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TechnoratiObama Can End Homeless Veterans’ Disgrace
SAN FRANCISCO - Roy Lee Brantley shivers in the cold December morning as he waits in line for food outside the Ark of Refuge mission, which sits amid warehouses and artists lofts a stone's throw from the skyscrapers of downtown San Francisco.
Brantley's beard is long, white and unkempt. The African-American man's skin wrinkled beyond his 62 years. He lives in squalor in a dingy residential hotel room with the bathroom down the hall. In some ways, his current situation marks an improvement. "I've slept in parks," he says, "and on the sidewalk. Now at least I have a room."
Like the hundreds of others in line for food, Brantley has worn the military uniform. Most, like Brantley, carry their service IDs and red, white and blue cards from the Department of Veterans Affairs in their wallets or around their necks. In 1967, he deployed to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army. By the time he left the military five years later, Brantley had attained the rank of sergeant and been decorated for his valor and for the wounds he sustained in combat.
"I risked my life for this democracy and got a Bronze Star," he says. "I shed blood for this country and got the Purple Heart after a mortar blast sent shrapnel into my face and leg. But when I came back home from Vietnam I was having problems. I tried to hurt my wife because she was Filipino. Every time I looked at her I thought I was in Vietnam again. So we broke up."
In 1973, Brantley filed a disability claim with the federal government for mental wounds sustained in combat overseas. Over the years, the Department of Veterans Affairs has denied his claim five separate times. "You go over there and risk your life for America and your mind's all messed up, America should take care of you, right," he says, knowing that for him and the other veterans in line for free food that promise has not been kept.
On any given night 200,000 U.S. veterans sleep homeless on the streets of America. One out of every four people -and one out of every three men -sleeping in a car, in front of a shop door, or under a freeway overpass has worn a military uniform. Some like Brantley have been on the streets for years. Others are young and women returning home wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan, quickly slipping through the cracks.
For each of these homeless veterans, America's promise to "Support the Troops" ended the moment he or she took off the uniform and tried to make the difficult transition to civilian life. There, they encountered a hostile and cumbersome bureaucracy set up by the Department of Veterans Affairs. In a best-case scenario, a wounded veteran must wait six months to hear back from the VA. Those who appeal a denial have to wait an average of four and a half years for their answer. In the six months leading up to March 31st of this year, nearly 1,500 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claims would be approved by the government.
There are patriotic Americans trying to solve this problem. Last month, two veterans' organizations, Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare, filed suit in federal court demanding the government decide disability claims brought by wounded soldiers within three months. Predictably, however, the VA is trying to block the effort. On December 17, their lawyers convinced Reggie Walton, a judge appointed by President Bush, who ruled that imposing a quicker deadline for payment of benefits was a task for Congress and the president-not the courts.
President-elect Barack Obama has the power to end this national disgrace. He has the power to ensure to streamline the VA bureaucracy so it helps rather than fights those who have been wounded in the line of duty. He can ensure that this latest generation of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan does not receive the bum rap the Vietnam generation got. Let 2008 be the last year thousands of homeless veterans stand in line for free food during the holiday season. Let it be the last year hundreds of thousands sleep homeless on the street.
24 Comments so far
Show AllTeddy: I like your description of things. I used to work for a govt. agency unconnected with housing, health, or welfare, but I used to mention the plight of the homeless in America, and all these young, upwardly mobile college-educated modern young women would look at me like I was some kind of rat, or sick. On the gates of Auschwitz were written the words,"Work makes you free," and on the entrance to Dachau were posted the words, "To each his own." How far, really, are we from this way of thinking? If you are long-term unemployed, according to our way of thinking, "well, that is just your fault for being a deficient human being; there are lots of veterans with jobs." It has never felt good to be cannon fodder, but that does not mean it's OK. Obama worships success too, and unemployed Black men are now going to get this moral condemnation, "See, Barrack made it, so what's wrong with you?" In this self-avowedly Christian nation, the greatest moral refrain is, "I work."
