Bill O’Reilly, as you may recall, doesn’t believe that any homeless veterans exist in this country as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now this may seem to contradict observable reality, but you have to remember, this is Bill’s opinion, which is worth millions of dollars a year to FoxNews, thus making it one of the finest opinions that money can buy. So which would you trust — facts, which are free, and let’s face it, you get what you pay for — or an exclusive opinion hand-crafted from the most luxurious preconceptions, and covered in rich, Corinthian rationalization. Also, it helps to remember that while FoxNews pays for O’Reilly’s opinions, they don’t own the man himself, and he remains a rugged individualist, unpredictable, non-ideological, an independent thinker who can always be counted on to take a surprisingly contrarian view, often in the face of clear, contravening facts and evidence, especially if the guy opposite Bill is a pinhead, or wants to raise his taxes.
Now recently, Bill grudgingly conceded that yes, some returning veterans are homeless, but insists that their condition is due to drug use rather than PTSD (it’s well known that taking painkillers fills one with an almost irresistible urge to sleep on a grate, because the rising steam helps to loosen up your bowels and relieve the constipation associated with opiates). In other words, they’re not victims, they’re bums, which means the problem isn’t war, it’s class war. Some reasonable people may, however, disagree.
Survivor Corps, for instance, is an organization that focuses reintegration and mental health services for returning vets at the community level:
Within the United States there are over one and a half million service members that have served in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over thirty thousand have been physically wounded, but many more have experienced less visible, psychological wounds. Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have emerged as signature injuries of these conflicts, with recent reports suggesting an increase in rates of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, and domestic violence among returning service members and veterans. [...]
The successful reintegration of returning service members is an issue that will have a long-lasting impact on American society, and may become the single defining struggle facing this new generation of veterans. Survivor Corps and its partners are determined to avoid the mistakes made when veterans returned from Vietnam, which resulted in tens of thousands of post-war suicides and over 200,000 men and women living on the streets.
[...] Survivor Corps will build peer support programs at the community level that will bring service members and veterans together for mutual support and encourage both individual responsibility and collective action to help others in need.
As the great John Rogers of Kung Fu Monkey says:
There’s a tragic culture of shame around suicide and depression in this country, making it very hard for people to reach out for help without feeling as if they’ve failed in some way. The idea that veterans will be dealing primarily with other veterans with shared experiences is a great way of mitigating that vulnerability.
I know Bill offered carfare to transport every homeless veteran in America to John Edwards’ house, but sometimes displays of colossal insensitivity and a spirit of schoolboy prankishness by a lavishly-compensated blowhard just isn’t enough to solve today’s life or death issues. As Rogers remarks:
Not everyone needs this help, of course, but those who do need it desperately. I know that times are tough, but if you can, please swing by and toss the price of a large pizza in the pot for them.
Click here if you can help. Thanks.
Of course don’t forget that under the Bush Administration’s watch, PTSD and brain injury is now being reclassified to “pre-existing personality disorder” causing these veterans to be completely ineligible for any type of benefits for aftercare or basic needs.
But I’m sure Bill-O would be proud that his tax dollars have been saved once again by the ever prudent Republican administration.
Afterall, the concept of widower’s pensions, social security benefits, worker’s comp and veteran’s benefits were either expanded or originated under the watch of that horrid commie FDR.
What these morons do know as a matter of fact I believe, is that their fantasies of abolishing the office of Health and Human Services would probably cause their heads to fall the same fate as Robes-Pierre.
So they just continue to spout the hatred and division, because well, its good pay for little to no effort.
Sounds sort of like the welfare state they bleat about, but hey, who am I to question the Great Ones?
Left by kate on November 20th, 2008