Cancer

Dad,

I wanted to clarify my position on Republicans being worse on veterans issues than Democrats, the deeper issue being helping you to understand how I arrive at the conclusions that I do.

Lindsay Cormack, an assistant professor of political science at Stevens University, wrote a book called Congress and U.S. Veterans: From the G.I. Bill to the VA Crisis. One of the topics she researched for the book was which party is better on veterans issues, Republicans or Democrats? She examined thousands of email newsletters that various members of Congress sent to their constituents to gauge how often each party talks about veterans issues. She also examined Congressional records to determine which party authors the most legislation regarding veterans.

Before answering the question, Cormack discovered that veterans related legislation originates from three subsets of congressional members: members of the Veterans Affairs committees, members with a large proportion of veterans among their constituents, and the Democratic party at large. Drawing my own conclusion here, I assume that if the Republican party was the veterans party, as many people believe, the Democrats would not occupy the last category in this list.

The reason why Republicans have garnered the pro-veteran reputation they have relates to Cormack’s observation that Congress is occupied by two different kinds of legislators. One kind, the workhorse, drafts legislation, navigates compromises, and isn’t afraid to get elbow deep in messy, complicated issues. On veterans issues, the Democrats are the workhorses. The Republicans, on the other hand, are the “show ponies that care more about pumping out media sound bites or trying to get the next viral video on Youtube.” This observation is supported by Cormack’s discovery that Republicans talk about veterans issues about two thirds more often in their newsletters than Democrats do, but Republicans author very little, if any, of the legislation that affects veterans.

If the Republicans can’t be bothered to write legislation to help veterans, do they support the bills that are written? No. To name one example from the 117th Congress (2022), 174 Republicans, or 82 percent of House Republicans, voted against a bill aimed at helping veterans who were sick from their exposure to burn pits and other toxins. Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks justified her party’s position by saying that the bill was too expensive and that “We are not doing right by our veterans by being fiscally irresponsible in their name.” Nancy Pelosi asked if the Republicans thought that veterans were inclined to sacrifice their health for the sake of the national budget, and reminded them that they passed a tax cut in 2017 for America’s wealthiest people. (Much has been written about the harm the country endures every time the Republicans do this. I won’t discuss that here.) Pelosi summed up the Republican position by saying, “Tax cuts for the rich, Cancer for our veterans”

This isn’t a recent phenomenon, either. During the Obama administration, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave out 154 D and F grades to members of Congress for their lack of support for veterans. Only 12 of those went to Democrats.

It is easy, and wise, for Republicans in this day and age to appear pro veteran. Our Congressman sent me an email proclaiming his pride in being able to honor Vietnam veterans with commemorative pins and thanking them in person for their service. But to the best of my recollection, he has voted against every piece of veterans legislation that has appeared before Congress during his tenure. Our Senators have done the same. None of them talk about the veterans legislation they oppose in their newsletters, while they are quite vocal about their opposition to the VA closures here, using them to hide their voting records on veterans issues by painting Joe Biden as disconnected from the needs of veterans. In the meantime, Biden has signed four bills into law addressing discrimination in VA disability claims for minorities and the high mortality rate of pregnant veterans, among other things. It wouldn’t surprise me if our Congressman opposed all of it. He had commemorative pins to order. By the way, I am not a particularly big fan of Biden. I do not support the VA closures and think his administration is boneheaded for doing it. The Democrats are the lesser of two evils in the sense that when they try, they don’t always get it right, and they misunderstand a lot. One of my high school bullies made fun of me relentlessly for a presentation I gave in a class and turned most of my classmates against me. He didn’t have the guts to do a presentation himself. One reason that I find the Republicans so repugnant is that they remind me of that guy. They don’t try, and undermine the efforts of the people who do.

I imagine you wonder if the “evil Dems” have turned me into a liberal snowflake. My opposition to the Republican party isn’t because I am a liberal, or a Democrat. I try to be guided by facts, and the facts suggest that the Republican party doesn’t deserve my support because they don’t support me.

Your Son#Disability #Depression #Suicide #MentalHealth #PTSD #Trauma

Most people try to escape anxiety… but what if it’s actually trying to teach you something?

Your mind might be sending a signal—maybe you’re unprepared, in the wrong environment, or too focused on what others think.

Instead of pushing it away, pause and listen.

Anxiety can guide growth—if you let it. 💭💡

🎥 Watch the full video to learn more about how to do this by clicking on one of the links below:

www.instagram.com/thomas_of_copenhagen

www.tiktok.com/@thomas_of_copenhagen

~ Thanks to all. Thanks for all. ~

#MentalHealth #MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #BipolarDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Addiction #dissociativedisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #ADHD #Fibromyalgia #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #PTSD #Cancer #RareDisease #Disability #Autism #Diabetes #EatingDisorders #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #Suicide #MightyTogether

It’s completely natural and deeply human to want love and connection. But the real growth comes when you learn to honor that need without abandoning yourself to meet it. If you find yourself constantly proving your worth, chasing validation, or shrinking just to keep someone close, pause and ask: Is this love costing me my peace?

