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This morning I received an email thanking me for participating in the process that eventually will turn Webb’s G I Bill into law. Over the last few years, there has been a lot of bad news for military personnel and veterans coming out of Washington DC (as well as bad news for everyone else but the wealthy) and I am very happy that this bill has gotten through Congress and apparently will be signed into law. Of course, we all know that it’s only being approved because it’s included in a military appropriations bill that the White House needs, and that otherwise Bush and McBush would have quashed it, as they have lobbied against it. Kudos to Jim Webb and to all the veterans organizations that worked so hard for this bill.

This morning’s email from VoteVets:

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

Yesterday, I represented VoteVets.org at a press conference with leaders in the Senate, before the body passed the bipartisan GI Bill for the 21st Century. It was an honor to be there, but I wasn’t just representing my fellow veterans, I was representing each and every one of you.

30,000 petition signatures. Tens of thousands of letters to Capitol Hill. Thousands and thousands of letters to the editor. Donations that allowed us to air national TV ads on the bill. That’s what you did to help pass this bill, in the name of VoteVets.org, and that’s why I was invited to stand with Senators as the bill was brought up for consideration.

More importantly, your work made passage of the bill a reality.

Now, the bill will go to the President’s desk, and he has signaled he will sign it. It wasn’t so long ago that the President had threatened to veto the legislation, with Senators like John McCain backing him up on that decision. The President’s reversal can also be attributed to just how much you worked to pass this bill. The President and those in his party know that there could be nothing more unpopular than vetoing increased education benefits for those who serve in war, in a time of war.

That’s why I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. What you have done is make the American dream possible for so many of us. Many of us who couldn’t afford college will now be able to. We’ll go on to become doctors and lawyers and teachers, and have the chance to raise families in the American middle class. It was a promise made to us by Franklin Roosevelt, and your work has restored that promise.

You are truly patriots, in every sense of the word.

Sincerely,

Brian McGough

Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran

VoteVets.org