Access to care
Re “Survey: Hampton VA has severe staffing shortages” (A1, Aug. 16): Much attention is being given to staffing shortages at the VA, especially from Democratic lawmakers. We need VAs to be properly staffed, but the real heart of the issue veterans face is access to timely, quality care.
As a retired Navy veteran who works with a grassroots veterans’ organization here in Virginia, I hear from veterans every day who struggle with accessing care. Their stories are frustratingly similar: long waits, limited availability and the challenge of living too far from the nearest VA facility.
The solution isn’t purely in staffing; it’s in giving veterans options.
Veterans deserve to receive care when they need it — whether that care comes from the VA or from a provider in their own community. No one who’s served this country should be forced to wait months for an appointment or travel hours to receive care.
That’s why I believe the Veterans’ ACCESS Act, now before Congress, is such an important step forward. By expanding opportunities for veterans to seek care outside of the VA, it brings flexibility and dignity to a system that too often leaves veterans behind.
At the same time, this doesn’t mean abandoning the VA. The VA is essential for treating combat-related conditions.
Access to care isn’t optional — it’s a promise this nation must keep. The Veterans’ ACCESS Act is one way to ensure that promise is finally honored.
Ron Aksel, Concerned Veterans For America, Virginia Beach
Decency
For more than a 100 years the United States has been at the apex of the nations of the world. We are endowed with natural resources that most countries can only dream of. To our credit, we have been generous with this bounty, feeding millions in countries less fortunate than ourselves. We have opened the doors of our universities and research facilities to international scholars and they have flocked here to learn and to take that knowledge back to their home countries. We have developed a social safety net for our own citizens in the form of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP.
All of these things are now under attack by the Trump administration as being either “woke” or too expensive. Universities are under siege, student visas have been canceled, scientists have been fired and USAID has been shut down, causing thousands to starve. The Voice of America has been silenced and funding for NPR and PBS has been cut off. Even Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, once thought to be secure, are threatened.
This should not be a money issue. This is a caring issue, it is an issue that illustrates the essential decency and humanity of our society. We cannot lose this. We cannot allow the billionaires that are now in charge to destroy the very fabric of our nation.
Dr. Arthur H. Jennette, Williamsburg
Authoritarian
On another day of authoritarian watch, President Donald Trump threatened ABC and NBC suggesting he would support the Federal Communications Commission taking away their broadcasting licenses because he doesn’t like their negative coverage of him. I suggest that all media need to start increasing their critical coverage of the authoritarian moves by this administration.
The time to stop the authoritarian transformation of the U.S. is now before it gets much worse. Intimidation of the press is a common practice of authoritarians. He has also issued an executive order directing the Department of Justice to prosecute flag burning, and an order that would cut funding to jurisdictions across the country that have cashless bail policies. There are indications that the next target for authoritarian occupation is the city of Chicago. Experts fear they may use occupation in blue cities during the 2026 midterm elections to intimidate minority voters.
Christina Anne Knight, Newport News
