Yesterday afternoon I was heading to campus and saw across the way a huge pile of belongings and an old man standing next to them under a bridge.
There were garbage bags full of clothes, a packed dresser, and all manner of evidence that he had his entire life under there to him
Something told me to head over and talk with him.
Turns out he was a decorated Vietnam veteran and he'd just been evicted. He'd fallen on hard times. This elderly man had no family and nowhere else to go. Here's a guy who risked his life fighting yet another war on foreign soil, yet had no one to look out for him.
Here's where my coursework paid off. With my connections in the helping community, I was able to find a place for him in one of the last beds available. We helped him gather his things so he wouldn't be hassled by the police for vagrancy, because as we all know, being poor shouldn't be a crime.
But there are so many more homeless military veterans just in our area alone. Living under bridges, in broken-down abandoned houses, and sleeping rough. Luckily, this winter has been a mild one so far, so thank God for that.
Turning our backs on our brave servicemen and women is one of the things that animate me on Twitter. We spend tens of billions of dollars a year supporting other countries, yet we won't take care of our own veterans.
We have an astonishing number of military bases around the world, over 750 foreign bases and counting. We hand out taxpayer money like candy, taking sides in foreign wars. Give corrupt governments funds for "development" to help their people, which end up going in the leader's pockets. Yet we won't help the American men and women who've risked their lives proudly serving our nation.
It reminds me of how surprised I was when we headed out for deployment in the Navy, to find out how short of supplies we were. Our ship often had to defer much-needed maintenance and rarely had a complete stock of ammo for instance in case the SHTF.
This was the case all over the navy. I assumed they took care of the military. I was wrong.
From the CDC:
"A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host."
I remember again when I was told about how many American troops we STILL have stationed overseas. Over 100,000 service members in Europe alone (and this was BEFORE the current conflict). That there were military bases which we had to actually lease from foreign governments. In effect, we had to pay to protect them. Crazy, right?
I remember the American students being accosted when I lived in Germany for the decisions of the US President. Pointing at us and blaming us for actions he'd taken.
I pushed right back: "The President doesn't call me when he's about to do something controversial. If you have a problem with the President, call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1111 or Congress. I don't make the decisions, because if it were up to me, there'd be no US troops in your country over 70 years after the end of World War 2, and you'd be footing the bill for your OWN defense."
Don't get me started.
It's weird. When we try to stay out of other nations affairs, they call us "protectionist" and say we're ignoring our global obligations (what global obligations?). If we intervene, they say we're acting as if we're the world's police.
You can't win no matter what you do.
Many people don't realize that we STILL have US troops stationed in the UK and have since WW2, based on the Status of Forces Agreement. The British military bases are leased by the US. In other words, we pay the UK for the privilege of defending them. I thought they were paying US, but no, we pay to protect THEM from Russia and China. Crazy isn't it?
It's like defending your next door neighbor from a bully and having him charge you for it. This is repeated all over the world, with American taxpayers (you and me), funding it all...
Today, it seems as if our leaders care more about the citizens of other countries than they do about our own.
At the heart of it, my concern is for homeless US military veterans and those living in poverty, full stop.
So you can see why I get passionate about handing out largess overseas while leaving our precious veterans right here, in America, to rot.
I can't be worried about fixing other countries problems when we have so many pressing issues right here at home. If you've read this far, I'll ask you for one thing: Reach out and help a homeless military veteran today and let's start taking care of our own for a change.
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Image Credit: [1] @EverNoticeThat Created using Canva.
