahead. “Native America” knows and should be allowed to teach the entire country how to treat our Veterans. In honor of Frank Sherman:

 Ojibwe Word of the Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxMvqqn_B-A

Ogichidaa – a warrior.

Joanna Rosamond