Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Shameful and Our Weekly Wednesday Answer Page

Many of you may have already heard something about the recent Washington Post series of articles, written by Dana Priest and Anne Hull, detailing the living conditions at some of the facilities at Walter Reed Hospital. Many of the young women and men who have honorably served in Iraq and Afghanistan and been severely wounded and/or traumatized are treated and, after their treatment, warehoused there.

If you would like to read the complete series, here are the links.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701314.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/AR2007021801335.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021901113.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900759.html

We have ourselves, for reasons that some of you know, experienced a variety of conditions in regard to medical facilities, but even in some of the oldest buildings, we have never encountered conditions like this.

This is no way to treat young men and women who have accepted the challenge to fight for our country, and sacrificed something of themselves in the process. Please write an email to your congressional representatives, informing them that their inaction in regard to our injured servicepeople is simply unconscionable.

Thank you.

Here is the answer for the first cryptocrostic.

A short note - I began to tidy up this answer grid, aligning the letters so that it would look neat. If the original puzzle ever gets published in something other than this journal, I suppose I will have to do that. Until then, pfft. You can read it, right?

Peace.

Bonnie and Walt

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

pfff... I can read it, although I didn't attempt to do it.  

Tomorrow I will read the articles you linked and I will fire off a number of e-mails.  If needed, heck, I'll even compose, print, place in envelope, stamp and walk to the PO to mail.

Anonymous said...

...sad, not surprising, but sad...
your puzzle is picture pretty!
grins, debra

Anonymous said...

I have had 1st hand experiene with the VA facilities in this country. My Great Uncle who was brain injured in a tank roll over,spent the rest of his life in & out of VA hospitals and nursing homes. My Grandmother (his sister) was his legal guardian. Many times she had to drive him hundreds of miles for evaluations and tests. He was 100% disabled. My Father (3 yrs his uncle's junior) who served in WWII, ended up 70% disabled from his loss of hearing from the big guns he shot till he lost most of hearing. Also from a fungal disease that he picked up overseas that could never be cured. And now 2 of my children are going through the hell that is the VA medical system.  My daughter lost part of a finger and had her ankle shattered (and it never healed properly).My son who was over there the day the fighting started in Iraq (luckily he was in Kuwait the whole time) but he developed a disabling  condition from running (a lot of runners get it & it can be cured surgically), but now he suffers from numbness, pain from adhesions and lower back pain from an injury in the Army.  All they every seem to do when (and if ) he can see a DR is be given the runaround and some motrin.  It is a nightmare, not only at Walter Reed, but at every VA Medical facility I've been in. Something has to be done!! THANK YOU for pointing out these articles. I have some letter writing to do.
And your puzzle is very professional looking. Quite spiffy.
Hugs, Barb

Anonymous said...

I did work as a volunteer at a local V.A. and it was clean.    I hope the matter of roach infestation and other problems will be addressed in short order.    I will contact my Senators and Representatives to voice my opinion.    mark