Thomas Marx:I just learned something via your comment. I only knew about the words on the entrance to Terezin. Wiki has photos of 4 gates,says same at Dachau. Why do you only mention:"upwardly mobile college-educated modern young women"looked at you like "you were crazy"? Were there no men?
I was once a college educated young woman, due to my dad having died when I was 10, and I could go on the GIBill as child of a deceased WWII vet. About the "work" thing: there are lots of New Yorkers who are working AND living in homeless shelters. Work does not mean making enough money to live on. Howard Zinn points out in "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" 2003 edition of his autobio, that his parents worked hard all their lives and were always poor. There is a myth about work. The cards are "stacked" against the poor:institutionally and raciasm is institutional,too. And the middle class are slipping....down and down...while the rich are "making out like bandits"...all humor intended.
The very nature of empire!! Even the glory that was ROME pulled every possible dirty trick to cheat her soldiers out of their retirement.. THIS IS THE MILITARY TRADITION!
How and WHY this obvious fact is not commonly known is the real mystery..
You patriots really are that dumb? How do they manage all those weapons systems, and not catch on to the way they are expendable?
They all know they're expendable. They delude themselves into believing it's for the protection of their families and the protection of America. Which is a bogus notion that is enforced by the wholly respected treatment they receive from everyone when they come home from their murder spree's.
Begone troll.
notapacifist
I’m a combat veteran and all of my friends and I live our life with post traumatic stress syndrome. The lives of everyone we have ever associated with, family, loved ones and even acquaintances have in some way been affected by this. This war as with our war (Vietnam) was initiated by the lies and deceit of a corrupt government. All our life we have been taught to be patriotic, that we live under the greatest system in the world, a government by and for the people, one nation under god. Were raised as good Christian children.Then were sent to some third world country, one inhabited by some godless people you know Communists, Muslims, Indians or the like. We go and fight our wars for god and country only to return to a country that has little or no use for it’s good Christian warriors any more. The government we so love and cherish now sees us as a liability and John Q public dispose of there support the troops magnets and now see us as those crazed vets. We spend the next thirty or so years fighting the VA for care for our cancers war wounds and depression. We watch our friends die of cancers caused by exposure to some chemical sold to our government for use on these godless lands, and we watch the corporations responsible shirk there responsibilities only to make the public foot the bill. We spend the years after our wars studying, trying to find the reason for our war only to realize it was a war for profit. The profit of people whose children never have to fight these wars. We finally realize that all of our wars have been for the profit of these people, the same people that are stealing the natural resources from every country we conquer, control or occupy. The same people we elect to govern this fine country, and the cause and reason we have terrorism. Finally we realize the cause of our post traumatic stress syndrome, and as long as the people that perpetrate this are allowed to continue unpunished our lives have and will continue to be a lie.
Sir, I agree with EKATON.
You are right in so many ways I can't count them and yet I ask you not to give up on America yet. Most Americans do care, you should see how the guys that come thru DFW are welcomed back. Not like what we got. And these aren't Support Our Troopps" right wingers, most heartily oppose these rotten wars, but support the folks that have to go.
Most of the neglect is because of ignorance of the problem and the corporate bastards you so rightly blame. And the rest of the blame lies with us for electing scum like Cheney and allowing him to employ Rumsfield. There are a few things you said that I don't agree with, but just a few.
You said you were a combat veteran, so you know better than most here that we should never fight except as the last resort and certainly never without being attacked or in VERY imminent danger of being attacked.
I wish you well and I think this guy will help. Happy New Year brother.
vietvet:I am so sorry for your pain. I think it is good that you posted your comment. I wish you and your fellow/sister veterans as good a New Year as possible. Know that many of us have not forgotten you. We marched for you then, when we could march, and people shall still fight for your rights, while you (and we, who are disabled and not veterans)are fighting for your rights, and surving, as we all do as can. "Real life" comments are worth a great deal to those of us who are not veterans.
