VA Shuts Down Feminist Movement Aiming to Make Motto Gender Neutral
The VA has been in hot water during the Obama years regarding its mistreatment of vets. But it’s a good thing it stuck to its guns and refused to let this feminist movement change its motto to a more gender-neutral approach.
That’s right, the federal government, in the form of the Department of Veterans Affairs, has finally stood up to a big-mouthed purveyor of feminist political correctness.
Rob Shimshock of The Daily Caller is reporting that a private group sporting the rather impressive nom de guerre of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is none-too happy with a rather nondescript plaque on the façade of the Department of Veterans Affairs. But in true Trump administration-fashion, the easily offended are just going to have to suck it up.
While the VA’s almost 60-year motto is “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,” which was taken from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, it’s a safe bet that someone just had to be offended.
But what has a number of veterans clenching their jaws is that the same whiners are coming from the ranks of veterans themselves.
Cited by reporter Shimshock,
“The Department of Veteran Affairs shot down a request to make its motto gender-neutral, according to a Friday report. The VA responded to the November request to change its motto by saying the current motto accurately reflects ‘the heart of our noble mission.’ But the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America was none too pleased with the refusal.”
“They’re missing the point that women don’t feel comfortable at the VA,” said Allison Jaslow, executive director of the group. “We want to be respected and appreciated as much as male veterans are, and the motto is symbolic of overall challenges.”
Fox News 5 of Washington is reporting that the VA is digging in its heels, noting that the VA is “receiving complaints about ‘sexist’ Lincoln quote” in the official motto.
Stars and Stripes, known to generations of leathernecks, jack tars, coasties and GIs, also reported on the controversy.
“IAVA’s top priority this year is increasing recognition and support for women veterans,” Allison Jaslow, executive director of IAVA, told the news outlet. “A key component of that has been asking for the VA to change its motto, and that’s because cultural barriers are arguably the biggest barriers veterans face. Far too many women veterans feel invisible.”
Oddly enough, I would have thought that a supposed “advocacy group” for veterans would be more interested in vets not dying while waiting for layer upon layer of paper-pushing bureaucrats to do their job as more important than verbiage.
Speaking of bureaucracy, the IAWV official website makes note of Jaslow’s martial prowess, citing, “Allison was a proven leader on the battlefield in Iraq,” as well as “Jaslow is a former Army Captain who served two combat deployments…”
That depends what her little group’s definition of “combat” and “battlefield” is.
Interestingly enough, Jaslow’s alma mater (Latin for “nurturing mother,” obviously a PC trigger), the University of Central Missouri, breathlessly notes that she “led an Army platoon in Iraq at age 22…” and she “spent her Thanksgiving as a platoon leader and accountable officer for the 980th Quartermaster Company in Taji, Iraq.”
Combat accounting? That’s a new one.
A separate Stars and Strips article also noted some quite concerning accusations and acknowledgements surrounding IAVA’s founder, Paul Rieckhoff,
“Earlier this summer, the military blog This Ain’t Hell uncovered a photo of Rieckhoff from a 2004 Amherst College alumni magazine interview, showing him wearing a Bronze Star and a Special Forces unit patch. The site — a frequent critic of IAVA — accused him of being a military fraud and a hypocrite in light of IAVA’s support of Stolen Valor laws. Others detractors followed suit.
“Rieckhoff defended the medal as a paperwork mistake (it’s listed on some of his personnel paperwork, but not others). He asked for clarification from the Army on the status of the award, but received none. He bought his Bronze Star after being told he had earned the medal, but hasn’t worn it since that interview,” Stars and Stripes reported.
Further explanations may not have helped his cause, “He blames the Special Forces patch on bad timing and enthusiasm. He sewed on the patch days after receiving an assignment to the unit, but pulled it off a few weeks later when that assignment changed. The magazine picture appeared in that small window of time.”
Unfortunately, the VA has rightly taken heat in the past for somehow forgetting that the health and well-being of veterans is its primary function in life, especially during the Obama years.
But thankfully, the nation’s aging warriors now understand that a real fighter is in their corner in the person of President Donald J. Trump.
Predictably, with almost no coverage from the establishment media, the president recently signed into law the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act, which enables vets to seek private medical care outside of the official VA system.
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