There was a defining moment
in front of the Veterans Disability
Commission during the October
session that would be hard to
deny by anyone who was in the
room.

As the Commission geared up
for yet another of their
famous floor votes of controversy,
the VSO's again were out in
full force to put forward
what really should have been a
muscle moment, but turned out
to be a fizzle to nowhere
just like their earlier one
back in May.

The VSO's have this "thing"
that they do of putting on
unified statements before
the Commission. I personally
saw this for the first time
when the Commission was voting
on the controversial SSDI data
gathering proposal which had
been significantly changed
by Motion by the time the VSO's
even arrived.

The "unified statement" is
where 1 to 4 representatives
take to the hot seat microphone
and speak on behalf of all other
VSO's. The unified statement is
typically very long, some 30 pages
or so, and does take up a good
block of time.

At the first VSO failure that I
saw, the VSO's made obsolete
arguments on the heels of the
revised Motion of SSDI data
collection which changed
even over the course of the
2 days that we were in session.
So the final floor vote version
was in a different direction from
what the VSO's had argued at
the microphone.

The fact that the VSO's were
almost categorically ignored
at that session was somewhat
understandable for those of
us who were in the room. The
vote went forward in spite
of the VSO opposition.

But that all changed at the
October session. The new
issue for the new floor vote
was a half-baked proposal to
pay lifetime amounts to Veterans
in a single Lump Sum disability
payment on certain disabilities.

Forget it, because no matter
how good that sounded, there was
big trouble on this one, and
a lot of us knew it.

Here comes DAV with their
"unified statement" of
opposition against the Lump
Sum payment. The statement
was handed out at the registration
table as we all signed in at
the start of the session, so
most of us had plenty of time
to read it over prior to the
Call To Session.

I had begun writing a handwritten
statement of my own for the
public comment period that
was scheduled just prior to
the floor vote.

When the DAV Legislative Director
went to the microphone, I thought
for sure this would take care
of the issue. It didn't.

The whole time he was reading his
statement, I was finishing
up my own speech in the front
row, having it in tow just in
case the indicators were there
that the VSO's were failing
in their message for a second
time.

As it turned out, this is
exactly what happened.

When the VSO's were done, the
Commission went into a discussion.
Only half the Commissioners
heard the opposition message
and were still diddling around
back and forth, still considering
the Lump Sum proposal as if
it required further language
adjustment and was at least
legitimate on it's face.
It wasn't.

Hearing the Commissioners bat
this around on the floor, I
held to my sign up card and
took to the microphone when
my name was called. Had the
VSO statement done the trick,
I had the option to PASS
when my name was called.

For those who don't know this,
my flare at these Commission
sessions, is largely to take the
convoluted and discombobbulated
and hammer it all down into plain,
everyday English that everyone
in the room can understand.

Short and to the point, I
repackaged the opposition that
the VSO's had been trying to put out,
and added in my own flare and new
arguments. I was trying to
overcome what they had lost
in their baggage of statistics,
which really didn't say much, and
their long winded elaborate points
which were way too long to listen
to in that kind of a setting.

I no sooner finished my
speech and got back to my
chair, and then every single
fence-sitting Commissioner
had changed their position
and switched to a full opposition
vote without further hesitation.

The Lump Sum proposal went down
in full defeat with a unanimous
Commission vote.

It really dawned on me then
and there, that the VSO's
have truly lost all of their
clout ---- which is of course,
exactly why they are called
to Washington proceedings.

Here lies the problem.

While the VSO's do enter
into official records their
positions of oppositions,
the VSO's then turn around
and FAIL to follow
up with a recognizable
protest if that opposition
statement is ignored.

In short, all of official
Washington knows that the
VSO's never, but never, but
never actually puts on a
protest of any kind. They
all go back to their propaganda
magazines and it's business
as usual the very next day,
and official Washington can
do whatever they want and
there is really nobody to
answer to for it.

With me, that is not true
and and they now do get the
message big time that the
power of the Internet will
be glad to show them the
consequences of running
over our public comment
position. There is nobody
in my universe who wants
to run for a top job at the
VA tomorrow, so it doesn't
bother my crowd at all to
protest, protest, and protest,
and Oh My God --- Protest !!!

The House Veterans Affairs
Committee also does
the same thing, of first hiding
behind the VSO's insisting that
they come to certain official
procedings, while individual
Veterans are otherwise locked
out from speaking, and then
after all that, turn around and
do whatever they wanted to do
to begin with. Yes it's the
great invisible and ignored
VSO's !!

Veterans really do have to
wake up now and smell the
coffee. VSO's are no longer
a concept of force and unity
when crucial moments of
policy are being decided.

They are a circus for show
purposes only, who are ignored
at every turn by Washington,
and I can think of no better
reason for Veterans to stop
giving the VSO's your membership
money.

They have sucked up to the
system for too many decades,
using the VSO structure for
self-interested "appointments"
for their own jobs at the VA
agency. In the meantime,
representation for the
Vet memberships at large
on key issues are nearly
nowhere to be found ---
at least in terms of putting
on protest demonstrations
as a show of "consequences".

The VSO's have truly lost all
of their gas in the Veterans
arena, and it is the small
break away groups who are now
leading the way with Outcry,
Email drives, and Protests of
true consequences when we
feel the pangs of injustice
brush a little too close.

Veterans do need to understand
now that it is imperative for
one-at-a-time participation
to show up in all of our
national legislative agendas,
regardless of whether it's at
a Commission or at Congress.
It's the only power that we have
left in this system because the
VSO's are ineffective,
dysfunctional, and can no longer
get the job done.

Show me one single protest
demonstration that has ever
been put on by any VSO to
stop and terminate the litigation
of VA medical patients ??
Show me one!! It isn't there.

The VSO's build a cottage
industry on just about everything
that passes through the system
no matter how harmful it is
to Veterans. The VSO's do not
represent Veterans, they represent
the command at the top who are
trying to become the next
VA Secretary of the day.

It's time that we take back
our lives, and start showing
this system what we can do when
we are angry and our voices are
not heard.

Let's hope, in the meantime,
that the VSO's don't do too
much damage on our behalf before
we finally get up off it and
start to mobilize on self
representation. We don't have
much left to lose in this
VA arena, so let's hope they
don't finish us off by selling
us out beyond repair for all
eternity.

I just wanted to take a breif moment to salute Mr. John Kleindienst VI; who is with the DAV at the Waco regional office.

Sir, I salute you for making a stance against this regional office; whos blunders has cost so many vets due justice.

Often times we criticize people for not doing their job,and sldomly ever compliment those who do.

THANKS JOHN