Incredible, isn't it, that our young men and women can be sent overseas into combat at the risk of their lives, but we have companies and agencies and organizations back here at home that look at their situation as an opportunity to make an extra buck or throw a minefield of bureaucratic hassles and roadblocks in their way when they return home and need to quickly get back to work in order to pay their bills. It's disgusting and disgraceful that these circumstances are even allowed to exist, and can't seem to be resolved or fixed unless servicemembers spend money they don't have to hire a lawyer, or a U.S. Senator has to take the time to make things right, or the news media and a TV station take the time to shine the clear light of day on the scum that are using these situations to enhance their business's bottom line, or enforce their own political views against our nation's policies.
So what's needed? Well, the following would be a good start:
The DoD and the services need to put together lists of all these problems that, in spite of existing law, are still confronting our servicemen and women, and adding misery and hassle and grief to their lives and the lives of their families. Get those lists into the hands of the entire Congress so the Congress can TAKE ACTION NOW to add provisions to the law (USERRA and others) to eliminate these situations, and ensure action against the current oversight agencies that are not enforcing existing law. It would also help if the Department of Labor would finalize implementing rules on the USERRA laws. USERRA was passed by Congress in 1994 -- surely 10+ years is enough time to establish implementing rules, even for the federal bureaucracy?
Congress needs to act NOW, in this the first session of the 109th Congress and in calendar year 2005, to pass laws that relieve our servicemembers of these outrageous problems, provide for tough penalties for employers and agencies and associations that violate these laws, and also provide for tough penalties for the government oversight agencies that fail to enforce these laws, USERRA being just one of them. Also add "attorneys fees" to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (they're included in USERRA) so the troops can find an attorney who will represent them. We're seeing all sorts of government debate "on fixing Social Security" -- due to go broke in 10-20 years, depending upon whom you choose to believe. How about some debate and action on these Servicemembers problems which are broke NOW?
The news media, which never seems to miss a beat to paint the U.S. military as incompetent, unfeeling, accident-prone, poorly led, or not sufficiently politically correct, needs to take a deep breath and review whether their purpose while using our public airwaves is to publicize their own views "of how things are" or whether it is to report all the news? All the news would include stories that also show a military that has performed superbly, and the human interest stories about servicemembers being ripped off by banks, mortgage companies, credit card companies, licensing agencies, and universities that at worst are in blatant violation of the law, and at best are disgracefully disruptive to the lives and credit ratings of those who serve our nation and put their very lives on the line for the rest of us.
What is absolutely amazing to me is that while our sons and daughters are in combat and on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 30 days a month, we have government officials and American businesses, all of whom go home each night to a nice meal and a warm, clean bed and no fear for their lives -- and play golf on the weekends and go to cocktail parties and barbeques -- surely they can take just a small portion of their leisure time to "fix" these problems for our guys and gals in uniform who already have enough hassles in their life just trying to stay alive.
Surely if our government can take the time to send these fine young men and women off to war, then that same government can take the time to address and resolve these problems that are causing so much hurt in their lives?
Surely the oversight agencies that are supposed to be enforcing the laws already on the books can be held accountable to simply do their jobs, even if it means some of them can't leave the office right at 4 p.m. every day of every week of every month?
I say that for our country and for our government to do anything less for these folks we so efficiently send off to war is unacceptable.
I say that we need to take the time to ensure that our efforts to ease the lives of our servicemembers deserve at least the same focus as do those that seem to work so well when we send them off to combat.
I say that the time has come to ensure that our servicemembers that don't have a TV station covering the plight of their mortgage or a U.S. Senator to ensure the law is enforced are also protected.
In fact, I cannot understand how anyone that lets these kinds of things go on can sleep at night or look themselves in the mirror.
