Our military has men who give up their careers and devote their entire lives to protecting their county. Although they can do many things and have other career options, they choose to join the military because that is where their passions lie. While they are in service, we salute them, reward them, and look to them for inspiration. But what happens to them when they decide to get back to civilian life?
Once these great citizens return from service and want to get back to their ordinary civilian lives, they realize that in order to maintain the integrity of their nation, they have compromised their personal lives. It is very hard for them to adjust and cope with the worrisome everyday life because they are accustomed to the disciplined military life. At times they end up homeless, without a family to support them and without enough money to keep them going.
Is this how we choose to reward those great men and women who have dedicated their lives to their country and given up all they had? The government gives them a meager pension of $30,000 for couples and $12,000 for single women. But is this is really enough to survive in today’s world? It is not even enough for a hand to mouth existence, let alone the comfort and luxury that our veterans actually deserve.
In such cases, these veterans do not have much of a choice and are forced to resort to short term loans. But with the high rates of these loans and their meager pension, they are never really able to repay these loans and have to live a life of debt.
As per statistics, about a third of our homeless population is comprised of homeless veterans. Might sound shocking but this is how we make treat those who have loyally served our country for a significant part of their lives, despite the fact that they missed out on many other opportunities. This is how we honor patriotism and loyalty to our country.
Our veterans do truly deserve much more than this and we ought to give them the basic necessities, at least, in return for the security and safety that they ensure to our nation every single day. We must create awareness about this issue and address it well so that our veterans get what they truly deserve from the civilians that they have protected all their life.
