Here’s why:

A-to-the-freaking-men.

Now let’s repeal that damn bill.

And yes, I’m serious, I’d love to be able to say “President McCotter” one day. That man is unbelievably awesome.
Not to mention, freakishly funny.

Click here for more of what Thad has to say.

P.s. Hmm, who should be Thad’s VP? Maybe Andrew Klavan? It’d be the shiniest White House ever! Hehe.

I want to take a moment to apologize for up and disappearing on all of you several months ago. I’m afraid that shortly before the Christmas holidays, things got kind of crazy around my house. I found myself having some health problems, and in the midst of doctors and tests and things, I just couldn’t handle politics.

I kept meaning to come on here and write a post, explaining where I was and that I’d be taking a short break. But honestly, I was so mentally loopy from all the pain medication and just being under the weather, that I literally just forgot!! I’m so sorry!

I feel especially bad about all my friends who were concerned about me. I’m so sorry to make you all worry! But thank you to everyone who sent me concerned emails, checking in on me to make sure I wasn’t dead, hehe. Don’t worry, I’m still here!

Despite taking my little siesta from politics, I was kind of snapped back into it with all the drama surrounding the special election in Massachusetts for the late Ted Kennedy’s seat. I’m sure like many of you, I was glued to the news Tuesday night, waiting to see which way the voters of Massachusetts would go.

Let me just say, holy crap, was I ever shocked!! I mean, obviously I had hoped that the tides would turn and people would start to wake up to what the progressives have been doing within the Democratic party, and the effect their policies have been having on our nation after only one year of the Obama administration. But I seriously didn’t think that enough people had woken up yet to really sway an election away from the Democrats in Massachusetts!! It’s Massa-freaking-chusetts!!

But wow, I seriously couldn’t be more proud of my fellow Independents in Massachusetts! I’m not excited about this election because of Scott Brown, or because he’s a Republican – I refuse to put hope in a single candidate, or even a single party.

Rather, I’m thrilled with the outcome of this election because of the Independents of Massachusetts, taking a stand against monarchistic politics, rising up and declaring their independence from anyone’s political machine. Way. To. Go! The news kept making a big deal about how Democrats out-number Republicans something like 3-to-1 in Massachusetts, but what most people need to realize, they’re ALL out-numbered by Independents like me. And that’s what made the difference: independence.

I wish more people in this country would wake up and realize that loyalty to a single party or a single candidate isn’t the answer. Any one person can – and most likely will – let you down. And worse, party loyalty I think is just a tool to drive us apart.

Rather, I think the answer should be loyalty to principles. Loyalty to standards, beliefs, convictions; loyalty to our country, to what it stands for, its history, and how very bright its future could be if we stand by the principles we were founded on and the principles so many of us still believe in today.

But that can’t happen until more of us wake up and realize that our history has been skewed by far too many people with far too many agendas. We need to wake up, we need to familiarize ourselves once again with our own true shared history, and realize the legacy that we’re risking because of our complacency. We simply cannot be the generation that ends the dream of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Adams, Paine, and all the other brave men and women who risked their lives, honor, and sacred fortunes to give us all freedom, liberty, and the prosperity we have all enjoyed for so very long.

So let’s keep it up! Let’s keep learning, keep educating others, keep rediscovering our principles, and keep fightin’ peacefully – but purposefully – for what we believe in. Massachusetts is just the beginning. We simply cannot stop now!!

I have so much more to say over the coming days. During my little siesta I had lots of time to think and I have a lot of thoughts I’d like to share with you. Particularly some thoughts I had recently about the other side of Alinsky’s influence on Progressives and the Democrat party. After having what I thought was just a friendly political discussion with a liberal friend – which he interpreted to be an argument – I was struck with an interesting thought about the other side of Alinsky’s tactics that I don’t think many people notice. Or at least, they don’t seem to talk about. Meaning, the effect those tactics have on Democrats, on liberals; what it means to them.

