Last week I came across a story that struck me. A study was done that determined 1 in 4 homeless are war veterans. Even younger veterans from the current war have become statistics in what appears to be the U.S. government’s failure to properly support the veterans after giving them their time, effort, and in most cases nearly their lives.

One of my younger cousins who is about to graduate high school, has decided to join the Marines. I don’t know the details of how, when and why – but after I read this story I started to wonder a lot of things about the young people who are signing up and possibly getting shipped off to the Middle East to partake in our lengthy War on Terror.

Since so many of these people have obviously not gotten the proper support from the government after serving their time overseas you would think after “defending the country from terrorism” the government would be a little more grateful.

The story shows many homeless veterans have been forced to live in homeless shelters, and bus stops mainly since they don’t have jobs.

If this pattern continues the number of young people today who are enrolling into the armed forces may at some point become part of his unfortunate statistic. Hopefully, greater attention will be given to those veterans in this situation. And even more so, hopefully those current soldiers who are currently serving time overseas, and those who haven’t even begun will get the appropriate support after their tour of duty. If not, then history will just keep repeating itself – and I really doubt anyone really wants that happening.

This really says a lot for how much this country cares about those who have risked life and limb to represent their country overseas. Too bad “saying a lot”—doesn’t say much.
—Eming Piansay