Homeless Veterans: A United States Black Eye

HanzHenry

Auricom
reply to post by semperfortis

 

And all the while the U.S. is sending millions upon millions overseas as "gifts". Give me a break! Washington needs to go. Obama needs to go. Everyone there needs to go.

As long as the U.S. has homeless children, vets and others, no money should be sent anywhere.

People may one day realize... the enemy is NOT off in a foreign land.. the enemy is the billionaires!

rich vs. poor... yet all forget this.

the aid money is bribes to those overseas so that the corps can screw people over there for a profit also.

The world would be a much better place if all multi millionaires and their heirs did not EXIST

There are a lot of problems, both with vets and civilians, if we could somehow end the lust for money and power in the human race.

I have always been proud of the time I have served in the military, and fortunately have faced only small challenges. I receive healthcare from the VA, and with the dealings I have had with them so far, I give them a big thumbs up. There is help out there for vets, just not enough, and as a vet you actually have to seek that help. Those whose minds are sidetracked by drugs and alcohol, or mental torment, could benefit from the help, unfortunately many are so lost, they are hard to seek out and bring into the protective fold that could be provided.

reply to post by C1assified


Well! We had a nice parade up here today.

reply to post by semperfortis


Semper,

I started a thread yesterday about what I do in my community for homeless veterans I will U2U you as well with other details but Please check out my thread I believe you will be like WTF about what you see


Homeless Veterans 2013

U2U Sent when you read it you will know why I just didnt post here

The way we treat our vets, and we still willingly give our kids to the meat grinder that we call the "service".
Service to the corporations...
Very sad.

Looking at the problem it is easy to wonder how the very government that routinely spends billions of dollars of tax payer money on a warship or airplane, can stand by and not take an active role in fixing this nationwide disgrace. It is sadly far more complicated than that.

Semper, it's been a while since we've talked here, but I have to say that what you've written hits the core of the problems right spot on. I feels that you have exactly what someone would NEED to have to begin the change that is needed for our homeless veterans.

I know that if you had an unlimited amount of money, you'd be buying houses and apartment buildings just to help house the homeless vets.

I have great respect for you, and totally relate to the PTSD, but just always know that in this life, you've done exactly what you were supposed to do at the exact time it was supposed to be done. For me, accepting that concept has helped me deal with the scary memories of, well, the past.

edit on 11 11 2013 by Divine Strake because: (no reason given)

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reply to post by semperfortis


I know a vet and she told me the help is there if you need it- but it is up to you to seek it out. They are not going to come knock on your door and force you to accept medical treatment.

Sal

reply to post by SallieSunshine


Well I not only know a vet, I am a vet and I can tell you the help that is out there is not what is needed and not enough of what is...

The simple fact is the government, AKA Politicians, could care less about the men and women that stood and defended this nation as long as their reelection campaigns are going well.

There is little if any of the following

Counseling
Job Training
Education Funding
Prescription Money
ETC ETC

When we are looking at homeless vets in the tens of thousands, there is a problem..

American taxpayers have unwittingly paid more than $150 million to companies throughout the Middle East that are known to have helped finance terrorist attacks on US soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, according to a new internal US government report.

At least 43 companies based in Afghanistan were found to have ties to terrorist networks according to findings by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the leading US oversight authority on reconstruction in Afghanistan. SIGAR’s report seems to suggest that the very groups being targeted by the US through counter-insurgency operations sometimes become the beneficiaries of the federal government through contracted work.

“It’s like the United states government is subsidizing the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, the Haqqani network, those groups that are trying to shoot and kill our soldiers,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a member of the Senate’s Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, told ABC News. Sheehan was among a group of senators who wrote a letter to the Army in 2012 “expressing concern about where US dollars were going.

rt.com...

there's your problem

SallieSunshine
reply to post by semperfortis

 

I know a vet and she told me the help is there if you need it- but it is up to you to seek it out. They are not going to come knock on your door and force you to accept medical treatment.

