Taking It to the Streets

In 1981, during the late and unlamented reign of Saint Ronald, the VA health care system was in a shambles and had been for years. But the "trickle down" economic theories ("voodoo economics", according the description of one George Bush, who had a sudden epiphany to the contrary when he became St Ronald's sidekick) served to put the hobnail boots to it.

Descriptions of the VA hospitals in those days sound eerily familiar to today's readers: Moldy walls, dirty floors, a swarm of vermin, and complete denial by the administration that there was anything wrong.

Back then it took a catalyst to bring change. A man named Jim Hopkins, a real pissed-off veteran, drove his Jeep through the doors of the VA's Wadsworth Medical Center in LA and opened fire with an AR-14 into the photos of Reagan and Carter on the walls, and then to make it even more dramatic, also shot off a pistol and a shotgun.

Fortunately no one was injured, not even Hopkins when the police hauled him off in shackles. But he was shouting that Agent Orange was destroying his brain.

Back then we still had a media with some balls and a concept of investigative journalism. The Hopkins case turned into a national focus on the administration's denial of veterans, and specifically Agent Orange, PTSD and cuts in VA health care funding.

Hopkins died under mysterious circumstances in May of 1981, and his death sparked first a sit-in at the Wadsworth Center and then, after Reagan callously dismissed them as a bunch of whiners, it turned into a hunger strike.

When the strikers were ejected from the center by force, they regrouped in front of the White House and garnered international media attention that forced the world to focus on the shabby and unconscionable treatment of veterans in this country.

It was only after the embarrassment was too much for St Ronald that Congress negotiated a settlement.

And the result of that settlement as recognition of Agent Orange poisoning and PTSD.

Is it going to take another hunger strike on the part of this nation's veterans to bring about change to the VA health care system? Are we going to have to take it to the streets?

Oh, and you might want to remember the actions of St Ronald the next time one of your pinhead neocon reactionary friends tries that "Republicans take care of America's veterans" lie on you.

Source: See Killing Our Troops Slowly: Deja Vu All Over Again by Michael O'McCarthy.