BY KATHIE COSTOS
I am not smart
enough to know if the war in Iraq is a good thing or not. Time will tell if we
sent our troops to face death was worth it or not. I can tell you that they are
to be honored no matter what your position on the war is. Their acts are no
less brave. Their commitments to the needs of America are no less of value. The
blood they shed in Iraq and Afghanistan is no less painful to their families.
They are to be honored now and later.
Honor is something that
the past veterans in this country did not and still do not see. Their stories
are hidden in shadows and their lives are trapped in a battlefield of red tape,
cutbacks, and misplaced priorities. On any given day, 271,750 veterans in this
country are homeless according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
The statistics they have on their web site are sickening.
(www.nchv.org)
23% of the homeless population is made up of veterans.
33% of homeless males are veterans.
47% are Vietnam Era
17% are
post Vietnam Era
15% are pre Vietnam Era
67% served this country for
three years or more.
33% were stationed in a war zone.
25% have used VA
services.
85% completed high school/GED compared to 56% non-veteran
homeless.
89% received Honorable Discharges.
79% reside in central
cities.
16% reside in suburban areas.
5% in rural areas.
76%
experience alcohol, drug or mental health problems.
And the list goes
on.
It goes even further than reported by the coalition. There are
women homeless veterans. There are women homeless veterans with children. To
have even one homeless veteran in this country is a case or disgrace.
On the Senator John McCain web site (www.senate.gov/~mccain) there is a
listing of "Pork funding" in the amount of 4.6 billion dollars in the War
Appropriations Bill. The President has promised Africa money to fight AIDS,
which is a noble thing to do, however while our military puts their lives on
the line all over the world, we must ask if it is a wise thing to do. The
following is just a portion of the Pork Funding listed;
$110 million
for modernization of the Agricultural Research Service in Iowa.
(While in
Iowa there are 3,725 homeless veterans.)
$369 million for humanitarian food
aid to developing countries.
$231,000 for DIAKON Lutherean Social
Ministries in Allertown PA for abstinence education in different counties.
$1 million for Geisinger Health Systems in Harrisburg PA.
(While in PA
there are 11,700 homeless veterans)
$2 million for St. Petersburg College
FL for Pinellas County EpiCenter.
(While in FL there are 13,450 homeless
veterans)
Again the list goes on. There are homeless veterans in states
that seek to attach funding for special projects to the supplemental War
Appropriations Bill!
According to the NCHV (National Coalition for
Homeless Veterans) there is an estimated 500,000 veterans homeless at some time
during the year and the VA is only able to reach 10% of those in need while
460,000 veterans are without services. The VA is drastically under-funded to
handle the needs of veterans from past wars and is certainly not prepared to
deal with the needs of the next generation of war veterans.
Here in
Boston we have the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans located on Court
St. (www.neschv.org) that serves homeless veterans from the New England area as
well as veterans from other parts of the country. According to their web site
they provide for 250 residents on any given night with an over flow of about
70. Programs such as this are under-funded and there are not enough of them.
They are a full service shelter dealing with not only providing a roof over the
veterans' heads and a meal in their stomachs they assist with their other needs
as well. It is a full service facility to provide the veterans with whatever
support they need to return to self-sufficiency and permanent housing.
We did not take care of the Vietnam veterans while they served and not
after they came home. There was no public outcry to provide services for
readjustment problems such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Too many veterans
needed the Veteran's Administrations help and our support yet they did not get
it. What about this generation? We need to realize that there will be more, too
many more, returning troops with wounds unseen. They face death on a daily
basis even after the "major fighting" has ended. Public support for our
involvement is eroding while the casualty figures are still low but continue to
rise on a daily basis. Will we allow our frustration to erode our support of
them? Will we allow our elected officials to attach funding to a war budget
that has nothing to do with the war or our veterans? We need to have the
funding for their support increased to assure them that their service was not
in vain. We need to do for them just a fraction of what they did for us. Think
about it and contact your senators and congressmen to do something other than
fund their special projects while you have homeless veterans in your own state.
Look at the web sites listed and if it does not outrage you that this is
happening then you have leaned nothing from history and are destined to repeat
it.
E-mail Patti
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