American Heroes

While everyone is singing the praises of Chris Kyle- American Sniper, I'm not so quick to join the choir.

Oh, not because I don't think he was a good American or a good sniper or a good guy- I'm sure he was all of these things. And his death was a tragedy, as all death is.

I do question the common sense of 'treating' PTSD with loaded automatic weapons...I think that's sort of a dangerous version of getting back up on the horse that threw you...and Chris Kyle's untimely death seems to lend credence to that line of thinking.

Yes, I've heard and read some of the articles and interviews from other American Snipers that are less than complimentary, but here's the thing. It doesn't matter. Chris Kyle is dead.

He came home, wrote a book, got himself killed, and had a movie made about him. Then, to top it all off, the Texas governor-elect deemed it necessary to give him his own holiday...Chris Kyle Day is a 'thing' now in Texas and will be every year.

You know what else is a 'thing'?

A literal shit-ton of Veterans in this country that are homeless.

They're homeless and sick physically and mentally because they went off to fight for something they were told was worthy and came back broken and shattered.

There's so many the VA can't handle them all. There's so many going un-handled that they are killing themselves off at a higher rate than the war is killing them. More veterans have killed themselves after coming home to the country they fought for than have been killed in (fill in the blank of your favorite current war).

They're getting killed in war and they're killing themselves when they get home and you know who else is killing them?

Police officers. *Remember when they were called Peace Officers? What the hell happened to THAT?

Seriously.

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/shocking-video-released-cop-killing-homeless-veteran-drunk/

Our police officers are killing our veterans. Are they twitchy and drunk and drugged up and armed and dangerous? (the veterans) They can be. Or not. Raymond Keith Martinez was not any of those things except drunk- a state of self-medication he kept himself in for lack of proper help and medication.

51 years old, drunk and loitering. Shot dead.

Nicholas McGehee- purple heart recipient. Shot dead.

Tommy Yancy- served in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as boots-on-the-ground service after 9/11. Beaten to death.

AJ DeVillina- a High Desert Marine. Shot dead. On Veterans' Day weekend.

Are these men not also heroes? How were their sacrifices any smaller than Chris Kyle's? Why is their legacy and story not movie-material?

What about Chad Littlefield- the veteran who was killed with Chris Kyle? Only because of his proximity to Chris Kyle do we know his name and story.

And Eddie Routh- the man who killed both Chris and Chad- he's famous too, or infamous...heading for life in prison because someone thought it would be a grand idea to arm him in a 'safe and controlled situation'. He suffered from PTSD- just another broken pawn on our empire gameboard.

It's not that I begrudge Mr. Kyle his Official Texas Day. I just wonder where the Official days of remembrance for all the others are.

I guess they all can't have their own day because we'd run out of days right quick. Maybe we could give them each an hour because

Every 65 minutes, a military veteran commits suicide.

Look at this-

http://www.pbs.org/coming-back-with-wes-moore/about/facts/

The story and movie everyone should be talking about is NOT the story of Chris Kyle. It's Raymond, Nicholas, Tommy, AJ. It's Eddie and every veteran who is homeless and jailed and beaten and killed and who kills themselves in despair and hopelessness.

We are failing them. They stepped up and served and we are backing off and letting them fall.

We're watching them fall, sometimes pushing them over the edge, sometimes killing them before they kill themselves. That is not the hallmark of a civilized compassionate nation.

Every 65 minutes another tiny light in our national sky blinks, wavers and goes out and no one even pauses to notice.

In the time it took me to write this we lost another one. Before I go to bed we'll lose two more. By morning another half dozen will be dead.

And on and on and on...our country keeping time in corpses piled up of those who served and were summarily cast aside.

Rolling Back Dignity With a Smiley Face

So Walmart has pledged to hire 100,000 veterans in the next five years as a huge 'thank you' for their service to our country, and the heavens open up and the angels sing their praises.

So, 20,000 per year.

There are 4,707 Walmart/Sam's/etc. locations in the US, so that means that this stellar sainted move will employ at each store...

4 people per year.

Now, of course 'all' it will take is for the veteran to show up with his papers of honorable discharge...and for them to qualify for employment just like anyone else.

Awesome.

Those lucky 4 people per location will be tossed into the pool of 1,540,000 Walmart employees. I saw that number and thought, "Wow- that seems like a lot" and it is- over 300 per store. Of course all those 4,707 locations are not stores- there's distribution centers and truck drivers, and the main offices in Arkansas filled with pencil-pushers and all that as well. And the stores are more often than not open 24/7- that's 3 shifts of workers every day. So ya. I guess that's about right.

Also, over a third of Walmart employees are part time, so not eligible for benefits which I guess wouldn't be a problem for veterans in the VA system, but the Walmart press release says NOTHING about whether or not these jobs will be full or part time and the average rate of pay for a part-timer is about $8 per hour and a full time employee makes about $10 per hour, making over a quarter of Walmart employees nationwide eligible for food stamps...because what they make at Walmart even working full time is below the national poverty rate...which is despicable.

Old people like me think, "Hey! $10 is pretty good! When *I* started working the minimum wage was $3.65 and I was able to afford an apartment and a car and food".

Looking back, I remember the apartment was in a crappy part of town- gunfire was a frequent background noise, my car was a 10 year old VW bug and I ate just salad...a lot. Even my cat had to learn to like salad. And that was just iceberg lettuce and generic dressing.

But I digress.

Lets say our returning veteran has 2 kids and a spouse, and the spouse also works at Walmart. They are both lucky enough to be working full time.

Making a combined $20 per hour, they bring home $800 per week or $41,600 per year. That sounds pretty good, right?

Take off a third for taxes and their portion of what Walmart provides for insurance. Now we're down to $27,734.

Poverty level for a family of 4 in the US is $23,050 so our hypothetical family is skating above poverty level by about $90 per week. They're taking home $1,920 per month.

Can you hear the angels singing?

Now figure in things like
rent- if they're hella lucky they can get by with $500
car- lets say just one and give 'em a really low $250 payment
gas for that car (just one, remember) $100
utilities- electric/phone/water...again we'll go low and say $200
insurance on the car and their possessions? $150
food- 4 people? Very frugally $400 per month

Now if anything happens- anything at all- new tires for the car, something at the doctor or dentist not covered by insurance, clothes for work since they can't JUST wear the blue vest of shame, and school clothes and shoes for the kids, any type of daycare at all, anything...they have the princely sum of $73 per week to cover it.

They've put nothing into savings. They've not tithed their 10% to the Lord. We've not considered any other type of credit obligation or loans like student loans or big medical bills.

I haven't even touched on the crappy working conditions, hellacious expectations and the fact that over 70% of Walmart employees quit in the first year.

I read a comment about this that said something like, "I've worked at Walmart. Working at Walmart is just like being unemployed except you have to show up on time and your boss gives you shit all day".

Welcome home, Veterans- this is the way Walmart wants to thank you for your service.