I have written about this subject before, but seeing so many homeless couples living in the Chattahoochee National Forest raised my attention to the issue again. The real number of homeless Americans is obviously double or triple the official government figures, because the homeless are invisible. Since writing my blog on the forest dwellers, I have learned that there are a least a hundred people camped out around our town in the woods. They are homeless and carless, so they walk to fast food restaurants to earn minimum wages. They are not tramps, hobos or deadbeats. They just are people, whose lives have been destroyed by our decadent economic system and social values.
Though for the grace of God go I. Anyone of you could be next in line to join them in the tents.
What is even more shocking is that female vets compose a disproportionate share of the homeless vets. Bellow is a direct quote from a verterans group's web site:
As more women serve in combat zones, the share of female veterans who end up homeless, while still relatively small at an estimated 6,500, has nearly doubled over the last decade, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. For younger veterans, it is even more pronounced: One out of every 10 homeless vets under the age of 45 is now a woman, the statistics show. And unlike their male counterparts, many have the added burden of being single parents.
"Some of the first homeless vets that walked into our office were single moms,'' said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "When people think of homeless vets, they don't think of a Hispanic mother and her kids. The new generation of veterans is made up of far more women.''
Overall, female veterans are now between two and four times more likely to end up homeless than their civilian counterparts, according to the VA, most as a result of the same factors that contribute to homelessness among male veterans: mental trauma related to their military service and difficulty transitioning into the civilian economy.
Have we become a nation of selfish pigs? No veteran should go without shelter or food, Who deserves special treatment more than veterans? Last Fall our government borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up the opulent lifestyle of Wall Street bankers and investors, yet it is called "socialism" to provide a minimal quality of life for veterans? It just does not make sense.
This is not a self-serving blog. I never served in combat overseas. I was totally opposed to the invasion of Iraq from day one, but believe the war with the Taliban & Al Quaida in Afghanistan was necessary for our civilization's survival.
That being said . . . What is right is right! Civil War veterans, both in the North and the South, were provided places to live in group homes, if they were indigent or later, when the veterans aged. That is the very least America can do for all these men and women, who made such enormous sacrifices. Better still, why not reconstitute the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) Offer the vets jobs with the new CCC where they can teach the non-combat skills they learned in the military to others. It is an idea that just might work.
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| Outrageous! At least 195,000 U.S. Veterans Are Homeless |
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blue130160
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Jul 7 @ 8:31PM
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Absolutely , But if I lend him my couch would he stay there.. Then I'd have to pay the extra bills for bathing. I met one the other day...
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ElmerFudd445
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Jul 7 @ 9:43PM
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people call it socialism when our government tries to help anyone poor to have some minimal quality of life..
I don't feel our government has ever paid the dues owed to our veterans.. Soldiers that have paid the price of there own beliefs and physical bodies for our country and we do not take care of these people. They have seen and done things that many of us hope we will never see or have to do..
Our government should be ashamed of how they have treated them.. 
Every single veteran of war deserves at least the quality of life they had before they joined the service if not better.. They are the ones willing to pay the sacrifices many of us would not chose to do..
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Always_Striving
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Jul 8 @ 2:55AM
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Blame that Mother F'r Dick Cheney and his Halliburton investment project for diverting tax dollars.
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havUheard
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Jul 8 @ 7:41AM
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Have we become a nation of selfish pigs? No veteran should go without shelter or food, Who deserves special treatment more than veterans? MAYBE if some people would stop writing about problems and start doing something to help those less fortunate . . .
Those here who have design/architecture backgrounds could volunteer time to design & build some basic structures for the homeless people, or those with human resources & education backgrounds could help train them to hopefully find better employment.
Writing about it on a friend/dating site isn't going to accomplish anything, even less than writing to state representatives. 
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Etowah
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Jul 8 @ 8:24AM
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I would love to provide my design skills to help the homeless. Howver, my income has been below poverty level for 2 1/2 years. There have been four different months when I didn't literally have a penny to my name. I am a hair's breath from losing my car and home myself. However, I did write a letter to the US Forest Service about the number of homeless in the national forests and offered to do something about it for it, if I had a place to stay and food to eat.
This past weekend, I was out in the woods foraging for wild food and fishing.
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dizzydoll
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Jul 8 @ 9:00AM
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yea, send more soldiers to war so they can come back and be homeless vets. the arm chair warmongers on this site make me sick.... instead of blah, blah why dont they find a way to TRULY respect those THEY send off war to appease their paranoia.
vet suicide is also very high  .
 please hold thumbs and cross fingers for me, once i am qualified i want to help those vets who suffer from nightmares and PTSD with regression... they need it.
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Etowah
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Jul 8 @ 9:05AM
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PS - I can't respond to the above MD screen ID directly about MD being a social site, because according to MD his or her Screen ID does not exist. So is this person working for Big Brother? LOL What? Do you make $80,000 a year from the tax payers to monitor email on social sites?
At any rate, being that dating is out of the question financially and there is no one on MD withing 50 miles of my house, my social life is limited to the intellectual stimulation of communicating with friends long distance on Match Doctor - as long as I have electricity and telephone service. LOL
It is odd that in Metro Atlanta with a population of over 6 million people, virtually no one has a profile now on Match Doctor.
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