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This month we celebrated Veterans’ Day, a day of remembrance and appreciation for those who served.
Veterans give years of their lives, put their lives on the line, and sometimes sacrifice their lives in the name of preserving our freedom and freedom and stability around the world.
No matter people feel about war, they overwhelmingly support veterans because veterans were willing to give what others did not or could not.
It stands to reason that this week should be a week to not only honor veterans but support them, and look at what our current support is doing for them.
You may have heard a statistic – or you may not have – that 22 veterans commit suicide every day. It’s a troubling statistic, and not just because it’s gruesome. It’s also inaccurate. More accurate numbers suggest that just about 1 veteran commits suicide per day, according to the Washington Post. Veterans are 50% more likely to kill themselves than those who did not serve, and that likelihood is slightly higher among vets who never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq.
Most of us can’t imagine what it’s like to come home from a desert where you’re fighting an enemy that hasn’t quit for 10 plus years. Most of us don’t know the pain and struggle of transitioning from combat to civilian life.
America has programs in place to ease the adjustment, at least from a monetary standpoint. The GI Bill, VA home loans, and VA medical care all assist veterans economically.
But we still have yet to crack the surface of solving the mental health issues that follow some vets around for the rest of their lives, not to mention the vets that come home with debilitating injuries. That isn’t to say that we aren’t trying – most of us also know one or two people that have dedicated their careers to helping veterans with their mental/emotional struggle.
Veterans deserve our dedication more than just once a year. They deserve our 24/7/365 help and support, and they’ll need it for the rest of their lives.
They gave up so much for us. That is the very least we could give back to them.