About
Ward Lucas is a longtime investigative journalist and television news anchor. He has won more than 70 national and regional awards for Excellence in Journalism, Creative Writing and community involvement. His new book, "Neighbors At War: the Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association," is now available for purchase. In it, he discusses the American homeowners association movement, from its racist origins, to its transformation into a lucrative money machine for the nation's legal industry. From scams to outright violence to foreclosures and neighborhood collapses across the country, the reader will find this book enormously compelling and a necessary read for every homeowner. Knowledge is self-defense. No homeowner contemplating life in an HOA should neglect reading this book. No HOA board officer should overlook this examination of the pitfalls in HOA management. And no lawyer representing either side in an HOA dispute should gloss over what homeowners are saying or believing about the lawsuit industry.
The following is being posted on a dozen of the most active LinkedIn military and veterans groups with a combined total of over 50,000 readers. But, much more social media exposure is needed by those more expert than I.
As one (like many others in the military) who have been tasked to turn around failed units (in my case, logistics and procurement units), I am quite aware of how difficult it will be to turn around or significantly restructure the giant VA department.
It will require very accomplished leadership with a well-documented “war plan” containing very clear objectives and measures of merit for the conversion and the resulting organizational components. Repeating the past half-baked actions will fail again.
Many decades ago, this nation simultaneously entered the losing wars in Europe and Asia and made the difference in totally turning the wars around and achieving total victory in about 3 years. Do we have such gifted and selfless leaders today to deal with the VA problems? If we fail, millions of veterans lives are at risk.
Of course, the leadership challenge to “fix” the VA is much less daunting for making military, reserve, guard and veterans healthcare services “acceptable”. But, unless serious efforts are taken by legislatures at both the federal and state levels and by highly experienced industry leaders to ensure the leadership and resources are provided to repair the broken systems for all veterans, the nation will fail again. And, our ability to continue to man the all-volunteer force with the highest quality people is likely to fail.
If “we” allow that to happen, it will be a monumental failure by our citizens and our veterans organizations. The obvious conclusions is that our military, veterans and their families must become activists for change. Regrettably, we can no longer wait patiently and trust that the “country” will “do the right things” for our people.
I would like to ask all that read this to send personal mail and call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to act NOW to pass the bill allowing the VA Secretary to deal precisely and promptly with failed VA civilians. That is a CRITICAL element in beginning to change the failed VA culture. It must be allowed to pass immediately.