I've just read an outstanding article in the Minneapolis
Star Tribune
that really awakens a sense of shame about how the US government is treating its veterans. This is specially outrageous because Americans are used to listen, view and read repeated statements about how proud US citizens and residents are on account of these young boys and girls risking their lives in the service of their country.
Jeff Holmstrom, a 33-year-old Staff Sergeant in the Minnesota National Guard who spent months job hunting after returning from his second deployment, said to the Star Tribune that
“You run into sergeant majors and lieutenant colonels who did 26 years in the military and have college educations, but yet you see them at a job fair looking for work.”
Sadly, he is refering to the 23% of unemployed Minnesota vets.
Another case in point is Army Capt. Andrew McLean, who longed to return to his native Minnesota after combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan but has not been able to find a job.
Tens of thousands of veterans find no help from their government to find deserved stability in a working and productive life in their own country. The Star Tribune goes on to say that
"unlike a generation of Americans who returned home from World War II to a country flush with optimism and opportunity, the 5 million veterans in the days since Sept. 11" are facing a bleak future.
It is in fact outrageous how often one finds homeless people, missing a limb, with worn-out clothing and asking for a dollar or queuing a line for a free lunch who happen to be not only destitute but having the proud credentials of their unselfish military service for the United States that no one seems to recognize.
"After a decade of war, we've gotten into the routine of thinking that thanking a soldier in an airport" is fulfilling our obligation as Americans, said Mike Haynie, executive director of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University and an Air Force veteran.
"If we truly embraced our citizenship responsibility, from small business to Fortune 500 companies, there is some level of obligation that we should assume to this generation of veterans as they return home."
It is an issue Pres. Obama has proposed addressing in his latest jobs plan: reducing barriers to certification and licensing and allowing skills learned in the military to be applied to the civilian world, but it is still waiting to happen. For many veterans it is already too late.
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