A few months ago I received a letter from a member who had a lesson to teach me. "Don't you know that Congress doesn't listen to veterans?" he wrote. "Can't you see that all these calls for letter-writing campaigns and phone calls by our members is a waste of time?"

These days, it's a lesson I'm glad I didn't learn. Far from being a waste of time, the advocacy of our members over the past few months-I firmly believe - was the key to our success in defeating important threats to veterans' programs.

In the end, when all the political rhetoric has ceased and all the posturing ended, the voice of the people must be heard and heeded. That's the real lesson I've had reinforced in my own mind these past few months.

The Will of the people emphatically defeated proposals that would have admitted non-veterans into VA hospitals for the first time. In the process, officials who thought they could shove this buck-saving scheme down the throats of veterans instead were sent packing, blustering about the unfair tactics of veterans who swamped Capitol Hill with their opposition.

Others saw veterans as a fragmented group, with no real consensus and, therefore, posing no real threat to any reductions government might seek to impose upon veterans' health care or services.

They, too, were wrong. We may all be veterans of different wars who served in different branches of the service and who did - or did not - incur service-connected disabilities as a result of that service, but we are like-minded in our sense of this nations commitment to her citizen-soldiers. And we expect our elected leaders representatives to share in that national commitment.

I know that we often ask each of you to take an active role in this process. Sometimes we fear we are asking too much of our members. What other groups or organizations expect so much advocacy from their members? Not many do. We keep asking, though, because we know that it works. And we know it is critically important work that must be accomplished. We know, as well that Congressmen and Senators must listen to their constituents. In the end, they must be responsive to those constituents or pack their bags.

When we went to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and told him the Rural Health Care Initiative was a bad idea he told us there was nothing we could do about it. The idea was hatched. The papers were signed and the process would move forward.

That's when we went to all of you, described the plot, and asked if it made each of you mad enough to take the time to write or call your Congressman or Senator. An overwhelming number of you did just that.

As a result, we are reminded once again that it's worth the effort to get involved. Individuals, committed to a common cause, can and do make a difference.

We are, each of us, veterans advocates. We are men and women committed to seizing our responsibilities as the voice and conscience for this nation's disabled veterans and their families.

Each of you who took the time to write or call deserve a pat on the back and our thanks. Enjoy the victory. But enjoy it with the sure knowledge that we will, in the very near future, again be calling upon you to make your voices heard. I know we can count on hearing it - loud and clear.

JESSE BROWN, Former Executive Director,
National Service & Legislative Headquarters,
Disabled American Veterans and Former Secretary
of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs