Yesterday I talked to a crowd of several hundred people. It was hard to get a good count because they were going so fast. Was it a thousand people who read my message? I know that many agreed with me, as I got a LOT of smiles, waves and thumbs up. And honks, many honks. A semi nearly blew me off the sidewalk with his horn.
I smiled and waved at the crowd for over an hour. I did it alone. In solidarity with the Veterans in DC and around the country.
It was D Day. Thousands of us died in the fight against Fascism. Somehow I needed to say thank you and to celebrate all the veterans who have served and sacrificed.
Nobody organized a Veterans Protest in my town and I don’t do cities. So I simply decided to walk in front of our town hall as long as my old body could handle it in the heat. It was a “something”. And it felt really, really damn good.
There are a lot of issues that Americans disagree about. But taking care of our veterans is a mostly universal value. I realized as I stood out there, that many of those honking at me were of differing political opinions. I loved the irony. It is commonly thought that vets vote for the GOP. But their benefits are being threatened by DOGE and MAGA slashers like Vought (Project 2025). We may see them jumping into our fox hole.
As I was marching, a woman stopped by to talk with me. She is a vet who had served in the Navy Medical Corps and had worked in healthcare afterwards. She enlightened me as to how the MAGAs are not only jettisoning 83,000 VA employees, they are referring more and more vets out to private healthcare services. Her normal process of staying in touch with her VA caregivers has been interrupted. She was being treated for melanoma. Basically, she has been put out to healthcare pasture - on her own to find providers. Nice, eh?
In our town, getting an appointment with a doctor takes months. The private system is already overwhelmed. The VA ain’t perfect but it has been doing a good job for millions of vets. We recently saw an interview with a fired DOGE software employee. He had been charged with finding fraud at the VA. He found NONE.
The Musk and Trump soap opera is hogging the headlines. Taking the oxygen out of the room. The real talk should be about the push to privatization. The oligarchs have severely damaged Federal Agencies - and then they will blame the inefficiency of government on the “Deep State” and Biden, of course. The answer? “PRIVATIZE!” Because they already do such great job with healthcare? Right? Follow the money.
The VA struggle is just one of many battles on many fronts. There will many more. But we WILL win this war on people. Be inspired by Ukraine. This war will take years. Buckle up, strap yourself in. Slava Ukraini! Slava USA.
See you on the streets June 14th? Find a location here.
And then, the life balance. My other “something” yesterday was at the vegetable garden. It’s going well. Eating wonderful lettuce, kale and mini broccoli. Sugar snap and snow peas soon. Oommmm. All in all? It was a good day.
Maybe MAGA is the “hare” who runs fast at the beginning. Let’s be the “tortoise” and win the race. Never give up.
Beautiful piece. Thanks Bill. I’ll be on the streets in Delaware on the 14th shooting pictures.
I’ll pin a sign on my shirt in honor of Woody Guthrie: This camera kills fascists!
Great idea to stand in front of your town hall!
Nice garden, by the way. I assume the tall fences are to keep the deer out.