Joe McCarthy's Spirit Alive and Well at the VA

Click the player below to hear this week's song "McCarthy's Medicine", about the VA citing a veteran's membership of a veterans advocacy group as grounds for denying his PTSD claim. Lyrics after the blog.

Here's a good one.

Will King, an Army Staff Sergeant who served in Afghanistan who had been diagnosed with mild PTSD, felt that his conditions were worsening. Unemployed, failing out of school and entertaining suicidal thoughts, he filed a disability claim with the VA to have his PTSD upgraded from mild to moderate.

They denied his claim, citing his involvement with VoteVets, an advocacy group that happens to be kicking ass as of late at exposing disgraceful behavior at the VA, as evidence that his PTSD wasn't serious enough to claim unemployability. From the rejection letter:

The treatment reports from Memphis show you are currently involved with VoteVets.org, an advocacy group for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts...

The treatment reports from the VA Medical Center show you are currently involved with a veteran's advocacy group and have traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with and lobby members of Congress on behalf of this organization. While you are not, strictly speaking, employed by this organization, you are actively involved and able to control and manage your symptoms sufficiently to engage in activities required by your involvement. (VetVoice, who has the full story)

So let's get this straight: the organization responsible for providing care to our wounded servicemembers is citing involvement of a group that's critical of it as grounds for denying benefits. To be clear, it's not like Sgt. King has been spending 40 hours a week down at VoteVets licking envelopes, thus proving he's obviously capable of holding a job. He spent 48 hours at an event they held in D.C. That's it.

If the VA (an organization headed by a man who recently compared Traumatic Brain Injuries to the kind you get playing pee-wee football) is going to pursue a McCarthy-esque policy of threatening to deny benefits to wounded soldiers if they join certain veterans groups, they deserve much more outrage than this week's song, a slow dirge called McCarthy's Medicine.

McCarthy's Medicine

For despondence and sleeplessness
Make an appointment with a specialist
If your name is on the contact list don't expect to much
For that thing you've got
If your boots can't shake out the sand
There's a catch you'd better understand
A raised fist could be an empty hand
Shaking a paper cup, if you shake it up

(And they'll say) Are you now or have you ever been
I'm sorry, what was that again?
McCarthy's practicing medicine
In the modern age, from beyond the grave
So if you're looking to deal with it
Boy, don't try to be no advocate
Just keep your teeth on the tourniquet
'Til it goes away, 'til it goes away

And I don't need no doctorates
To diagnose irrelevance
And possibility of bad intent
That's your punishment, your punishment
So if you're looking to recuperate
Watch out with whom you affiliate
If you're well enough to demonstrate
It must be second rate, so play it straight

(And they'll say) Are you now or have you ever been
I'm sorry, what was that again?
McCarthy's practicing medicine
In the modern age, from beyond the grave
So, irrespective of your circumstance
They'll throw a wrench right into your plans
McCarthy's got himself a second chance
In the modern age, far beyond his days

(And they'll say) Are you now or have you ever been
I'm sorry, what was that again?
McCarthy's practicing medicine
In the modern age, from beyond the grave
So if you're looking to deal with it
Boy, don't try to be no advocate
Just keep your teeth on the tourniquet
'Til it goes away, 'til it goes away

Max and the Marginalized are a band and a blog. They do a song every week on the Huffington Post, all 38 of which are available for download here. Add them on Facebook.

Comments

[glaze]

Please understand from the outset that I am NOT disputing this story. Sadly, I must accept it as true and verified. As AdobePstcho nailed it , this is ANOTHER outrage squeezing in on our consciousness, battling for priority and action.
Now please excuse my ignorance as to detail- Questions: Is this situation traceable directly to the current administration? For example, could the disgusting conditions at Walter Reed have started just eight years ago?
In a way I hope so, in that the root cause will soon die (unfortunately not soon enough). The lowest, vilest level of hell is reserved for child molesters; only one-half step up is for these slugs with legs. Or has this level of inexcusable scandal at the VA been a constant for decades?
I must point out though, that my personal experience with the VA facilities and personnel at Milwaukee, North Chicago, and satellite clinics at Rockford and McHenry Illinois have been very positive. Most if not all the people I encountered were professional, courteous and even showed genine humanity and concern for my health- and I took every opportunity to tell them so.

[americanwhocares]

When Obama takes the oath of office in January 2009, I hope high on his priority list of things "to do" will be a total cleaning out of the top management at the VA Central Office in Washington DC, the benefits and medical side, both. These managers certainly have lost their way and do not follow the organizations credo from Abraham Lincoln: To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.
I know this is just one of all the federal agencies that has been corrupted by 8 years of Bush and republican incompetence, (all federal agencies suffer from it), but we owe this to our brave Servicepeople and Veterans. They totally deserve world class treatment, not third world treatment which they now get from the Bush maladministration.

[larry278]

The VA is again acting like a bigoted person &/or parent. The US Congress should look into this matter & order the VA to cease & desist from this sort of conduct which penalizes a veteran who chooses to join an advocacy group by passing legislation which order the VA to presume all symptoms of PTSD are to be considered to be a 100% SC disability.
larry lynch

[AdobePhsyko]

Just One More OUTRAGE.
This administration is The Most UnAmerican bunch of Scumbags in US History.
Make these soldiers serve 2,3,or 4 stints in KBRs war and then DENY them the medical care they DESERVE.
I hope that Congress is taking notes to be used in the War Crimes Tribunal.

[ramiperlman]

"McCarthy's practicing medicine/ In the modern age, from beyond the grave"

Amazing line! I'm glad you covered this story. I had heard about it briefly, but as we all know , these travesties have a way of being swept under the rug. Great work Max!