Caring for veterans all through the year

Thursday, 12 November 2009 14:02

We honor war veterans each year at Veterans Day ceremonies that recall those who fought in military conflicts on land and sea, and those who sacrificed their lives to defend the country. How quickly those ceremonies that take place in parks and town greens on the chilly days of late autumn slip from our memory.

But the plight of many returning veterans, whether they fought in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, or another conflict, is something that won’t fade away.

There are 5,000 homeless veterans in Connecticut today. We see them sitting down to meals at soup kitchens, standing on street corners or sleeping in tents in public parks.

Many of them have turned to drugs or alcohol rather than seeking medical help within the often frustrating morass of bureaucracy they face at Veterans Administration facilities. Those who survived bomb blasts or enemy fire may come home suffering from the effects of the Agent Orange defoliant or from Post Traumatic Stress or Military Service Trauma.

We laud our returning heroes at Veterans Day services, but we don’t treat them like heroes the rest of the time. It’s often up to disabled veterans to prove their need for compensation, said Mary and George Porter, a Derby couple who spend their days helping struggling veterans untangle their lives through the No Vets Left Behind organization.

Many aren’t receiving compensation or pensions, and as hard it is to believe, 70 percent of veterans haven’t received the military awards they’ve earned.

Our veterans deserve better.

Doctors, nurses, therapists and citizens from all walks of life need to treat these returning heroes with respect and give them a hand up so that they don’t need a hand out.

State Reps. Theresa Conroy (D-105th and Linda Gentile (D-104th) are among state legislators who have made helping veterans a priority in their campaign pledges.

Legislation has been passed to provide graduate level education benefits and reduced costs for license plate registration for families who have lost an immediate relative in the service.

But much more needs to be done. It’s important that these legislators and other state lawmakers continue to push for reforms to the Veterans Administration so it becomes a more efficient and effective helping and healing organization. If more funding is needed for veterans hospitals, then it must be appropriated.

The community’s response to raising money and donating supplies and services to veterans has been commendable and should continue.

The women in the Prayer Shawl Ministry at Seymour’s Trinity Church knit and crochet about 25 blankets each year for veterans in the West Haven health facility, a worthy enterprise that demonstrates their care and commitment.

But at a national level, society and the military sector must do a better job of caring for returning veterans and ensuring that their lives will remain as productive and fulfilling as possible.

Veterans have sacrificed their minds and bodies to defend the principles of democracy that form the cornerstone of our country.

Caring for them when their service days are over is the least we can do in return.