Would you be afraid of someone like this?
Then why is it when they come home needing help to heal from where they've been, a neighborhood would find it so repulsive to have them live there? The following is about a community fighting against having 40-bed domiciliary to help them.
They may very well be the type of people showing up to help an amputee because that is a wound they understand, or think they understand, but when it comes to PTSD, they fear it. Why? Why aren't these people thinking about the stone cold hard reality of numbers?
San Diego County has 30,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. How many of them have been arrested? How many of them have committed crimes? With a third of veterans coming home with PTSD, we're talking about at least 10,000 veterans with PTSD. There are more considering redeployments have increased the risk of PTSD to 50% instead of 30%. So why aren't there 10,000 in this area alone terrorizing Old Town? It is because they are no more dangerous than anyone else in the country. As a matter of fact, they are less dangerous. Everyone else in the community won't risk their lives for someone one else. Everyone else was not ready to die, sacrifice comforts of home and leave their family and friends.
We've had over 2 million men and women deployed into 2 wars for over 10 years but while we do read about them getting into trouble, the fact is, the percentages are low. I track these reports across the country and honestly, while it is true there are more incidences involving veterans and law enforcement, the big picture is not showing reason to fear them at all.
Keep that in mind when you read the following.
ROGERS: Residents turn out to oppose veterans
By RICK ROGERS
Posted: Friday, December 23, 2011
This would be especially true in San Diego County, home to 30,000 Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans ---- the largest population in the country.
Opposition to the VA San Diego Healthcare System opening a veterans' treatment center in Old Town San Diego has turned ugly.
On one side, Old Town residents aligned with officials from Old Town Academy Charter School, which sits next to the VA's proposed site on San Diego Avenue.
On the other, the San Diego VA, which signed a five-year lease for a 40-bed domiciliary in an old Thomas Jefferson School of Law building.
The proposed VA domiciliary would offer counseling and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and occupational therapy in a live-in setting. An average stay would be three to four months.
The hard battle lines drawn might reflect more widespread misgivings Americans feel toward living with combat veterans who now need help fitting in to society.
In a handful of towns and cities across the United States, communities have opposed veteran facilities and forced them from proposed locations.
The Old Town contingent wants to do the same. It suggests that the veterans would pose an unacceptable threat to schoolchildren and that another site must be found.
Old Town citizens want to know what, for example, the VA would do if a veteran looked at school children. And who would keep them from talking to tourists or roaming the streets?
read more here
Ok,so now let's look at the reality of this kind of facility.
They get a chance to heal with therapy and get back on their feet with a place to live when they are done and a job to support themselves. If they end up with a VA claim for support because they cannot work, most of the time these men and women end up doing volunteer work to help others. Yes, they still feel the need to be of service to their communities. It is "who they are" and they are miserable when they can't help anyone. They heal a lot faster when they are helping someone. In a Dom, they help each other and on the outside, they help everyone else.
How do I know this? For the last 30 years, the company of these men and women has been my life. I can't think of a better group of people to work so hard for and few more deserving of it. They are like my husband and too many others I've met over the years. They don't want your sympathy. They want your help and a little compassion but above that, they want you to understand them.
I've seen how truly remarkable they are when they do get what they need. I would not only want one of them for a neighbor, I have one in my house and for the last 27 years, I've been proud to have his last name connected to mine.
The next time you read a report about one of them being arrested or facing off with law enforcement, understand that over 2 million returned from these 2 wars but they added to the veterans we already had. There are over 24 million veterans in this country with the same issues the new veterans face and the same odds. PTSD hits 1 out of 3. If the fears were based in reality, there would be millions of veterans terrorizing neighborhoods on a daily basis instead of 1 or 2 a year making headlines in your community.
These veterans have been down and out, out on the streets, usually drinking, maybe even doing drugs, because they couldn't find anyone to care if they lived or died. They can't drink or do use drugs in this program. They want to change their lives enough that they want to make sure they stay in the program with a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and someone caring about them.
They want hang onto hope of a better life after they risked their lives for the sake of this country. The same county that sent them into combat is the one they come back to feeling betrayed because of neighborhoods like Old Town.
Now, here is what a good community does!
Ridgewood Community Fights for Local War Veteran
Mark Steppe returned from Iraq to fight a whole new war: a war against his failing health, the VA and the U.S. government.
By Erin Kelly
Mark Steppe returned from Iraq in 2006 after just a year of military service, but the short amount of time still managed to change the course of his life drastically.
Upon return, the army gunner happily reunited with his now wife, Amy McCambridge, and their young son. But he never expected that just a few years later, he would develop crippling injuries and have to fight against his own government for basic medical care, paving the way to a road full of hospital visits, denial, inconclusive answers, financial troubles and lawsuits.
While Steppe left the violence in the desert behind, his reemergence onto U.S. soil did not end his fight in a battle he never saw coming. Today, the 29-year-old should still be enjoying activities he frequented before the war, like camping, hunting and being outdoors. Instead, Steppe relies on a cane to walk, has aged about 50 years and is constantly in pain. Though McCambridge and Steppe have suffered a long, hard road, support from the Ridgewood Rotary Club, a local car dealership and several other individuals are helping to keep their family standing.
Steppe first returned from the military with symptoms most expect of a war veteran, experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chilling flashbacks. It was only after moving to Ridgewood from California to be closer to McCambridge’s parents that Steppe’s condition worsened.
read more here
90% of these people are not young kids returning from war. They are 50 year old men that have been addicted to drugs and have mental disorders. Go look at the surrounding area of the psych hospital on Rosecrans street. There are tons of homeless people sleeping on the streets and lines of motorhomes on the sides of the roads with people living in them. Thats what we are trying to prevent. There are other options available for a facility like this. You people want to look down on us for wanting to prevent this in our neighborhood, but these are the same people that hang on corners with signs that say "homeless vet" You know, the people you scoff at and roll your window up when you are next to them at a stop light. You are a bunch of Hypocrites!!!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, you have no clue what you're talking about. I have done more than just "go and look" at my surroundings. I've been working with veterans for 30 years and one of them I happen to be married to. He's one of the "old men" you wrote about. He almost became homeless when PTSD had taken over. There is no excuse for what you wrote.
ReplyDeleteI know these men and women. I dedicated my life to them because I know them. I know their character.
Most people only know what they read in the newspapers when one of them gets into trouble but the vast majority are no trouble at all.
You wrote about sleeping on streets but you want these veterans to do it because you don't want them in your neighborhood? You wrote about drugs but fail to see that in a program, they cannot do drugs or drink.
Talk about hypocrites! These men and women were good enough to send into combat, risk their lives for the sake of someone else but not good enough to put a roof over their heads, food in their bellies and give them back a sense of purpose. What is the most reprehensible comment is the "mental disorders" as if that is something to be afraid of. PTSD does not make them someone to fear.
Do you have any clue if there is someone in your neighborhood with a "mental disorder" or doing drugs or drinking? Do you go door to door to see if they are acceptable or not? You don't want them in your neighborhood being taken care of and would rather see them on the streets?
Have you ever been to any of these veterans shelters or even talked to any of these veterans to find out how they became homeless? Ever once try to understand that they want to get better and not be out on the streets?
By the way, across the street from my home there is a group home for people with mental illness and they are no problem at all. There is a school next to this development and our area is considered middle class, so please understand when I say if I were one of these veterans, I'd think twice about having to live next to someone like you.