Sal

yeah the help is there.. lol

as long as the only help you need is a medicine cabinet full of pills!

and maybe 5% of the VA doctors are even AMERICAN..

I have had VA doctors who could NOT speak ENGLISH better than a 3 year old!

I recently said the same thing.

We are only useful while we are active and once we become inactive we are worthless because we focus our attention on more pressing matters other then fighting THEIR wars. When it comes time to face our own demons or fight our own wars, the government all but turns their back on us while spouting their PC dribble about supporting all of us.

I recently found out that a man I pass every monday, wednesday and friday morning is a homeless Vet. I have forsaken my last 4 math classes to take this man to breakfast. Yesterday I picked him up and went to the nearest Wally World and got him some clothing. Then we went to the nearest truck stop so he could shower up and we went to Chili's for a Veteran's day lunch.

It is quite shameful how we treat Veterans. A sugar coated shell whit crap on the inside

Carreau
I would just like to add two things here.

1. It takes more than just a bumper sticker to "Support our Troops".

2. In the movie "Goon" actor Liev Schreiber says: "Everybody loves a soldier until he comes home and stops fighting"

Just think about it for a second.

reply to post by semperfortis


Welcome to the grind Semper.

Bootcamp does something to peoples minds and then life in the service is so unstable.

I know a lot of friends suffer depression after the service, Navy, Marine, everything. Its more then combat related.

ExNavy myself.

reply to post by semperfortis


IMHO most of society needs to see these people in a negative way because to see them as they actually
are would cause many of us to feel guilty! It's easier for our consciences to believe that it's all their faults
for being out on the street and the same is true for most other aspects of our society! If we actually
believed that these people were suffering through no fault of their own then we might actually have to do
something about it or feel guilty for not! This is the easiest way for most! It was the same back in the days
of slavery when most thought blacks were inferior to the white race and therefore akin to animals who are
better off living as slaves then as free individuals who may otherwise be starving in the streets or worse!
I believe that most of what is wrong with our society has to do with our social system but this is just my opinion
and what do I know!

I have been saying it for years that too much is being spent on hardware and not enough for the servicemen. How many aircraft carriers, stealth fighters and stealth bombers, how many nukes, how many foreign military bases, how much aid money to religious extremist nations?

The two big political parties spend an awful lot of money on the wrong things.

reply to post by EarthCitizen07


reminds me of some thing along the lines of we spend a billion dollars for the drone or stealth aircraft, a couple million for the bombs or rockets, and blow up a tent. It is a strange and absurd state of affairs. Again I urge everyone to deal with the homeless starting in a community based project, it really does work and it really strengthens a community.

semperfortis

I have asked myself again and again how our elected representatives cannot be actively preparing legislation to help our vets as each day they walk by the homeless on their way to and from their jobs in Washington DC. Yet they remain strangely quiet about this national ailment.

Semper,

Two quotes from my father on this one.

"Because none of them MF ever served a day in their lives, and most likely 99% have never seen combat."

" The commander and chief of the United States, should have served at least 4 years military service, if not they shouldn't be allowed to run for office."

I had a few more, but I would probably get banned for posting them.

I know I do a lot of bitching about the direction of the US and what their mandate is exactly.
But on this front I agree this is wrong on all levels I wonder how the public cannot see it?

The Canadian government recently announced they are closing 16 Veterans affairs offices and probably more to go.

www.ctvnews.ca...

I am still firm in my stance of being anti war but for those who choose or are forced to go for whatever reasons please treat them a bit better than a piece of garbage.

I do believe it will be sooner than later and all the public with see the writing on the wall.
That goes for every Militarized country in the world, with the internet people are stating to use their peeps and hopefully their brains too.

I really wish your veterans all the best there in the US and that comes from my heart.
Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by semperfortis


First military service does not make you a hero. You served in the volunteer military. Service today is being way over milked. This generation seems to think they have a lock on the word hero. The hero's I have known are mostly dead.

