Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Military Family...

Well, with the Boomers in charge, I guess we should expect to throw away definitions that have worked for, oh, what - thousands to millions of years or so. After all - doesn't it just make you feellll so much better?
Family programs -- another area that continue -- and family support and -- continue to evolve. And I don't know that we can, in any way, sit on our laurels with respect to the family programs that we have. We have to continue to evolve them. I saw some preliminary questions today, as I was -- as I was driving in this morning. And those questions speak to -- a couple of the questions speak to the evolving definition of a family.

I had a young soldier ask me a question in Germany not too long ago, where she was basically taking care of one of her best friends, who for all intents and purposes was her dependent. So this is a young, 22- or 23-year-old soldier that essentially was bringing in a dependent and taking care of her because nobody else could. And what she asked me, essentially, is, is there a way for the military, for our government, to establish this young lady who was her -- who was basically her dependent, as a part of her family.

Questions about single parents, questions about parents and grandparents, questions about what is the family of the future are out there. And I don't think we can rest on what the family of the past was in that regard, and we will continue to evolve that. And inevitably in Washington, where this oftentimes gets to is it gets to a matter of resources. This is not an inexpensive business. And so there is always going to be that pressure of resources versus making sure we get it right. And I want you where you are executing to continue to put pressure, continue to create that tension so that we have the discussion on the key family issues and we continue to evolve and get that right.

So we see the evolution, what's changing in families.
Please let me know when the Chairman wants to redefine water.

Hat tip Mike.

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