It is Veterans’ Day, and we want to thank all
of our veterans for their service to our country, and by extension to each and
every one of us as individuals. We owe
you a debt that cannot be repaid. We owe
you our freedom.
Out of deep respect to the millions of
Americans who have served in the US Military, and with a sincere desire to
correct the disingenuous image of veterans being foisted on the public by the
entertainment industry and others, please allow me to present what most veterans are not:
Most veterans are not unable to readjust to
civilian life. They return home, find
jobs, build families, pay taxes, and are good neighbors.
Some veterans suffer from Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) and should get all the help we can give them. Most veterans, however, are as mentally and
emotionally stable as the general population.
The rate of suicide among veterans is higher
than their fellow citizens. Again, those
who are at risk should get all the help we can give. It remains true, though, that most veterans
are not self-destructive.
Most veterans have not been trained as snipers
or martial arts experts. Most military
occupations are in areas like communications, logistics, medical services, food
service, transportation, law, construction, meteorology, computer science, intelligence,
and so on. For every service member in a
combat unit, there are seven or more in occupations that support them.
A few veterans find employment with companies
that provide contract services that supplement military activities. Most veterans do not.
As a group, veterans do not usually become involved in
criminal activities. The fact that they
have military training does not pose a threat to society.
There are inducements provided for military
service like the GI Bill, early retirement, reenlistment bonuses, and home loan
guarantees. People do things for more
than one reason. Like me, the majority of veterans joined the military to serve America.
The benefits are a consideration, but you have to love our country to
volunteer to be separated from your family, endure harsh living conditions,
live in foreign countries, get bossed around, and risk getting wounded or
killed.
Most veterans do not end up being homeless. The majority do not become alcoholics or drug
addicts. All the help we can give should
be given to those that do, but routinely and continually portraying veterans as
dirty, ragged, addicts and vagrants is an injustice.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to veterans’
families. Their lives are disrupted, and
they serve, too. It is unfair for them to frequently be portrayed as dysfunctional.
Some family members become emotional when interviewed about the
hardships they endure. They have earned
the right. Most just make the best of
it, and they deserve all the honor and recognition we can give them.
There is a lot more that might be said, but I
won’t belabor the point. All I want is
for the readers’ consciousness to be raised. When we hear a distorted version of reality over and over, we begin to accept it as the truth. Some in the media may think they are doing a service by bringing our
attention to the problems some veterans face.
However, they need to put it in perspective, so that they do not paint
all veterans with the same brush. Sadly,
many in the media, politics, and the entertainment industry stereotype veterans
in a derogatory way for their own personal gain.
