Government Stimulus or The Human Touch

There has been an economic crisis in Deep South Texas forever… and government couldn’t handle it.  Charitable organizations have been the main answer to the plight of thousands, who despite more than 40 years of political promises have remained at the low end of the economic scale.  Those left fighting for some improvement in their quality of life are predominantly Hispanic, indigent and among the working poor.  The region is historically Democrat in its voting history, but forgotten when Democrats are in power and ignored when Republicans control government purse strings.

There are individuals and organizations that clearly display humanitarian concern for the plight of so many in the Rio Grande Valley.  But, most of them are not government operated.

One such Texas organization is a humanitarian non-profit corporation called Loaves and Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.  What started out as a soup kitchen for the hungry in 1989 has grown annually in the services it provides. Now in its 20th year, the organization has expanded to a one square block complex that attempts to meet most human service needs.

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in Deep South Texas could be used as a display showcase for a much needed economic stimulus package.  The four counties, Hidalgo, Cameron, Willacy and Starr, are among the most under employed, under educated and medically underserved regions in the nation.  With a population now exceeding 1.5 million people the RGV is more than 80% Hispanic in ethnicity.  It has one of the largest uninsured populations in the country, showing huge numbers unable to afford coverage on everything from homes to businesses and autos to health. The Valley has a median age of 28 years and only about one third of its people over the age of 25 with a high school education or better.  As of the 2000 census, 35.7% of the population was living in poverty, with an estimated increase in that number of almost 4% per year.  In Cameron County alone, more than 17,000 families live in sub standard housing.

It was because of the poor economic environment and the multitude of unmet human needs that Loaves and Fishes was born.  Formed as a charitable association by church congregations and local denominational bodies, Loaves and Fishes serves as the mission arm for those of faith to address the needs of people across the entire Rio Grande Valley.

With an income from gifts and grants that totaled less than $775,000 during 2008, the Loaves and Fishes organization still managed to provide 105,367 meals to those in need.  Its food pantry gave out 1,391 bags of food, with each bag holding enough food to feed a small family for a week.  A total of 9,238 bed nights were provided to those who needed shelter.  In addition, through its Family Emergency Assistance division rents and utilities were paid when possible and prescriptions were purchased.  Other services it offered to those in need included financial planning, job training and finding work for 131 individuals.

A current example of such humanitarian outreach was brought to the forefront of the organization’s concern following the devistation of Hurricane Dolly, which struck the RGV in June 2008.  Though damage from the storm was listed in the millions of dollars, the poor, the uninsured and the undocumented residents were among the hardest hit.  Adding to their misery, FEMA turned down a full one third of the applications for federal assistance, stating that the houses were already sub standard and did not qualify for any federal aid.  Because of being refused federal assistance and having no place else to turn, hundreds upon hundreds of people continue to reside in damaged homes and have no financial means to improve their living conditions.

Loaves and Fishes is leading the effort to correct an impossible situation by assisting in resolving some of the problems caused by Hurricane Dolly.  It has obtained two grants to help fund this effort. One grant from AEP Texas Central/Frontier Management, whose parent company is American Electric Power, is designed to improve weatherization and increase electric efficiency.  The grant will allow the replacement of hurricane damaged attic insulation, duct sealing, solar screens and even replace damaged appliances with Energy Star window air conditioners, ceiling fans and refrigerators, along with compact florescent lamps.

The second grant, from the Meadows Foundation of Dallas, Texas will provide low-income families in Cameron and Willacy Counties some weatherization assistance.  It will allow Loaves and Fishes to do non-structural repairs on homes that have received hurricane damage.  Such repairs include replacement of roofing, broken windows or structural holes caused by the storm. This project, because dollars are limited, will focus on helping the elderly, the disabled and families with young children.  Work is almost underway.  The staff have already held 35 client interviews and conducted 17 energy audits.

The needs are far greater than any one organization can ever hope to meet, but Loaves and Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley is doing everything humanly possible to offer a helping hand.  Perhaps that is why it has grown from a small soup kitchen into a huge multi-assistance program, while such things as political promises and economic stimulus assistance are still waiting to become a reality.

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Crystal Ball Reading - The New Conservative Pastime

Harlingen, Texas, January 21, 2009:  The far right of conservatism looked and saw the end of their world at noon on January 20, 2009.  As Barack Obama raised his hand and took the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States of America, the darkest of clouds gathered in many liberal-fighting hearts.  The worst of all their nightmares had become a reality.