Instead, shift the focus inward. Practice showing yourself the love you’re seeking. Strengthen your boundaries. Build your self-worth from the inside out. That way, when love arrives, it won’t be something you beg for—it’ll be something you recognize as aligned.

You deserve relationships where you’re celebrated, not tolerated. Start by treating yourself that way first.

Who or what do you need to let go of to make room for that kind of love?

~ Thanks to all. Thanks for all. ~

#MentalHealth #MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #BipolarDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Addiction #dissociativedisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #ADHD #Fibromyalgia #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #PTSD #Cancer #RareDisease #Disability #Autism #Diabetes #EatingDisorders #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #Suicide #MightyTogether

We’ve all heard it on airplanes: “Put your own mask on before helping others.”
But how often do we actually apply that to our everyday lives?

Say no when you need to. Rest when you're tired. Heal yourself before you try to save the world.

🎥 Watch the full video to learn more about how to do this by clicking on one of the links below:

www.instagram.com/thomas_of_copenhagen

www.tiktok.com/@thomas_of_copenhagen

~ Thanks to all. Thanks for all. ~

#MentalHealth #MentalHealth #Depression #Anxiety #BipolarDisorder #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Addiction #dissociativedisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #ADHD #Fibromyalgia #EhlersDanlosSyndrome #PTSD #Cancer #RareDisease #Disability #Autism #Diabetes #EatingDisorders #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #Suicide #MightyTogether

In September of 2023, my brother died of complications from melanoma. The cancer had advanced to stage four by the time he was diagnosed, including three lesions in his brain and intrusions into his spine that fractured two of his vertebrae. At that point, he couldn’t lift more than twenty pounds without risking paralysis. The insurance he had through his employer was terminated three months after his diagnosis. It was contingent on his being able to work and he could not. He then obtained insurance through the state at fifteen hundred a month. He would have received sixteen hundred a month in SSDI if he had lived long enough to start receiving benefits.

My brother didn’t fear dying. He feared surviving if he would be bankrupt from medical debt. Our mother worked with a woman who died of cancer and her family was saddled with nineteen thousand dollars in bills that the insurance company would not cover. If my brother had lived, he would have had to spend ninety percent of his disability compensation on insurance; his fear of massive medical debt seemed to be well founded, given our mother’s co-worker’s example and the fact that the one hundred dollars left over after paying his insurance premium wouldn’t have gone as far as it used to regarding his other bills.

Actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik returned to acting when she became pregnant, because the Screen Actors Guild insurance was excellent, in her opinion. It was better than the coverage available to her when she worked in academia at any rate. On the other hand, when actress and writer Jennifer Sky developed tumors in her liver, she was dropped from that same insurance because she was too sick to work the requisite number of hours. All of this goes back to one of the reasons Barack Obama wanted to reform health care. He said that our system worked well when a person was healthy, such as Mayim Bialik through her pregnancy. The system fails when the person is seriously ill. Jennifer Sky with her failing liver, or my brother, with three brain lesions and counting, two fractured vertebrae and so many other tumors his PET scan was lit up like a Christmas tree.

A job doesn’t provide the best healthcare when your coverage evaporates when you need it the most. And please spare me any discussion about early detection and “responsibility” and the rest of that drivel. My mother’s insurance didn’t cover yearly physicals because the insurance company calculated that it was cheaper to cover the treatment for the relative few who would develop cancer then pay for everyone to get screened. My brother, despite Obama's best efforts, couldn’t afford coverage under the ACA during periods when he worked for employers that didn’t offer insurance benefits. I remember being greatly amused when officials and politicians would talk about coverage people can afford, as if anybody in government has any clue about that at all. My brother’s commuting costs were substantially greater than average for this state, because his job required him to travel to distant job sites. Those costs were not reimbursed by his employer, and he had the additional burden of funding a more robust and expensive maintenance schedule for his vehicle. Those expenses were also not reimbursed. He couldn’t have managed that and his other expenses if insurance premiums had consumed half of his salary.

You can also spare me any bullshit about how kicking undocumented immigrants off of Medicaid would have helped my brother. My state offers no services to undocumented people; you can’t cut a service that doesn’t exist. The states that do offer services to undocumented immigrants pay for those services out of state funds, as federal law prohibits the use of federal funds to pay Medicaid costs for undocumented people. Furthermore, most of the states that offer such services pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal aid. (Mostly blue states.) If the cuts to Medicaid are uniform, people in red states will have services cut to greater extremes, because federal money makes up a larger share of the money available for Medicaid payments. Your cuts would have hurt him.

Every Christmas, my brother participated in a program that bought gifts for underprivileged children. He always asked that if his assigned child had siblings, that he be assigned the siblings as well. He would buy gifts for all of them so no one felt left out. This is the character of a man whose life you value so little, while aiding and abetting a man who spent sixty million dollars on a birthday parade for himself. In light of the cuts you say are necessary, I do not know how your government summons the strength to go on, making do with so little. #Depression #Suicide #MentalHealth #Trauma #PTSD #Disability #Cancer #Melanoma