But I shall save that for another day, since this is long enough and I have to get some sleep! Congratulations to Scott Brown, but you should know, sir, we’re gonna watch you like a hawk!

But most importantly, congratulations to the people of Massachusetts! Congratulations on your hard-fought, hard-won independence!!

What price is Obama willing to pay for the sake of appeasing the “international community”?

Your freedom of speech, apparently.

Click here to check it out.

Methinks he’s forgetting that the only real way to gain someone’s respect – real respect – is not to cower in front of a bully who will merely abuse you, but rather stand up to them, show real strength of conviction, and stand independent and free. No one will ever truly respect you when they know they can walk all over you. It’s the first thing any woman learns when they finally, truly understand what it means to be in a healthy relationship. You know what? It applies just as much to international relations as it does romantic relations.

The capitulation of our freedoms will never get the “international community” to “like us more” or “respect us more”. It’ll merely give our enemies the tools they need to win the ideological world war we’re currently embroiled in between Islamic extremist dictators and the free world. When someone considers you an Infidel who is absolutely deserving of death, there’s absolutely no way to gain their respect, besides just kneeling and offering them your neck. But that’s hardly a form of respect I think we should be aiming for, do you?

You want to know the real reason why the people – the people – of the Middle East don’t respect America right now? This is a perfect example: we’re partnering with EGYPT to curtail freedom of speech. When you get in bed with dictators, the world doesn’t look at you the same way in the morning. And it’s not good.

Not many people are aware of this, but it’s law in the UK that if a baby is born before 22 weeks – even if it’s alive and breathing – it’s flatly denied care.
It’s time to meet the real-life consequences of this brutal inhuman law, and the real-world consequences of giving up your individual rights to the government. This is the reality of turning over health care to the government; it stops being about you and your doctor, but rather how the government can save money, regardless of the individual consequences.

Meet Sarah and her baby Jayden, who was unlucky enough to be born – alive – only 48 hours before the legislated cut-off. Despite breathing, moving, and having a full regular heartbeat, doctors left the room and repeatedly refused to even see or evaluate the baby. Instead he was left alone to die in his poor mother’s arms. They were even going to deny him a birth certificate, so that he could be counted as a “miscarriage”, rather than a real human being who had been born alive, only to die from neglect.

Click here, because you simply have to read this story. It will break your heart.

In decrying the state of our nation’s medical care, liberals like to trump out figures that state that our infant mortality rate is so much worse than that of other developed – and even some under-developed – countries.
Don’t believe them. Jayden is proof of why those statistics are inaccurate. Why? Because Jayden, despite being born alive, will be counted as a stillborn, a miscarriage.
In the United States, not only would Jayden have been immediately cared for and given every opportunity to live, even if he had died despite every effort made by the doctors, he would have been added to the infant mortality rate.
Yeah, statistics look so much nicer if you don’t even properly count the babies who are actually born alive and breathing. It’s so much easier to make your statistics look better if you just let the babies die rather than risk having him added to your numbers of dying infants. Count him as a stillborn, it looks so much better that way, right?
Tell that to his mother, who held him for two hours as little Jayden struggled for life.

He most likely could have been saved. But by giving up their health care rights to the government, so that the government could take care of them as dependents rather than relying on independence and personal responsibility, Britons sacrificed their rights to make decisions for themselves. It was no longer about Jayden’s Mom deciding what was best for her and her child, but rather, it was about stone-cold unfeeling, inhuman across-the-board rules that refuse to acknowledge individual circumstances, all for the sake of streamlining care to cut costs and pinch pennies. There was no way out of that streamlined system so that one child could be saved. Even if Jayden’s Mom had all the money in the world, she wouldn’t have had the freedom to spend it to save her child’s life.
That’s the reality of government-run health care. That’s the reality of dependence! The minute you give up your independence in order for someone else to care for you, you give up the right to make decisions for yourself. You give up the right to determine the course of your own future and the future of your children.

