To Mr. Joel McNally
Concerning your article about Senator McCain and his opposition to Senator Obama's wanting to revamp the current GI Bill and more or less giving our veterans something similar to the original GI Bill where our veterans will receive a small stipend in order to be able to attend school.
Personally, I believe that Senator McCain has totally forgotten that he is a graduate of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis which means that he received a totally free college educations at tax payers expense. As a veteran I do not have any ill feelings about those very select few that are able to attend our US Military academy's however; Senator McCain must keep in mind that that the entire voting veteran population is approximately 10% of the entire voting demographics of this nation and that he too is a veteran who took full advantage of this benefit after he left the US Navy at the end of Vietnam War.
On the other hand as a veteran and member in good standing with a very proud and non - partisan organization called "League of United Latin American Citizens" (LULAC) I am not in favor of either of the candidates educational benefit plans for our veterans. What I think all of America should advocate for as a federal benefit for our current wave of veterans is each state should grant its veterans FREE TUITION at state sponsored universities and technical schools. My reasoning for this is because all too often I hear horror stories from my fellow veterans that ran into brick walls in obtaining their alleged veterans educational benefits. And that all veteran benefit councilors at these universities be converted from state employees to federal employees so that the universities that they are hired at can no longer protect these individuals who build themselves an ivory tower that is shielded by the university itself.
I am very keenly aware that Connecticut and Wisconsin already grant it veterans this benefit.
however; throughout the there are other states that make their veterans pay for their individual tuition making them go very deep into debt while their peer counter parts will be four years ahead in their earning while many veterans will be struggling to make ends meet and in many cases dropping out of school because they cannot meet their financial obligations. If these young men and women are willing to gamble their lives so that they can get an education so that they don't have to live in poverty then why not let them have a benefit that will help them and not give them extra hurdles and hoops to jump through and in the end be denied a benefit that was promised to them if they met the requirements in order to be eligible for these alleged benefits.
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So if you are a person that thinks
or believes our veterans deserve the opportunity to attend a college then write to your congressman or woman and express that our veterans need to be provided a federal free tuition benefit for our veterans and that it is long over due.
Ed Lopez
A useless civilian
