Final Word: How do we allow veterans to sink so low?
Nov 11, 2013, 11:21 PM
If you were new to the United States of America, and you looked around Monday, you would sure think we honored our veterans in this country.
You can’t look very far without seeing an offer for a free meal, a free haircut or car wash, special loan rates and discount car services. Flags are flying and the parades down Main Street, USA are hard to miss. And that’s the way it should be.
But on any given night in Arizona, there are more than 1,600 homeless vets living on the streets. And of the more than two million Americans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, nearly 30 percent suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
One Army doctor quoted by the Wall Street Journal said the number of soldiers returning from war ALREADY on powerful narcotics is staggering. Often, when these vets seek help for the addiction to medicines, they are given a different prescription, worsening the problem. Can’t we do a little better?
I have to admit, I get a little skeptical when I see one individual after another on the corner holding a sign with the words “homeless” and “vet” on it. It’s not that I don’t believe them, on the contrary, I KNOW its probably true.
It’s that I can’t believe a country like the United States of America could let it’s service men and women get so low.
