Today’s Top Opinion: With charity

As he closed his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln said:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Tim Kaine seems to have taken the commandment to heart. The first bill he will introduce as a senator addresses hurdles confronting veterans. His Troop Talent Act of 2013 proposes to ease the transition from military service to civilian life. It focuses on a real need. On Tuesday, The Times-Dispatch’s Markus Schmidt reported that the unemployment for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans exceeded the national unemployment average by a significant margin.

Kaine’s legislation would enhance the translation of military skills and experience into civilian credentials and licenses. It also would clamp down on fraud by courses or programs purporting to help veterans gain credentials. And it would increase veterans’ access to high-demand fields such as information technology. The military stresses IT. Veterans have mastered useful trades.

Kaine’s bill is a worthy one and is appropriate for someone sitting on the Armed Services Committee. Jim Webb, the senator Kaine succeeded, set an excellent precedent.

His first bill was 2007’s Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, which restored the vision of the G.I. Bill enacted during World War II. The G.I. Bill ranks among the most successful pieces of legislation in U.S. history and greatly contributed to prosperity and the rise of the middle class. Veterans received what they deserved.

Kaine, too, deserves credit for recognizing a dilemma and for moving to resolve it. As a reader reminded us, the bill is an appropriate manifestation of the challenge to beat swords into plowshares.

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