At that moment those of a conservative mindset became the new version of the old town crier.  They started holding their lamps on high to cast light on what they perceived as harmful darkness.  They also became the new crystal ball gazers of our nation. 

Today, tomorrow and for all the days following, President Obama can be assured of harsh eyes viewing his every action.  The far right is not forgiving and has little history of accepting any modification of its firmly entrenched beliefs.  Thus, this nation’s newest chief executive can expect everything he does to be examined through that same crystal ball and the darkest of any possible outcomes announced to the world.

It has been noted that most Americans, be they Democrat, Republican, third party or independent sincerely pray for the best from the Obama presidency.  This being said, it must be noted there is already some strong negative feeling developing as citizens watch their White House being filled with a small army of former Clinton activists.  There is some concern about a new Secretary of State who will deal with the nation’s international relations and has a husband receiving foundation gifts from those countries within her sphere of influence.  There is further concern about the candidate for Attorney General who has already prostituted himself by aiding a president to pardon a fugitive felon.  Not to be forgotten is the Obama choice for Secretary of the Treasury, a man who couldn’t even find time to pay his own taxes for years on end.

Bowing to the far left of his party, President Obama plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  If that plan is not thought out is detail, conservatives see a host of nightmare scenarios that range from a complete stoppage of our federal court system to terrorists freely roaming the streets of the United States.

Now, fresh into office, the Obama Administration has already laid the groundwork for the largest financial bailout in our nation’s history.  Again, that conservative crystal ball has forewarned doom.  Even the Government Accountability Office is telling us the bailout has not been well planned and could lead to gross mismanagement and waste.

The Congressional Budget Office, running the figures, has said that only a sprinkling of the almost one trillion dollar planned package will be spent in 2009.  The bulk of the money is planned to be used two and three years down the road, with some of it being extended out for a decade.  Some crystal ball seers claim the bailout is nothing more than thinly camouflaged pork barrel spending.

But, by far the greatest fear already noted by the Obama watchers is he, and to be completely objective, the administration before him, has taken a page directly out of the 1848 Karl Marx Communist Manifesto.  That plan poses ten steps to complete government takeover.  Number Five on the list is, “Bring about the centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.” Crystal ball gazers see that cloud growing daily.

Most of what is about to take place is completely out of the hands of concerned citizens.  The new administration has willing accomplices in both halls of Congress. The Democrats, with the help of some Republicans, will grow government even bigger.  The far right sees the actions of this Washington D.C. click as being far more dangerous to the future of the country than armed conflict.  The centrists and Middle America can only hope they are wrong.

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For The Military, Wars Against Washinton Never End

Harlingen, Texas, January 12, 2009:  When they packed away that military uniform for the last time, they all leaned back and thought their battles were over.  Wrong!!!!  The battles had just started.  It matters not if they served this country for a sprinkling of years or devoted the most productive years of their lives in the service of the United States of America. They still need to battle Washington almost daily to gain even a shadow of their promised benefits for good and faithful service.

The Washington elite have historically promised much and delivered very little to anyone who wore the uniform of this nation.  This is an accepted fact among those who are now on active duty, are retired from our armed forces, members of the reserve or National Guard, and of course, the veterans of one or several tours of duty.  Now with the anti-war, anti-military faction holding both the White House and Capital Hill, dark clouds are forming that bode ill for the military community.

Washington D. C. has never really been “military friendly”.  In point of fact, the military community is the only major constituency in the country that does not have a strong advocate at the seat of power.  At one point, following World War II, Congress was rich in veterans of the armed forces.  Those days have become pages in history.  Today, very few of our elected leaders have served the Flag under arms.

Some say the military community is represented by the Department of Defense, but this is far from being the truth.  DoD is really only interested in what is taking place in the world right now.  They represent the active duty military to some degree, but spend most of their energy on the war machine, big defense contracts and romancing congressional supporters. 

This same DoD, in its various forms, spent more than 100 years fighting against disabled military retirees and making sure they had retirement checks reduced by the amount of any disability compensation received. 

This same agency refused to support those service personnel in the hundreds of thousands who were seeking medical help after they participated in the thirty years of atomic testing and saw uncountable numbers suffer and in many cases die from cancers caused by excessive radiation.