We cannot make that same mistake here. A public option isn’t worth being shackled by dependence. Don’t even open that door a tiny inch, don’t let the government squeeze itself between a single person and their doctor. You give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. We’ve seen it everywhere else it’s ever been tried. Jayden’s death is now proof of that.
Don’t let it happen here. I’m begging you, do not let it happen here.

    Have you ever read a story where you felt such a kinship with one of the characters, such a relatable connection, that you felt as though they were so real, so familiar, that they’d jump right off the page and into your life? That’s happened to me multiple times with fictional stories, but just recently, it happened again with a story I read about someone we lost.

    A few weeks ago I volunteered with the 2,996 Project, a blogging initiative started a few years ago in an effort to keep the memories of those we lost on September 11th alive. Each year on September 11th, two thousand nine hundred and ninety six bloggers come together, one for each of the lives lost that day. Each blogger is assigned a different victim from that terrible day, whom they will write about on their blog to share the stories of the lives that were cut short in that act of terror.

    A friend of mine volunteered for the project last year, which inspired me to participate this year. But as I read about the life behind the name I was randomly assigned, that special kinship with characters in fictions read in years past took on a new dimension. This time, that special kinship was with someone real, someone whose mark was indelibly left on this world when they were so cruelly taken from us.

Click to view gallery

The name I was assigned was that of Michael Craig Rothberg. The more I learned about him, the more his life, his personality, made me feel that I knew him, that he’d leap right out of what I was reading; that he’d come back. He feels like someone I know, someone from my family, someone who’d fit right in at my family’s dinner table as we talk, joke, and laugh.     It was that familiarity that, I think, caused me to delay writing this tribute until today. Michael’s life hits just a little too close to home, reminding me of what I very nearly lost that day.

    My Father was scheduled to fly on the plane that hit the Pentagon. But thanks to a fluke of family planning, he decided to skip the trip that would have killed him. Now, thinking about what to write of a man who seems so similar to my brothers, my Dad, brings all of that back up.

    Michael, born and raised in Sharon, Massachusetts, seems to have had a gift for finding amusement and joy in the most unlikely of places. I found a story about him in the New York Times, where they related a pet peeve of Michael’s about his letterhead at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he worked as the Director of Program Trading. He jokingly complained that his phone number was listed with a 1 prior to the area code. He reasoned, no adult sophisticated enough to call a bond-trading firm needed to be told to dial a 1 before the area code.

His quick wit, charm, and sense of humor were matched by his athleticism, compassion, and keen analytical mind. That analytical mind propelled him to McGill University in Montreal, where he earned both undergraduate and masters degrees in math and computer science. He soon won great respect on Wall Street with his first employer, Bear Stearns, for his exceptionally adept understanding of complex financial transactions, as well as his innovative approach to finding solutions to whatever stood in his way. He not only understood the technical side of his profession, the computer systems used for program training, but he also intimately understood the communication skills – the compassion – needed to relate to his clients.

Click to view gallery

    Soon enough, his analytical creativity and human approach to trading propelled him to Kidder Peabody & Company, where he became a team leader. He became such an adept leader, that when he later became the Managing Director of Program Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald, his employees came with him. They weren’t just employees to him, though; he called them his colleagues.

    Everything I’ve read about Michael tells me that he was so much more than his job. His compassion propelled him to not only donate money, but to donate his time, efforts, and every resource at his disposal, to causes he deeply believed in. He wasn’t just a philanthropist; he invested his heart and soul in everything he believed in. He gave generously in every way he could to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and Mutual Funds Against Cancer. As Jamie Bolton, a good friend of his once said, “He was looking out for people.”

Click to view gallery

He loved his family. He was a loving son, brother, grandson, cousin, and nephew. Whenever he heard a complaint, he tried to do something about it, something to help. It was Michael who gave his sister, Rhonda the encouragement and support to start her own business.     Michael reached the top through working hard and maintaining his compassion for everyone around him. He loved deeply, he gave generously, and he maintained his integrity.

