Comments on: 131,000 homeless vets now: how many more will Obama add?

By: Bobbie

Bobbie — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:36:29 +0000

I realize that this is posted because of the escalation, but I must add…… when we divide homeless people into categories, it is us homeless people who suffer the consequences.

ALL HOMELESS PEOPLE DESERVE TO HAVE HOMES!

Continuing to have pet groups of more deserving homeless people just keeps the whole process going, and pleases those who are dividing us in this way.

By: Garry Davis

Garry Davis — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:47:06 +0000

I’m a vet of WWII. B-17 bomber pilot. Brother killed at Salerno. Shot down over Peenemunde August 24, 1944. Interned in Sweden. Returned to US, retrained as a pilot instructor. Was teaching West Point cadets when the bomb went off at Hiroshima, then Nagasaki. Shock…and intense inner humiliation. “My” country killed 92,000 men, women and children with 1 bomb….to “win” a war. Talk about PTSD. I had it, in spades. Then the “Cold War” startewd between “my” country and the Soviet Union. “They’re starting all over again,” I thought, “but now with atomic bombs. I want OUT! I’M NOT PLAYING THIS GAME ANYMORE!” Now 61 years later, as I read the comments above, I am astounded at the TOTAL IGNORANCE of the cause of war itself. Vets of war, I thought, had both the right and duty to MAKE PEACE once they get rid of their uniforms. BUT “making WORLD peace” requires CLAIMING A HIGHER CITIZENSHIP THAN THE NATIONAL WHICH IS OBVIOUSLY A WAR CITIZENSHIP. (Read: “national defense,” a deadly oxymoron in the Nuclear Age) FELLOW HUMANS, HUMANITY IS IN DANGER OF DISAPPEARING! THAT MEANS YOU! Einstein said it first: “If we don’t eliminate war, war will eliminate us.” He died advocating world government. So did hundreds of wise men before him going back to Socrates. Yes, I declared myself a “World Citizen” in 1948 after renouncing nationalism. Want a historic example? The 55 men who gathered in a hall in Philadelphia in 1787 and IMAGINED a whole new government ABOVE the ones which claimed their separate allegiances. GUESS WHAT? IT MADE PEACE BETWEEN THEM. Want a modern sanction for world citizenship? Art 21(3), Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “The will of the people shall be the basis for the authority of government.” A word to the wise….Enough already.

By: Daniel O'Leary

Daniel O'Leary — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:45:25 +0000

Check out this story about a CNN hero giving shelter to homeless vets: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/19/heroes.roy.foster/index.html

By: Dave Belden

Dave Belden — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:40:54 +0000

Fair point. I can go with that. But from a longer perspective I also feel strongly that the Left itself has failed. Crying out loudly is not necessarily effective, or all that’s needed. If we want to win, we have to learn some deeper lessons. A couple of my posts describe what I mean better than I can do here:
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2009/10/12/the-left-easily-misled-or-still-deeply-disillusioned/
and http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2009/05/08/why-spirituality-is-needed-in-politics/

By: JustJack

JustJack — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:53:21 +0000

This framing really stuck in my craw: who are trying to heal wounds that should never have been inflicted and that we know are now going to be inflicted because of our failure to hold back this President, a man we thought had a better imagination than Bush about the consequences of war.

How is it “our” failure when we’ve done everything short of shutting down the nation to get President Obama to listen to reason and his heart rather than his incompetent General? (Esp. given that “shutting down the nation” is proving to be an ever more elusive prospect given contemporary police-state conditions, the corporate numbing/anesthesia effect on the populace, and the fiscal crises that force people to choose going to work over national strikes for a cause) When a person refuses to hear, and hear very LOUD numerous voices practically screaming at him on a daily basis, it is not the fault or “failure” of the voices crying out. It is the failure of the person who is refusing to hear (or choosing to only listen to what he wants to hear).

We cross into very dangerous ideological territory when we accept “blame” or responsibility for someone’s shortcomings just because we like them (or even like them as a lesser-of-two-evils). For me, this is akin to giving someone the benefit of the doubt and doing so on crack. It’s not helpful at all. This is where that healthy notion of personal responsibility comes in. You can drag a horse to water but you cannot make ‘em drink… if I can toss up some more clichés I will, but I need breakfast first.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:05:11 +0000

Interesting stats. As the spouse of a Canadian vet who just returned from Afghanistan, I probably understand a little better than many about the sacrifices Soldiers make in Combat and the difficulties in adapting to “normal” life once again. The injuries do not need to be visible on the outside to cripple ones existance. It is a noteworthy point to make that while the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have produced more PTSD and traumatic brain injury, these types of injuries were not recognized in prior conflicts and only recently have become recognized and addressed. I hope the family and friends of all the soldiers who return understand how important it is to support them in every way and be patient in helping them “find their way back home”.