07-20-01
BUSH TO HOMELESS VETERANS - "DROP DEAD"


A couple of years ago, I would have scoffed at the notion that a television show could have a profound emotional impact on me. I've never been much for TV, and in fact for years never watched anything except the news. I'd hear people raving about this show or that, but had no interest in spending my evenings watching - as I thought of it - inane pap. And, also, I knew that TV shows could be addicting, and didn't want to become so wrapped up in a show that I had to set aside time once a week or more to watch it.

But then my fiance convinced me to sit down and watch an episode of The West Wing. It took me about ten minutes to get hooked. For me, The West Wing is like a glimpse into the world as it should be.

The episode of The West Wing that had the most profound effect on me was the Christmas episode from the season before last - if you've seen it, you'll know the one I mean. A homeless man is found dead with Toby's business card in his pocket (Toby had donated the coat to Goodwill), and Toby moves heaven and earth to give the man a proper burial with an honor guard when he learns that the man was a Korean War veteran. I can't even think of the ending of the show - with the children's choir singing in the background as the military funeral takes place - without getting choked up. It is beautiful, and right, and good, and the way all of our veterans should be put to rest - with honor and respect.

When President Bartlett learns that Toby used his name to arrange for the burial, he tells Toby, "If we start pulling strings like this, you don't think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?"

And Toby replies: "I can only hope, sir."

It's not something I'd ever given much thought to -- homeless veterans. Homelessness is just part of our society now, and other than giving money to homeless people when they ask, when I can, I don't spend a lot of time raging against the terrible state of a society which allows some of its citizens to remain cold and hungry and without shelter. I suppose there are just too many things to be angry about.

But veterans. My God. What kind of a society allows its veterans to be homeless? How on earth can we consider ourselves a civilized society when people who have risked their lives to defend us are sleeping on the streets?

Senator Paul Wellstone, whom I already adored, has recently sponsored the Heather French Henry Homeless Veterans Assistance Act, (S. 739) which will, according to a recent AP article, "among other things, increase the number of veterans eligible for expensive "complex care'' from VA hospitals". The goal of the act would be to end -- not reduce, but end - homelessness among veterans within ten years.

Twelve Senators are co-sponsoring the bill.

THEY ARE ALL DEMOCRATS.

The Bush administration has not yet openly opposed the bill, but has expressed "caution", saying that there aren't enough funds to cover it.

Excuse me?? These are VETERANS. We can afford a huge tax cut for the rich, but we can't afford to keep our veterans off the street? Senator Wellstone sees the matter as simply as I do - if the Department of Veteran's Affairs lacks the funds, they should be given more.

It is ironic that this issue is being debated right now, just days after the article in the New York Times detailed how the Bush camp skirted the law (and at times broke it outright) in its effort to count illegal overseas military ballots in Republican counties while throwing out all the overseas ballots it could in Democratic counties. Remember the right-wingers' cries of outrage, their claims that Gore "hated the military"? Remember the pompous Republicans shaking their heads sadly as they talked about "our brave men and women in uniform"?

Guess once those "brave men and women" are out of uniform, they aren't of any further use to the right-wing hypocrites in Washington. How else to explain the fact that not one Republican has co-sponsored the bill?

The idea that the wealthiest people in the U.S. will be getting a huge tax cut while veterans are sleeping in the streets is absolutely disgusting. The idea that veterans should continue sleeping in the streets because of "budgetary concerns" is downright appalling.

If we can't take care of our veterans, then we have no right to call ourselves a civilized country.


~Rose




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