    On September 11, 2001, Michael Rothberg was in his office on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center. His life was cut short by an act of cowardice and terror. The lives of his family and friends were forever altered. The world lost a truly remarkable human being, one whose life was a testament to kindness, generosity, and hard work.

    Michael’s family has set up a scholarship in his name for the students of his high school alma mater in Sharon, Massachusetts. Each May since his death in 2001, the scholarship has been awarded to students at Sharon High School who most exemplify Michael’s qualities of academic promise, ethical conduct, and service to community. I’d like to encourage all of you to make a donation to the scholarship, in Michael’s memory. You can learn more about the scholarship & make a donation at their website, MichaelRothbergScholarship.com.

    Just like those beloved characters in the novels I read as a child, I feel that he’s someone I know. But there’s so much more to it than that; I feel the reality of who he was, how he lived, and how he looked at life. He feels not only real, but familiar; he feels like a brother to me.

    Because of the events of that horrific day eight years ago, there’s an incongruous feeling, a feeling I’ve had that never had the chance to be confirmed by reality. That opportunity was taken, the opportunity to meet Michael, befriend him, know him. But I can remember him. We can all remember him, so we can keep his spirit alive as a friend, as a brother; a man whose story will never be forgotten by those who love him.

Click here to view the Michael C. Rothberg Photo Gallery

    I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to Michael’s parents, Iris & Jay Rothberg, and his sister Rhonda, for their support, encouragement, and assistance with preparing and editing this tribute. Your kindness and support has meant the world to me, and it has inspired me throughout the process of preparing this tribute. I’m not sure I could have done it without your help, your blessing, and your love. My thoughts, prayers, and love are with you today, and will be always.

This just churns my stomach. On September 8th, for the first time in history (correction: see below), a sitting President is going to deliver a speech to all students in the nation, from pre-K straight through to 12th grade. The White House isn’t giving any details on what exactly Mr. Obama’s speech will involve (see below), but we can at least take a guess based on the teaching guide that was sent out to principals and teachers. Here are a few sample questions that the children are supposed to think about while listening to Barry:

• What is the President trying to tell me?
• What is the President asking me to do?
• What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?

After the speech, teachers are going to ask students to answer even more questions, such as:

• What do you think the President wants us to do?
• Does the speech make you want to do anything?
• Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

Call me crazy, (oh, and I can think of several liberals who will) but I don’t exactly want the Dear Leader asking my children to do anything for him personally. Hey, I have an idea! How about we just keep politics outside of the classroom? Like I always say, I think it’s slightly more important that kids learn to read before they’re schooled in political agendas. But then again, that’s just me.

And of course, I’m getting awfully tired of seeing situations where this sentiment keeps cropping up in my mind, but it’s worth repeating yet again: can you imagine the uproar if President Bush had done something like this? If he’d announced it so suddenly, less than a week before it would happen, and given so few details about the contents of the speech? We all know the furious screams from the left would have dominated every single news broadcast until the White House relented. And you know what? They’d be right!
But where are they now? Yet again, their silence is deafening.

I was looking for a good synopsis of this story, since I heard about this on the news as well. I’ve really got to get some sleep, so I didn’t have much time to search. But it seems Michelle Malkin’s done a pretty good job of summing it up.
Click here to check out ‘No Junior Lobbyist Left Behind’.

It looks like lots of people are planning on conveniently calling their kid in “sick” that day. If I had kids, that’s what I’d do. I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Heck, let’s make a party out of it! Keep ‘em home, talk about freedom, get the family together to read the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, maybe even some of the writings of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and other founding fathers. Sing some patriotic songs, watch ‘1776′, eat a hot dog! If it’s legal in your state, set off some fireworks! Or hey, maybe even do a little service project for our service men and women – let me tell you, they sure love to receive cards and letters of thanks from kids back home. Make it a day of American patriotism they’ll remember!
And maybe, just maybe, if we all do this together, there’ll be record number of sick kids that day. At least, we sure can hope.

