Pawns

Stop using Servicemembers and Veterans as political paws. Just stop it.

As shitty as it was to have the Toxic Exposure Bill defeated in Congress, this is about more than that. This is about exploiting us to make political statements.

The Toxic Exposure Bill isn’t just about Burn Pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is about Agent Orange in Viet Nam. It is about Desert Shield/Desert Storm Syndrome. This isn’t a fight that revolves around the bill just defeated in Congress; for some people this has been going on for almost fifty years.

Viet Nam ended in 1973. Where was everyone when those Veterans were fighting for care due to exposure to the defoliant known as Agent Orange?

Desert Storm ended in 1991. We still don’t even know what causes Desert Shield/Desert Storm Syndrome. Where has everyone been for the last thirty years to fight for those Veterans?

Burn Pit exposure is real. I was exposed to them twenty years ago and multiple times after. I’ve been on the registry with the Veterans Administration for four years. This isn’t new news.

Suddenly, this is important because people have chosen not to be aware until it became politicized this week. I knew what Agent Orange was when I was in high school in the late 1980s, before I joined the military. People have been talking about DS/DS Syndrome since the mid-1990s. We have been talking about Burn Pit exposure for at least five years. If you don’t know about this stuff, it’s because you have chosen not to.

The politicization of this topic, and specifically this bill, has caused many people to be pissed about about how Veterans are being treated NOW. What about BEFORE NOW? Where were all these pissed off people then? Is it because there wasn’t anyone like Jon Stewart railing about it on TV? Or is it because there wasn’t an opportunity to further someone’s political agenda? You cannot simply ignore the fact that EVERY member of Congress since 1973 didn’t do shit until now. They are ALL guilty, not just the 25 Republicans every is jumping on now. The current President and Vice President both served in Congress. The last Vice President. President Obama and (then) Vice President Biden. All former members of Congress.

Keep going back, there are plenty of people who served in Congress that didn’t do a damn thing before now, but everyone is choosing to focus on the 25 Republicans who voted “no” this week. Yeah, those guys are assholes, but there is a long line of folks before them that are guilty too.

By the way, this isn’t just the responsibility of Congress. There are plenty of citizens who haven’t stepped up or done shit either and they seem to be yelling the loudest because it fits their political agenda. Unabashed, they haven’t ever been concerned about any of this until right now. Seriously, if this wasn’t a concern of yours until this week, quit pretending you’re outraged. It’s embarrassing and insulting to those of us who have been in the middle of this for decades. If the shoe fits, wear it. If it fits, do us all a favor and give it a rest.

It’s easy to make this about politics today, but there are REAL PEOPLE behind this who could have used your help before it became political and splattered all over the television, both politicians and citizens.

Stop exploiting Servicemembers and Veterans to push some bullshit political agenda. We are people.

We are not Pawns.