Stop the Destruction of Our VA Medical System – Please Sign/Share

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As of 2022…

  1. Over one-third of all veterans’ medical visits have already been sent outside of the VA system
  2. And more than 25% of VA healthcare dollars have already been diverted to the private, for-profit sector as a result of the VA MISSION Act.
  3. One-third of the union jobs at the VA that the AIR commission would destroy are held by veterans themselves.

This fiasco must be stopped.

Petition to #SaveMyVA from AIR Commission Closures – Action Network

Thank you very much for reading these articles, signing the petition and sharing this information to your veteran and non-veterans friends and asking them to help you by signing on.

Peace

Buzz Davis, Vets for Peace in Tucson

 

 

More information:

Veterans for Peace – Save Our VA Campaign


These 17 Medical Centers Would Close and More Than 30 Built or Replaced Under VA Plan | Military.com

“The Department of Veterans Affairs has unveiled a plan that calls for closing 17 aging or underused medical centers, while shifting services to more than 30 new or rebuilt hospitals. In some cases, it would rely on private care.

Under the nearly $2 trillion proposal released Monday, the department would lose a net of three medical centers and 174 outpatient health clinics but would gain 255 health care facilities, including new clinics, stand-alone rehabilitation centers and nursing homes.

Medical centers in areas with diminishing veteran populations are among those slated to close, while others would be built in growing urban centers, the West and the South — areas where veteran populations are growing…”


Blog | VHPI (veteranspolicy.org)

“The Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan research and policy organization that studies the provision of healthcare and other services to the those who served in the US military as well as their families and communities.”


The VA Needs More Funding, Not More Privatization (jacobinmag.com)

Joe Biden touted himself as friend of veterans while on the campaign trail. But now he’s overseeing the continued privatization of the VA and backing nominees that brag about being venture capitalists.” 


Biden’s VA Secretary Proposes Shutting Down Dozens of Facilities

It’s both bad politics and bad policy.

BY SUZANNE GORDON MARCH 21, 2022. Prospect

 

“On March 14th, the Department of Veterans Affairs VA) released some deeply flawed proposals for reorganizing the nation’s largest and only publicly funded, fully integrated health care system.

Rather than building back better at the VA-run Veterans Health Administration (VHA), VA Secretary Denis McDonough’s blueprint embraces, rather than rejects, further outsourcing of care for more than nine million veterans, and proposes VHA downsizing that will dramatically accelerate that trend.

It’s not often that national unions representing around 250,000 VHA workers and right-wing Republicans like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Staten Island Rep. Nicole Malliotakis issue simultaneous denunciations of privatization. But that’s what happened in the wake of McDonough’s facility-closing recommendations to the VA Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission, a panel just nominated by President Biden.

Adding to the political confusion was the outraged response of Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who co-sponsored the VA MISSION Act of 2018, which created the AIR Commission. During Joe Biden’s first year in office, the MISSION Act also helped divert $18 billion from the VHA’s direct-care budget to the private health care industry, whose providers now consume 20 percent of the VHA’s budget..”

Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes FY2023 – War Resisters League

 

Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes FY2023 | War Resisters League <—- follow link

learn more, handouts and merchandise

 

 

“The United States’ oldest secular pacifist organization, the War Resisters League has been resisting war at home and war abroad since 1923. Our work for nonviolent revolution has spanned decades and been shaped by the new visions and strategies of each generation’s peacemakers.

Members of WRL agree with our pledge:

The War Resisters League affirms that all war is a crime against humanity.  We are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive nonviolently for the removal of all causes of war, including racism, sexism and all forms of exploitation.

Through education, organizing, strategy, and direct action, the War Resisters League works to sow and grow seeds of peace and liberation in our time.”

Help Promote Peace ~ Memorial Mile ~ Memorial Day Observance

Opportunity to volunteer in Madison, Sat. May 28th, starting at 9 am for a couple hours: You can help Veterans for Peace Chapter #25 set up the “Memorial Mile” along Atwood Avenue in Olbrich Park.

Because of COVID, for the past two years, we were unable to install the long stretch of tombstones, which we have created as a remembrance of one of the worst costs of war. We find the world today in a hazardous state and believe it is important to again install the Memorial Mile as a reminder of the costs of war, particularly when use of nuclear weapons is now “on the table”.

 

Do you think you might be able to assist with the Memorial Mile this year? Let us know as soon as you can.  Let us know if you can bring friends.

 

Please respond to John at

jhfour@gmail.com

 

Volunteers are critical to installation of the 6,000+ tombstones (Photo by Paul McMahon)

FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: NOTES AND IMAGES FROM THE VIET NAM WAR (2022)

See video here…  https://vimeo.com/685624513

Veterans for Peace associate member Jill Godmilow, Professor Emerita, Department of Film,  Television & Theatre, University of Notre Dame, just released a 45-minute film she made to explain the 20-year Viet Nam war to high school students—a job teachers have reported is extremely difficult, according to Howard Machtinger, past coordinator of VFP’s Viet Nam Full Disclosure project.

 

Howie’s comment is what inspired Jill to make this classroom-length film, which effectively tells the story through carefully sequenced, striking imagery. Accompanied by a soundtrack featuring Bach Suite for Solo Cello #1 in G along with Jill’s matter-of-factual, concise narrative, the film achieves in 45 minutes what Burns & Novick failed to do in 18 hours. Designed as a teaching aid for high school history teachers, who will be invited to download it for free, this film will also be a great tool for talking about war with adults of all ages and educational levels.

Featured image “Peace Helmet” credit to Amanda Zehren
A to Z Art Studio of [email protected]
website – https://www.artfulecologics.com/

 

——————–

Jill Godmilow:

Here’s a film for high school students and their teachers about the history of the Viet Nam War,  composed of just photographs from that war, narration and, to help us through a damned disheartening story, lots of the Bach Suite for Solo Cello #1 in G.

The film is 45 minutes long––perfect for classroom use and repeated screenings by stu-dents on their own. It’s my response to the flawed Ken Burn/Lynn Novick 18-hour PBS series, The Vietnam War… too long for the classroom and failing in many ways as a useful account of the tragic Viet Nam war.

It’s free to stream or download the film from this website, so teachers, help yourselves. I’ve also provided a curriculum, produced by the Zinn Education Project’s Rethinking Schools for teaching this film, and some additional useful writings for understanding the Viet Nam War.
I recommend that teachers warn their students that the film is highly critical of the Viet Nam War. Teachers should also warn students in advance that this material can be upsetting. But I believe young adults can, and must, grapple with this grim history and the presence of this war, in order to avoid repeating it.”

See video here…  https://vimeo.com/685624513

Vietnam Veterans Against the War

 

VVAW OSS

VetSpeak Blog

Some History from VVAW