On November 11th, 1919-one year to the day after the end of First World War, President Woodrow Wilson declared the day a national holiday. In his proclamation, he wrote "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."
Today, 92 years after that first Armistice Day we call the holiday Veterans Day. We have long since stopped celebrating the end to war, but we still do take time out to honor the veterans we’ve sent to war. We go to parades and hold barbecues; we tie yellow ribbons on our cars and wave American flags as we celebrate the patriotism that led so many young women and men to wars all over the world.
But this year, I don’t think we have any credibility in honoring our veterans. As a country we have failed them. We have played politics with their lives, needlessly sending them in harms way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now with military action in Libya. And to those who have made it back, we have broken our promises of medial assistance, educational benefits, and disability benefits.
My close friend, Joyce Wagner, is a veteran of the Iraq war. Joyce is a single mother of an adorable two-year-old boy. She’s smarter and stronger than anybody I’ve ever met. She joined the US Marine Corps reserves in 2002, when she graduated from high school and served two tours in Iraq.
In the war, she wasn’t wounded by any mortars or struck by any roadside bombs. But she did come back injured. She has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—resulting from both her experience in combat and attacks she experienced from other service members while deployed. She’s still every bit as strong and smart as she was when she signed up for the USMC in 2002, but I have watched her struggle with controlling her anger, processing stress, sleeping, and concentrating.
Last year, Joyce filed a disability claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs. She submitted reams of paperwork recounting, in explicit and excruciating details, the traumatic experiences she faced in Iraq. She turned over her medical records confirming her diagnosis. But because of the huge volume of veterans coming back from war injured, the VA is woefully blogged down. Eighteen months after she filed her claim, the VA has still not issued a disability rating.
After the war, Joyce finished her Bachelors degree at Chatham University and right now, she’s a few steps away from earning her Masters Degree. Because of the economic crisis, she’s been unable to find a job that would pay enough to send her son to childcare while she worked. Without any other source of income, the meager few hundred dollars a month that she would bring in on a disability stipend from the VA would have been a lifeline. But because the VA hasn’t gotten around to reviewing her file after 18 months, Joyce is in serious financial trouble. She hasn’t been able to make her very modest mortgage payment in several months and she’s recently received a foreclosure notice.
We’re hoping that Joyce will be able to work out a deal with her bank to put off payments until her claim with the VA is settled and she receives back pay for the 18 months of disability payments she’s owed. But until the VA moves ahead with her claim, Joyce and her two-year-old son are at risk of losing their home.
Unfortunately, Joyce’s story is not unique. With current backlogs disability claims filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs generally take 12-18 months to be fully processed. And more veterans than ever are coming back with serious physical and emotional injuries. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs as many as 11-20% of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling with PTSD. To date, more veterans have died of suicide than died in combat. And today veterans experience higher rates of poverty and homelessness than any other demographic.
So this year, I think it’s a little disingenuous for us to tie yellow ribbons to our car antennas on Veterans Day or waive red, white and blue flags in parades. We are failing our veterans. When we sent them to war, we made a promise that we would take care of them if they were injured. We are breaking that promise.
If you really want to honor veterans this year, put your yellow ribbons away. Call your member of Congress and tell them to fund the VA properly and make sure these claims are dealt with quickly and efficiently. Pick up a picket sign and head down to your local Veterans Affairs office. Demand that we stop deploying injured soldiers who are struggling with PTSD and other trauma related issues. And most importantly demand that we end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and stop needlessly sending young women and men into harms way.
Patrick Young works for the United Steelworkers and he is a long-time social justice activist. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.