Veterans Affairs Closes Its Doors

Have you ever heard of a governmental organization closing its doors? Not answering its phones? That is exactly  what I observed this summer with the Philadelphia VA. In the spring I had received a letter from the VA informing of their intentions of recruiting me.

Unfortunately, this all amounted to nothing and when I called the VA (over and over again) the number was never receiving phone calls. They apparently set up a line and let it always go to voice mail. When I called the facilities operator I was informed that they were waiting for congressional funding to be approved. But my question is how can this happen? How can a government organization just not answer their phone? That phone was paid for by tax dollars. It’s not a choice whether you answer it or not. The mailbox, into my second month of trying to get in contact with the Philadelphia office, was full. I tried to email the director but I received no response. I found the part of the letter about how their employees come only second to the veterans they serve as laughable. Considering the  VA has been responsible for such foibles as contaminating veterans with HIV from unclean catheters and losing precious veteran’s social security data to hackers I find it hard to believe that Veterans ever come first.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/05/va_laptop.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-30/us/va.hospital.hiv_1_hepatitis-hiv-dental?_s=PM:US

http://www.bluestemprairie.com/a_bluestem_prairie/images/2008/06/30/veterans_affairs_ribbons_health_2.jpg