Re: OT:Thanksgiving



"Rick Smith" <ricksmith@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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They just ran a news item here mentioning that the US is preparing to
celebrate Thanksgiving.

Greetings to all concerned. Hope you all have much to be thankful for and
you spend a happy time with families.

They also noted in passing that 800,000 American homeless won't be
enjoying
the turkey.

That is a sad thought, but we have all become pretty inured to the lot of
those less fortunate. We feel sorry, do what we can where we can, but
accept
that poverty is part of life and an "insoluble" problem.

The thing that astonished me was that 25% of these homeless are War
Veterans. (Korea, Viet Nam, and Afghanistan and the Gulf)

Surely there must be programs to prevent servicepeople from just being
thrown on the scrapheap? We wouildn't want to do that with ANYONE, but
especially not those who have rendered service to their country and done
their duty as it was called (leaving aside the rights and wrongs of US
foreign policy).

Anyone have any comments on this?

Can/is anything be/ing done?

< http://www.va.gov/ > is the starting point for finding benefits
available to U.S. veterans.
< http://www1.va.gov/opa/vadocs/fedben.pdf > is a booklet
titled, "Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents".

Furthermore, each state has a program to assist veterans. For
example, benefits provided by the State of Florida may be
found at < http://www.floridavets.org/ > with a summary of
benefits given in < http://www.floridavets.org/pdf/fvbg.pdf >.

The United States and the states operate homes for "eligible"
veterans and "eligible" is a specific limitation.

There are advocacy groups and private initiatives through
organizations, such as, the American Legion
< http://www.legion.org/ >, chartered by Congress, and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars < http://www.vfw.org/ >, a
not-for-profit organization.

The local franchise of "Golden Corral"
< http://www.goldencorral.com/ > offers a free steak to
veterans on or about Veteran's Day (Nov 11). This year it
was Nov 12.

To the best of my knowledge there are no initiatives, specific
to veterans, to provide a Thanksgiving meal.


Thanks Rick.

This is positive and, frankly, what I would expect/hope.

Sometimes the media just seize on the downside and don't mention the good
work that is being done.

Pete.


.

Relevant Pages

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