Veterans, Schmeterans?!?

Baseball was on our minds this weekend as we tried to take in a little Saturday Night ballgame … but our thoughts quickly turned to America’s injured veterans.
Not because it’s Memorial Day weekend but because we had the pleasure of sharing some rain-delay drinky-drink with South Florida Task Force K-9 Handler Johnny Lane and his friends.

Johnny is a good-looking, broad-smile fella who has that look – that twinkle that lets you know this is a dude who knows how to have some serious fun.
Johnny’s also a veteran who sustained a leg injury during one of his stints protecting whiney asses like me (did I get that right, Santiago?) who get a little sideways about the hypocritical way our government treats returning soldiers.

Needless to say, Johnny and I had shit to discuss.

Veterans with disabilities get the short-shaft on a lot of things. Just ask guys like Johnny who don’t get the same treatment as those without. There are A LOT of them!

In fact, since 2001, the number of disabled veterans has jumped by 25 percent.
So what?
Well – in the six years before 9-11- we saw an increase of only 4 percent.
umm, ya …

An estimated 180,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are collecting disability benefits. And, of the 1.8 million American men and women who have served in these conflicts, it is estimated that as many as 300,000 may be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome or depression. In total, there are some three million living disabled American veterans.

So, if you’re a business doing a Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day promotion … if you’re a teevee station airing a piece on the sacrifices of our soldiers … if you’re a restaurant giving away freebies to our men and women in uniform … if you’re a legislator looking to add something to the GI Bill or Veteran’s Administration budget … try to make sure you include ALL of our veterans in those accolades, honors and giveaway goodies, ‘kay?

Doesn’t always happen, but it’s a damned good goal to reach for.