Vets

What I’ve never understood about national holidays in the US is how exactly they think they are honoring anybody.


Today is Veterans Day and TOR would like to send out or heartfelt gratitude for the men and women in uniform around this world who are fighting for our country (however misguided some of the reasons we are there may be.)

All week I’ve seen NFL pregame shows held in Afghanistan, Mike & Mike broadcasting from a battleship in the NY Harbor or Lebron James sending out his well wishes to the troops which are all fine displays of support but honestly not nearly enough considering we have asked an all volunteer army to go back for tour-after-tour in Iraq or Afghanistan with very little support from anybody when they return.

The shooting in Fort Hood this week was horrible but what is worse is that these types of crimes on bases are far from scarce they happened way too often. Violent acts committed by service men and women are greater than what happens to normal civilians. Service men-and-women suffer higher levels of depression, have higher divorce rates and are more likely to fall into homelessness than me or you and a lot of it can be directly correlated to tours of duty in war-zones.

The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that these men and women suffer from is devastating for their families and themselves but the fact we ‘honor’ our men and women by giving them a day which most people use to go shopping or relax is embarrassing.


As a nation who covets its freedom, I ask

Why don’t we compensate these people better?

Why not offer them better psychological help when they return?

Why don’t we stop sending them for tour after devastating tour?

What always sits in the pit of my stomach is the fact that there are so many holiday’s which have become reason’s for car-dealers or electronics stores to have sales.

Look at Memorial Day or Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday; they are celebrated on Monday’s so that people can go away for a long weekend. These should be the kinds of holidays where kid’s are in schools learning about great people and great sacrifice not days to sit at the beach or hit the ski-slopes