FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2006

Contact:
      Frank Lennon
      (401) 831-8696
      frankl69@aol.com

"Twenty-five of those twenty-six candidates have responded and expressed support for what we are trying to do," said Frank Lennon, one of the organizers of the Veterans Appreciation Picnic taking place Sunday, August 27 from 11 to 5PM at the Shriners Buttonwoods Youth Center in Warwick.

"Twenty-two candidates have confirmed their attendance, and two others who are unable to attend have promised a contribution to help defray the costs of the day."

Twenty-one candidates have reserved information tables and are expected to be at the picnic: Senator Lincoln Chafee, Congressman James Langevin, Governor Donald Carcieri, Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty, Attorney General Patrick Lynch, LTG Reginald Centracchio, Guillaume de Ramel, Spencer Dickinson, Rod Driver, Bill Harsch, Kerry King, Mayor Steven Laffey, Jennifer Lawless, Edmund Leather, Andrew Lyon III, Mayor Ralph Mollis, Sen. Elizabeth Roberts, Jonathan Scott, Carl Sheeler and Sheldon Whitehouse.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy's campaign has also reserved a table, although the Congressman is not expected to be there. Senator Frank Caprio sent his regrets, along with a donation.

Warwick Councilwoman Sue Stenhouse and Robert Healey have also said they will attend.

"There is no other single event this election season that will come close to drawing such a large number of candidates," said former US Congressman Bob Weygand. "This commitment by those running for office speaks volumes to the potential political power of the veterans and their families."

Weygand, who served in the RI General Assembly and as Lieutenant Governor before running successfully for Congress, is well aware of the potential power veterans could wield if they chose to unite behind candidates or issues.

"If they don't know it already, people running for office should realize that the veteran vote is very important," said Weygand. "They should also understand that certain issues are very important to veterans."

To help crystallize those issues and establish priorities, the organizers solicited input from a large pool of veterans and veterans service organizations. That input provided the basis of a focus group discussion on August 22. (All candidates were also invited to send an observer.)

"First, our committee had to reach consensus on the issues of greatest concern to Rhode Island veterans and their families," said Lennon. "We also realize this is a work in progress, a 'wish list' that will undoubtedly go through a lot of tweaking as it evolves. Some of these proposals may never materialize, but we needed a place to start.

"And now we must make sure our elected leaders are aware of these proposals and commit to fight for them."

That process begins on Sunday, when the output of that focus group will be presented as a "veterans platform" to all candidates attending the picnic.

"This picnic is a great opportunity for veterans to make sure candidates for elected office are aware of the issues of most concern to us and our families. We are a group they should listen to, if for no other reason than that we vote," said Vietnam combat veteran Steve Morin of North Kingstown.

This is by no means a complete and comprehensive analysis of what is admittedly a complex set of issues. It is also the work product of veterans working in their individual capacities, and not on behalf of any organizations. Please consider it a work in progress, and all are welcome to suggest additions, deletions and changes. For the time being, Frank Lennon has agreed to be the point of contact for such input: 401-831-8696, or frankl69@aol.com.

There are some 660,000 registered voters in RI.

There are 118,000 veterans in RI (2000 census).

Add in families, and you have enough potential votes to decide any election in this state.

The fact that virtually every candidate for statewide or federal office is participating in this picnic is proof positive that we are viewed as a force to be reckoned with. An energized and mobilized group of veterans, presenting a united front, should be able to bring enough pressure to bear to quickly solve some of the problems that affect veterans, serving military and families.

In this post 9/11 America, our social and military fabric is being strained in ways not envisioned by those who drafted decades-old legislation about force structure, veteran compensation and medical care.

Perhaps we should also acknowledge the social and economic disparity resulting from an all-volunteer force, and reopen the debate on some kind of compulsory national service.

The federal government is avoiding the politically explosive issue of reinstituting the draft (or some other form of mandatory national service) by putting an unfair burden on National Guardsmen and reservists.

Just this week the Marines were forced to call back 2500 members of the Individual Ready Reserve, soldiers who have already served four years, then went back to civilian life.

The absence of a draft is one reason why the National Guard and Reserve now compose 40% of our deployed troops in Iraq (that number was once as high as 60 %.)

To make matters worse, Guard troops are now being sent to perform non-national emergency missions outside of the state, such as border patrol in the southwest. (State Governors should have more say in such federal decisions; perhaps public pressure could help bring about a review of this policy in Washington.)

Today there are far more veteran-related problems that need to be addressed on a state level than there were prior to 9/11. Many of the problems affecting our local military families stem from the unprecedented federal load being placed on our National Guard.

These problems include pay and benefits disparities for mobilized troops, family financial pressures, inability to obtain timely and effective medical care, mental health issues for returning vets, and high divorce rates.

There are a number of organizations and individuals hard at work trying to solve these problems. The solutions, however, depend on funding. And funding allocations are political decisions.

Sad to say, the only way veterans and their families will get the funding allocations they need is to make themselves more important to political leaders than other special interest groups. That importance will only come when candidates believe we will vote for those who champion our causes.

