The Best Way to Honor Veterans’ Sacrifice is by Ending War, not Perpetuating it
Nearly 30,000 veterans live in New Jersey’s Fifth Congressional District. I am one of them, having served in the navy between 2004 and 2008 on the USS Cardinal out of Bahrain, the USS Pelican out of Texas, and the USS Cowpens out of Japan. Honoring the sacrifice that veterans have made for our country means more than symbolic gestures. It means ensuring that veterans and their families are taken care of, and it means ending perpetual conflicts that the United States has been engaged in for decades.
The COVID-19 crisis has hit New Jersey and NJ-5 in particular hard. Deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care centers make up half of the deaths in the state. Chronically underfunded and underserved veterans’ homes have seen some of the worst of this--with particularly tragic outcomes at the Paramus Veterans Memorial Home. Although the crisis in veterans’ homes has been especially dire at this moment, the neglect of our veterans and their long-term care was present before this crisis. There has been an urgent need to do more for veterans for years, and stepping in when veterans are already dying is too late.
I hear my Representative, Josh Gottheimer, talk about honoring the veterans who have died and calling for an investigation of what happened in Paramus, but I know that we need to go beyond these steps to truly care for and honor veterans. We need universal healthcare, mental healthcare, and we need to end what we veterans call the “forever wars.”
Our nation has been engaged in perpetual conflict for decades, and my Representative has failed veterans by voting to allow conflicts to continue abroad. While House Democrats were advocating for a War Powers Resolution to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, Rep. Gottheimer joined with Republicans to stymie these efforts in the fight against his own party. And in January of this year, Rep. Gottheimer was one of just eight Democrats to vote against the Iran War Powers Resolution, thereby sanctioning Trump’s power to make war without the consent of Congress. Siding with Trump’s decision to incite reckless acts of war does not honor the sacrifice of veterans, but rather needlessly endangers countless lives and funds further military conflict over investments here at home that we desperately need.
In this moment where so many NJ-5 residents are seeing the horrific extent of neglect for veterans, voters cannot reelect a Representative who sides with the GOP on votes that will ultimately prove destructive for veterans. Instead, we need a leader who is committed to working on behalf of veterans and their families. NJ-5 should elect Dr. Arati Kreibich, a proud Democrat, scientist, and sister of a veteran, whom I admire for her commitment to ending forever wars and fighting for universal healthcare. The best way to honor the sacrifice of veterans who have fought for us is to elect a Representative who will fight for them.
Sincerely,
Terry Fitzgibbons
Fair Lawn, NJ
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