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United States' Homeless Veterans Scandal;Shame, Shame, Shame ...
United States of America -- Home of the Brave?
HOME?
Huh. Tell that to some marines.
HOME?
Huh. If only, eh?
Can you say sad? Shocking? Sickening? Scandalous? Shameful?
Read it and weep.
Then take a look here, too.
You never know, you just might find a way to help - if you genuinely want to help - in some small way or other.
USA?
HOME of the brave?
We very much doubt the guys shown above would agree.
HOME?
Huh. Tell that to some marines.
HOME?
Huh. If only, eh?
Can you say sad? Shocking? Sickening? Scandalous? Shameful?
Study: 1 out of 4 homeless are veteransRead the rest of today's heartrending report.
By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.
"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.
Read it and weep.
Then take a look here, too.
You never know, you just might find a way to help - if you genuinely want to help - in some small way or other.
USA?
HOME of the brave?
We very much doubt the guys shown above would agree.
Labels: Afghanistan, Daniel Tooth, homeless, Iraq war, US Vets, veterans, Vietnam
posted by Richard at Thursday, November 08, 2007
9 Comments:
Shame? Except for a tiny minority and I DO mean tiny, politicians don't know the meaning of the word. And that's politians all over the globe.
No HOME for the brave ... and not much land left for the free, either. It's a short-fuse timebomb.
And yet kids keep on signing up. Why? There's no draft. They don't have to sign up. Don't they have any clue at all? Is there really that much dissinfo+missinfo+censorship et all, over there?
You know what other 'Tsunamis' are headed America's way?
Watch the figures for suicides, murders, alcohol and all other addictions and crime in general start going through the roof. Not to mention divorces and rapes, They'll all rise in direct proportion to the numbers of new vets arriving home.
This report received only the scantiest of attention from the mainstream American media, barely a mention in passing.
To answer 'Kiwi', most of the kids presently in Iraq signed up pre-Iraq war because they were offered high cash incentives and paid college tuition they couldn't afford in civvy street. Of course, many didn't get it. They got Iraq instead. Recruiting numbers have dropped drastically of late, understandably, and the US military has lowered its standards, now taking ex-cons, drug addicts, in fact virtually anyone who can hold a rifle.
If that's 'home' then you can keep it. Thank God I've got a better one. And that's not meant to sound snobbish -- I exist on bare minimum money here in the UK. But when and if I ever need help or taking care of, it's there for me. That's what the state is supposed to do with the taxes and NHS contibutions I made over my working life - help taxpayers when they need help. After all, it's our money -- the peole's money.
Park benches for the brave, 700-thread count Whitehouses for the cowards. It's been a tradition since Vietnam.
Yet another symptom of the sickness infecting the USA.
No wonder America is know for it's awful treatment of so many other people of other nations as badly as it does - if that's how it looks after it's own.
Still, so long as it's acceptable to the majority, why should we worry about them too much?
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