Arlington at Christmas

[jmsspratlin]

Arlington Cemetery at Christmas
Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well.
Others have taken up where you fell, the line has held.
Peace, peace, and farewell...

Readers may be interested to know that these wreaths -- some 5,000 -- are donated by the Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine. The owner, Merrill Worcester, not only provides the wreaths, but covers the trucking expense as well. He's done this since 1992. He?s a wonderful guy. Also, most years, groups of Maine school kids combine an educational trip to DC with this event to help out. Making this even more remarkable is the fact that Harrington is in one the poorest parts of the state.

[KenP]

I think that's even more beautiful than the Fourth of July flags.

Thanks for sharing.

[h2co-pilot]

It's nice to know my Mammaw and Pappaw have wreaths.

Thanks.

[wpage]

God Bless the Vets. Freedom's never easy...

[frenzy1]

[Big Dad]

That's great...too bad it's just a tiny, tiny drop in the bucket....

[tower]

Very nice. Now, how about taking decent care of the vets that are still alive!

[jmsspratlin]

Originally Posted by tower

Very nice. Now, how about taking decent care of the vets that are still alive!

The media plays on nothing but negativity. I have several friends that work as providers at Walter Reed (if that's the crap your talking about) and they have never seen some of the things that the media was harking about. Hell, military healthcare sets the stage for new innovations in the civilian sector. If the media played on all of the shortcomings of the public supplied healthcare system, it would make the Walter Reed incident appear as pointless press. I agree that every system has downfalls to some degree, I mean hell, we are human...not Gods. As long as most learn from their mistakes, I see it as process improvement. Sorry for the rant....

[jmsspratlin]

Originally Posted by Big Dad

That's great...too bad it's just a tiny, tiny drop in the bucket....

[bparker]

/salute

[tower]

Originally Posted by jmsspratlin

The media plays on nothing but negativity. I have several friends that work as providers at Walter Reed (if that's the crap your talking about) and they have never seen some of the things that the media was harking about. Hell, military healthcare sets the stage for new innovations in the civilian sector. If the media played on all of the shortcomings of the public supplied healthcare system, it would make the Walter Reed incident appear as pointless press. I agree that every system has downfalls to some degree, I mean hell, we are human...not Gods. As long as most learn from their mistakes, I see it as process improvement. Sorry for the rant....

I am sorry to say that every VA facility I have ever worked at had a level of care that was inferior to the private facility to which it
was attached. But that's not all. The percentage of homeless that are vets is also unconscionably huge, as is the overt efforts by our government to keep vets from getting benefits (by denying PTSD, et.al.). It's a load of crap. We should be ashamed of how our war heroes get treated!

[bparker]

Originally Posted by tower

We should be ashamed of how our war heroes get treated!

[jmsspratlin]

Originally Posted by tower

I am sorry to say that every VA facility I have ever worked at had a level of care that was inferior to the private facility to which it
was attached. But that's not all. The percentage of homeless that are vets is also unconscionably huge, as is the overt efforts by our government to keep vets from getting benefits (by denying PTSD, et.al.). It's a load of crap. We should be ashamed of how our war heroes get treated!

I have to agree with some of those points. Sometimes they don't mind sending you, but taking care of you when you return "broken", seems to be a different story. However from the HC stand point, alot of members don't do it for the money, and scrape just to provide the care they do without the adequate funding needed. Seems like alot of money is poured into new technology, however they don't think about the individual who will operate it, and the staffing needs. I'm done...sorry....I just get irritated at the US healthcare in general....I wish it were more like Canada and Europe.