09-06-09 – Update & Correction: I wanted to let you all know that I need to issue a correction to a tidbit of information included in this post, and also there’s a bit of an update on this issue.
So, first off, I want to apologize for getting a fact wrong on this issue! I have since found out that two prior presidents have delivered speeches to school children while in office; the first was Ronald Reagan, the second was George H. W. Bush. Apologies for that!! The very first news blurb I saw on this issue didn’t mention that fact, and as I said, when I first posted this I didn’t have much time to do more searching. Shame on me for posting so quickly without doing a thorough enough job vetting the info! I promise to try harder next time.
Now for the updates! The Department of Education has reworded one of the offending questions in the lesson plan having to do with how children can “help the President.” I thought I’d included that in this post, but apparently I neglected to include it. So all’s well there. Although I still think some of the other questions are bothersome as well, and as far as I’ve heard, haven’t been amended.
Lastly, President Obama has finally relented with regard to releasing the content of his speech prior to delivering it to the school kids. I believe it will be released tomorrow. Once I find a link for it, I’ll post it here.
Thanks! And once again, apologies for getting that fact wrong! What can I say? I’m human, and alas, make mistakes. I can promise you, though, that I will try harder in the future!

09-07-09 – Update: Obama released the speech today. Click here to check it out in pdf format. In my opinion, if the White House had simply released this speech in the beginning, without any of the quasi-political lesson plans, there would have been no major controversy at all. Chalk this one up to unbelievably bad planning by the administration and officials at the Department of Education who, frankly, should have known better that releasing lesson plans at all was in violation of the department’s own charter.
Lastly, the folks over at HotAir have some interesting insight into the contents of the speech. Check it out. (Also, if you’d rather not have to deal with a pdf version of the speech, HotAir provides it at that link as well.)

The White House was caught with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar when a brave artist dared to record what was thought to be a private phone conference between devoted Obama followers who had been instrumental in securing Obama’s campaign for the presidency.

Patrick Courrielche, an artist, producer, and contributer to Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, received a series of emails in early August from the National Endowment for the Arts, inviting him to participating in a “brand new discussion” between the NEA, the White House, several political organizations, and several select artists, producers, writers, actors, poets, gallery owners, influential individuals, and “cool people”, to discuss how the art community can best come together in order to “push the President, his administration, and his agenda.”

Yes, you read that right. The White House has directed the National Endowment for the Arts to bring together a coalition of artists and culturally influential individuals in order to produce creative works that will help push the President’s agenda.
I believe the dictionary would define such state-initiated works as “propaganda”.

But it didn’t stop there. Indeed, during the conversation, both the officials from the NEA and the White House specifically requested that the artists focus on several of Obama’s key platform issues, including health care, energy, and the environment. And just in case there’s any question as to the ideology they hoped this artwork would reflect, they specifically mentioned Shepard Fairey’s iconic ‘Hope’ poster and will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” song as examples of what they were hoping the artists could achieve. Yeah, they weren’t exactly hoping for bipartisan messages of patriotism.

Thankfully, when Mr. Courrielche received these emails, something didn’t feel quite right about this whole prospect. So when he joined in on the phone conference, he had his iPhone ready to record the entire conversation. If it hadn’t been for his bravery, this likely would have remained buried.
But the funniest part is, despite having an absolute record of each email and a complete audio recording of the entire conversation, the lead official from the NEA in this project, Yosi Sergant, is actually daring to deny any involvement in the project. But he doesn’t stop there; indeed, he’s trying to deny the project’s very existence. That’s a bit of a stretch, considering the fact that Mr. Sergant’s voice is heard throughout the entire recording, with him going so far as to even voice caution to the participants about being careful with their language, as they’re still ironing out certain legalities. Meaning, they know full well what they’re doing is crossing not only ethical boundaries, but legal ones as well.
Good luck denying all that, Mr. Sergant. You’re gonna need it.

I don’t have much time, as I’m trying to publish three quick posts here before heading off to bed, so I don’t have the best links and resources available for you yet. So please bear with me. But I simply had to post information about this for those of you who may have missed all the hubbub about this today. When I told a friend about this, their first response was, “What? You’ve got to be kidding, this has to be some sort of YouTube hoax, right?” That convinced me I couldn’t wait to post this.

