Today I buried my father. He was 83 years old, a WW2 combat veteran, and a partially disabled man who worked every day of his life until he was forced to retire. He had Alzhiemer's disease.

I couldn't afford to get him into a decent, private, for-hire nursing home and had to put him on state assistance. He was a proud man and wouldn't have wanted that if he was aware that I had done it. Luckily, he wasn't.

There was a V.A. program, that he was eligible for, that would have funded his entry into a decent for-hire facility, but the V.A. ran me around with red tape and unending forms untill it was too late for my dad to access the program. This is because the V.A. is chock-filled with self-serving pieces of shit whose only concern is their precious beaurocratic jobs. They are less than useless and weren't, and aren't, good enough to breath the same air as my dad. Luckily, this problem has been solved, for my dad, today.

I wrote Senator Kennedy who was working on my dad's case until the time of his own death. I also contacted my congressman but it seems that no one can tell the almighty V.A. what to do, even congressmen and senators.

With this as a backdrop I'd like to offer the following opinions and suggestions. I would like to see the V.A. closed permanently and simply replaced with a credit card that says "V.A." on one side.

A small cadre of retired veterans, and veterans only, would handle any administration needed. All administration would be kept to the barest minimum. Their only job would be to dispense, without question other than veteran's status, monies needed by veterans for health (any hospital, any problem), education (any school the veteran is able to qualify for academically), and housing (co-sign any loan, at any bank, for a modest first home).

If I was President, a Senator, or a Congressman, this is what I'd propose immediately. It would automatically remove duplicitous spending of now precious tax money on clerks and no-talent so-called executives who do everything within their self-serving power to deny benifits to veterans. Ask any veteran what they think of the V.A. if you doubt me.

So, if you agree with me, please call, write, or email your Senator or Congressman and relate this story and any of your own that you might have. My dad drove Higgins boats onto the beaches of Normandy at age seventeen, with bullets wizzing by him, so that you and I could keep the freedom of speech that it took to write this!