Today, I learned while researching something that I saw on the news. I am talking about the dangers of poor fiscal management resulting from faulty decision making. The Veterans Administration is supposed to provide health care to our veterans. They have a problem in this area.
In the area that provides service to our locale, they fail. A local TV station has done a series on the number of suicides from lack of available mental health care. If a veteran can not get timely care then it is the same as no care. This series helped start a nation wide look at this problem.
The Veterans have it right on part of one aspect. Healing is more than medical help from health care providers. The environment is important as well as its surroundings. This is where the VA drowned its self.
A Congressional committee wants to know why a Denver area VA hospital is 1.7 billion dollars into cost overrun. The VA investigated itself and reported back with a summary. They refused to give Congress the supporting documents. They are still refusing. My thought on this is simple. If a sitting President could not escape investigation and impeachment, why is the VA being treated different?
The further I researched the more disgusted I became. The Va has their priorities wrong. They have spent over 20 million on art work. I would be embarrassed also and want to hide my actions. If you will not turn over paperwork for some one to see what you have done, then you are hiding something. You can twist your behind, twist your head, or twist your tongue but it will not change the truth.
What is wrong with occupational therapy that teaches a skill? Paint your buildings in soothing greens and blues. Give classes to veterans. Have teachers supervise them doing it for 6 months. It will be upkeep for the buildings. Issue a job reference at the end of six months painting.
Art work is not what was done at the Palo Alto facility. The VA paid $483,000 for an extremely ugly big rock. That insult was not bad enough. Someone at the VA paid $807,000 to get the ground ready to place the rock.
Remember that art work projects do not have to be done in one day. Tell the the veterans in every art class what you are looking for. Give a dead line and have every veteran in the art classes submit their ideas. Choose the best and put together teams. Projects can be done in segments and joined at sites. Give the veterans ownership by involving them. After all, it's about the veterans not about some big wig wanna' be looking to have the best office.
The somebody who approves art work projects needs to seriously get a grip. The art work placed on the side of a garage did not honor the blind. Quotes from famous people in Braille was part of a good idea that was not completely thought out. The blind can't see them or much less touch them. I do not know of any sighted person who can read braille. Honor the blind by putting something on ground level that they can touch, since few have the skills of a mountain goat.
Do what I have taught my son. If You screw up, be a human and admit it. Evaluate your actions and change. If you truly can't see it, ask for help in figuring out where you went wrong. Then close your mouth and open your mind.
The uproar is about serious waste of taxpayer dollars. Veterans did not receive care, had to wait, or got lost while waiting for care. One instance that keeps playing over and over in my mind is the amount paid for an extremely ugly rock ($483,000). The icing was $807,000 paid to get the ground ready for the ugly rock. How many veterans could have gotten care if that money was spent on veterans?
I watched news feeds and read information from the following news links before blogging.
http://www.openthebooks.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Veterans_Affairs
https://www.linkedin.com/in/walinda-west-5859417
http://reason.com/blog/2016/08/01/veterans-affairs-giant-rock
http://abcnews.go.com/US/report-va-spent-millions-costly-art-veterans-waited/story?id=40970667
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/07/30/report-veterans-affairs-drops-20-million-on-art-collection/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/27/va-spent-20m-on-art-as-ailing-veterans-languished-report-finds.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/09/07/house-panel-subpoenas-va-over-denver-hospital-artwork.html
http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/07/congress-demands-va-chief-explain-art-purchases-with-subpoena/
http://www.americanarttherapyassociation.org/upload/useofarttherapywithveterans.pdf
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