Conversations with Homeless Vets (Must Read)

[smallprint]

This is a conversation between a young reporter named Amy Moon and a Vietnam vet named Andy in a homeless shelter in San Francisco.



Q: How soon after you got there were you out in combat?

A: Four days. I think.

Q: Did you know anybody in your platoon?

A: Didn't know a soul.

Q: So, what happened? You try to stay alive, and...

A: That's it.

Q:And just through that experience, you realized -- when did you change your mind about what you were doing?

A:'Bout the day I got there. (laughs)

Q:Yeah? What happened? What made you think that?

A:It was just bulls**. It was bulls**.

Q:What do you mean?

A:It was bulls**.

(The grizzled guy in the black leather jacket who refused to talk before now joins the conversation.) It wasn't about communism.

Q.What was it about?

A.(Grizzled guy) About narcotics.

(Andy) Bulls**.

(Grizzled guy) Narcotics. Opium. Gold. Oil.

Q.You mean it was about the United States getting that?

A.(Grizzled guy) Yeah. Our government.

Q.You knew that right away?

A.(Andy) No, I'd say it was probably four months.


MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/archive/2003/10/14/hmlssvets.DTL

[frank frankly]

1. I've spoken with veterans in my family and strangers

they know it was about heroin and corporations. they must know now that it is about oil and empire.

thanks for the post. hard to handle all the input sometimes, especially when they talk about killing civilians. they never get over it completely. they don't want to, either.

[Zhade]

2. In a sad way, it's a good sign that they don't want to get over it.

Shows they're human and feel remorse.

I weep for these men, and those men and women dying in today's Vietnam.

[frank frankly]

I agree, Zhade

it bothers me tremendously. every second it continues, we are sowing the destruction of our planet and people.

[frank frankly]

3. I agree, Zhade

it bothers me tremendously. every second it continues, we are sowing the destruction of our planet and people.

[jame]

4. Don't forget the homecoming..

that they recieved. That's what Viet Nam vet have complained about as well. The reception that those poor boys recieved when they got off the plane is an embarrasment to me. They shouldn't have had to go in the first place, and we all knew it, but to give them that....makes me sad.

[Valerie5555]

10. Could you believe the Iran hostages ended up being welcomed back with

"yellow ribbons, flourishes and ticker tape" compared with that.

[proud patriot]

21. This generation of peacemakers will not repeat that

I send care packages to soldiers and write letters.
they started as strangers but now I consider them
friends .

I scream about "2 liters of water a day 1
meal a day that's what are soldiers get in 130
degree heat"

I have a bumpersticker on my car that says
"$15,000,000,000 in cuts to veteran benifits
is this how mr. bush supports our troops ?"

[JohnKleeb]

5. Thats so sad

All these vets served their nation with honor and they come home to this.

[opihimoimoi]

6. This is a fuckin cruel world

as a matter of coincidence, Spike just moved in 2 weeks ago. Lost his job on a farm and no where to go. He is 58 now, was a gunner on a Huey in Nam. Got no family, no money, no car, no nothing. I feed him, pay him, treat him with fairness and respect/dignity. My friend who was in Somolia, he brought over new clothes and shoes for Spike.
My friend Mark was in the Ranger Unit as a corpman. He was part of the rescue team to get Blk Dwn. He is OK now but still recieves
counseling as does Spike. Damn this is a rotten world.

I hope to help Spike get back on his feet someday and I think he can do it.

Mark is damaged goods but over all he is OK.

Fuckin Bush should have friends like these and see if he tells the skinnys Bring em on

Fuck bush

[JohnKleeb]

7. The many vets that die day by day

Thats real kind of you opi, I feel so bad for all these poor vets.

[Tinoire]

13. Hey - In case I never get a chance to tell you this

God bless you. We need more people like you in the world. Hope I have the honor of meeting you one day. You never know in this small world...

I have a young soldier I trained who got back from Iraq 2 months ago and just sits around all day with that thousand yard stare in his eyes. His wife is so depressed because he can't even re-bond with his own kids because of stuff he was ordered to do over there (blew up a house with kids in it and they knew because the women ran to the windows holding their kids in their arms but the soldiers were ordered to go ahead and blow up the place.

Yeah thanks a lot George Bush and every person, Republican, Democrat or whatever who enabled this in the slightest way or rationalized it.

Fuck them all.

