
Kickass and the VA
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, in a friendly check-in with the young woman doc who is his current VA contact, was reassured that he is in good hands with the VA and with Dr. Ruiz. The keeper has been in the VA system for decades—through such things as heart bypass, kidney stones, CLL, palsy and other maintenance issues. To a person, all those VA people involved have been professional, compassionate and capable. The VA, like the US Postal Service, is charged with the impossible mission of serving the unruly masses, and it is thus incredibly vulnerable to the criticism of private entities that see profit opportunity and want a piece of the action, not to mention politicians who would throw their own mothers under the bus if it meant more votes. Now as the Trump pirates make yet another bumble to deny health care to millions, the keeper is ever more grateful to the cumbersome VA system that treats him with respect and efficiency. And he would make the point that most often it is women who have delivered the VA health care goods. There is an obvious irony: men sent him to a shooting war where he came damn close to being killed, and for the rest of his life, it is mostly women who have helped keep him alive and kicking.
(See billstokesauthor.com for more Kickass and news of the novel MARGARET’S WAR, which deals with issues of women empowerment and racism when the Germans POWs were in this country by the thousands at the end of WW II.)

