Saturday, July 5, 2008

Real Responsibility

Major League Baseball has something called the “Welcome Back Veterans” initiative. The program is designed to raise awareness and support for returning veterans while also raising funds and providing job opportunities.

It’s nice gesture.

And this country – each and every one of us – should be ashamed.

Supporting veterans is not an initiative or a program or a charity. It’s a responsibility that doesn’t have limitations.

But the only thing limitless is this country’s neglect.

We send soldiers to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan with substandard equipment – old helmets that won’t stop a piece of shrapnel and no body armor and patrol vehicles that aren’t safe enough to drive on the Cross Bronx Expressway – and we give them poor pay and lousy healthcare and crummy housing and virtually no hope of a decent life back home if they’re able to survive.

The “Welcome Back Veterans” initiative is nice way of showing what a sorry society we have become. Wearing special hats and putting “I Support the Troops” bumper stickers on gas-guzzling vehicles and standing in the seventh inning for God Bless America does nothing to support the troops or the veterans.

It’s time for this country to take some real responsibility.

2 comments:

JoeyBoy said...

Amen, brother. Amen.

Donna said...

We all need to think about this and make sure things change. Too many people are too concerned with keeping their taxes low or keeping the price of gas low.