[flipactual]

This is a horrific example of perseverance porn

These people were exploited which is terrible. That the nation that exploited them was still more desirable to them than their former home is also terrible. That all they got in return for being exploited was what they were initially promised but decades later is terrible

Everything presented here is terrible

[Godel_unicode]

"Everything" is a bit uncharitable. There are people in that story who, when they found out about a historic wrong, did something about it. That's not terrible. There are people who are inspired by that act of doing the right thing, and have gone on to be partisans for righting similar wrongs. That's not terrible.

That it happened is terrible. Ignoring the good that was done so that we can wallow in the bad is also terrible.

More than one thing can be true.

[spiderfarmer]

The ratio of good vs. bad is what is terrible. The USA is severely lacking empathy.

[Godel_unicode]

The comment to which I am replying is a great example of that. When the bad outweighs the good, it becomes particularly important to make note of the good when it happens.

It's easy to just roll over and say everything is terrible. That's what happened to the people in this story; nobody was willing to try and do the right thing. Then, someone did. It's important to acknowledge the evil, but it's also important to hold up the good and say "Do this. You can make a difference."

Don't roll over and accept the evil as inevitable. It's not.

[acqq]

The sentence from the article that got me the most:

"Their promised benefits were not even brought to a vote until 2008, when most of the happy men I saw that day were dead."

55 years after the "promise."

The title of the article has the same tension with its content as

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A._(song)#Them...

There's also a certain similarity to the reflex reactions to the title overwhelming the perception of the subject of the work.

[Steko]

There's almost 200 comments here but no one that I have seen has actually mentioned who in Washington "did something about it" and Ken's post also left this out.

Hawaii Senators Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka, along with Ted Kennedy were the driving forces for many of the provisions from 1990 to 2010 that sought justice for Filipino veterans. Rob Simmons (R-CT) pushed for the 2003 extension of VA benefits to Filipino vets. Jackie Speier (D-Bay Area) continues to introduce the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act which would extend that to more veterans every session but never advances. The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification bill once had a chance but now also stalls every session. Obama created a program in '16 to allow the family members to stay here while awaiting green card status but Trump ended the program last year.

[spiderfarmer]

Yes the last paragraph tries to find a glimmer of hope in all this, but I fail to see it.