Irony

I’ve always had a tough time with the word “irony” and when and how to properly apply it. It’s one of the great words in our language, but one that is typically not used or understood by most people – even though it all around us every day. Here’s an example: March 30, 2011 was designated, by the U.S. Congress, as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” in remembrance of the day back in 1973, when the final military personnel were ordered to depart from Vietnam. For me, it was almost a gesture too late in coming. At the same time, I knew people who “needed” this sort of closure -- even if had to be legislated. And so I sent out a ton of emails, announcing this event to my entire address book – but stressing that if anyone knew or ran into a Vietnam vet, to just say “Welcome Home” or “Thanks.” When I told one person, face to face, her response was, in my eyes, “ironic.” I said, “Well, after more than 35 years since the last soldiers were pulled out of Vietnam, Congress has created “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.” She looked at me, her body shifted as if uncomfortable, and replied, “Oh, that’s nice.” To me, that’s irony. For lots of people, especially those who weren’t even alive in 1973, Vietnam is a couple of paragraphs (if that many) in a history textbook. My own sons once told me that they had studied Vietnam in history class (and that was in the early 1990’s). But Vietnam, per se, isn’t the focus of this blog. Since then, we’ve had Granada, Desert Storm, the Afghan and Iraqi wars. Every one of these events has created veterans – some with amazing and hard stories of their return to civilian life. It’s a fact, with the continued recession we’re experiencing, more people of all ages in America are having trouble getting enough nutritious food to stay healthy. And, this is also a fact, Veterans are being hit especially hard. Recently, the Los Angeles Times published an article showing an increase in the number of people requiring food assistance programs just to make it through the month. Los Angeles County's 1.7 million residents struggling with hunger is the highest among all U.S. counties. The reason, according to experts, is the extremely high cost of living combined with low wages. As a result, six million people in California alone are considered to be "food insecure," with one-third not qualifying for government nutritional benefits. Eligibility for these benefits is tied to income, a fact that does not sit well with many experts because it hits the working poor particularly hard. This is a group too poor to afford enough nutritious food, but not poor enough to quality for aid. Over half do not meet the requirements for food stamps, and nearly 33% of children fail to be eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches. Additionally, the number of people served by the Los Angeles Food Bank has increased from 674,000 to 1 million in just three years. Despite the increase in the number of those needing help, feeding organizations cannot keep up with demand and are having to turn people away. The sad truth is that Veterans are at a higher risk of being in groups who struggle with hunger—the underemployed, the unemployed and the homeless, by almost a 2 to 1 ratio. The main challenge facing today's Veterans, causing them to be in situations that have them going hungry, is that the transition from military life into the civilian world is often so difficult. Many recent Vets no longer recognize the world they left behind, and have trouble adjusting to a life after multiple combat tours. This new generation of combat Veterans suffers from PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury at higher rates than Vets from previous wars for a variety of reasons, one being that with improvements in battle gear, they are surviving explosions and other trauma that killed soldiers in earlier conflicts. So they're surviving, but they're not successfully reintegrating back into the civilian world. And this is to say nothing of the difficulties many Vets face when re-entering the workforce. For some, it is tough to show how their combat experience and training has prepared them for the job market. For others, job searching can be made even more challenging when having to create resumes and navigate stressful job interviews while dealing with TBI and PTSD. Another mountain, which many Veterans have to climb, is that some companies do not place a priority on hiring Vets. In fact, some companies actually have a bias against hiring Veterans, feeling that it is a burden to bring on employees who have additional needs based on their adjustments back to a post-combat life. With all of these challenges facing our heroes, it is clear to see how and why Veterans comprise one-third of our nation's homeless population. The process of Veterans' reintegration can be daunting, and combined with deficient readjustment services; they too often end up on the street. To cope, many end up using drugs and alcohol to self-medicate, which only serves to reinforce the cycle of homelessness, stagnation, incarceration and hospitalization. The end result of these serious issues is that a disproportionate number of Veterans are in the high-risk categories of being unemployed and homeless, and they are going hungry at rates higher than that of the country's working poor. There are outreach programs operating in the greater Orlando area that deliver food to the homeless every week, of which St. Stephen Lutheran Church has been an active participant for years. They do a great job, but they are fighting an uphill battle. Typically, there are a number of soup kitchens and shelters in areas where large numbers of homeless men and women congregate. These programs do not meet all the hunger needs of all homeless citizens, Veterans or otherwise. Many hungry and homeless Veterans live in rural areas that are far from these services. Other Veterans may have no idea where the nearest assistance center is. When we drive under an overpass anywhere within twenty-five miles of our church, there are people of all ages making that their “home.” It is difficult to imagine who these people are, what brought them to this point in their lives and what’s next for them. I suspect that most of us don’t think that one of these homeless faces might belong to a person who once fought for this country, and, due to circumstances, they now spend their days roaming streets and their nights under the pavements or in cardboard cartons in the woods near our own homes. For these men and women (and there are thousands upon thousands of homeless female veterans across this nation), this isn’t the “Welcome Home” they deserved. They are among us. They are the nameless faces we drive by every day. They are the ones pushing overstacked shopping carts along busy streets. They’re the one’s we hope won’t approach us in a parking lot. They, for the grace of God, could be us. Isn’t that ironic? Let’s not forget. By: Dennis McClellan