I have written on this subject
before, but perhaps it is time
to renew the message once again
to those who are newly connecting
with internet veterans arena.

There was a time in this country
when veterans Bravado Worship
had it's place. But we are living
in a different time now and this
is no longer true.

Bravado worship used to serve
well back in the 1940's to build
public esteem during the post-Depression
era of World War II. It was a time
when war heroes were undisputedly
defined and only the finest ever
got into the system to begin with,
or at least with very few exceptions.

Bravado worship is also
an extension of our military
indoctrination. In the boundaries
of military living, Bravado Worship
also has it's place. But Veterans
of today really do have to comprehend
that Bravado Worship is mostly
misapplied when transitioning out
into civilian life, and is largely
seen as a sign of mental illness
by those not coming directly from
the military experience.

Therefore, what some of you may
think is just an overzealous display
of nationalism and patriotism by
Veterans exhibiting Bravado Worship,
is actually interpreted by others
at some level, as an overt need
for psychiatric counselling.

To be fanatical on nationalism
is just as treacherous as being
fanatical on religion. There
are boundaries and social norms,
and crossing over from that into
misapplied Bravado Worship can
be a Veterans doom.

I am just the messenger here and
no, I didn't personally cause this
truth to happen so you can spare
me the gripes. I am giving you
the all out heads up of where this
society has taken everything and
it's time that Veterans themselves
start to get the word.

The definition I am using for
Bravado Worship for those who
are still confused, is to mean
the blind, unqualified bestowing
of excessive salutes and over
the top recognitions to overall
military service in a very general
way, without them ever taking on
incidents of valor or extreme exceptions.
This is usually done in an "obsessive"
way by those who insist on hanging
to it, and will often inject
Bravado Worship into everday
situations or conversations where
it comes flying in from left
field and is not even applicable
to the discussion at hand.

I have personally experienced
people trying to throw Bravado
Worship into the middle of a political
debate on an issue with other Veterans,
and the Bravado Worship commentary
was intented to silence everyone
who was involved in the conversation.
It was a misapplied to make Veterans
stop LEARNING about the many sides
of an important legislative issue.

So this will give you some indication
about what I am including in the
meaning of Bravado Worship.It is
used to cloud, confuse, befuddle,
confound, silence, and CONTROL
all discussions of controversy and
debate out here, and it really does
have to stop.

It is one thing to be loyal to
the troops --- it is another thing
to spend your every waking hour
obsessing over Bravado Worship.
When "salute the troops" becomes
the only comment that you know to
say in every single conversation
that you participate in, then it
is time perhaps, that you have
way too much Bravado Worship going
on in your head and you are now
entering the realm of delusions,
denial, and social misfit.

Today's military recruiting is
using an all new and controversial
process called Moral Waivers.
Moral Waivers are letting in high
school people from Special Education
Classes, juvenile detention and drug
rehab centers, and group homes of all
kinds. People with a jaded past, as
the saying goes, are entering the
military recruiting process with Moral
Waivers. This does NOT bode well
for the safety of others in the
pressures of combat, and one murder
headline after another in the news,
is proving this failed policy to be
true.

We also have more fraud cases than
ever before coming into the system,
and you can trust me they do NOT
earn your Bravado Worship.

The VA Secretary's position has long
been the national ICON and object
of Bravado Worship, and at times
in the pursuit of activism, I have
had to DUMP on and oppose VA Secretary
nominees for being nothing more than
Bravado Worship Icons with incredibly
EMPTY backgrounds for qualifications.

The vicious cycle of Bravado Worship
really does have to be brought to an
end inside the VA, because we are
taking on an entire organization
charts from the bottom of the barrel
in academics and qualifications ----
and doing it all in the name of
Bravado Worship icons. This is
exactly why the VA agency itself
is broken beyond all recognition.

Too many unqualified types are rising
to the top with nothing more in their
resumes than "war experience", and
the Veterans constituency arena
has been too out of touch to know
enough when to take on that kind of
situation with organized Opposition and
to hold out for a new nominee who
is better QUALIFIED.

