Need more than talk

     Yesterday I was part of a group of Volleyball officials who assisted in the Valor Games at UNC-Chapel Hill.  It was a delightful day of exercise, silliness, and fellowship as about 30 veterans engaged in competition of "seated volleyball."  All players had to have their bottoms on the floor as they played. It was a great equalizer as nobody had played before and even people who had played volleyball before  had not played on their bottoms.
     The Valor Games are programs run by volunteers to bring veterans together to have some experiences that bring some fun, brings some social interaction, and bring some feelings of being able to participate in life again after the horrors of war.  Many of these veterans were missing arms, legs, and eyes.  Their emotional concerns were not visible.  But in the seated volleyball they all had a great time. As the competition moved towards the championship, the chatter, the razzing, the good natured trash talking, and laughter increased.
     There was an opening exercise to the games which had all of the public speakers telling these 100 veterans who were involved in all the different games how much they were appreciated, how grateful we were for their sacrifices and how much we admired them.
     But there is something immoral about the whole thing. We were volunteers and unpaid. The speakers talked about how much we owed all our military.  And yet the Veteran's Administration is somehow unable to handle the work of providing these veterans with the services they need. The VA hospitals are over crowded and unfunded. The military does not encourage soldiers to report their problems, politicians will talk lots but refused to increase the spending for these veterans.  We heard a lot of nice speeches, but these soldiers deserve more than talk.
     These soldiers particularly need for us to step forward and provide all the help and benefits we can provide because they were sent to fight two very unnecessary wars.  Our struggles with terrorists could very well have been engaged in as we engage in fighting the mafia.  The international community would have been much more helpful if we had worked with them to contain the terrorists. These soldiers were continuously returned to the combat zones and the draft was never resumed to make these wars become a national concern.  We used the National Guard as part of the regular army which was never its intention.
      We sent these young people to fight in strange places in unconventional wars that were really invasions by our country that were unnecessary, and now we cannot provide for them all of the help they need?  A major embarrassment for us.  On this memorial day week-end we will again hear lots of speeches. What these soldiers need is help, not talk.