O'Reilly's stance on homeless vets poses questions

O'Reilly's stance on homeless vets poses questions
Tom Hennessy, Staff columnist
Article Launched: 01/26/2008 10:07:45 PM PST


O Reilly Critics of radio and TV commentator Bill O'Reilly find him brash, full of himself and, at times, given to outlandish statements.

Fans see him as super patriotic, unerringly correct, and a champion of the average American.

Whichever view you have of O'Reilly, if either, you may concede he is a flamboyant opinion-molder who does not shy away from publicity, which is precisely what he got earlier this month when he took on one of his current villains, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. The former North Carolina senator had said this:

"Tonight, 200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates."
go here for the rest
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_8090131

O'Reilly has made his living shooting off his mouth on his radio show and on FOX Cable "No Spin Zone" as well as several books, coming off as if he gave a damn about "the little guy" he began "fighting" for. He missed the point that the "little guy" he should have been fighting for should have included our veterans.

You've read stories about homeless veterans here and on line for years. Face it, if you read this blog, you are aware of the huge problem the veterans have been dealing with and are very informed. If you managed to find me since I'm so low below the radar, you have invested a lot of time researching what's going on. I applaud you! You are dedicated to seeking truth and thus will insure changes will be made in the system designed to help the wounded veterans.

As a reader I'm sure you read the comment that broke my heart from the wife of a National Guardsman, wounded and provided with zero disability rating. They are in fact homeless. They lost everything. You must have read about Sonny Iovino who died of hypothermia.

IOWA CITY - Two days before Sonny Iovino died of exposure, he was released by a Veterans Affairs Medical Center doctor and turned away from the Johnson County Jail after police repeatedly found him behaving erratically and shedding his clothes.
You also know there are two hundred thousand other stories just like their's. What you don't know is that there are many, many more. Families like the National Guard family won't be counted as homeless because they found room in a relatives house.

When O'Reilly had the chance to actually fight for the "little guy" he opted to defend Bush and the GOP. God forbid he say anything against what anyone in the GOP was doing. What O'Reilly missed was the fact this goes beyond politics and gets to the heart of what America is becoming. Homeless veterans, wounded veterans with wounds but zero disability or low ratings, are not new and they were not caused by Bush. They began long ago. After Vietnam there were over 300,000 of them. What happened to over 100,000 of them between then and now is a mystery. There are not enough beds, not enough programs and it's doubtful that they all died in a couple of years. This means that O'Reilly attacked the wrong people even from the standpoint of a "loyal Bushie" which Bush himself coined remarking on his supporters.

O'Reilly keeps proving he doesn't care but this is not the most troubling part to me right now. Over and over again the media proves they are behind the times. This piece just came out and a lot has happened between the "they're all drunks" comment he made. He ended up twisting this all around to being about "he's putting his muscle behind the problem" as Col. Hunt decided he would try to shove it down the throats of O'Reilly flocks. There should be other editorials in a week or so about this, so plan on a lot more reading on O'Reilly. He's trying to cover his ass but it's too late.

Homeless veterans had my heart and still do because my own husband almost became one of them. It was during a time when living with a PTSD veteran out of control we too much to take. It was before he began to get help for PTSD even after being diagnosed with it. The only help he received was from a Vet's Center in Boston. Hopelessness drained me of every rational thought and I wanted the suffering over.

I couldn't live with him at that point in our marriage and I wanted him to live someplace else. I tried to get him into a shelter because we couldn't afford anything and were barely able to support what we had. The shelter was full and there was a waiting list. This was in the early 90's! Today I thank God that shelter was full because a few days later, God hit me over the head with a frying pan and changed my mind on ending it. I give God full credit for my marriage surviving all these years. He gave me the strength and patience to get through the worst times in our life together. He began to be helped by the VA and years later, he was living a life again instead of just existing.

I thought, and still do, about the families out there without the knowledge to support them through this. I knew what PTSD was and what came with it and it was nearly impossible to deal with. Their chances of coping are just about zero if they don't have a clue what it is. This is how at least half of the homeless veterans become homeless.

PTSD marriages are no longer marriages and you end up feeling like you are living with a total stranger who can explode at any minute. You live on a roller coaster ride of emotions never knowing what will cause them to respond with unacceptable behavior or take off for days at a time. If you have kids, you become a single parent, feeling as if your kids were just joined by an adopted child who used to be your spouse. Extreme financial problems come when you are usually missing their income because they can't hold down a job. They add to it when they self-medicate drinking and doing drugs, which adds to the stress level. You're sure every time they walk out the door will be their last and you pray to God they don't hurt anyone else. You know you are helpless to stop them. You try to figure out what you could do differently or what you did wrong to cause all of this. Questions evaporate and you replace them with wondering how to end it.

You watch them die inside on a daily basis, weighing the human compassion you have, the love you used to feel for them, against wanting to just get rid of them.

I went through all of this even knowing what I knew. I didn't go through any of this blindly and it was still hell. You'd think it would have been easier since by this time I was an expert on it, but living with it is a total different story.

Families of PTSD veterans and even regular citizens with it, need all the help they can get to become aware of what this is. They need the tools to help them cope. Will it end the homeless veterans or homeless people living on the streets or in shelters? No but it will cut it all down to a level where it will not be impossible to handle. Knowledge will eliminate a good portion of them. Changes in the system will help with the rest.

The wounds of PTSD begin to heal with treatment. They get worse if you don't treat it just as an infection untreated spreads and causes more damage. Treat the wound and save the family. Get them into treatment even if their claim is tied up. Set up support groups for families so that they can have some tools to cope and finally understand they are not alone.

Next is to get rid of the backlog of claims so that the wounded veterans receive some income to keep a roof over their heads and food in their belly. Added financial stress will only add to PTSD. Stop the nonsense of awarding zero disability or low balling it for veterans who cannot work.

Reevaluate the veterans who were discharged under "personality disorders" and given dishonorable discharges. If they are found to be suffering from PTSD then give them the money they should have had if they had been diagnosed properly in the first place. Never mind the BS of claims not being filed on time. The government knows when PTSD problems surfaced because they were discharged from duty for it. If they were really diagnosed properly as having a personality disorder, then the DOD has a bigger problem with the mental health screening they do before they give them weapons.

Educate the public so that no one ever again slaps a stigma like O'Reilly did out of ignorance. They are nothing to be ashamed of. We have only ourselves to be ashamed of for turning our backs on them when they needed us.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington