Did You Know 200,000 Vets Are Sleeping on the Streets?

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/election08/116721/did_you_know_200%2C000_vets_are_sleeping_on_the_streets/

Did You Know 200,000 Vets Are Sleeping on the Streets?

By Aaron Glantz, New America Media. Posted January 3, 2009.

America's promise to "Support the Troops" ends the moment they take off the uniform and try to make the transition to civilian life.

snip//

On any given night 200,000 U.S. veterans sleep homeless on the streets of America. One out of every four people -- and one out of every three men -- sleeping in a car, in front of a shop door, or under a freeway overpass has worn a military uniform. Some like Brantley have been on the streets for years. Others are young and women returning home wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan, quickly slipping through the cracks.

For each of these homeless veterans, America's promise to "Support the Troops" ended the moment he or she took off the uniform and tried to make the difficult transition to civilian life. There, they encountered a hostile and cumbersome bureaucracy set up by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In a best-case scenario, a wounded veteran must wait six months to hear back from the VA. Those who appeal a denial have to wait an average of four and a half years for their answer. In the six months leading up to March 31st of this year, nearly 1,500 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claims would be approved by the government.

There are patriotic Americans trying to solve this problem. Last month, two veterans' organizations, Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare, filed suit in federal court demanding the government decide disability claims brought by wounded soldiers within three months. Predictably, however, the VA is trying to block the effort. On December 17, their lawyers convinced Reggie Walton, a judge appointed by President Bush, who ruled that imposing a quicker deadline for payment of benefits was a task for Congress and the president-not the courts.

President-elect Barack Obama has the power to end this national disgrace. He has the power to ensure to streamline the VA bureaucracy so it helps rather than fights those who have been wounded in the line of duty. He can ensure that this latest generation of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan does not receive the bum rap the Vietnam generation got. Let 2008 be the last year thousands of homeless veterans stand in line for free food during the holiday season. Let it be the last year hundreds of thousands sleep homeless on the street.

[Double T]

1. Just another one our many national disgraces.

Send our people off to war and then leave them twisting in the wind to sort out their lives themselves. It is so GD SAD we have become such a heartless, greedy, self-centered country without a conscience.

[Demeter]

8. It's a GOP Disgrace, With DLC's Blessing

It was part of the DLC plan, let the GOP get enough rope to hang themselves and their Emperor, and hang the cost in lives and national reputation. We simply couldn't do the right thing and impeach, after all...

[NaturalHigh]

2. Shameful.

[Stuart G]

16. agreed, K and R

[tomreedtoon]

3. This is old news. Except perhaps to Washington.

Perhaps, since President-elect Obama has taken on the job to be the host of the Commander-in-Chief Ball, while he's preparing the canapes and teaching his children how to carry around trays of bourbon for the military guests, he might think of mentioning this to the generals and civilian military personnel.

It's old news that veterans have generally been screwed by the government. It was only after World War II that the Veteran's Administration made any steps to help veterans - mind you, under a Democratic President. Maybe Obama can do it again.

[babylonsister]

4. Despite your snark, I think Obama has every intention of

helping the Vets. Shinseki is a good start.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/07/obama.shinseki/index.html

[Baby Snooks]

9. They're "mentally ill"

The vast majority of our veterans from both of these "wars" in Iraq as well as the "war" in Afghanistan suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome/disorder and because of the implications, the military finds some other "diagnosis" by which to deem them "mentally ill" and deny them benefits on the basis of a "pre-existing" disorder which of course is what turns post traumatic stress syndrome into post traumatic stress disorder for most veterans. It not only pushes them over the edge but over the cliff.

The same thing happens to stalking victims. Veterans are our kindred spirits. Stalking victims really aren't stalking victims. They are mentally ill. There is no such thing as stalking. It is nothing but the paranoia of the mentally ill. That really is the prevalent attitude towards stalking victims in this country. Until they are found dead on a sidewalk with their stalker standing their with a gun in their hand. And sometimes with a restraining order in the other hand.

We love to blame the victims in this country. Particularly when we are the victimizers.

[truedelphi]

14. Amen, Sister. n/t

[starroute]

17. I'd like to see this taken up on MLK Day

I see a few references to homelessness at the official website, but none to homeless veterans. I wonder if it's too late to draw particular attention to this issue?


http://www.mlkday.gov/about/newsroom/states_news_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1171

President-elect Barack Obama is calling on Americans across the nation to volunteer in the January 19 Martin Luther King Day of Service. The upcoming Martin Luther King Day falls on the day before Obama’s historic inauguration. The President-elect will celebrate King Day along with Vice-President Joe Biden and their families by volunteering in a service project in Washington, D.C. and will be calling on all Americans to join him in ongoing active citzenship. “I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States,” Obama said.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/03/BAGV151TIR.DTL&tsp=1

Using the same online networking that helped put him in the White House, President-elect Barack Obama is pushing to expand Martin Luther King Day from a national day of community service into an ongoing commitment to help the needy.

While presidents past have used Jan. 19 to show by example how helping the poor is good for the country, Obama is using the eve of his inauguration to rally millions of Americans to community service as an antidote to the recession. . . .

Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden and their families plan to volunteer in Washington on Jan. 19, but have not revealed their specific plans.

[bowens43]

5. Why emphisize 'vets'?

Do vets have some special right not to be homeless? Homelessness is a HUGE problem , a national disgrace, but whether or not the person who homeless is a vet is irrelevant! I really don't understand why people seem to think that vets are somehow better and more deserving the rest of America.

[babylonsister]

6. I think it has to do with all that 'support the troops' hogwash, which

is obviously not being done.

[acmavm]

10. My question exactly. Here in Omaha we have 2,000 homeless KIDS on

our streets on any given night. They didn't volunteer for this duty either.

Homeless is fucking HOMELESS!

[bertman]

18. Yeah, Bowens43, vets do have a special right not to be homeless, seeing as how they were

putting their lives on the line for us as Americans. They are the ones who sacrificed a year or years of their lives doing something that few of us want to do or could do and now they're paying the price by being denied treatment for the ills they face as a result of their service.

No child deserves to be homeless. Most people don't deserve to be homeless. But veterans deserve more than they are getting from our nation. It is absolutely appropriate and necessary that we highlight the plight of homeless veterans.

[Doctor_J]

7. "Support the troops" repukes are much like "pro-life" ones

they get bumper stickers that look like yellow ribbons or say "it's a child not a choice", then fight every attempt to fund increased vet benefits and early child care.

Republicanism is a sickness.

[Fire1]

11. Sure, 'use 'em and lose 'em' in the great u.s. of a.

[balantz]

12. Edwards knew, and wanted to do something about it n/t

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. Well, you know, the Republicans have always depicted the vets' military

service at the sharp end of wars as patriotic and glorious, and supported them to the hilt. What more could the vets want, now they're at the sharp end at home - broken in mind and often in body ......? What do they do with fighting cocks when they've had their day?

[Uncle Joe]

15. Thanks for the thread, babylonsister.

I'd be curious to know how many of them suffering from psychological disorders make up the nation's prison population as well?