{"id":19926,"date":"2011-05-11T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=19926"},"modified":"2012-11-19T16:35:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-19T22:35:30","slug":"one-day-at-the-veterans-affairs-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=19926","title":{"rendered":"One Day At The Veterans Affairs Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Scene: Sergeant BUCK SLAUGHTER,a 29 year old veteran of two tours overseas in the War on Terror, is \u00a0just home from his tour in Afghanistan. \u00a0Hestops by the Veterans Affairs office. \u00a0Looking worried he steps up to the desk. \u00a0ANASTASIA BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER \u00a0is sitting at the desk.<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: Hello.<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Take a number.<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: I’m the only one here.<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Then you shouldn’t have to wait long.<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: \u00a0Um, OK. \u00a0(Takes a number).<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: (Waits, typing passive-aggressively for about 40 seconds. \u00a0Looks up at “Next Number” sign). \u00a0“Number 1”.<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: \u00a0That’s me.<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: \u00a0(Grimaces). How can I help you?<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: \u00a0Well, I’m just back from Afghanistan. \u00a0I just wanna know what I can do about education benefits, and also VA benefits for the shrapnel I got.<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: \u00a0(Hands SLAUGHTER a couple packets of information). \u00a0Anything else?<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: \u00a0Well, yeah. \u00a0I’ve never been all that into politics, but I’m hearing that they’re going to cut funding for Veterans.<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Oh, yes. \u00a0Republicans are trying to cut everything. <\/em>Grandma, kids, veterans, even kittens.<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: OK, well, what can we do?<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: You need to call your state representative and demand that they put the following language into the budget… (goes on her computer<\/a>): \u00a0”<\/p>\n

“Add specific language in The Ominous [sic] Bill…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SLAUGHTER: “Ominous” bill?<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Whatever. \u00a0Let me continue:<\/p>\n

“…UES1047-2 on both sides (House and Senate) on page R19 when addressing any overall general cuts and on pages R20 and R21 at the opening of both Military and Veterans Affairs budgets.”<\/p>\n

” To read:”<\/p>\n

“In respect to the fact we are a nation at war at the Departments of Military and Veterans Affairs are paramount in those operations providing manpower…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SLAUGHTER: So far so good!<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: (continues)<\/p>\n

…support programs and services, the following special consideration is hereby adopted for the Biennium ending 2013: The Department of Military Affairs and the Department of Veterans Affairs are to be held harmless to any budget cuts…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SLAUGHTER: Excellent! \u00a0They’ll hold all veterans benefits harmless! \u00a0Right?<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: (continues)<\/p>\n

…in salary, staff, FTE, personnel, equipment, programs and or services including any reductions of deputy commissioners, or the combining of commissioners<\/strong> of these two agencies.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SLAUGHTER: Um – what’s that?<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: We’re going to make sure nothing harms any of the program administrators or management!<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: And what about the actual veterans?<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: \u00a0The what?<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: US! \u00a0The veterans!<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Oh, yeah…<\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: US: \u00a0I mean, “holding harmless” the bureaucrats and administrators is like sending Military Police on patrol.<\/p>\n

BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Don’t care. \u00a0Number two!<\/em><\/p>\n

SLAUGHTER: There is no \u00a0number two.<\/p>\n

(And scene).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Scene: Sergeant BUCK SLAUGHTER,a 29 year old veteran of two tours overseas in the War on Terror, is \u00a0just home from his tour in Afghanistan. \u00a0Hestops by the Veterans Affairs office. \u00a0Looking worried he steps up to the desk. \u00a0ANASTASIA BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER \u00a0is sitting at the desk. SLAUGHTER: Hello. BECKETT-SCHLUMBERGER: Take a number. SLAUGHTER: I’m the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,69],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-19926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mn-legislature","category-socialism","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19926"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19930,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19926\/revisions\/19930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}