You would not make a Veteran with
nothing but "war experience" as
the all new Surgeon General of the
United States --- so why in the WORLD
would you ever make such a person
the Secretary of the VA ?? Everybody
needs to focus on this question
because it's a real Doozy and one
worth pursuing the answer to.

The VA did not become a Cabinet level
agency until the 1980's, for those
of you don't know that. Up to that
point, just about anybody could
run the place because it was not
yet a court-like litigating system
with federal level adversarialness
against sick and injured Veterans
who are filing disability claims.

Once the agency became a sitting
Cabinet member at the White House,
there should have been a major
change in setting minimum qualifications
for the nominees of VA Secretary.
Just like all other mistaken oversights
of error inside the VA, this was never
done. So we still have the pre-Cabinet
level practice of nominating
Bravado Worship choices as VA Secretary
nominees, instead of insisting for the
highly qualified Public Health
Officials who have vast experience
in managing public hospital and disability
related services.

There is also the problem of DECEPTION which is put out by the
VA itself whenever the VA Secretary
position begins to show itself as
vacant and in need of a new nominee.
Please read what I say here to you
very s-l-o-w-l-y because I am telling
ya true and would not lie to about such
a thing:

"the VA Secretary position does
NOT advocate for Veterans.

Not now, not in the past, not ever !!!
I used to work at the VA Hq. office
in Washington and I am telling ya true.

The VA Secretary position is the seat
of ADVERSITY and legal wrangling and
persecution. The VA Office of General
Counsel is the face of the VA Secretary
and you can believe me when I tell
you that the OGC and Secretary together
are the people who are trashing your
legal claims. Now, think about this
for just a second. How can the VA
Secretary POSSIBLY be an "advocate for
Veterans" if the VA Secretary's name
is on all of your claims denials and
court cases ??

DUH !!! Hello !!! Earth calling
the Fools Squad in the Veterans arena !!!

This is deliberately put out by the
VA deceptive website pages to trick
and fool you all into thinking that
you are getting Bravado Worship and
some kind of VSO activist as a VA
Secretary, when in fact, you are NOT
getting that AT ALL. What you are
getting is the very next adversarial
LITIGATOR who is sent there to
falsely trash and deny all of your
claims.

Wake up and smell the coffee, you
Veterans !!

The VA Secretary's position is NOT
an honorable place to be for anybody
who has previously been a VSO. So
please, all of you, DO get the news
flash on this. It is an act of betrayal
and deception whenever somebody moves
from a VSO and suddenly becomes a nominee
for VA Secretary. Believe IT !!!

I have entered a full Opposition to
the current Acting VA Secretary of
Gordon Mansfield, who has no public
health medical background whatsoever,
who only has a law degree and nothing
more, and who is wheelchair bound
with paralysis and will send us
all down the road of one national
scandal, one after another, for no other
reason than he cannot keep up or
measure up to the rigors of the job
of VA Secretary or stay mobile enough
to effectively manage the place.
So let's all get real here.

He is nominated to sabotage and
trash the agency as Bush's new
YES-MAN. They are hoping that the
Veterans will not rise up in Opposition
against him by reason of Bravado
Worship, and the fact he is a
war injured Veteran.

Don't buy into it, everybody --- absolutely enter your Oppositions and insist
on somebody who is MORE qualified to hold
the top job. Leave Mansfield behind
because he is in denial and doesn't
get it that the VA Secretary's job
is BIGGER than him.

The reason why the VA agency does not
move forward in progress to Veterans
is because of all the unqualified
types who are blindly rubber-stamped
through the confirmation process, while
the Veterans all sit around in a Bravado
Worship COMA !!! Wake up, Wake up.

It's time to bring it all to an
end, everybody. It is misapplied,
unrealistic, and leading all of us
to our moment of DOOM to continue
doing ways and means without change
and adaption to new situations.

Bravado Worship has had it's day,
it served that day well, but now
it's time to leave it all behind
and face the realities of todays
society --- and Veterans really do
have to just plain Move On and leave
it as a relic of the past which
has outlived it's day.