[Valerie5555]

8. Wonder if they no doubt need big time help and therapy for their

POST TRAUMA STRESS like EMDR or something, which I bet certain NY'ers still needed after Sept 11.

[Robin Hood]

9. The freepers can start supporting the troops

By taking these veterans off the street.

[Tinoire]

15. Really well said! But that applies to Democrats too

the ones who enable this War Machine by their bi-partisan efforts to pump money into it while our warriors lie broken in the streets.

This kind of thing enrages me.

[Tinoire]

11. Our Terrible Truth - Our Shame!!!!

Q. And they tell you...

A. You're the good guys.

Q. Did they tell you you were fighting communism?

A. Oh, yeah. They told me I was fighting so I wouldn't have to fight nobody later on.

Q. Right. What did they mean by that? They meant that if you took care of it now, it'd be all over?

A. Something like that.

Q. Yeah, but it ended up being about narcotics?

A. Oh, yeah.

(Grizzled guy chimes back in.) Just like all the wars

[Robin Hood]

12. They told me I was fighting so I wouldn't have to fight nobody later on

Fast forwrd to present day: "We have brought the war to the terrorists, so that we won't have to fight the war on American soil." Like that will somehow magically keep the terrorists in the ME.
Same shit, different day.

I see these beautiful, healthy baby faced boys and girls, and I know in my heart that 10, 15, 20 years from now. Many of these beautiful innocents will be grizzled, bitter and homeless.

[Tinoire]

14. Sigh...

I saw that sentence... Glad you posted it... It's amazing.

You know... The Time is NOW! Have you seen that yet? Amazing...

Peace

[Robin Hood]

16. I'm watching it now, thanks for the link.

I totally agree with Kucinich and his stance on the Iraqi war, Bring those people home now!!! Out of all the milque toast dems running, he is the only one whose voice and sentiments will echo across time.

In the tenth year of the "Iraqi conflict", America will look back on Kucinich and wosh that they had listened to the only sane voice in this mad house of a country. We reallly can't send anyone who voted for this war to run against Bush. If the DLC does, then I am abandoning the democratic party.

Kucinich, Sharpton, Dean, I feel are our only real choices. Clark has gotten his tongue tied to quickly in the game.

[Tinoire]

17. I'm with you 100%

If not now? Then When? The time is now!

I'm not buying the placating crap anymore. The Time is NOW and I won't be black-mailed or betrayed again by the Center or the Right.

I can't even bear to think how many of the people I personally seved with are homeless vets right now. The saddest thing is that I wouldn't even recognize them :( The cooks, the line troops, the Sergeant in the PAC or Motor-Pool...

There but for the grace of God...

[Robin Hood]

19. Me neither bro

I will NOT be betrayed again by the Center or the Right.

And where will the arm chair freeper generals be when this current batch of innocence needs help from this country that they sacrificed life, limb, mind and soul for? We supported our troops! We didn't want to send them to war in the first place.

I am thinking of infiltrating freeperville and ask them to support the troops by taking in a homeless Vietnam veteran. We'll see how much they actually support the troops, my guess is none.

I sure wish Kucinich had a chance. I would love to see a Kucinich/Sharpton ticket or vice versa. I really like Sharpton, but every time I say that in public, i get strange glares.

Hey Tinoire, I take my hat off to you and for all that you have done and lived through. God bless you man.

[lostnfound]

22. I'm with you and that's a great idea

Support the troops; take in a homeless vet.

18 year old hopeful boys with their life ahead of them, chewed up like grass in the lawnmower and dumped at the landfill. It makes me sick and infuriated.

[niyad]

18. when gulf war 1 started, I was glad that I wasn't going

to have to go through the horrors of dealing with ptsd vets again, and felt sorry for all the families who were going to learn what that is like.

learning of the staggeringly high number of vets who have died since the conflicts ended and knowing of the untold numbers who are, and will be, suffering from dreadful, unnamed conditions, night terrors, etc, I can only pray that this ends soon.

I don't want other families to endure what we have, and are, going through. that our loved ones can be sent off by people who haven't the faintest concept of what actual battles are like is beyond cruel and callous. we need to get our families home NOW

[smallprint]

20. Kick

:kick:

[dreissig]

23. Homeless People

Homeless people often claim to be veterans when they're not. To be sure, some veterans are homeless. But a lot of homeless guys are just looking for sympathy.

