Open letter to Representative Ruben Gallego of Arizona regarding stripping individuals of VA entitlements following January 6th
By: Judd Ike Grey
Tags: Politics, January 6 2021, Veterans

Open letter to Representative Ruben Gallego of Arizona regarding stripping individuals of VA entitlements following January 6th Judd Ike Grey Mar 22·7 min read

Photo: Tyler Merbler (https://www.flickr.com/photos/37527185@N05/50812356151/)

Dear Representative Ruben Gallego,

I wholeheartedly agree with your anger and support efforts to prosecute those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. I am just as disgusted as you are about the reported 20% of those that were present on January 6th that were either active duty or military veterans. I want these people held accountable, just like you do. However, in your letters to the VA, Defense Secretary, and the Attorney General, you suggested we empower the VA to strip benefits from those responsible without due process. This would be an insane miscarriage of justice and is so incredibly short-sighted, reactionary, and irresponsible. As a legislator, it is your job to be a pro-active thinker, not a reactionary.

If you believe that healthcare and education are basic rights, then you should not be looking at ways to strip individuals of these entitlements unless they are first given due process and are convicted of a crime. Let me be clear: Healthcare and education are human rights.

Corrective Action

As a Marine I believe you are familiar with the term. When you decide to make a judgement and punish an individual, you must first include what corrective actions are to be taken. If you strip these individuals of important entitlements, such as healthcare and education benefits, where is the corrective action?

What we witnessed on January 6th was not merely an insurrection. I think Sam Harris put it perfectly: “What occurred… that was a pizzagate insurrection. People visibly and audibly deranged by mis-information.” How does removing entitlements help undo the brainwashing these individuals are clearly under? How does it restore peace? If you take away someone’s right to healthcare or education, you’ve not convinced them of the errors of their ways: you’ve emboldened them. You’ve made them even more outraged. You’ve only fueled the vast conspiratorial threads connecting in their brains, seeing every black helicopter as an indicator that the feds are out to get them, to punish them, to attack them. Do you see how quickly this line of thinking spins out of control for those who prescribe themselves to these vast, Q-Anon conspiracies?

Many of us have been concerned for a long time with the increasing far-spectrum extremists in the military and veteran populations. Many of us have been concerned with how white supremacists in the military and veteran spheres are out of control. What corrective action are you taking as a leader?

You are a legislator. You should be advocating for legislation to address the rampant political extremist groups within our military. You should be advocating for increases to veteran entitlements, to help PREVENT another January 6th. Because it’s very clear to many of us that many of the people on the 6th were just the tip of the iceberg. They’re likely having mental health issues. Some of them have trauma. They have families, too. Their families are as much beneficiaries as the individual is. We must consider what actions we take and how it will affect dependents.

As a leader you should be pro-active, not reactive. You should look for ways to strengthen our VA, to improve the care it provides, and to improve the benefits. That is the long-term corrective action this country needs. We need to tackle the problems within-and-without the military, and you are in a position to do so.

Slippery Slopes

You cite 38 U.S. Code § 6104. I agree with you that certain veterans or active duty servicemembers convicted of a crime under this area of the U.S. Code should be risking their benefits. But I want to say this: encouraging the unelected, appointed, Secretary of Veterans Affairs and others to “use [their] discretion” is incredibly short-sighted and the definition of a slippery slope.

May I remind you again that you are a legislator. I want you to create laws to help address the systemic problems that lead to January 6th, not empower a political appointee to “use their discretion.”

We should prosecute individuals and then act accordingly. But in your letters you want to take it a step further and “immediately withdraw these veterans’ benefits” without first having a conviction. So which is it? Do you want to only withdraw these benefits if they’re convicted, or do you want the Secretary of the VA, a political appointee, to do this immediately, without a conviction?

Do you see the problem here? “Satisfactory” evidence today sounds great now, but what about in a few years? I won’t even touch your vague mentions of a list of individuals, not convicted of a crime, being utilized by the Secretary of the VA to meet your ends — hopefully when you read it, put in this plain language, you can see why it may be a problem.

In a few years time, when the Democrats may not be in the majority, and when there may be an even worse threat in the White House than Donald J. Trump, what happens if a far-right administration in the future uses this watershed moment as precipice to strip future veterans of their benefits? You need to think about the long-term repercussions of a precedent that would result form the Secretary of the VA acting as you have urged. There currently exists a legal framework for removing veterans’ benefits and entitlements. If you seek to strengthen that legal framework, I applaud you. However, if you seek to merely have political appointees circumvent a criminal conviction and withdraw benefits immediately, we have a slippery slope indeed.

Collateral Damages

Lastly, I wish for you to consider the following statement about myself: If not for my educational benefits and the opportunities it provided me, I would be a very different person today. 10 years ago I was not the same person I am today. As scary as it is to publicly admit, I know that 10 years ago I probably had an uncomfortable amount in common with the people that stormed the capitol on January 6th. However, what changed for me was my GI Bill. I got out of that hell hole because I went out and learned a thing or two. I expanded my world views. I changed, radically, over the past 10 years, because my views were challenged, because I learned I was wrong about just about everything, and because people took chances on me. I went from a broken life to a respected, graduate-educated, informed, and capable person. I now work in Higher Education. The Post-9/11 GI Bill quite literally saved my life. I don’t think I’d be here today if not for my education benefits that I earned.

The students I work with now have similar experiences, even if some of them do not have the same problems I did. Even more, as you are likely aware, a lot of dependents utilize their parents education benefits.

So who are you really punishing by removing education and healthcare benefits? It is not just the servicemember or veteran, but the person they have the potential to be, and the future for their dependents.

You’d be denying the son or daughter of a veteran the Post-9/11 GI Bill because of the actions of their parent. You’d be denying the family who uses Tricare to take care of their minds and bodies. You’d be denying the veteran who, flawed as they are, may one day go to the VA and schedule a mental health appointment. You have to give these people the chance to better themselves with their VA entitlements.

There are hundreds of other scenarios we could list here. Think of all the other lives, not just those responsible on January 6th, that would be radically altered if you remove these benefits, especially without a criminal conviction.