The DoD failed in its duty to provide for the future health of those several thousand soldiers and airmen who were part of a CIA and Army drug and mind control program at the Edgewood Arsenal.  In most cases, DoD claimed it couldn’t even find the service records of those who volunteered for the program.

One of the most reprehensible cases participated in by the Department of Defense is its multi-year battle in the courts to keep retired military personnel from receiving medical care that had been promised them and their dependents for life, if they devoted twenty years or more to active duty service.  Though all branches of the armed forces had promised these benefits as incentives for reenlistment, it was still ruled by the Supreme Court that the armed forces did not have the authority to make such promises.

The Department of Veterans Affairs also puts a forth an image of giving the military community a helping hand, when in reality it works in lock step with whatever direction the Department of Defense is marching.  It is only through long and repeated efforts by individual veterans, service organizations, and a small handful of elected officials that anything gets accomplished through the VA.  All of the groups previously mentioned have been making appeals through the VA for years with minimal positive results.

While these agencies are far from being strong advocates for the entire military community, Congress is even a less friendly body.  Those members of Congress with any military service listed on their resumes are few in number and have very little influence.  Though they repeatedly file bills in support of the military community, this proposed legislation usually dies for lack of support by the majority, be it Democrat or Republican at the time. 

The Democrat majority has a history of supporting proposed pro-military legislation during election campaigns or when in a minority role in the House or Senate.  When in a position to do something positive, they are usually missing in action, or anti-everything when it comes to the armed forces.  Now as a new Democrat leadership takes the helm in Washington another attack is about to be waged on both the active duty service families and the retired military community.

Since the mid 1990s a DoD program called Tricare has been the plan by which active duty service members, retired military under age 65 and their dependents received health care.  Originally military hospitals cared for retirees and active duty families.  That service is still offered on paper.  Regulations allow for treatment when there is “space available”.  However, that space never seems to be “available” to those in need. So, those in uniform and their families, visit civilian doctors using one of three different Tricare programs. Even then some service members claim getting treatment can be difficult.  Many doctors will not accept the plans due to the low rates of payment for medical care.

The latest attack on our men and women in uniform comes from the Congressional Budget Office, which has presented in cost saving recommendation to the incoming Administration and Congress.  The CBO recommends that Tricare Prime which is purchased at an annual enrollment fee of $230 per individual and $460 per family, in addition to a $12 co-pay for each outpatient visit, be increased to $550 annual enrollment fee per individual and $1,100 per family, plus and increase in co-payments to $28 per visit.  Those who use Tricare Standard or Extra plans would face an annual deductible of $50 per individual and $700 per family.  Also, for the first time, those who enroll in Tricare Standard or Extra would face and annual fee of $50 per individual and $100 for family coverage.

One of the most outrageous recommendations made by the CBO involves a program called Tricare for Life.  This program became law following the Supreme Court rejection of retired military litigation, which attempted to win their promised lifetime medical care.  Though the court rejected the request because, as it claimed, the armed forces did not have the authority to make such promises, it also admonished both the service branches and Congress for allowing the practice to continue from World War II until the late 1950s.

In response, Congress passed Tricare for Life, which acts like a supplemental insurance to pick up those charges that Medicare will not cover.  It is only available to retired military personnel and dependents over age 65, who are enrolled in Medicare. Under to CBO proposal Tricare for Life would not cover the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost sharing liabilities and would limit the coverage to 50% of the next $4,725 of Medicare cost.

It seems as if those who have served this nation in both war and peace are about to lose again.  Those who offered up their own lives to keep everyone at home safe and secure will never get to stop fighting.  When their combat enemies fade away, the ever-present enemies in Washington reemerge. 

This new Tricare conflict threatens to reduce even those small gains the military community has obtained.  This cost reduction plan, in the middle of trillion dollar bailout giveaways, could be the start an unending battle with Washington.

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A Nightmare Called Edgewood

Harlingen, Texas, January 7, 2009:  “I made this trip fifty years after the fact to squarely face my devils”….  “I finally came to the realization that it was not the place, but the people at that place who had changed many of us forever.  We were the victims and became the walking wounded casualties of the Cold War who can never be made whole again….”

