"We Were All Heroes When We Came Home"

It is Memorial Day now.

I've been thinking about the "Thank yous"  I've seen posted  on Facebook and Twitter to our veterans still engaged in two official wars and  a "conflict" going on in Libya. 

My maternal grandfather, Louis Weinstien  was a veteran of World War  II. Joesph Bohen, my paternal grandfather, served in WWII and Korea. He earned a medal as a soldier. 

I never spoke to them about what it was like to be a part of those wars. Bohen died before  I was born, and "Grandpa," as I called him,  was too gentle of man to share the horrors that come from war with his grandchildren, except to say "We were all heroes when we came home."

Earlier this month, our new heroes killed a terrorist, dumped him at sea, and moved on to the next mission. 

If anything, that mission will be to come HOME! 

Subsequent to that, here at home funding for services related to behavioral health continues to take a beating.  As a person in recovery, I'm active in that community.  I pay special attention to budgets and legislation affecting the countless numbers who suffer in silence, namely due to discriminatory and prejudical beliefs about mental illness. 

In this day and age with all of the information the public has access too, I wonder when the myths will cease and facts take over. 

So I ask a simple and uncomplicated question to you, the public, and our legislators at the state and federal levels: What is the plan for those we celebrate today when those living a war in their minds also come home?

With all of the proposed cuts to the Department of Public Welfare, the well-documented hoops through which soldiers have to jump to get disability, and the cuts to homelessness programs - yes there are vets who are actually homeless, hard as it is to believe - what will be done? 

 The Veterans Administration estimates there are approximate 107,000 who are homeless right now in the country, Patch.com in reported. 

Is this how we treat our defenders? Our heroes? 

Are you aware..."that Between April 2002 and March 2008, data was reported on 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using VA healthcare for the first time; 36.9 percent received one or more mental health diagnoses; 21.8 percent received a diagnosis of PTSD; 17.4 percent a diagnosis of depression.” Yet many veterans don’t get help, Liz Spikol wrote for on PhillyMag.com.

Spikol got the information in an article published by Huffington Post.  The quotes are from Charles R. Marmer, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the NYU Langone Medical Center. 

In Phildelphia, Project HOME was recently awarded a grant to build housing for Veterans.  And that was long before special forces pulled a special version of Kick A** on Bin Laden, which lead to a National catharsis.  

At the Bucks County Courthouse local men and woman who gave their lives in service to us are commemorated with pictures  around the courthouse.

I looked at the names and ages on the Monday after the Arizona shootings,  I didn't see the political party they were registered too. What I saw were citizens, not some abstract political-cultural-fiscal issue to be debated.

Sometime soon, soldiers from all walks of life will return.  A conservative estimate of 1:4 will come back with  some form of a mental health challenge. Because of stigma, many won't seek treatment. For those that do, services that are already held together by shoestring budgets, and some of the most resourceful people you'll ever come across will be cut again. 

Instead of performing the civic custom of thanking past and present soldiers and their families on Facebook or Twitter for their service, write a legislator, research recovery from mental illness or substance abuse, or the social effects of stigma. Read for example "Pennsylvania's Call for Change" document, have a open discussion because soon just got five minutes closer, and our defenders will need all of us to be Heroes for them.