I love your blog! I'm a retired Army intel gal with tours in both IZ and AF. My first husband and father to my first two boys died by suicide in 2007 days before I left for the CIOC and my oldest son and I served together (in different units) in Afghanistan. Your content resonates deeply.
I would ask the VEEPS about their vision for helping unhoused veterans in big cities that are now making it a crime to sleep in public places. This summer, the Supreme Court ruled that these cities can indeed arrest, fine, imprison and punish homeless and unhoused American citizens (including veterans, of course) for sleeping on public property. Right now, this is a fairly sizable problem for California and eight other western states, but as the veterans of our generation (many with moral injuries) age-I expect we will see increasing numbers of them become unhoused as a result of their combat-related moral injuries and resulting mental health concerns. It's already a crime to sleep on private property, and now it can be a crime to sleep on public property. What is the plan to help veterans who find themselves in this situation?
Love your questions... I have a few for both sides:
1) Despite over 20 years of war why has there been no systematic training of service organizations across communities to help understand veterans issues? Not all veterans live close to VAs and schools, hospitals, mental health facilities etc have not been well trained to help veterans and their families. Some of us have been advocating this for years.
2) Why can we not hire veterans in large numbers across our states where veteran populations are large to find and do outreach to other veterans to get them in to service and or enroll them in services. Sure Texas has such a network but it can't reach all of them but it can help us find them.
3) Why can we not hold anyone accountable in the military for their failures in Afghanistan and Iraq? That would help us with moral injury. As well as have Town Halls across our country to listen to our veterans so they feel more a part of communities and cared for.
4) Why can we not form a "Marshall Plan" for helping our veterans and bring together corporate America, federal, state and nonprofits to tackle some of our biggest issues.
I could go on and on because I am just getting warmed up but I will stop now.
I’m all about Katherine’s question 3: how is it possible that after 3 years there has been no reasonable explanation of the disastrous withdrawal. Why does no one speak to the harm (moral injury) this caused so many? Why does no one acknowledge or at least recognize the work done by those who helped rescue so many Afghans that we left behind? Can we at least start a program to care for those who made it here safely?
I love your blog! I'm a retired Army intel gal with tours in both IZ and AF. My first husband and father to my first two boys died by suicide in 2007 days before I left for the CIOC and my oldest son and I served together (in different units) in Afghanistan. Your content resonates deeply.
I would ask the VEEPS about their vision for helping unhoused veterans in big cities that are now making it a crime to sleep in public places. This summer, the Supreme Court ruled that these cities can indeed arrest, fine, imprison and punish homeless and unhoused American citizens (including veterans, of course) for sleeping on public property. Right now, this is a fairly sizable problem for California and eight other western states, but as the veterans of our generation (many with moral injuries) age-I expect we will see increasing numbers of them become unhoused as a result of their combat-related moral injuries and resulting mental health concerns. It's already a crime to sleep on private property, and now it can be a crime to sleep on public property. What is the plan to help veterans who find themselves in this situation?
Hey Sage - would you be open to writing an article about that?
Sure! I probably can't get to that before Labor Day, but if that's not too late, I'd be delighted!
Love your questions... I have a few for both sides:
1) Despite over 20 years of war why has there been no systematic training of service organizations across communities to help understand veterans issues? Not all veterans live close to VAs and schools, hospitals, mental health facilities etc have not been well trained to help veterans and their families. Some of us have been advocating this for years.
2) Why can we not hire veterans in large numbers across our states where veteran populations are large to find and do outreach to other veterans to get them in to service and or enroll them in services. Sure Texas has such a network but it can't reach all of them but it can help us find them.
3) Why can we not hold anyone accountable in the military for their failures in Afghanistan and Iraq? That would help us with moral injury. As well as have Town Halls across our country to listen to our veterans so they feel more a part of communities and cared for.
4) Why can we not form a "Marshall Plan" for helping our veterans and bring together corporate America, federal, state and nonprofits to tackle some of our biggest issues.
I could go on and on because I am just getting warmed up but I will stop now.
(I think I've been asking for an article)
Love your thoughts and questions !
I’m all about Katherine’s question 3: how is it possible that after 3 years there has been no reasonable explanation of the disastrous withdrawal. Why does no one speak to the harm (moral injury) this caused so many? Why does no one acknowledge or at least recognize the work done by those who helped rescue so many Afghans that we left behind? Can we at least start a program to care for those who made it here safely?
Great piece. Until next time.