The first step was to organize this picnic and generate a large turnout, to show our elected leaders that they should pay attention to our needs. Within days of the first announcements, the picnic was oversubscribed.

The second step is to use this opportunity to let our political candidates know what issues are important to us, and to get their promise to fight for us.

Over the past several weeks we have solicited input from veterans, veterans' service organizations, serving military and family members. This material became the subject of a focus group discussion. The issues presented here as our Rhode Island Veterans Platform were identified by the focus group participants as most deserving of immediate attention.

1) Improve access to timely, high-quality health care for all veterans in an atmosphere of respect. That will require fully funding the VA health care system (and TRICARE) for all veterans. Eliminate the restrictions on enrollment, and provide funding based on realistic expectations of future needs, especially considering the ever-increasing number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Defeat efforts to impose user fees and increased drug co-pays.

2) Mandate timely and courteous responses to veteran inquiries and claims (the current backlog on medical appeals is more than 3 years). Restore cuts in the VA claims processing system and improve training and technology support to reduce the huge claims backlog and improve decision quality.

3) Reverse the discriminatory law that prevents disabled military retirees from receiving both disability pay and retirement pay. (This is the "concurrent receipt" issue; progress is being made, but at a snail's pace; it is simply a question of money and political will. $2.8 billion owed in back pay has not been disbursed because of administrative problems and lack of funding.)

4) Address the failure to fully fund the Survivor Benefits program. Eliminate the "SBP widow's tax" imposed on survivors of members who die of service-connected causes.

5) Eliminate the current inequities in the Montgomery GI Bill that discriminate against Guard members and reservists. Since they are bearing more than their fair share of the load of the War on Terror, they should get the same education benefits as active-duty service members.

6) Take a long, hard look at security contracts with companies such as Blackwater, whose mercenary troops enjoy significant pay and benefit advantages over our own active duty soldiers. Our troops are risking life and limb for chump change while others with the same skill sets are being paid a king's ransom to do for money what our soldiers do for their country. How can we justify this policy when middle-aged reservists and National Guard people are serving for a few hundred dollars a month, at the risk of job and mortgage?

7) Award the Korean War Veterans Association a federal charter. Without a charter, they cannot participate in official Veterans Administration policy making.

1) Create a cabinet-level Director of Veterans Affairs within state government. (Today, the RI Division of Veterans Affairs is buried within the Department of Human Services, and is eclipsed by the many other social services that are given a higher priority.) Rhode Island is second only to Florida in its percentage of World War II veterans, and Florida is one of several states with such a department. A quick internet search shows there are cabinet level departments in more than 30 other states, many of which have a smaller veteran percentage of population than Rhode Island.

2) Provide the Director with an appropriate budget and staff to serve the needs of 118,000 Rhode Islanders and their families. Mandate that key management positions be filled by veterans.

3). Address the serious problems caused when members of the Guard and reserve have to take serious and unexpected pay cuts when they are called to active duty. This is exacerbated by multiple activations and deployments, especially of those with established careers and families. During WWII, the average age of all those who served was 26. In Vietnam, it was 22. The average age of a deployed RI National Guard member today is 36. The recent initiative reimbursing activated state employees for the difference between their civilian and military pay is a step in the right direction, but we must find a way to expand that program to other employers

4) Change our method of providing assistance from passive to active. Most support programs for today's soldiers (as well as veterans) require the applicant to actively pursue them. This is ineffective, because often the person most in need of help will not seek it out. As an example, Rhode Island should guarantee its National Guardsmen mental health services for an indefinite period after return from the combat zone, and mandate the assessment of need.

5). Add a line item to the state budget to fund the Veterans Task Force of Rhode Island. That group's mission is to coordinate services for veterans returning from deployment and their families. It is currently established as a private, non-profit organization responsible for generating its own funding from private sources. What's wrong with this picture? Why are veterans' issues not considered a priority for funding in Rhode Island? Let's help move this initiative forward 6) Study and emulate the Illinois model where activation comes with an immediate payment of $750 to help soldiers get ready for deployment.

Nationally:

1) Change our shameful system of military procurement, which spends disproportionate amounts of the defense budget on huge capital projects benefiting the districts and states of powerful Senators and Congressman, often at the expense of the individual soldier and his family. In some cases, Congress has authorized billions of dollars in expenditures for programs the military leadership has said they neither need nor want.

2) End pork barrel projects that end up robbing our military forces of vital resources. The money saved from these projects should then be redirected into supporting the benefits promised to current military, veterans, and their families.

3) These changes are unlikely to take place without Campaign Finance Reform.

Locally:

1) Do the math. There are at least 300,000 veteran family members in the state. They deserve a realistic share of the state budget for social services. All it requires is political will, and the courage to make tough budgetary decisions.

2) Having a cabinet-level official focused solely on veterans issues will also enable Rhode Island to be more aggressive and more competitive in fighting for federal dollars and national grants.

3) We provide tax credits to businesses for a number of reasons far less noble than taking care of our veterans and soldiers. Involving the business community with incentives might cause companies to shoulder part of the financial burden.

4) Take a look at the budgets of similar departments in other states and see how they do it!

Last Updated:
8/26/06