Grand Rapids Home for Veterans cuts off internet access to Dorm unit.

Welcome to the 21st Century where the internet is paid for by extra taxes on your phone bill, for public schools, libraries and such places, yet the Veterans home still will not get a proper internet system installed because the administration thinks it must monitor everything the veterans do or say or write on the internet - in other words, BIG BROTHER.

One of the past members helped get a big donation of wireless gear so that the dorm unit on Rankin 2 and 3, could at least have access to the internet. 4 wireless routers were installed on each floor.  And a member veteran must have a registered log on and password with the activities staff (in this case it would be Diana Knoll), to be able to access it..

Well for the last 2 months, only 2 out of the 8 routers have been turned on, leaving most of the people on Rankin, unable to connect to the internet.

At one time, an outside friends of veterans group was going to raise money to pay the cost (about 300,000 dollars) to have comcast go in and rewire the entire facility, and to raise money to pay for the monthly operating cost of giving internet to every bed in the facility. But the administration refused the offer.

Now even our dormitory veterans have little if any access to the internet. And those who do, and who can use it, do so regularly and in many cases, to keep in contact with distant family matters, as the internet makes it easier to do so.

Now that too, has been taken away from them. What is next?

J2S: mandating 2 to 3 double shifts per week at Vets home, low quality care is the result.

Recently James Dunn, chief of staff for the state's Department of Veterans Affairs, stated to the Michigan legislature that the veterans home is providing excellent care for the veterans. I called him a liar. 

Let me introduce you to an old friend of mine. For privacy reasons I will not use his real name, although I was given permission to do so.  I met Dave back around 1989 when he was the 3rd shift gas station attendant at the Shell station on the corner of 28th and Breton. I used to stop in there every night after work and hang out with him for about an hour, getting my munchies for the next day and of course getting gas for the car.

Years go by and I lost track of him only to find him working at the veterans home as a health care provider. And hes been there for a number of years working not as a state worker, but as a J2S worker.

Well Dave has been training people for 2 years and in that time not one J2S supervisor has asked him how his training was going, or what he though of the people he was teaching.  

I also found out that Dave refused to sign the new contract, and is working either without a contract, or under the old one.  This is very significant..  Under the new contract, a worker MUST accept "mandatories". meaning, when J2S mandates it, the worker has to pull a double shift; which means a 16 to 18 hour day for them. 

And Dave is telling me that they (J2S) are now posting 2 to 3 mandates a week at the home because they cannot maintain staffing levels as required by law. This causes people to burn out quickly and to quit their jobs. 

And some of those people do a double shift, go home and get 4 hours of sleep and then come back and are forced to do another double shift. It wears the body out quickly.

Dave has refused 3 of them so far, because his body cannot take those long days and he is worried that he will soon be fired. 

This is the so called "excellent" care the veterans are getting, according to James Dunn.