Download jesse brown and the United States of veterans affairs

JESSE BROWN AND THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
The “United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs” (USSVA) is the administrative head of the “United
States Department of Veterans Affairs” (USDVA).
The USSVA is concerned with veterans’ benefits and other related matters. The “Secretary” is a member
of the U.S. “Cabinet” and is the 17th in the “line of succession” to the U.S. presidency.
USSVA’s formation occurred on March 15, 1989. Its first “Secretary” was Edward Joseph “Ed” Derwinski
(1989-1992). He was followed, in secession, by Jesse Brown (1993-1997); Togo Dennis West, Jr. (19982000); Anthony Joseph Principi (2001-2005); Robert James “Jim” Nicholson (2005-2007); James
Benjamin Peake (2007-2009); and, Eric Ken Shinseki (2009-present).
Eric K. Shinseki, who was appointed by President Barack H. Obama II (2009-present), is the 7th “Secretary
of Veterans Affairs”, and he assumed this office on January 21, 2009.
To date, all appointees (who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate) have been United States military
veterans although prior military service is not, formally, a requirement for filling the position.
Jesse Brown (1944-2002), who was appointed by President William J. Clinton (1993-2001), was the 2nd
“Secretary of Veterans Affairs” (and the first African-American secretary) between 1993 and 1997.
Mr. Brown was born on March 27, 1944 in Detroit, MI although he was raised mostly in Chicago, IL. He
served as a Marine in the Vietnam War (1955-1975) from 1963-1965. And, he received a medical
discharge when he was seriously injury (i.e. his right arm was shattered and partially paralyzed) near Da
Nang, Vietnam in 1965.
In 1967, Mr. Brown joined the staff of “Disabled American Veterans” (DAV).
(The DAV was formed on September 25, 1920. It is headquartered in Cold Spring, Kentucky, and its
current “National Commander” is Larry A. Polzin.
The DAV came into existence because the disabled veterans of World War I [1914-1918] found
themselves “with little to no support” from the federal and state governments. Its first “National
Commander” was Captain Robert Max who had been seriously wounded in the “Meuse-Argonne
Offensive” in November of 1918.
[Also called the “Battle of the Argonne Forest”, it occurred from September 26 through November 11,
1918. The belligerents were the United States of America and France on one side and the German
Empire on the other: although a decisive “Allied” victory, over 307 thousand “casualties and losses”
were totally reported.]
The organization’s seal features a World War I soldier, armed, kneeling before “Columbia”, who dubs
the knelling soldier a “knight.”
[“Columbia” is an historic and poetic name for the United States of America as well as its female
personification. In 1920, this female symbol for the nation was largely displaced by the “Statue of
Liberty.”]
In 1989, Mr. Brown became the DAV’s first African-American “National Commander” [1989-1993].)
During his tenure as USSVA, Mr. Brown advocated and expanded (through Congressional authorization)
veteran services to “female veterans, homeless veterans, and veterans who became ill due to their
chemical exposures” in the Vietnam War and in the first Gulf War (1990-1991).
After leaving the USSVA in 1997, Mr. Brown founded the consulting firm of “Brown and Associates.”
In 1999, Mr. Brown was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He died on August 15, 2002 in Warrenton,
Virginia: and, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Parenthetically, Frank Thomas Hines (1879-1960) was the head of the U.S. Veterans Bureau from 1923
to 1930: in 1930 and with the establishment of the “Veterans Administration” by Congress, the bureaus
of “Veterans”, “Pensions”, and “National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers” were consolidated.
Thus, Mr. Hines was the “first administrator” of the VA, and he served from 1930 to 1945.
Unfortunately for Mr. Hines, he was replaced by the great Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) because he
thought that policy was determined by him rather than by the President of the United States. Others in
the military armed forces and in the Truman administration (1945-1953) made similar mistakes (e.g.
MacArthur for blatant “insubordination”, Royall for refusing to “desegregate” the military, etc.) in
underestimating the successor to the great “FDR” (1882-1945).
