Our government personnel live in a world that is increasingly different from the world in which the rest of us live. While the American people are heartbroken by many of our changed policies, from those preferring illegal aliens (the President’s executive order) below a certain age over our own double-digit numbers of young citizen unemployed, to candidates trying to turn the clock back on women’s rights of privacy, to legislation reducing money spent on SNAP, reducing the availability in help getting FOOD for our citizenry, I find it stunning that stories about the denial of the payment of immediate benefits (which benefits will ultimately be paid) to fallen soldiers’ families, and stories about the difficulties facing furloughed workers (who will also be paid) and their accompanying descriptions of disgraceful, or shameful to be somewhat misplaced.
The manipulative will cry foul, after all, it’s “The Military.” But the honest will realize that we’re talking about money, taking nothing away from the horror of war and the death of any person working in the military.
We’re a country that’s embracing shameful policies every day, and most of them have to do with money. The government shutdown is about money. The discussions of erasing the contributions of millions of Americans into the federal pockets for Medicare that promises not to be there when it’s time for the Federal government to make good on its promise to workers is about money. The decision to tax people who have opted out of purchasing health insurance is about money. Unfortunately, those of us who’d like to see some real morality, conscience and responsibility coming out of Washington can no longer afford to jump on any single sentimental bandwagon about money merely because it’s for immediate death benefits paid after a military person’s death.
In fact, the military is well protected financially in this country, and that is at least in part why we have not required a draft. Veterans’ benefits are an entitlement program never named by either side as they comfortably talk about stripping aging Americans of the benefits they paid for. Preference for veteran workers is touted as good policy while affirmative action programs survive only barely every time there is a governmental shift. Higher education is free for these individuals when many other young people are faced with the burden of crushing debt in order to obtain an education.
These entitlements for the military are not necessarily bad things, but they are outdated in a country that is watching every penny, in a country where grown, overstuffed, overpaid individuals can argue for a reduction in money for SNAP, or for cutting social security and Medicare benefits.
The point isn’t that denying immediate death benefits is shameful or not, the point is that this pseudo sentimentality is only rolled out for the pet cause of one individual or another. Arguably, many things our government is doing and spending or not spending money on are shameful.
For those facing a reduction in SNAP come November, our government is no less shameful because it passes some special exception for military families. For older Americans whose government is sweeping away the benefits they’ve contributed to their whole working lives, it’s shameful.
Of course, the military will get their money, but honestly, the payment will only be another act of an arbitrary government that uses its own particular rating system of who counts in America, and you know what? That’s shameful.
