What Have YOU Done Lately For Our Veterans?

Yes, this is a challenge.

What have YOU done lately to help your local Veterans?

These are the young men and women who go off to war, to fight our country's battles, and come home again. Some of them were in the National Guard. They NEVER expected to go overseas, the National Guard was meant for homeland security. The government changed the rules on them, so they too went off to Iraq.

(I have major issues about the legality as well as the morality of sending the National Guard overseas -- but I digress...)

Yes, they're welcomed back, but you know, none of us (except other Veterans) really know or understand what they've gone through.

We don't understand the thousand mile stare. We don't understand the hypervigilance. We don't understand the reasons why they try to forget...

What have YOU done to help Veterans?

These are the victims of US policy, of international politics, of war.

There is a long history of Veterans not being able to cope with the changes in their minds, hearts, spirits when they came home again. Not just Vietnam, this has happened after EVERY war, every police action, every single time!

I know what I do.

I work with a Stand Down group.

I'm already working (behind the scenes) on the 2008 North Bay Stand Down, held every October at the Dixon Fairgrounds in Dixon, California. I'm fortunate that my job allows me to do this on company time, that my employer is completely vested in the success of this event.

What do we do? We set up a three-day encampment for homeless and at-risk Veterans, to hook them up with both VA and County services. Our focus counties are Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo. We also include any other Veterans who choose to participate. Last year, Lake County's Veterans began attending our Stand Down.

We set up tents, we register the Veterans, we get medical, dental, eye, and mental health services for them. We have entertainment. We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have Court, with real judges who volunteer to come and help our men and women resolve lingering court issues.

We WORK to benefit the lives of our Veterans, who have not just sacrificed their physical and mental health in service to our country, they've all too often lost their family, friends, jobs and homes.

Living under a bridge is not a fitting reward for someone who fought for the freedoms that you and I enjoy.

What have YOU done lately for our Veterans? And perhaps more to the point, what have your local politicians, members of the House and Senate, done for our Veterans? The people we voted for, have they followed the will of the people? Or are they deciding for us, without listening to our concerns, our opinions, our viewpoints?

What have we all done lately for our Veterans?

Links:
SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/19/national/a100217S53.DTL&tsp=1
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans: http://www.nchv.org/standdownevents.cfm
California Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.cdva.ca.gov/Resources/Homeless.aspx
North Bay Stand Down: www.northbaystanddown.blogspot.com and www.northbaystanddown.org