*“Thank You for Your Service” Is Not Enough
Veterans Day parades, memorials, monuments, and plaques are worthy tributes to America’s veterans—especially those who have served in areas of armed conflict. These tributes are appropriate, but they are not nearly enough.
Over the past thirty years, the Veterans Administration has too often been treated as a stepchild of the federal government, left to languish with outdated technologies and managed, in many places, with bureaucratic rigidity. The tribute truly due to every veteran is a system that meets their needs promptly, professionally, and with the highest standards of quality.
Every administration promises to improve the VA, and most make an honest effort. But changing the direction of a large, slow, old institution is not easy. The VA performs less like a ship turning into new waters than a barge drifting with the current.
If there is any silver lining to the disastrous Trump years, it is that the agency will have to be rebuilt from the bottom up. The next administration will have a rare opportunity to make a fresh start. Unfortunately, in the meantime, veterans must endure more years of boastful promises and incompetent leadership—years that will deprive them even of the modest improvements made by previous administrations.