If you served and paid a price you deserve our unending support. If you served, came home, and are unemployed, get over it, life is tough.

Gratitude is fine. No one here owes you anything. If you get sucked down a bottle or hooked on a drug it is your own problem. Suck it up. This is America, we all pay a price at one time or another, we all struggle.

I can only imagine what the response to this will be but reality hurts. Be a man and move on.

AnotherSorryGuy
reply to post by semperfortis

 

First military service does not make you a hero. You served in the volunteer military. Service today is being way over milked. This generation seems to think they have a lock on the word hero. The hero's I have known are mostly dead.

If you served and paid a price you deserve our unending support. If you served, came home, and are unemployed, get over it, life is tough.

Gratitude is fine. No one here owes you anything. If you get sucked down a bottle or hooked on a drug it is your own problem. Suck it up. This is America, we all pay a price at one time or another, we all struggle.

I can only imagine what the response to this will be but reality hurts. Be a man and move on.

I know quite a few marine 0321s and 11s and other teamates in navspecwar that would disagree with your over milked comment if you served I appreciate your service but in my opinion I think everything you said was pretty misguided. It wasnt the poet that gives you your right to speech, Its the warfighter

Much respect
Bman

reply to post by semperfortis


I am one of those veterans you are talking about. I was lucky enough to get invited to a church that had a bunch of organizations that were helping the poor, by an illegal Latina friend who was going to see if she could get some assistance with school supplies for her daughter. There was a representative there from the Veterans Administration. He asked me if I was in the service during the Vietnam War. I said yes, I had served ten years in the U.S. Army Chemical Corp and he said he thought that I could be helped. He had me fill out some papers. I told him I had tried to get some help in the past, but the VA didn't do anything to help me. He said this time he was sure they would. One month later I started receiving a pension from the military and it kept me from becoming homeless. I have been given great care by the VA Hospital, and I am better than I have been for a long time. Although I probably won't be able to work again because I have a muscle wasting disease, I know I won't be living on the streets until it finally effects my heart and kills me. I'm really happy to see you have a kind heart and feel for the others out there who don't know how to get assistance. I have saw guys claiming to be veterans trying to play on peoples kindness. I saw one guy wearing desert camo with a sign saying he was a veteran. He was about 60 years old and they didn't have desert camo then. God bless you for bringing this to peoples attention.

reply to post by semperfortis


I'm not sure what the answer is.

But there are many issues in this country that stem from our long, long history of ignoring mental health.

Everything from the current gun debate to the debate over homeless vets. Many of these issues stem from visible tragedies whose root we elect to sidestep.

The answer to both from government seems to be "throw money at it", or "write a new law". In the case of homeless veterans that can be dangerous. As many times the solution of "throw money at it" goes to support the disaster that is the VA. They have an enormous backlog and a highly paid staff to keep it that way. Throwing money at it does not seem to be a solution, and it never actually has. The VA DOES help people, but MANY people who are dependent on the VA cannot get the help they seek in a timely manner. Many of these people wind up on the streets with mental health issues that go untreated, ergo, their ability to function in society is stunted. The "write a new law" approach is really the only other method the government can offer. The unfortunate part of this is that you cannot legislate people into mental health and financial stability, the other side of this is that many homeless vets are distrustful of government for good reason. They are told their rights will be taken away if they seek help for their illness. It's like being punished over and over again for sustaining life long injuries in service to the very people who are now injuring them.

I hate to say it, but I don't think government is the key here. Organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project have been making remarkable strides helping wounded and homeless vets. They are also a GREAT resource for getting through the backlog at the VA, or finding alternatives to the VA. What is great is that there are other organizations like the WWP who cater specifically to homeless vets. These are the types of organizations we the people should be funding and encouraging to do more.

Every time we give government money and encourage them to do more they screw the very people we asked them to help while wasting the money we gave them to do it with.