Rally for Veterans on D-Day June 6

Presenter: Rally for Veterans on D-Day, June 6th, from noon to 3 at the old federal building in Eugene. KEPW’s Jana Thrift discovers that veterans need our immediate help.

Jana Thrift (KEPW, Legalize Survival): I’m here with Shelley Corteville and we have an action coming up Friday, June 6.

Shelley Corteville (Veterans For Peace, Lane County): It is from 12 noon to 3 p.m. at the old federal building in Eugene on 7th and Pearl Streets.

[00:00:28] We have named the event ‘Rally for Veterans on D-Day.’ And what this rally is about are the promise that was made to veterans upon entering the military. And what that promise is: When we sign on the dotted line and we raise our hand and we are inducted and sworn in to the military, we then, when we’re sworn in, we agree to defend the Constitution. And what that means is we will defend the Constitution and protect our country and the people of our country with our life.

[00:01:18] And in doing so, whether we go to war or not, we are offered and promised certain benefits for that. And those benefits are Veteran Administration benefits. Those are health care benefits. Those benefits are educational benefits.

[00:01:41] One of those benefits comes in the form of a housing certificate, means that when you go to apply to purchase a home, you have the benefit of getting a loan with (I still believe it’s) no down payment. So that’s huge for a veteran and a veteran’s family. That’s huge.

[00:02:08] You also get to be buried. That might not seem like a big thing, but it is a big thing. (It is a big thing.)

[00:02:17] And within all of those veteran benefits, a veteran that is married also has certain benefits for their family under certain circumstances. So when we start talking about health care benefits and a lot of those benefits are being cut right now and the VA is they are working very quickly to privatize the VA and they started this quite some time ago, but now they are working extremely quickly. They think they’re doing us a big favor, but believe me, this is a huge, huge mistake. Huge.

[00:03:02] You know, the VA is a real example of how socialized medical care and socialized mental health care works and works so well. And the public hears all of these criticisms of the VA system and, ‘Oh, this doesn’t work and that doesn’t work.’ Certainly there’s some problems within the system itself, the overall big system, but there are problems in every system. (Yes.). Does that mean everything’s broken? No, not by any stretch of the imagination.

[00:03:45] Well, 6.1 % of the federal employees are veterans. 6.1%. (Wow.) That’s 24% of the 3,000,000 federal employees that they want to get rid of. It is a big deal. It’s a very big deal. And shame on us. When a veteran is on the street… I’ve been on the street. It is a very difficult situation. And yeah, we shouldn’t be on the street. Nobody should be on the street. A veteran on the street with PTSD, it is so not good. It is just so not good.

[00:04:29] Oh God. DEI is really troubling. So, it’s taken years to really recognize women veteran service to the country. Now the VA can’t even do outreach to women. (What?) Because it’s DEI.

[00:04:52] And I’ve talked to some people, now, it’s like dependent upon those of us women that have healed enough that can go out and say, ‘The VA is there. The VA can help. The VA, that’s where I get my health care. The VA has been a wraparound service for me. I’ve got my care for a long time at the VA.’ I feel like it’s up to us women veterans to reach out to other women veterans because the VA cannot because of DEI.

[00:05:29] DEI does not just cover women veterans of other ‘races’ or ‘ethnicity.’ I say ‘races’ because that’s so socially constructed. Disabled veterans. I mean, it covers so much: transgender, gay and lesbian. I mean, just what’s happening with that.

[00:05:56] I mean, and there will be a lot of people that don’t like what I say. But white people, it’s about lifting up white people.

[00:06:05] But right now is the time, and right now what veterans are working to do is working to lift all of us veterans up, all of us. Because these veteran issues, they cross all gender lines, they cross every single political line, they cross every single line.

[00:06:31] What we all have in common is our service to this country. That’s what we all have in common. And that’s what this march is about. That’s what we have in common.

[00:06:47] And we are demanding that you don’t get to take this away from us. You do not get to take this away from us and you don’t get to take the benefits either, the benefits that have been promised to those that are married. They get the benefits for their families and for their children. You don’t get to do that. Because that’s what’s happening.

[00:07:14] And people think that everybody in the VA, veterans that work for the VA, when they retire they get this huge pension. Well, I know somebody in the VA that’s actually taking an early retirement to save a younger veteran’s job. He’s not been with the VA for a huge number of years. His retirement will only be $200. People need to understand that when people say they’re retiring from the VA and they’re a veteran, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting a whole bunch of money.

[00:07:57] We cannot lose the VA. We need that continuity of care. We have to have it. The people at the VA, they work there because they want to serve veterans. They want to serve us. They are trained in the difficulties that veterans have and many of them are veterans they get it They’re our brothers and sisters. They get it. They know because veterans have a different set of problems People on the outside don’t get that. They just don’t get it. It’s not necessarily because they don’t want to, it’s just different. It’s just different.

[00:08:38] Jana Thrift (KEPW, Legalize Survival): So we’re talking with Veterans For Peace, Shelley Corteville here on KEPW-LP, 97.3 FM.

[00:08:46] Shelley Corteville (Veterans For Peace, Lane County): So Veterans For Peace is an international organization. And Veterans For Peace is against all wars. We believe that war is not the answer to settle any conflict. The killing of human beings just begets more killing and the bombing always kill civilians and the reality is, we have been in wars for decades, whether we’re supplying arms, whether we’re doing these ‘little bombings’ over in smaller countries of, ‘Oh, we’re just going to bomb somebody for one day, or two days,’ and it’s all over, and the American people really don’t know anything about it. Or if they do, it’s not really a big deal.

[00:09:52] We in this country are just so far removed from, really, what happens internationally, I think. So Veterans For Peace really is about diplomacy. We need to be talking. That’s what we need to be doing. So we are not only bringing attention to the problem of veterans’ issues and we have joined a protest out in front of the VA that happens every week, every Friday from noon to 1 p.m. to call attention to the firing of VA employees and to call attention to the devastation of veteran benefits.

[00:10:45] So that’s what we’re trying to do. And this protest that we’re doing on this coming Friday is there is an optional march across the country into D.C. by veterans and families across the country. So this is a part of what this is on Friday.

[00:11:13] I would really encourage people to call all their politicians, all their representatives, everybody, and let them know how important the VA is, these benefits are. Please let them know. This promise to veterans is so important, and destroying the VA system and destroying veteran benefits, it is not going to make communities better. It is not going to save money. In the long run, this will cost communities more money, and it will make communities much worse, much, much worse.

[00:12:06] Really, please, call all of your political people and share this information. This is not a partisan situation. I can tell you right now, firing veterans isn’t the right thing. Putting veterans on the street isn’t the right thing. Firing doctors and nurses and front desk people isn’t the right thing. And if you think custodians at the VA aren’t important people? I don’t know who you think keeps hospitals and clinics clean and sanitary. Those are important people. Everybody that works at the VA is important. So please, please, please think carefully about this and help us.

[00:13:03] Presenter: Jana Thrift interviews Shelley Corteville from Veterans For Peace. You can hear the entire interview Wednesday, June 4 at 7 p.m. on Legalize Survival, right here on KEPW 97.3, Eugene’s Peaceworks community radio.