As many of us know, last Friday was Veterans’ Day, which also means that there was an outpouring of support for US service members. From USMC flags on front lawns to Facebook posts from your aunts and uncles, the United States loves to support the troops. Or does it? At a glance that may sound ridiculous; we have whole holidays dedicated to veterans, and vets are met with support and gratitude for their service from civilians and military alike. However, the numbers tell a far different story.
In 2020, 6,146 veterans committed suicide, or about 16 suicides per day. It remains one of the leading causes of veteran deaths in the US, and the 2nd leading cause for post-9/11 veterans. On average, 131,000 veterans are homeless on a given night, and double that will experience homelessness at some point over the course of a year.
And when it comes to healthcare, they don’t always fare much better. Despite the VA, short for Veterans Affairs, being considered one of the better healthcare options in America, it still gets largely mixed reviews. Only 46% of veterans say that the VA does a good job at giving them the help they need, and 3 in 10 veterans say the government has done too little for them after serving. Most of the veterans surveyed were enlisted post-9/11. The VA has been inundated with troublesome bureaucracy, misappropriated funding, and a lack of consistent leadership, possibly for decades. This results in veterans in need of care–both mental and physical–not receiving the assistance they need, and falling by the wayside.
In short, vets face numerous problems regarding their well-being after serving. Those are tangible things that can be remedied through legislation and community outreach. That means it is a simple fix to align the actual value America puts on its veterans to how they are mythologized, right? Not necessarily. Time and time again, they are used as a political cudgel to beat down other groups. It is no secret that some members of the Republican Party incorporate homophobia, or, at a minimum, disapproval of the queer community, into their platform. In my own experience, it isn’t rare to hear someone lament that “How come they [LGBTQ people] get a whole month, but those who fight for our freedom only get a day?”
But in reality, there are innumerable holidays dedicated to those who served in the military, as well as their families. It wouldn’t be fair to blame people for not being aware of these holidays, since they’re seldom given attention by the media. But when that involuntary ignorance is used to harass marginalized communities for being ‘entitled’, it becomes problematic and reduces vets down to a political tool
America and our veterans are practically peas in a pod. Out of its 243 years of existence, America has been in some form of conflict for 225 of it. But if we are going to claim that we support the troops, there needs to be some paperwork to back it up. If it was possible to have even a handful more veterans alive, housed, and happy, shouldn’t that be reason enough to try?
