Who's a Wounded Warrior

A preventive war, to my mind,
is an impossibility today
--President Eisenhower
___________________

The government is back at the divide and conquer game with veterans.

Back at the Social Security office this week attempting to resolve the ongoing matter of his docked pay resulting from a March 2008 administrative error (see Rodeo Clown and links), Ranger noticed the "Expedited Disability Applications for Wounded Warriors": If your disability was incurred after 1 Oct 01, you qualify for fast-track adjudication by the Social Security Administration, which made Ranger feel like chopped liver.

So much for all the rhetoric about inclusivity amongst all of our nation's veterans. If you're a Vietnam veteran with emergent issues, you're in the back of the bus, behind the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) vets. The message: You still make us nervous.

Why is it extended to current soldiers, but not wounded or disabled veterans from other wars? Is a soldier's service post October 2001 more valuable than that of his predecessors?

And why are those veterans any different than any other citizen? Shouldn't all citizens be treated fairly by our government? Ironically, one does not need to be either wounded or a warrior to qualify for this preferential SSA program. From the pamphlet: "[W]ho become disable ... regardless of where the disability occurs" -- so a Quartermaster company clerk in a car wreck could be magically transformed into a "Wounded Warrior" ™.

I will be surprised if the SSA clears up my account before my next birthday, eight months from now. 14 April 2011 SSA informed Ranger that they had made a self-admitted error in 2008 and claimed Ranger owes them in excess of $10,000. He filed an appeal form within the month and received his first correspondence on the matter 9 Jul 12 stating that they would remand $8,500 to his account until they make an administrative decision. This over one-year lag time despite appealing the matter through my congressman's office.

No one at the Administration is being held accountable for screwing up my hard-earned benefits. This is doubly irksome in our current political climate which advocates for less rather than more government; the government we have is not doing its job, so why do we think less will be more?

Vis-a-vis the Chicago SSA Regional office handling (or not) his claim, Ranger feels like a rat in a sticky glue trap that some clever marketers call a "home".

Effing Wrong

Government Bureau, George Tooker

[H]e realized at once that he shouldn't
have spoken aloud, and that by doing so he had,
in a sense, acknowledged the stranger's right
to oversee his actions
--The Trial, Kafka

--We're going to have to ask you to leave, sir
--I did not watch my buddies die face down
in the muck so that this fucking strumpet could abridge
my right of free speech
--The Inimitable Walter Sobchak in
The Big Lebowski (1998)

Take away the right to say "fuck"
and you take away the right to say
"fuck the government"
--Lenny Bruce
__________________

Purple Heart Magazine (Apr. '11) featured Staff Sergeant Robert Miller's Medal of Honor and Florida's memorial commemorating his actions; in short, the plaque said Miller died fighting for freedom. I'll presume that means Floridian's freedom, too, since here is where the plaque resides.

However, Floridian Ranger's freedom was recently curtailed by the government of the free. He received a letter from the Social Security Administration claiming that his SSA benefits since April 2008 have been in error, and that he has received an overpayment of $350 per month, and that he now owes his government over $10,000.

No data was given to explain the overpayment; no figures produce or explanation given. Ranger has no idea the propriety of this allegation, and must now navigate the labyrinthine bowels of the SSA in order to find the origin of this alleged error.

In his initial foray into the SSA office he was told he needed to file an appeal to uncover the data behind the demand for payment of the $10,000+. The totality of his knowledge is that his payments have been fucked up since April 2008, and not by anything he did or did not do. The burden of proof is upon him to discover why the allegation of overpayment, all because some dumb-fuck SSA employee put him in this predicament, and he so stated: "This is fucked up!"

At this spirited summation of the incompetence surrounding him, the SSA representative told Ranger that swearing was not permitted as it violated office decorum, and "this is a public place." Well, that riled Ranger sufficiently to see the hypocrisy in his admonition. As Ranger saw it, he can BE fucked over by the functionaries, but he daren't declare it.

Ranger replied to SSA Rep Roberto that he would say what he pleased, (and, Walter Sobchak-like) that he carried scars reflective of his sworn duty to uphold The Constitution and asked Roberto if he was sworn to uphold The Constitution, also (came no reply.) Not only will Ranger possibly have to pay a great sum of money for the ineptitude of our government, he discovered the SSA was curtailing his civil rights, of which free speech is one.

What is freedom of speech if one cannot be profane in a government office? What is protected speech? Is the word "fuck" adequate justification to deny service to taxpaying citizen? Why have free speech if it really means, "polite free speech"? Being polite does not = free speech. Where is the freedom if we are all polite, if we all engage in that unctuous Southern practice of false politesse?

Ranger can understand a private employer putting certain constriction upon customer's behavior, but a government entity encroaching upon his freedom, at that moment, was too much. If SSG Miller died fighting for his freedom, why hasn't the SSA gotten the word?

We have addressed free speech as taught to our students (Fartwah) and in many posts as imposed upon our soldiers. Now it is clear we citizens are being muzzled, too. If our rights are "God-given" as postulated (*snicker, snicker*), how can a government agency's policy or employees restrict that free and open speech?

Fucked up might not be polite, but it sure does sum up the shooting match.