Psychedelic Blog

This one strikes close to home for me since I have a family member who has recently experienced the seemingly repetitive struggle that our nation's veterans just can't escape when filing for benefits. The latest in a long line of excuses as to why the issue hasn't been resolved are 1.) Veteran's administration employees have a pay structure that rewards them for the number of claims processed which leads to a sloppy and rushed review of individual cases. 2.) Perfect records of deployment during war time (understandably) don't exist - making it difficult for veterans to prove their "exact instance" of injury and/or possible PTSD symptoms related to their experiences in the war zone.

Unfortunately, these issues are nothing new for our returning war veterans. In fact, the only reason that benefits exist for our veterans at all is because they got together and marched a million people strong on Washington to receive them. Of course, this victory for vets has since been followed by the constant battle to receive the benefits that are now (by law) due to them and I'm sure that you may know someone out there who still hasn't been able to successfully claim benefits for a disability accrued in a decades old war such as Vietnam.

So how do we finally fix this one? I haven't heard any words of wisdom or witnessed any acts of wisdom from Washington on the matter. Then again, we so rarely do. Throwing more money at the issue and hiring more people hasn't yet solved the problem, and some would argue that it has since only gotten worse. Maybe just a little common sense and compassion would go a long way to getting our veterans the benefits they need and deserve in a timely fashion. Your thoughts on the matter are (as always) welcome here.