[undergroundpanther]

24. Sympathy?

Homelessness is the big threat used to keep people working and selling themselves short by not striking or standing up to corporate exploitation..And the arrogant ,deluded people who call homeless people scum seeking sympathies as if they were less worthy of respect,caring,generosity than YOU are ,are fools who forget they too could end up homeless if the right horrible circumstances occured in thier lives.
Corporations,the super-wealthy THEY are the real bums,the opulent leeches of society.Corprations and wealthy people consume way more from the average community's wealth than homeless people can .Corporate welfare covering for the wealthy's bad business decisions and fraudulent scams sucks way more money out of the national budget than regular welfare that helps vunerable people simply be able to survive.

Homeless people are not all"degenerates". Some have had alot of horrors in thier lives that most people would have trouble enduring, and so they can't cope.Some homeless people are mentally ill and can't afford medicine or doctors and live on the street because thier ilness makes them unhireable because businesses put on false fronts for 'customers' and it's always profits first for them..Some homeless folks just can't cope with the insane demands of our opressive,unjust profit demanding culture without help,or support .Remember help to the poor is the first thing cut by rightwing governments who HATE the poor and HATE difference.Some Homeless are suffering from war trauma and from past abuse.Some turn to drugs and booze to numb the pain of thier inhuman condition or to cope with traumas from the wars they were in.
I have seen alot more moral "degenerates: among the exreteme wealthy classes and middle classes than the homeless.The reason nobody sees the wealthy as morally bankrupt is we are taught to blame the poor for thier misfortunes,we are taught to be biased in favor of the rich.We howl over the "crime" of a homeless person urinating on the street when there is nowhere else to go, while corporate crimes and the CEOs who perpetuate them are so easily excused without much public disgust and very little outrage over thier lack of character that causes thier misfortunes. Why is that? I bet Enron made some people homeless.Ask them if they shouldn't be seeking sympathy,tell them it's thier fault and they should yank those bootstraps.Homeless people are homeless because our corrupt system and bully culture fails them.
The wealthy moochers are visible to society only when they are caught in extreme malfeaseances.Often a Company can afford the skillful corporate shill lawyers who cocerce injured workers to back off of thier injury claims or they stack the courts against him and drain his finances. And this kind of injustice can lead to homlessness.

The homeless are our sick culture's most popular punching bags and they are visible because they have nowhere to go.How America hates her own disempowered peoples.Just like she hates her different peoples(GBLT,non-white,non-christian,liberal..)

How do the ultra wealthy manage to get so rich in this corrupt rich bully favoring culture? Very few people ever "make it" without alot of "help" from 'freinds in 'high places'.Bill gates had help from IBM, and countless nameless programmers innovations.Bill didn't do it all on his own merits,he used other people's merits and povery situations to enrich himself while he gave the people he hired less than what thier innovations were worth.Every boss does this crap.It;'s a big pyramid scam.

IJust because we accept it doesen't make it sane.Plenty of people who own a huge corporation know it may have an ugly history, something like, great grandaddy was a robber baron in the 1900's who used child labor and took advantage by pushing obscene work hours to build the family"fortune" before it was made illegal. Corporations do alot of nasty stuff to communities and lives to maximize profit for thier owners.The sucessful once they get sucess can't stand any threats to thier economic hegemony.
So doing things like caring for the homeless ,respecting workers, offering money to help start up community ceners or co-ops,respecting the poor,caring for children,homeless vets ect,cramps thier income flow .The rich are scared to death of the poor,because deep down they know thier fortunes are built on the misery of so many.

The superwealthy get sympathy everytime thier wrists are slapped and the CEO fraud gets his stolen golden parachute anyways. Our sad,pathetic, bully culture prefers to kick vunerable people when they are down ,rather than dare people to build character by speaking truth to 'power' and challenging the status quo and the self-rightious presumptions of ogliarches and the self-important middle class republican assholes who delude themselves they are "well off" because of thier credit cards or a job they hate,and a company that exploits them but dare not leave for fear of looking like a loser..or gawd forbid they lose the big cavernous house and become*gasp* homeless and in debt.Everyone who isn't super wealthy enough to be in the good ole boys club is vunerable to being homeless.A few misfortunes,a few catastrophic illnesses or injuries in the family without insurance, A war,Indiscretions with credit cards, or a big fat hurricane,can leave anyone vunerable to homelessness and wipe out your life savings.