To the Editor:

There are no adequate words to describe the disgust that I felt when I read the article in The Times Leader by The Glasgow Daily Times last week!

I wonder when it is going to be enough to get the attention of the American people. How much longer are we going to sit by while the people in power take advantage of us at every opportunity? How dare the very people that we have entrusted to handle our veterans affairs, take money that belongs to our brave men and women, who fought to defend our great country, to use for their benefit?” I could not believe my eyes when I read this article!

While so many of our veterans and their families are sitting back and waiting for a decision to be made by these very people, as to when they will hear anything about their claims, they are giving themselves huge raises, which amounts to around 20 percent of their annual salary!

What is going on here? I recently submitted a Letter to the Editor myself concerning the shoddy treatment that our veterans and their families have received from our government. I had no idea at the time that this action had been taken by those in the V.A. system!

What are these people thinking? Do they think the American people are going to stand for this kind of abuse?

We must ask ourselves who in our family has been in the military at one time or another. This is something that affects every one of us as United States citizens!

Granted, some of us more than likely feel that we have been treated fairly by the V.A., and I can understand how those of us who have, would feel no threat from the things going on in the system. The fact is, for every one who seems to get a fair shake from the V.A., there are probably two dozen or more that do not!

The poor guys that were wounded in action in Vietnam, as well as other wars, are still struggling to get the benefits that they deserve! Chances are, one of you reading this probably has a family member or relative somewhere, who is fighting to get what they deserve from the V.A.

No one is going to do a thing to stop all of this greed until we all stand up and be counted! We need to let the powers that be know we are sick and tired of giving to them so that they can get richer while we are left on the sidelines to wait for a crumb from their table!

My husband has been waiting for almost eight years to find out if he will get the help he is entitled to, while the very deputy undersecretary for benefits, who helps the disability claims system, has taken a hefty raise for himself.

This, with a backlog of cases and delays averaging 177 days in getting benefits to injured vets! I have to agree with the Glasgow Daily Times. This is a travesty bordering on criminal execution of job duties.

Our veterans’ hospitals are in need of so much help, yet the Associated Press reported that more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency went to the very people who were supposed to put the veterans needs first!

This only serves to show us that the good men and women of our country do not seem to matter when it comes to their health needs as well as their very livelihood!

How much longer will we, as a country, be willing to accept things as they are without fighting back? Nothing ever comes free that is worthwhile. There are sacrifices to be made in everything we gain. No sacrifice is so great as the ones made by our servicemen and women, who gladly lay down their lives for their countrymen every day that they serve.

Brenda Cooper

302 Franklin St.

Princeton, Ky. 42445