Military veterans have served in myriad ways, often putting their lives on the line for their country. Yet every day, these veterans, and the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which was created to care for military veterans, seem under siege, facing one calamity or challenge after another. From suspicious deaths at veterans health care facilities to extreme wait times for care to high rates of suicide, often at VA campuses and cemeteries, the nation`s veterans are not getting the full support they need and deserve. At the same time, the debate continues as to how much, if any, of veterans` health care should be contracted out or privatized. The Veterans Choice Act of 2014 and the VA Mission Act of 2018, for example, have made it easier for eligible veterans to seek health care options outside of the VA system.
The muscular red drum broke the surface of the wind-rapped water, attempting to shake the popping cork loose from his gaping jaws. As the fish slid out of the heavy-duty net and onto the weather-stained deck, I counted seven spots, the most of the day. With the 10-horsepower trolling motor propelling the boat slowly, just above the years of built up mud and oyster shells, we monitor the narrow channels, imprisoned by miles of alligator-infested reeds, for rosy, translucent tails trolling five feet off the shore.
Before heading back to Dothan after my family’s last trip to New Orleans this past Christmas, we stopped for brunch at Atchafalaya, the only restaurant in Nola with five A’s. Known as one of the top 10 brunch restaurants in the country, Atchafalaya is famous for their chicken and biscuits, so obviously, I accompanied that order with a cup of turtle and alligator gumbo. These chicken and biscuits may seem simple, but they aren’t even in the same category as the generic Hardees chicken biscuit. Two homemade buttermilk biscuits, topped with two whole fried chicken breasts, and doused in gravy, along with the gumbo that sounded like roadkill but tasted like Heaven, held up as the perfect last Nola meal before the five-hour trip back to Dothan.
The restaurant is named after the Atchafalaya Swamp, where the Atchafalaya River and Gulf of Mexico converge to form the largest swamp in the United States. This swamp is the only growing delta system left in Louisiana, with wetlands that are almost stable, and making up more than 35% of the Mississippi River Delta, it’s larger than the Florida Everglades. With over 500 different species of wildlife, 22 million pounds of crawfish harvested each year, and the largest nesting concentration of bald eagles in the southern United States, this area seems to be thriving. Unfortunately, all other swamps and basins considering part of the Delta are depleting at an alarmingly fast rate.
The degradation of “The Sportsman’s Paradise” hurts not only the environment, but also the economy. According to a 2012 study conducted by the Fisheries Economics of the U.S, the Gulf of Mexico marine industry employed nearly 20 million people across Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida. The commercial fishing location quotient (CFLQ) for Louisiana topped the region at 1.38. This basically means that the level of commercial fisheries employment in Louisiana is almost 1.5 times higher than the nationwide average. Louisiana’s landings revenue topped the southeast at $331 million, almost twice as much as the runner-up, Texas. Just to put into perspective the econom