Anyway, the best place to start is probably Mr. Courrielche blog entry that started it all. It’s a bit long, and unfortunately he doesn’t have the audio posted with it, but it’s well worth a read.
Click here to check it out.

As I said, unfortunately Mr. Courrielche hasn’t posted the recording on his blog yet, at least not as far as I’ve been able to find. I did manage to find a YouTube clip of an interview Mr. Courrielche gave to the Glenn Beck program. I know, I’m sorry I’m posting a link to Glenn Beck, I’m sure that will probably offend or upset some of my more moderate readers. Please, put aside your feelings about Mr. Beck, because Mr. Courrielche does a brilliant job of explaining the situation quite concisely. But most importantly, it features audio clips of the actual conversation.

I know there are more audio clips out there from the original recording, since I heard several on the news program where I first heard about this. Again, apologies for not having those ready, I’ve really got to get some sleep. I’ll do some more searching on this tomorrow and post more links as soon as I can.

You absolutely have to read this article from Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Now.

Sentenced To Death On The NHS
“Patients with terminal illness are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.”

This is so depressing it made me cry. British doctors are starving people to death, sedating them to the point where even if their conditions improved, you’d never know it. That’s the National Health Service, that’s government-run health care for you.
Please, don’t let this happen here. No one wants to die with so little dignity, starved because some one else decided it was your time to die. Only our creator truly knows when our time is. It is certainly not the place of our doctor to decide that death is certainly on its way, so we shouldn’t waste any further resources on our behalf.
But sadly, that’s the reality when resources are scarce and there’s only one provider. Resources aren’t endless and cuts are made wherever possible. More often than not, it’s the chronically ill and the dying who pay the price with their dignity, with their lives. Please, I say again, do not let this happen here.

My jaw literally dropped when I heard this. I won’t even try to introduce it, just listen to it for yourself and be prepared to use both hands to hoist that jaw of yours back up.

I really, really wasn’t going to say anything bad about Ted Kennedy after the sad news of his passing.. I contemplated posting something short, just to pass along my thoughts, prayers, and condolences to the Kennedy family for their loss. I know that losing any loved one is difficult, and even despite the political differences I had with Ted Kennedy, I still respect his humanity and the pain that his family must be going through because of his death. But in the end, I decided against it; I didn’t think I should say anything, because this is a political blog and I didn’t think he should be dragged into political issues now that he’s gone (a la the way the Democrats are now trying to invoke his memory in order to pass their massive health care bills.)

But after hearing this, I just had to say something. Because my heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to the Kopechne family too. I can’t even begin to imagine how much hearing something like this would hurt, knowing that the man responsible for their daughter’s death now laughs about the fact. I don’t think there’s anything Ed Klein could say to make this sound any better. Sorry, but I rarely ever dare to joke about something that I feel great remorse for.

But then again, I’ve never run away while someone else was dying due to my mistake. I’ve never hid in a hotel room, trying to come up with an alibi, while a young woman spent unimaginably harrowing hours struggling in an air pocket inside of my drowned automobile, before ultimately dying a horrific, drawn-out, cruel, and painful death.

Maybe you just had to be there to get the joke. I’m sure Mary Jo would have laughed too, right?

Word surfaced over this past weekend about a book that’s recently been added to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of publications to be distributed to veterans, despite the fact it was deliberately removed several years ago due to material that the leaders of the VA deemed objectionable. Now that we have a new administration in town, apparently even though they haven’t seen fit to fill more than half of the vacant presidential appointments, someone thought it urgent that this book be reinstated. Someone has great priorities.
If you haven’t yet seen the book, you need to read it. Then you might understand why I’m a bit miffed about this.

