We have a habit of using the word hero far too often

by
Chaplain Kathie

A young veteran returns from Iraq and wonders why no one is taking care of him. He is told he gets five years of free care from the VA, but no one is telling him how he can pay his bills when he cannot work. PTSD, TBI and other wounds have him on medications leaving him "unemployable" along with the fact he keeps having seizures. He keeps hearing how much help there is for veterans like him, but he has seen little evidence of it. But his story won't get the media attention. Tiger Woods, the golfing hero cheating on his wife, deserves more attention. After all, he's well known, wealthy and has a fairytale story.


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The young veteran, well he was sent away with cheering crowds for both deployments, held in prayer while he was gone, but came home to a young wife and young kids as a different person trapped in a wounded body. She didn't want to "put up with it" and she left him alone.

Tiger Woods worries about all the media trying to turn him into a bad guy, even though he was supposed to be a golfer and not some kind of perfect icon. The young veteran worries about the rest of his life after he risked that life for this country in Iraq and how he will survive the rest of that life.

Doesn't seem fair.

That's the problem. We have a habit of using the word hero far too often. We elevate celebrities and the rich as if they are so worthy of the admiration, while most of them have done nothing for the anyone unless they got something back. When it comes to the men and women deciding to serve in the military, all they ask is that they are supported, used only when needed and taken care of if they get hurt doing it. No one else in this country would ever take a job knowing if they were hurt on the job, they would be abandoned by all, but we expect the military jobs to end up being allowed to just be forgotten about as if no one ever included their service compensation to matter like workman's comp does.

The way we view success in this country would leave Christ Himself to be viewed as a worthless failure because He walked around homeless and depending on strangers to shelter Him and cloth Him. He was hung between two criminals with nails for all the good He did. Some of the rich believe they are entitled to all they have and everyone else deserves to have nothing but some give back thankful for what they have. Some think they deserve more and more so they fall prey to people like Bernie Madoff because he could create money out of thin air but he sucks all the money they had leaving them with nothing to show for it other than worthless paper.

A hero is someone who gives of himself/herself. They do it to help others and for no other reason. They are willing to lay down their lives for their comrades. They follow orders no matter if they agree with them or not and fight whomever they are sent to fight because it is above their "pay grade" to know it all. They trust. They trust their commanders. They trust their buddies. They trust the American people that when we say we are a grateful nation, we really mean it. Then they find out exactly how little we really do mean it when they come back and have to face the rest of their lives in an oblivious community. Doesn't seem to matter it was the same community where they shipped out from and were welcomed home to as they walk the streets trying to find help to heal.

When you Google Veteran Service Organization there are 3,700,000 and if you Google Veteran you'll find 4,440,000. There are so many groups springing up around the country now that it is astonishing how many veterans are still not getting help. We just assume that all is well with them because that is what we are told. Just as workers for the VA believe the problem is fixed and veterans are being taken care of with the hiring frenzies lately, they are not aware there are thousands of veterans waiting and suffering standing in line. If they don't see them then they just assume the problem is no where near close to catastrophic.

When mental health professionals at Give an Hour decided to step up and offer free care to veterans needing help to heal from PTSD, that should have been the loudest signal of all that too many were being dumped back into society with nothing but too few heard it. Most Americans were too busy screaming they support the troops and sticking their fingers in their ears.

Service and veterans groups decided they would do only what they wanted to do instead of what was needed to be done. The most useful service groups took on helping to pay bills as well as offering emotional support. Some thought that just putting up another memorial was all that was needed simply because that was all they were interested in. Something tangible they could look at to remind them of how much they cared as they patted themselves on the back while a homeless veteran went begging in the street in front of the monument. They could tell the homeless veteran the memorial was for him but it's doubtful he would be able to keep warm in the winter with it or dry in the rain.

Veterans reach out for help everyday. Some of the help they get is not what they need. Some of the help they get is exactly what they need but it comes too late after their families have fallen apart, their homes are gone and they have been beaten down so low they cannot find the energy to stand back up again.

So what's the answer? A total attitude change in this country. Established service groups like the VFW, American Legion and DAV are seeing their numbers shrink. They are not attracting many of the 2 million new veterans. Why is that? Because they are in a set comfort zone of just doing what they always did. Some have been opening their eyes to this fact and trying to do something about it by stepping up to provide what is needed for the newer veterans and their families. Others will end up just dying out. The other indication of how much these organizations are not doing is the number of service organizations stepping up over the last few years. If the older groups were doing what was needed, there would be no need of most of the newer groups.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America formed because no one was willing to fight for them. Some organizations were just too cozy with the Washington powerful and would not go against them even though the data was coming in with shocking figures. Suicides and attempted suicides were rising along with homelessness and incarcerations stacked on top of unemployment numbers and backlogged VA claims. These organizations were supposed to be about veterans. All veterans.

After returning from Vietnam, most of the leaders of these organizations today were greeted with being treated as if they didn't belong by older veterans. You'd think after the way they were treated they would be more than willing to do what was necessary to take care of the newer veterans, but power and connections and comfort zones were too easy to maintain by doing nothing. The problem with the IAVA is that they are only interested in the newer veterans at the same time the older veterans are finally being informed of what PTSD is and coming to the understanding what's wrong with them has a name and they do not need to suffer any more without help. The IAVA has the latest technology to use but does not have older veterans, the older organizations have older veterans but no technology, leaving the Vietnam veterans out in the cold again.

All service organizations should use what has worked for the sake of all veterans and lean on each other to find who is doing what better than they are and support it. Join forces for the sake of the veterans and stop letting ego and competition for donations get in the way of what they were formed to do in the first place.

Then maybe, just maybe, we can finally get to a point where a golfer is not regarded in higher esteem than a war veteran.