These are the words of Eric Muth, one of 7,120 soldiers and airmen who were subjected to secret chemical weapons and drug tests at the Edgewood Arsenal, northeast of Baltimore, Maryland.  His journey back to that site was made in an attempt to gain some grain of understanding concerning his battle with the United States government to obtain assistance and compassion for those thousands of young men whose lives were permanently damaged by CIA and military human experimentation.

Muth, a 68-year-old veteran, was a volunteer at Edgewood in 1958.  He said he was exposed to hallucinogenic drugs and toxic gas.  The after effects of those exposures left him with a bipolar disorder and periodic suicidal thoughts.

The Edgewood experiments were conducted as a CIA effort to develop some effective mind control programs.  Though never confirmed by the United States government, survivors of those experiments say the Agency used Nazi war criminal scientists to perform the work on what was called Project 112.  These tests involved the use of synthetic marijuana, LSD, THC, BZ, two-dozen psychoactive drugs and other hallucinogens, plus a variety of biologicals and chemicals, including Saran and mustard gas agents.  Though the various government agencies have reported all of the volunteers were completely aware of what agents were being used, most veterans claim the recruiters said only that they would be “participating in secret tests”.

Because the government stonewalls any and all attempts to obtain detailed information on this testing program, exact dates cannot be confirmed.  Most people involved agree the program, in various forms, ran from 1953 until 1975.  During those years, 7120 military personnel ranging from 17 to 20 years of age were participants in a wide variety of tests and experiments.  Ten years later 385 of these volunteers were dead.  Though the government again will not confirm the numbers, in 2006 the Department of Veterans Affairs identified only 3,000 of those veterans as living.  Logically it can be assumed that 4,120 of those heroic volunteers must have gone to their final reward.  It had previously been reported that more than 40% of the Edgewood volunteers met their deaths before age 65.

The Department of Defense and the VA seem to be co-conspirators in the government’s attempt to deny responsibility for health related problems encountered by the Test Veterans.  In most cases involving these volunteers DoD and the VA claim records were destroyed, lost or cannot be located.  When victims seeking assistance provide them specific dates and locales, the veterans’ military service cannot be verified because the information is “secret”.

In a report by Dr. William Page of the Institute of Medicine issued in March 2003, it was concluded that veterans exposed to Saran showed high rates of brain tumors and sleep disorders.  The National Institute of Health reports chemical warfare agents such as GA, GB and VX produce long-term health effects including delayed onset cardiac problems.

In October 2003 the VA published a manual for Chemical, Biological and Radiological Weapons Exposures.  Many of the known medical problems caused by chemical weapons were listed.  Even with this manual as an official source, very few veterans have had their medical concerns acted upon by the government.  A few have been given treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. 

According to testimony in front of Congress, “It is easier to treat and diagnose veterans for PTSD and other mental conditions, because there is little recognized research and reports to guide healthcare providers.  The neurological and physiological effects of toxic environmental exposures are neglected.” The end result of this is the further jeopardizing of veterans’ already fragile health conditions.

Even with the congressional hearings and medical reports that have been provided to Congress, the Army still claims all volunteers were fully informed and that no veteran suffered any long-term effects from the testing.

It should also be noted that no government agency has been able to explain the high percentage of veteran deaths in the volunteer group, nor has there been any meaningful attempt by any governmental body to assure adequate medical care for those who were participants.

Finally, after decades of attempting to get the government to face up to its medical obligations, the Test Veterans have reached the end of their patience.  On January 7, 2009 a lawsuit was filed against the Central Intelligence Agency claiming the U.S. A. has failed to provide care for human subjects in the once-secret tests.  The suit charges veterans were treated as human guinea pigs in tests involving nerve gas, hallucinogenic drugs and mind control experiments that left them with permanent disabilities.  This lawsuit also gives a different name to the program, saying it way codenamed MKULTRA and that it ran from the 1940s until 1976.

Though many of the veterans believe this litigation will bring final settlement to their more than fifty years of battle with government bureaucracies, they should remember another medical care battle waged against the armed forces.  Military retirees from World War II and Korea, led by Medal of Honor recipient Colonel George “Bud” Day, fought a 20 year battle against the government to win officially promised medical care for life.  The Department of Defense was relentless in fighting the litigation and the Supreme Court finally defeated it.  That should be a strong reminder to all of the Test Veterans that the nightmare called Edgewood is far from any meaningful resolution.

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