I hardly saw my disabled WWII vet dad (who had enlisted when I was a baby):he was immediately disabled in boot camp, in and out of VA hospitals, only once near home, and he died in one right after my 10th birthday. I have only a few memories of him, but they are wonderful:listening to the Brooklyn Dodgers basesball game on the radio as he sat in bed and some Saturdays, the opera on the radio.
Before he got too ill to be physical, he'd put me on the handlebars of his bike, or in a basket (when a pedestrian yelled at him in re safety; I was about 3)and ride me around the neighborhood. He was a mailman, graduated from high school and liked opera. He'd been in the National Guard before WWII. He felt patriotic. Obviously, my views about war were developed as I learned that war is a lie. I am not yet a pacifist. Howard Zinn has some good books on it. Good wishes to you.
Most eloquent. This is exactly the message that we need to get to potential new enlistees before they sign up. They are victims of a dumbed down education system and demagogic propaganda.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
They gave their all. We owe them everything we can give them.
Though we all oppose the war, I hope we can all agree to support these brave warriors.
Remember, the troops had no choice but to follow orders. They didn't ask for this war. Blame Bush. But don't blame these courageous American heroes.
General Eric Shinseki has a formidable task in front of him; as mistreating veterans is as American as apple pie. From Revolutionary War veterans land grants being sold to speculators to pay war debts to the Bonus March of 1932, among other things, the USA has regularly pissed on it's former soldiers. The cavalier attitude of Dubya, Cheney, & Co. was merely another more obnoxious example of just how little America's patrician class really value those who bleed to make them rich.
www.wunderman-comics.com
what about the non veteran homeless mentally ill, physically impaired, children, etc.?
i worked with the mentally ill for years. its extremely difficult to get them adequate care & many end up living on the streets. you and i see them every day. talk to someone in law enforcement about how many of these people are inmates at the county jails or prisons.
many categories of people are affected by homelessness . veterans deserve no more preferential treatment than the others.
ps.... i sympathize with mr brantley, but he didn't "risk his life for this democracy." he risked his life for corporate america.
You have a good point. And a lot of it came in the eighties when they cut funding for State mental hospitals. Medicaid takes care of most of the kids and it shouldn't be too hard to help the others. But these items are decided state to state.
Yes veterans do deserve what they were promised, a functioning VA that gives them the care they need.
"ps.... i sympathize with mr brantley, but he didn't "risk his life for this democracy." he risked his life for corporate america."
You are incorrect, Mr. Brantley risked his life for America, he dosen't give a crap about Corporate America.
joel109:can't you turn the language a little bit to:many people are homeless and all deserve a home. I find the term "preferential treatment" a kind of buzz word that I've only heard from a Republican pal with the same physical illness that I have. I do not think you meant to adopt the concept, she was using as "divide and conquer" stuff. And, those of us who are disabled, prefer the term "disabled" to "impaired". Happy New Year. I wish more people knew disabled people. Aaron Glantz was making a point.
It's not the "veterans' disgrace;" it's a national disgrace. One appointee will not have any chance at changing this UNLESS the VA gets its funding tripled, at minimum, along with its staffing and assets, which BushCo and Congress has cut almost every year.
I know Aaron Glantz' work from Pacifica Network (www.pacifica.org) and from his interviews on the radio network's NYC station, www.wbai.org (my favorite radio station;I don't "do" tv). He's been on DemocracyNow.
When I go outside of my home, I must use a wheelchair. I speak to people asking for money on the street. (Naturally gregarious, I am not threatening as an older wheelchair user.) Some of the people I have met and spoken with, are homeless vets. One guy was at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42St.; it was summer. He showed me his veteran's ID tag, pinned to his chest. He was a wheelchair user, also and disabled from Vietnam. he was confused, but pleasant.