The “Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944” (P.L. 78-346, 58 Stat. 284m) was a law that provided a
range of benefits for returning World War II (1939-1945) veterans. The benefits, commonly referred to
as the “G.I.s”, included low-cost mortgages, low interest loans to start businesses, cash payments for
tuition and living expenses to attend college, high school or vocational education, and one year of
unemployment compensation.
The “G.I. benefits” was available to every veteran who had been on active service during the war years
for at least 90 days and who had not been dishonorably separate: and, direct combat experiences were
not a requirement in order to receive the “G.L.s.”
The “G.L. Bill” ended in 1956: approximately, 8.8 million military veterans utilized the “G.L.s” between
1944 and 1956. This act was a mayor contribution to America’s “stock of human capital” and “longterm, economic growth.” And, since the original “Act of 1944”, the term of the “G.I.s” has been applied
to veteran benefit programs of subsequent American wars: e.g. during, the “Korean War” (1950-1953),
the “Vietnam War” (1955-1975), the “Iraq War” (2003-2011), and the “Afghan War” (2001-present).
Parenthetically and contrary to popular belief (e.g. Dr. Rachel Maddow, a T.V. journalist and anti-war
advocate, misreported on her MSNBC nightly program that the “Afghan War” was America’s “longest
war.”), the “Vietnam War” was America’s “longest continuous war”: and, during a period of over 20
years, (and counting the “casualties and losses” on all sides, both military and civilian), over 3.9 million
human beings were sacrificed to the “greed and fear” of the global “oligarchs.”
Still, some may argue that the Korean War is the “longest war” since it was never ended. The “Korean
Armistice Agreement” (KAA) of July 27, 1953 was technically a “cease-fire.” Also, the “crazy” Kim Jongun, the “First Chairperson of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”, took the “first-step” towards
terminating the KAA in March of 2013 in the context of his love/hate relationship with the United States
of America.
(See e-article “53” on this website for more information concerning the “oligarchic” and “crazy” Kim IIsung family.)
The reader is referred to the “Bodo League massacre”, as presented in Wikipedia, in order to indicate
that “war crimes” occurred on both sides in the “Korean War.”
Briefly, the “Bodo League massacre” occurred in the summer of 1950. With Kim II-sung’s invasion from
the North in June of 1950 (which was the official start of the “Korean War”), the president and chief
“crazy” of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, ordered the execution of people related either to the “Bodo
League” or to the “South Korean Workers Party” in the summer of 1950: and, over 200 thousand people
were killed in the massacre “without due process” and “with the silent approval” of the United States.
And, even more disgracefully, the “Bodo League massacre”, with all its horror, was blamed on the
Communist Kim II-sung regime, by the world community, for decades.
The counter argument to the claim that the Korean War was the “longest war” is that it, technically, was
not a war (i.e. it was, officially, a “police action.”) and that it was not a “continuous” conflict.
Of the two rationales, the concept of “continuous” is the better rationale, at least in the opinion of this
website, since the “casualties and losses” on all sides, both military and civilian, were over 6.5 million:
and, to state that the conflict was not a “real war” is an ongoing “insult” to the Korean War “fallen” and
the Korean wounded.)
The “Department of Veterans Affairs Act of 1988” was enacted in direct response to the SCOTUS ruling
in Rose v. Rose, 481 U.S. 619 (1987): that is, a “state court has jurisdiction to hold a disabled veteran in
contempt for failing to pay child support, even if the veteran’s only means of satisfying this obligation is
to utilize veterans’ benefits received as compensation for a service-connected disability.”
Thus, the VA’s failure in not performing the require apportionments adjudicated in state courts as well
as the SCOTUS ruling in Rose v. Rose led to its re-structuring and title change (i.e. from the “Veterans
Administration” to the “United Sates Department of Veterans Affairs, but retaining the same acronym of
“VA”).
The “Act of 1988” passed into law over the objections of a number of Republican members of the U.S.
Congress who utilized the false talking point of “not expanding the federal government no matter what
the reason” as the basis for their opposition. Because of the Republican perception (i.e. of Reagan et al.)
of the overall power of veterans as a “voting bloc” (and to a much lesser degree, the “unfairness” and
“lack of morality” in not supporting such legislation), its opposition collapsed.
