WWII Veteran Freezes to Death in Own Home...

I saw this on my local news last night. I'm from Michigan, where the economy is hitting us pretty hard...but this is just ridiculous!

(Forgive me if I am posting the link/external source wrong):

www.wnem.com...


It absolutely disgusts me that a hero of our country was left to freeze to death in his home because he couldn't afford to pay his heat anymore. This is a complete outrage.

Do you think we'll be seeing more cases like this popping up as the economy continues to decline?

That is what happens when you do not pay your bills so no sympathy from me also why bring up he's a ww2 vet at all it is irrelevant.

Guess he should of lit a fire there are plenty of people in worse of situations who survive just fine.

reply to post by Shamanator


This man would be at least eighty years old and may no longer have the mental or physical capacity to care for himself adequately, regardless of his financial situation. Where is your heart?

reply to post by nickdakota


Sad tragic story, but .. electricity isn't free. Yet, this guy was 93 years old, so this kind of thing should never have been allowed to happened. Some people just are not capable of taking care of themselves properly when they reach that age. Heck, some people in their 20s can't even take care of themselves properly in life. But, he was 93, and many people, most people, die younger than that over far greater injustices and tragedies. I'd consider myself lucky to live that long, regardless how I died. Odd how this was allowed to happen. Here where I live, they can't turn off your gas or electric during the cold winter months. Of course, this is no different than the elderly that die during the hot human summer months every year when they have no air conditioning.

And so, what's the solution? What's a utility service provider to do, particularly as the economic conditions become worse all around the nation? Operate at a loss providing product for free and ultimately go bankrupt and have everyone loose their electric and gas services? Odd though why this poor fellow didn't at least call someone for some help or knock on a neighbors door. Odd too is .. well, I guess the neighbors did eventually check on him. Maybe what is needed here is more community/neighborhood involvement. It would be nice if folks in the neighborhood would check in on the elderly that live alone maybe once or twice a day to insure they are doing okay. Heck, he could have slipped in the shower and laid there for days too. Moral of this story? Don't expect government or businesses to become our nannies! Help each other out ourselves. Neighborhood involvement! Check on the elderly in your neighborhood, even if it's just a daily phone call.

reply to post by Shamanator


I saw news of this yesterday and I cried when I read it...

Now I read it posted on here and the shamanator here says no sympathy from me...
Then another poster says well electricity is not free...

This man was 93 years old...
When the autopsy was done the coroner said he died a slow and painful death...Freezing to death...!!!
There was ice on the insides of his windows and it was below 32 degrees in the house...
The utility company shut off his power because he owed a little over a thousand dollars on his bill...So this mans life was worth a thousand dollars...
I am sure he probably drew a monthly check that was not big enough to pay his monthly bills...At 93 years old I am sure he was not out just partying his money away...

I am just horrified that people have so little to no compassion left...
So many people are just self centered and as long as things don't effect them personally they just don.t care what happens to other people any more...

This should have NEVER happened in AMERICA...!!!

But this is now the land of Greed and Lies...Not the Free any more...

This is cruel and inhumane...

I am sickened about what happened...and by some peoples comments...

reply to post by nickdakota


The As&*&%# working at the electric company who tried to collect on the bill could have taken a little effort and told someone or at least make a telephone call to the VA, etc. If the poor old guy had a phone, I am sure a collector would have spoken to him and could have put 2 and 2 together and determine that the guy was very old.

Where was the guy's family?

This is just so typical of the way America has become.

Originally posted by nickdakota

It absolutely disgusts me that a hero of our country was left to freeze to death in his home because he couldn't afford to pay his heat anymore. This is a complete outrage.

Why do you call him a hero?. Maybe he was on of the WW2 pilots who killed millions of civilians in germany and japan thanks to the allies' urban bombing policy.

Originally posted by Nineteen
Where is your heart?

Well said!

The capitalist system that puts finance above Human lives, makes the heart grow hard.

A veteran who risked his life to serve his country should be treated better than this. Capitalists suck! The people at the bottom of this legal ponzi/pyramid scheme always suffer the most, is it their fault the economy has been destroyed by wall street legal gamblers?

And this is why its not worth joining the military. Think if he would of been working for those 5 to 8 years he was in the military fighting for our security he might of had the money. He put his country ahead of himself though and this is what happens. This isnt uncommon either. The country DOES NOT TAKE CARE OF ITS MILITARY!!!! Ask the 1000 odd vietnam vets that are homeless and screwed in the head cause of the war......

reply to post by tjeffersonsghost


i agree with you. this is about as good of an example as you can get of the way our country treats our military...disgusting.

Personally I think you can judge a country by how it treats its' elderly. Unreal, in America parasitic bankers get bailed out by those who pay taxes for the next hundred years or so going by the amounts, but an old man who was probably conscripted into a war he did not want to fight in gets to freeze to death. Why shouldn't the government have a system of checks for people at risk??? It might give gainful employment to an ex-banker.

At least we don't take our elderly parents to dangerous places and push them off cliffs etc as they still do in South Korea according to a Korean I used to work with.

Here is a update for anyone who is interested...
Really the whole article should be read to get a full understanding of the impact his death has caused...
I am glad this has caused a mass outrage from people...

www.foxnews.com...

I hope I post this link right...
I am disabled and not very computer savy...
Sorry if I did this wrong...