Michel,

Thanks for your Veterans' Day rant about stealing public money and taxes for the rich. You were right on! You sound like me ranting about class inequality. We should definitely reexamine our priorities when our schools are literally falling down around our children's heads and we can't seem to find the resources to help veterans stay off the streets, and yet investors are being protected because of the 'risks' the incur. Way to represent our feelings!

Sent by Rachel N H | 8:00 PM ET | 11-12-2007

i think this is a very timely and important story. Two years ago I had the opportunity to work with the homeless in Washington DC and it was a life changing experience. I live in Upstate NY in a a very White community a place where you never see a homeless person. I discovered that one cannot just blame someone because they have become homeless without fist hearing there story. Many times stuff happens and your life gets messed up. I also learned that as a christian I don't have to try and change someone in a situation like that I just need to show love and help in whatever way I can. It is soooo easy to assume that one must have messed up his or her life and that is the reason why their life is the way it is, but that is not always the case. So thanks for bringing this sad situation to our culture's attention.
JQ

Sent by Jackie | 1:22 AM ET | 11-13-2007

Having been to D.C many times and working in the homeless shelter in the the town I live in, I am so aware now. We all really live in a house of cards, the older I get, the more I realize this. We all have to just a few bad strokes of luck, we may end up in the same situation. Yet the media focus is on Paris, Nicole and Brittany. You have to wonder about the future of a society when prioties are misplaced.

Sent by Anne K. | 11:05 AM ET | 11-13-2007

I am skeptical of the figure that 25% of the homeless are veterans. This strikes me as suspicious since persons in military service are generally better-educated and healthier than the general population.

How was this figure derived. The endhomelessness.org website doesn't explain, and the VA reports cited didn't have any clear answer. The only source in the VA report stated was that the data came "from questionnaires completed by VA staff, local government officials, community providers, and homeless veterans."

Did anyone verify thorough military records that the persons claiming to be veterans actually were? Did NPR think to check this?

Sent by John | 1:22 PM ET | 11-13-2007

Hey John -

Thanks for blogging with us.

The facts in our story came from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which commissioned the recent report.

According to their website:

"Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people. They represent roughly 26 percent of homeless people, but only 11 percent of the civilian population 18 years and older. This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed, and have a lower poverty rate than the general population."

You can visit the site, read the full report and contact the alliance yourself by visiting their website, http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/1839.

Sent by Lee Hill, TMM | 4:05 PM ET | 11-13-2007

Thank you so much for your story on returning veterans. I found Ms. Martins question particularly insightful, why the schism between the publics more empathic view towards returning vets and the lack of care for vets who seem to be falling through the cracks.

I would posit that the lack of aftercare for vets and the lack of public outrage have twin roots. It seems that the administration created a plan for invasion that would ask the least and disclose even less to the American public. Starting with censoring the return of soldier's coffins to the near press blackout in the early days of the war, right down to the unprecedented tax cut given near the war's inception. Not to mention the average person's shall we say, lethargy in the area of politics. All these created the perfect "Don't worry, they got it" attitude.

I am as close to an anti-military guy as you can find BUT, when I heard the stories of the lack of care at Walter Reed I was HOT! I wrote my Senator and Congresswoman and got an immediate response. I would encourage everyone to use the website http://www.house.gov/writerep/
to be in touch.

I deplore this war and think as a nation we will pay for the actions we have taken for years to come, but the women and men who have served should have the full measure of our support. To misquote the playwright Arthur Miller "They were all my sons...and daughters."

P.S. I loved Michel's thoughts at the end of the program. WOW!

Sent by Raul | 5:45 PM ET | 11-13-2007

I usually post once and do not engage in rebuttals, but in response to John, it is easier to deny a problem exists than to address it. If I were a vet and you questioned my service, I would be so insulted. To say "make sure they served" helps how???? If NPR does verify their service, then what??

Solutions, John not blame.

Sent by Anne K. | 8:56 AM ET | 11-14-2007

Interestingly enough, this aired just before my uncle died. He had served 3 tours in Vietnam, and in returning to the US, he got involved with drug dealing. As a result he ended up shot in the head, and for the past 30 years he was paralyzed on one side, suffering from a number of illnesses. He was lucky, in that when he needed it, I offered my help, and became his guardian for several years. It took a lot of time a resources to fight for him to have money just to eat, let alone medical care. But in the end he was a well loved volunteer at the local VA medical center. The most frustrating thing was always that he was always being pushed aside, by his own child, as well as government agencies, but he was just as happy as could be that he was still alive. I only wished that he would have gotten more respect and better treatment from the government he served without question, but I hope that future generations will get the support he never had.

Sent by Thad Murillo | 11:56 AM ET | 11-14-2007

Of course many veterans are homeless. People are encouraged to die for a government that is unwilling to die for them. When a Commander in Chief used connections and status to avoid going to war what else would you expect?
When warmongers, Defense Deparment contractors, politicians, presidents, president's families, prseident's friends are all getting rich from war, why would they give peace a chance? One veteran commented that he wished there wouldn't be any more veterans [meaning if there were no more wars, there would be no need for fighters who become veterans when the shelling ceases.]
Want to end the need for war? MAKE PEACE PROFITABLE!

Sent by blackremnant | 9:58 PM ET | 11-20-2007

Before we look forward, we must look back to prevent egregious outcomes for the lives of veterans. 58,300 veterans died in Viet Nam. 78,000 have committed suicide since then. 1/3 of homeless people are veterans. Many are in prison. Americans were totally ignorant about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and remain ignorant today, even though it came to light because of the Viet Nam veterans. Because of the war in Iraq we have learned that children suffer from post-war pediatric syndrome, but we remain ignorant about how to help them. Many of the parents whose child died in the war in Viet Nam or Iraq also suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but it has been "taboo" to talk about the death of one's child for over a century. Grandparents who've lost a grandchild in the war suffer a double-whammy because they often also lose their child as they have known them because they are suffering so greatly from their grief. These are all so intertwined that if an individual can learn to help a bereaved parent, they have learned to help a veteran with PTSD or a child whose parent has died. Most of the help that is needed by a bereaved parent should come from ordinary people like family, friends, co-workers and church family. But because they do not know what to say or how to help, the bereaved are most often abandoned and forgotten. A group of parents whose children have died in the war in Iraq have already gone to the Ministry of Defense and told them their communities do not provide adequate services to the bereaved and that they must have help in coping with the deaths of their children. I produced a video in 2005-2006 that I show to church congregations to educate them how to help the bereaved (www.helpthebereaved.com). Americans must wake up before we have a repeat of what happened with the veterans of Viet Nam.

Sent by Charlotte Martin | 12:54 AM ET | 12-11-2007