Dick, I'm not a member of any of the service organizations but I can sure email our three members of Congress. Wouldn't be the first time they've heard from me. I've always thought that emails were easier for any of these three folks to ignore so I might do both email and phone message. As for tying up a staff member with a phone call - what the hell are they there for if not to take live input from constituents?

Steve,

That was just a cautionary note I had heard a few times on the web.  By any means, email or phone, we just need to get the word to these people in Congress who seem to be in a daze.  Thanks for your action on this on the part of our fellow veterans. 

Dick

Your comments to our congressional representatives do not have to be lengthy.  Here is a copy of the message I sent to Larsen, Murray and Cantwell:

I am an 81 year old Army veteran, former Major with Vietnam service from 1968 to 1968.  I urge you to do all you can to preserve and protect the Veterans Administration and the benefits my fellow war veterans have earned.

Donald Trump, a convicted felon, is now the head of a criminal enterprise in the guise of the Republican Party.  There is no reason to make common cause with this criminal element.  I urge you to fight their plans to downgrade or even do away with the Veterans Administration, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security upon which veterans depend for their very survival.

Do not give an inch.  These liars and thieves must be stopped in their tracks.

Thank you for this alert. I am calling and writing to our representatives regularly at this time and will be including messages about  supporting our veterans. I was appalledd as I have been so often recently, by the treatment President Zalensky received from the man in the Oval Office whose behavior reminds me of a cross between Mussolini and Al Capone. Having many veterans in my family's history - from ancestors who fought to free us from a British monarchy in the American Revolutionary War to my Father and uncles in WWII and grandfather in the Border Wars and WWI. Although they are all gone now, I believe they would be horrified to see what is happening to our democracy. The total disregard of this administration for our Constitution and laws of this land is atrocious. Your reference to a soldier's saying, " I got your six" came to mind when I watched this man in our White House demean a brave,  war-torn, distressed soldier and representative of Ukraine, a small, essential democratic nation bounding a huge country that is once again the foe of democracy, Russia. President Zelensky, fighting a David and Goliath war originally supported by our Country was berated by our TV host/ President who "just wants to make a deal." Earlier in the interview President Zelensky had shown our "leader of the free world" horrible pictures of the people that have been tortured by the Russians who are not honoring the Geneva Conventios in the treatment of prisoners nor acts of war against civilians. He also mentioned that Putin has stolen 20, 000 Ukrainian children and he was sparing Trump the pain of looking at pictures of what they've done to their Ukrainian children. And this arrogant, overly comfortable, overly rich stuffed cockroach, had the nerve to change the subject to talk about how grateful this man should be! President Zelensky very patiently gave a history of what's happened to their country and the oaths that dictator Putin had broken in the past. He was interrupted by another clown, JD Vance, sitting snug and smug in his safe, plush, chair sucking up our tax dollars while taking apart the dignity and security of our country. I also noticed that this humiliating spectacle of deserting and upbraiding a leader of a democracy, our ally, was very public, but the conversation between dictator Putin, (an enemy to everything we hold dear in the United States) and our president -who acts extralegally and is working his way to the title of dictator, tyrant, king, or emperor I'm not sure which he will crown himself with- his conversations have been held privately, over the phone, without any public witnesses, and without the inclusion of the president of Ukraine! It was a horrendous spectacle! I cannot imagine how someone who has suffered the horrors of war fighting for our Country and our Constitution could endure watching this. He is dismantling what we have loved most and held most dear about our country, our Constitution and our freedoms. If it were not really happening, the things he has done would be almost funny, like calling the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America! It seems like something that would be fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch.

I will continue to write and call our Representatives but I believe we had better do more if we would like to save what's left of our country. Below are links to the entire, shameful interchange if you can stomach it and also a link to his "accomplishments" of last week. 

Full interview of President Zalensky and Trump

19 Things Trump did last week

Carol,

Thanks for your well-condsidered and well-written comment.  And thank you for taking up the task of writing to our members of Congress, especially on behalf of our veterans. 

Just to close the loop on the Gulf of Mexico brouhaha, might I note that our Ignoramous-in-Chief is blissbully unaware that naming the gulf the Gulf of America only pushes his idiotic rationale for changing the name down the road.  Now Trump has named the gulf after an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci.