The Republican Party is the party of hypocrites. We have seen them capitulate to their enemy, Donald Trump. However, the most upsetting fact is that although they claim to support our military, they only support them on the battlefield; not when they come home. Republicans have removed funding from the Pentagon’s budget which aids veterans and their families and given it to the brass to build new ‘toys’ which will gather dust in warehouses across the nation.

Republicans on the House Rules Committee rejected the ‘Veterans Equal Access’ amendment this week. This would have allowed doctors at VA hospitals to discuss the use of medical marijuana to treat PTSD in any of the 29 states where it is now legal. Cannabis has been proven effective in the treatment of several mental and physical disorders, including PTSD.

Republicans commit many ludicrous mistakes but this is a new low even for them. Removing the right of doctors treating men and women who can be considered disabled to ‘discuss’ the possibility of effective treatment is unconscionable.

I am tired of hundreds of years of backwards puritanical decisions preventing our nation from moving forward. No other nation in the developed world resists positive change; change which would improve the lives of its citizens.

Our military men and women do not choose to go to war. They are forced to defend our government in nations whose names were known by very few until we invaded them. They praise them when in battle, but choose to forget about them when the return home damaged by the evils of warfare.

Old, white men must be voted out of office and replaced with forward thinking young men and women who reject the failed policies and ideas of the past. In my America there is no room for racism, bigotry, misogyny, or policies which protect special interests including the Christian religious right lobby.

It’s past time for America to grow up.

Please re-post; thank you.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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