To re-focus, the VA, as was indicated above, was formed on July, 21, 1930, and it was given a “Cabinet
rank” status on March 15, 1989. It is headquarters is in Washington, D.C. (i.e. 810 Vermont Avenue
NW). Its annual budget is 87.5 billion (as of 2009), and, it has approximately 280 thousand (as of 2008)
employees. And, to this moment in time, it has been functioning for almost 83 years.
One of the VA’s quality facilities is the “Jesse Brown VA Medical Center” (JBVAMC) of Chicago, IL (i.e.
820 Damen Avenue) which was formerly known as the “West Side VA Medical Center.” The change in
name occurred in 2004 in honor of a corporeal wounded during the Vietnam War in 1965: that is, it was
named after the Honorable Jesse Brown (See above.).
The JBVAMC “consists of a 200-bed acute care facility and four community based outpatient clinics” (or
CBOCs: Auburn-Gresham; Chicago Heights; Crown Point; and Lakeside). In 2010, the medical center had
approximately 81 hundred inpatient admissions, and it had over 560 thousand outpatient visits. It has
“a budget of over 355 million which funds 2,000 full-time equivalent staff, including over 200 physicians
and 450 nurses” (2010).
Currently, over 500 volunteers are provided through JBVAMC’s Voluntary Service.
The JBVAMC provides patient-centered, integrated health care in the context of the VA’s five “Core
Values”: integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect, and excellence (or I.C.A.R.E.).
Finally, the JBVANC is affiliated with the Universities of Illinois and Northwestern: and, Mr. Brown would
be very proud of the “quality and quantity” of services that are being provided by his “name-sake” to
the veterans of the American wars, especially to the veterans of the “Vietnam War.”
Nota bene: The VA requires more financial and more personnel support. The “tsunami” of American
veterans requiring services is here and will be continuing for decades: a waiting period of months to
years for comprehensive medical and/or psychological services in the context of 22 suicidal veteran
deaths per day is NOT acceptable.
And, the U.S. Congress’s “track record” in providing for the needs of American veterans is historically
“abysmal and disgraceful.”
The U.S. Congresses (2000-present) think that they represent the needs of “oligarchic” special interests
only. And, they have forgotten, unwisely, that the American veterans’ “voting block” is rapidly growing
because of the “forever war” attitude of some elements of the American democratic representative
political system (e.g. the ALEC, the Bradley Foundation, and “Big” corporate interests, etc.).
Imagine: These “oligarchic” special interests (and their front organizations of the U.S. Congress and the
U.S. high court of the cowardly Pauls, Ryans, Cruzes, Scalias, Thomases, etc.) not wanting to continue
supporting the needs of the U.S. veterans?
And, the U.S. Congress did not enact the Veterans’ Jobs Bill in 2012 because it did not want to expand
the resources of the federal government?
No wonder that the extremist, rightest, Christian Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, and Ted “McCarthy” Cruz feel no
shame in actively avoided military service!
(Mr. Rafael Edward “McCarthy” Cruz thinks that being compared to Joseph Raymond “Joe” McCarthy
[1908-1957] is a compliment. Please see e-article “5” on this website for more information concerning
the “infamous and arrogant” U.S. Senator [1947-1957] from the great state of Wisconsin.)
Remember: These “oligarchs” have no real “staying power”, especially when it involves going “Into the
Fire.” Just ask “Medal of Honor” recipient Dakota L. Meyer of the Afghan War!
To hell with the “oligarchs” (the American, the Chinese, the Soviet, the North and South Korean, the
British, the Australian, the New Zealander, the Thai, the Khmer, the Laotian, the North and South
Vietnamese, the Cuban, the Iraqi, the Afghan, the Iranian, and the Saudi Arabian few) and their
“familiars” (the extremists, to the left and to the right, who kill for political influence, greed, fear, and
sport ,and to all those who stood by, or who stand by, or who will stand by, as the “slaughter” continues
within their communities of war veterans),
Fromoneofthemany