Failing To Live Up To Our Responsibilities.

In his weekly YouTube Address President Obama focused on our men and women in uniform on this Memorial Day weekend. He made this statement which a few wingnut commenters found somehow offensive:

“Our fighting men and women – and the military families who love them – embody what is best in America. And we have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us. And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve.”

ThinkProgress has a rundown today on many of the ways we as a nation have failed our returning veterans.

On this Memorial Day, the nation celebrates the sacrifice of veterans who gave their lives in service to our country. A “by-the-numbers” analysis by the Center for American Progress notes that veterans “are still in need of services to improve their quality of life—before, during, and after deployments. This year, the need is even more urgent than ever as the economic crisis hits many veterans and their families hard and these Americans struggle to find jobs, pay their mortgages, and get back on their feet.” Some key stats:

– 338,000 or almost one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are experiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, or major depression as of January 2009.

– Yet only 53 percent suffering from PTSD or major depression have seen a physician or mental health provider.

– 154,000 veterans were homeless on any given night in 2007, and 300,000 were homeless at some point during that year.

– One-third of homeless Americans are veterans, even though only one-tenth of all adults are veterans.

– Foreclosure rates in military towns were increasing at four times the national average in last year.

These are not failures confined to a particular political party or ideology. This is a collective failure as a nation not to honor our responsibilities to those who go out and put their lives on the line to help keep our country safe. This is NOT a political issue but a moral one. We simply can not continue to ask so much of our men and women in the military and their families, and then hang them out to dry when they get back home. If there was ever an issue that should have bipartisan support it would be this one. Improving the lives of our returning veterans should not just be a goal, it should be mandatory.