Gary Sinise for Secretary of Veterans Affairs

This petition is pretty straight forward. We feel it's high time to put people with a heart in the right places; those who truly dedicate themselves to a cause opposed to those seeking higher authoritative positions who enjoy the politics of it all. We want advocates at the highest levels, for only then will change truly be seen.

To Mr. Sinise himself;
Sir, we hope this petition at least in part conveys to you our deep love and gratitude for your dedication to us and our causes. Men like you on the home front impact us more than you could ever know. Thank you for the bottom of our hearts (and stumps).

We would like to leave you with some quotes from Mr. Sinise regarding the current state of veterans issues:

"What we do know is that there's a great need within the veteran community for additional services and additional support,"

"The VA system is obviously broken and has been for a long time. These current things happening in the VA that are coming to the surface right now -- that is a product of a very very deep problem within the VA. The VA has great doctors. They have great nurses. They have a lot of people who are dedicated. But it's a massive expenditure...Things are going to happen within a bureaucracy like that that are going to have negative effects. I think some of those things are surfacing now."

"There's a big residual effect after 13 years of war...There's thousands of service members that have been injured -- upwards of 50,000....There's traumatic brain injuries. There's post-traumatic stress issues...That's put a lot stress on families and caregivers for our wounded."

"There's a lot be done after such a long war...And we're still at war"

"We're still losing service members in Afghanistan. And they're still getting blown up and they're still going into the hospitals and yet we rarely hear about it on the news because Afghanistan is not at the forefront of everybody's consciousness right now. It's been going on a long time, yet we still have thousands deployed who, when they come home, will have special needs."

"There's a disconnect between the American people and its military -- unless you have a personal relationship with someone who's served. Quite a lot of people don't even know what a military person goes through or does or what their concerns are."

-- CBS News