The book is called ‘Your Life, Your Choices’ – a title which seems strangely apt given the recent debate over government-run health care. While normally such a title should be appealing to me, the content is absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. The reason for my disgust?
It’s an end of life planning counseling book written by Dr. Robert Pearlman, a major proponent of assisted suicide. In fact, Dr. Pearlman has testified repeatedly in multiple court cases wherein he advocated for physician-assisted suicide.
Brilliant. Just who I’d want to get compassionate, sensitive, and humane guidance from about how to make the most out of my life and maintain my dignity, no matter what physical condition I might find myself in.

I have to admit, I was not able to read the entire book. It was just too emotional for me, and I’ll explain why in a minute. But first, I want to give you a sampling of what the book has to offer: a checklist of ways to tell if your life has devolved to the point where you might want to consider that maybe it’s just not worth living anymore. At least, according to Dr. Pearlman.

Click to enlarge

You know what I noticed first? The options. Nowhere is there an option where you can provide an answer that life is more than just “difficult, but acceptable”, but actually valid, enjoyable, dignified, engaging, and valued. That tells you a helluva lot, doesn’t it? What do you think that says to the veteran who’s reading it?

Let me tell you the second thing I noticed. Out of the 18 direct questions, I qualify for at least 11 of them, maybe 12. According to this book, I’d be a more than valid candidate for assisted-suicide. According to them, my life – at best – is “difficult, but acceptable”.

I’m only 24 years old.

Does that mean my life isn’t worth living? Does that mean my life isn’t dignified? Does that mean my life is “difficult, but acceptable”, or “worth living, but just barely”? Does that mean as a human being, I’m not to be valued as much as someone with an able body? Does that mean that I should just roll over and die because life didn’t turn out the way I thought it would?

I’m sorry, but I refuse to see if that way. I find it disgusting and so incredibly offensive that this book doesn’t even begin to recognize the value of every life, able, disabled, or otherwise. I’ve been seriously ill for over half of my life, and yet I’ve been able to contribute in ways most able-bodied people never do. Yet according to the words of this booklet, handed out to veterans by the VA, I rate just barely beyond “acceptable”.

I find this so far beyond deplorable that I don’t have words adequate enough to express my outrage. Some are calling this a “death book.” I certainly wouldn’t go that far or be that trite about it. But I would call it an absolutely appalling example of outright prejudice against the disabled. To devalue any human being should be outrageous to all of us. Because the minute we can devalue someone is the minute we can devalue anyone.

Veterans don’t need to be told that their lives are only barely acceptable if they’ve been injured or suddenly find themselves severely ill. They need to be encouraged, uplifted, loved, and reminded that they can overcome the challenges and obstacles they face, ultimately becoming stronger in ways they may not have previously imagined. I know I have. Sure, life isn’t always easy, but is it ever easy for anyone? Sure, I’ve had to deal with a lot of pain. But I’ve learned and grown as a person because of it. Those veterans can too.
But they won’t, if they’re told by our government that they can’t, that their lives are now worthless, and that they might as well just give up. We can’t devalue them this way, we can’t disrespect their humanity, we can’t just dismiss them. Just like we shouldn’t dismiss anyone with a disability, whether seen or unseen. We’re all human, we’re all born with different abilities, and throughout our lives, those abilities will surely change and transform. But we are all still human and we are all still deserving of the same rights, respect, and validation. How dare the VA even begin to say otherwise.

One final thought; this is how our government is treating our veterans’, how they’re influencing their health care decisions. If that’s how the heroes among us are treated, how would they treat the rest of us if they were in charge of our health care decisions? How much do you want to bet we’d all be reading a book like this one?
Are you willing to bet your life? It is, after all, your life, and your choice. At least, it is for now. I, for one, would like to keep it that way.

If you’d like to download and read the entire booklet, you can read it here on the official Department of Veterans Affairs website. Yup, even though the VA is saying it’s not an official VA document, it’s still available on their website, and the website says otherwise. It says it was created specifically for the VA via a generous grant of your tax dollars. Although it is allegedly under revision, it’s still being handed out in print in its current form to veterans.
And just in case it suddenly disappears, I’ve archived a copy here.