November 28, 2011 - America honors the men and women who fight for their nation. Ads beckon the young to join the armed forces and see the world. We provide training, decent pay, benefits, the best in uniforms and equipment. Soldiers are applauded when they are seated on airplanes, honored at athletic events, celebrated — as they should be — by leaders of both parties. And if they are killed in action, we provide not only benefits for the surviving family, but a funeral with honors and pageantry.We love our soldiers. But our veterans not so much. Veterans receive health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs and subsidies for education and training through the modern GI Bill, passed by the Democratic Congress under George Bush. President Obama has pushed for tax breaks to give employers incentives to hire veterans. Michelle Obama has championed private efforts to employ vets. But we aren’t meeting the challenges they face.
Eighteen veterans commit suicide each day; more than 30 attempt to do so.
Twenty-two percent of veterans under 25 are unemployed.
Veterans are 50 percent more likely to be homeless than other Americans.
Alarming numbers end up with drug habits that land them in jail.
Many soldiers come to the military from poor and working-class homes. They come from manufacturing towns where jobs have been shipped abroad, from illegal-immigrant communities where military service offers a chance for citizenship, from ghettos where the integrated service offers a way out. read more>>>
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