I met a guy who was/is a wheelchair user on the corner of 34th and Sixth Ave., diagonally across from Macy's "the world's largest department store" (where it's hell to go above the main floor as a wheelchair user..crowded elevators....same with other big stores...I attempted it only twice...). He was a younger veteran. Didn't want to take my cash. I said it made me feel better, so he took it. Wasn't much. We talked about how rough it is being "outside". Our society is not friendly to veterans, disabled (visibly or disability not "showing") or disabled people in general. (Unintentional pun, but it "works".) Do generals do better as veterans? Good luck to us all in the USA.
America is a country that has no respect for people. period.
what "america" respects is the "SHINING" armour, the GLORIOUS, the "upwardly mobile" , the POWER, ...but not those that are "losers" , or "weak", or "victims (they are at fault)" of ITS cruelties,
where soldiers are concerned -- america GLORIFIES them as they are TEMPTED to "join the military and be all you can be" as POTENTIAL KILLERS with their shining guns and belts and big tanks and missiles, BRISTLING with the WARLIKENESS of "america the great" - as its :"storm troopers"....
ONCE they have been USED UP -- they are NOTHING.
just like ONCE the OLD are USED UP or the workers break their backs in jobs -- they ARE NOTHING.....
America is like that. America is nothing more than a place and constellation of pretend "states" and "institutions" that glorifies greed, selfishness, "success", and "citizens who love america"
as glorified servants who will be sacrificed in its ALTAR of greed, capitalism , blood and WARS.
America is a country that sacrifices people for Power, Money, and Bloody Wars.
that's.........about .........it.
it appears quite clear now -- the GOOD things about america are the ABERRANT exceptions...they happen like ACCIDENTS rather than by design DESPITE the inherently EVIL nature lurking beyind the shiny "idea" of america itself.
Happy New Year to you Teddy. I'm happy to tell you you are mostly wrong about America and Americans in my opinion and dead wrong about soldiers. In fact, in my opinion the world is about to find out what its like without us in some places.
But keep on thinking, posting, and maybe it won't look so negative to you by the end of next year, lets hope so. I know I've changed some of my opinions over the last year thanks to all you guys.
I'm with NYCartist on Zinn's book, there are some really good points in it. Take a look if you would.
teddy: we are "America",too. Howard Zinn points out in "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train", 2003 edition, Boston:Beacon Press, his autobio/memoir, there have always been good people during very bad times. He says it better. While we are typing our anger and frustration, and making suggestions, we can also work on ways to make things better. If you only read his introduction, you'll like it. The book is a kind of handbook for social change, when it's the story of his life to the point he wrote it. He also says that we never know what some thing we do will have influence on others.
I am feeling "out of words" as Ali Abunimah titled his article on CD, but when rested, refreshed, the anger will turn into doing whatever small thing(s) I can. With luck, art.
Arun Gandhi tells the story of his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi telling him, when the youngster was telling grandfather, after moving in with him in India, how he'd been enraged at being beat up in South Africa for being "colored". Grandfather Gandhi said, "take your anger, put it into a notebook and when you can, figure out how to do something positive with it.". Happy New Year teddy. I have read your comments often (when not too too long; my problem with length) and you seem like a person worth my time in replying to.
I believe General Shishensky will indeed clean up the mess at the VA.
It is disgraceful that these veterans should go without or be ignored by people that should know better.
God bless you for offering your money to that kid. The shame is that he needed it, not that he took it.
I can assure you that none of the Generals are homeless.
While the generals might not be homeless they will surely die of cancer or heart disease or doctors error or alzheimers or some other common ill that is a symptom of the financial dominance that is being intently wrought on this society.
Wasn't he the same general who was kicked out for warning the Bush guys about bad strategy planning in Iraq? I hear he predicted that the US would be bogged down and that more troops would be needed. I'd sure like to know his current predictions. :)
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Thats him. He told them what they didn't want to hear and all of a sudden, he was out. It was disgraceful.
Obama has already proved the path to doing so. He selected General Shishensky to head the VA and repair it. Give it some time and chance.
Sorry about my misspelling.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota