Veterans Affairs Department scrubs Lincoln quote for gender-neutral mission statement
Jeremiah Poff
The Department of Veterans Affairs revised its mission statement to remove a quote from President Abraham Lincoln that referenced a soldier’s widow.
The new mission statement still mentions the 16th president but no longer contains the quote. Instead, the updated statement uses more gender-neutral language about caring for a veteran’s “families, caregivers, and survivors.”
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The mission statement says the department exists “to fulfill President Lincoln’s promise to care for those who have served in our nation’s military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.”
The retired statement that was established in 1959 said the agency’s role is to “fulfill President Lincoln’s promise ‘to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan’ by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans.”
The department said that it will replace the old statement that is posted in “roughly 50% of VA’s facilities” with the new one “over the coming months.”
“Whenever any veteran, family member, caregiver or survivor walks by a VA facility, we want them to see themselves in the mission statement on the outside of the building,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough said of the change. “We are here to serve all veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors — and now, our mission statement reflects exactly that.”
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The department said it had conducted two surveys pertaining to the mission statement and that the revised version was preferred by veterans across every conceivable demographic group. The agency said it also conducted several “small group engagements” with veterans to determine “what was most important to them in a VA mission statement” and then “incorporated that feedback into quantitative research.”
“The new mission statement reflects that VA serves all of the heroes who have served our country, regardless of their race, gender, background, sexual orientation, religion, zip code or identity,” the department said.