Voting in a college town from the eyes of a veteran

    The U.S. is drawing close to another presidential election and the media is buzzing with interviews with common people about their thoughts on the election.  But it seams to me that they have left out one group of people from their reports;  I am a member of that small demographic that has fallen threw the crack.  I am a veteran and a college student, I am neither young nor old, I am not looking for my place in the world or have reached my destination yet; but instead I’m slowly climbing that ladder.  Being 27 years old I have seen and participated in 2 other presidential election but this is the most important one I have faced.  There are several issues that affect not only me but those that are in my community. 
    I know several fellow veterans and a few ROTC (reserve officer training cadet) members and they are concerned about the state of the veterans administration and the war in Iraq.  While both candidates have similar beliefs  there is one issue that that Obama has fought for that is missing from McCain’s;  that issue is the inefficiency of the VA to give the benefits to those that have been recently discharged from the service.  It took me approximately 8 months from the time I was discharged to receive my medical evaluation and I have heard of others that have taken years.  While a veteran is under this review process they cannot receive any medical assistance from a VA hospital.  For those who are just getting out this can be a critical time where they need the services that a VA hospital should provide but because the paper work the hospital must refuse service.  As for the war in Iraq most of us believe that we need to withdraw as soon as possible but the U.S. is like the kid who stuck his finger in the dam to stop a leak; if we remove it too quickly we risk destroying the dam but we can’t keep our finger in it forever. 
    In my community there are quite a few education majors and they are concerned about the education policies that will be put into place by the next administration.  While McCain’s policies seek to reform the No Child Left Behind act, Obama’s view is that we need to overhaul the entire system.
    These issues are the ones that affect me and my community and we keep our ears to the ground trying to find the truth about the candidates to discover which one will share our conserns and do their best to repair what we think is broken.