In today’s market there seems to be a blog for just about everything. Yes there are already blogs for veterans, some are even good. So how do we take The Virginia Veteran and make it the blog of all blogs. I think first we have to start with veterans. Add a touch of differing ideologies and we are heading in the right direction. In the landscape we might title that of veterans, their issues, and their politics, it would seem there are an extremely limited number of voices at the table. Many current conflict veterans are left to essentially look to one of two types of organizations; the iron handed big organizations that consistently look more like pyramid schemes and will lack any representation from current conflict veterans for at least a decade or two (at least on the national level), or the mouthpiece groups that are not really groups but individuals with followers who claim to represent everything about our generation.

In my conversations with multiple veterans at the local level our discussion is not being had. Too often in the states across the nation older local veteran leaders lead and control the local discussion. This can be clearly seen in Virginia as was made clear to me by one of our fellow bloggers that “OEF/OIF veterans’ priorities simply don’t make the short list”—and after a quick glance of the short list—I agree. I would assume this is also the case across the majority of the states. So with that said, I would both encourage other younger veterans to take on a similar cause, and to share your stories and similarities with the Virginia Veteran. In fairness, maybe there is good reason for our issues of import to lack attention. But that is exactly the purpose of such a blog. Opening up issues and ideas for positive criticisms will lead us to positive outcomes—we hope.

So in the end, while maintaining my memberships in organizations that have no elected national representatives that look like me, we have created this blog to potentially add our voices and opinions to the table. There are not really any rules—well maybe a few,

· Most importantly, be respectful.

· Make sure the discourse is relevant and of interest to veterans.

· Have fun and take everything with a grain of salt.

The majority of our writers will hail from Virginia, but I see no issues with an occasional guest writer, or a writer that concentrates on issues/opinions that affect all veterans. Politics are fair game, so is policy, religion I don’t care. We have quite a starting lineup and I don’t think you will consider any of them to have “soft bellies,” or at least they ought not, considering their past performances and future prospects.

In fact, I am quite excited and thankful to our writers that agreed to help me with this undertaking. I also don’t think they know what they got themselves into, so thanks again. I handpicked these individuals because I believe they have both the ability and the intellect to make for an interesting conversation. Also, we will be consistently looking for new writers/opinions so if you have something to add please feel free to submit something to us at vavet@live.com.

Sincerely,

Justin Brown
A Virginia Vet

In my conversations with multiple veterans at the local level our discussion is not being had. Too often in the states across the nation older local veteran leaders lead and control the local discussion. This can be clearly seen in Virginia as was made clear to me by one of our fellow bloggers that “OEF/OIF veterans’ priorities simply don’t make the short list”—and after a quick glance of the short list—I agree. I would assume this is also the case across the majority of the states. So with that said, I would both encourage other younger veterans to take on a similar cause, and to share your stories and similarities with the Virginia Veteran. In fairness, maybe there is good reason for our issues of import to lack attention. But that is exactly the purpose of such a blog. Opening up issues and ideas for positive criticisms will lead us to positive outcomes—we hope.

So in the end, while maintaining my memberships in organizations that have no elected national representatives that look like me, we have created this blog to potentially add our voices and opinions to the table. There are not really any rules—well maybe a few,

· Most importantly, be respectful.

· Make sure the discourse is relevant and of interest to veterans.

· Have fun and take everything with a grain of salt.

The majority of our writers will hail from Virginia, but I see no issues with an occasional guest writer, or a writer that concentrates on issues/opinions that affect all veterans. Politics are fair game, so is policy, religion I don’t care. We have quite a starting lineup and I don’t think you will consider any of them to have “soft bellies,” or at least they ought not, considering their past performances and future prospects.

In fact, I am quite excited and thankful to our writers that agreed to help me with this undertaking. I also don’t think they know what they got themselves into, so thanks again. I handpicked these individuals because I believe they have both the ability and the intellect to make for an interesting conversation. Also, we will be consistently looking for new writers/opinions so if you have something to add please feel free to submit something to us at vavet@live.com.

Sincerely,

Justin Brown
A Virginia Vet

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