Back Home, and Homeless

[douglas9]

Mid-June, 2011: I find myself alone in a dark wooded park tucked between million-dollar houses south of Stanford University, looking for a spot in the bushes to stash my bags. Until that morning I’d been living in a cheap weekly-rate motel in Palo Alto. Before checkout, knowing I couldn’t afford the $48 fee for another night, I laid out my stuff on the bed. Over the cigarette burns on threadbare sheets, I scrounged for quarters, dimes and nickels. There was enough for an extra value meal at Taco Bell. I divided everything else I had between three bags; an olive-drab backpack my brother used in the Army Rangers, a black duffel I bought at Goodwill and a satchel for my laptop.

This was my life. I was two weeks shy of my 28th birthday, unemployed, broke, thousands of miles from my family, watching the weather forecast to see how uncomfortable sleeping outside would be that night. Whatever the prediction, I could handle it. Four and a half years in the Army, including 16 months as an infantryman in eastern Afghanistan, provided plenty of skills with no legal application in the civilian world. It was, however, wonderful preparation for being homeless.

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/back-home-and-homeless/

[BeHereNow]

1. Wow, that is a powerful read. "Support the troops" my ass-

Yellow ribbon bumper stickers are just vanity pumping
silliness by sillier still, people.

One of the comments asked, How can we help?
Offer a spare bedroom? Well hell yes.

Let's contact the 1% and ask if some of our homeless
soldiers can crash out in their guest houses for a while,
or perhaps the gardening shed.

Nah- bad idea. The super rich can't have riff raff like
our soldiers hanging around.

Far more likely that a network could be created by the rest of us.
I like the idea and am going to ponder on how it could be organized
by you and me.

I think this is potentially a solution.

Homeless vets are not acceptable to me.
We could, through a network of the willing, help these people.
Our county will not, but we can.

BHN

[Raster]

6. To the super rich, veterans are disposable humans....

...use as necessary and then discard.

[GESICC]

11. It makes you realize how helpless we've become

I sometimes think about how humanity's gone-2000+ years ago travelers could expect courtesy; be allow to sleep in the barn, if not the house, and whatever the homestead had by way of a meal to offer.
Now we do not even have the power to offer our heros succor.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Stories like this just make me cry. We have a lot of homeless vets. Honestly, as much as I hate

the wars, it almost make sense to encourage people to re-up.

Shouldn't have to be that way, tho. :cry:

[DianaForRussFeingold]

3. OMG, This is so heartbreaking...!

:cry:

[Tsiyu]

4. "And just what is OWS about?"

(from the clueless- that question)

And this: "What? You don't want to serve your country but end up sleeping in the street? Lazy bum! Expecting entitlements!"
:sarcasm:

I suppose Rush will call him "human debris."


We are such a fucked up country....

[EmeraldCityGrl]

5. K&R

[Raster]

7. 16 months as an infantryman in eastern Afghanistan, provided plenty of skills...

...with no legal application in the civilian world. It was, however, wonderful preparation for being homeless.

What have we become, people. What have we become?

[midnight]

8. K&R Our citizens and soldiers deserver better.

Please remember to be aware of the people around you... Be thoughtful... They might not of eaten and need help...

[midnight]

9. K&R

[pinboy3niner]

10. K&R