Last night on The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly repeated his ridiculous assertion that there are few, if any, homeless veterans in America:
O'Reilly raised an important topic: the plight of homeless veterans. Too bad he got the facts wrong.
There are almost 200,000 homeless veterans in America. Let me introduce you to one:
Less than a year after serving with the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq, twenty-five year old Herold Noel found himself unemployed, homeless, and unable to provide for his wife and four children.
As a homeless Iraq veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and living out of his car in Brooklyn, Herold was not greeted by a support system for veterans. Instead, he met resistance from the Housing Authority, the VA, and New York's city shelter for families, filling out form after form and added to waiting list after waiting list.According to Herold, "I thought New York was going to look out for me, I just got back from war. I felt like I'd been stabbed in the back."
Herald is not alone. Already, an estimated 1,500 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are homeless or at risk for homelessness. They are joining the increasing ranks of veterans who are homeless.
Bill, here are the facts. Veterans represent one-third of the adult homeless population in this country, and that number is rising. While almost 200,000 homeless veterans line the nation's streets every night, almost twice as many experience homelessness at some point throughout the course of a year. Essentially, we have the population of Des Moines, Iowa or Montgomery, Alabama "sleeping under bridges."
This is a national disgrace. As Americans we should be ashamed and outraged that the brave men and women of our Armed Forces are being abandoned under bridges, not denying their existence. As one of the most watched cable news hosts on television, Bill O'Reilly has a great opportunity to help homeless veterans by bringing more attention to the issue. Join IAVA in urging him to be part of the solution (www.BillwasWrong.com).
Click here to sign an open letter to Bill O'Reilly, telling him to set the record straight about the very real problem of homeless veterans in America. We also have a resource center where people can learn more, and find ways they can help.
UPDATE: Here's the video of me discussing the O'Reilly controversy with Keith Olbermann last night:
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Thanks to people (mostly draft dodgers) who have degrading remarks about Vietnam Veterans, many Vietnam Veterans lack a scene of pride of being or deny the identity as a veteran. In my opinion, O"Reilly is a cowardly draft dodger such as Bill Clinton who he rants on and on about. O'Reilly graduated from Chaminade High School in Long Island in 1967. In the years 1967-1968, O'Reilly would have to register for the draft. O'Reilly, single and within the age range, was high priority draftee material yet never enlisted or was drafted. O"Rielly ran to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In the fall of 1967, (in the bloodiest days of the Vietnam War) Bill O'Reilly ran to England to be a student in London College (sound familiar?).
O'Reilly spent his junior year, 1969-1970 at the University of London in the fall of 1970, he returned to Marist College from England. Even with the draft lottery in full force, O'Reilly would never be inducted. Instead, he ran to away to Florida where he took a job teaching at a high school. Two years later, in 1973, he was back in college at Boston University for a master's degree in broadcast journalism (you"re safe now Bill, the Paris Peace Accord has been signed and troops were returning).
Despite O'Reilly's denial of historical events, Vietnam and the draft really did happen. Two million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. The latest number of killed in action totaled 47,244.
Both Bill O"Rielly and Bill Clinton were draft dodgers. The only difference is that Bill Clinton served his country as President whereas Bill O"Rielly is still a coward.
Thanks to people (mostly draft dodgers) who have degrading remarks about Vietnam Veterans, many Vietnam Veterans lack a scene of pride of being or deny the identity as a veteran. In my opinion, O’Reilly is a cowardly draft dodger such as those (Bill Clinton) he rants on and on about. O'Reilly graduated from Chaminade High School in Long Island in 1967. In the years 1967-1968, O'Reilly would have to register for the draft. O'Reilly, single and within the age range, was high priority draftee material yet never enlisted or was drafted. O’Rielly ran to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In the fall of 1967, (in the bloodiest days of the Vietnam War) Bill O'Reilly ran to England to be a student in London College (sound familiar?).
O'Reilly spent his junior year, 1969-1970 at the University of London in the fall of 1970, he returned to Marist College from England. Even with the draft lottery in full force, O'Reilly would never be inducted. Instead, he ran to away to Florida where he took a job teaching at a high school. Two years later, in 1973, he was back in college at Boston University for a master's degree in broadcast journalism (you’re safe now Bill, the Paris Peace Accord has been signed and troops were returning).
Despite O'Reilly's denial of historical events, Vietnam and the draft really did happen. Two million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. The latest number of killed in action totaled 47,244.
Both Bill O’Rielly and Bill Clinton were draft dodgers. The only difference is that Bill Clinton served his country as President whereas Bill O’Rielly is still a coward.
---George Bernard Shaw
It is of course absurd to suggest that all veterans, new and old, are entitled to a life time of charity... regardless of the life choices those individuals made!
Military and VA hospitals are in deplorable condition. Several have been closed, so vets must wait even longer to get treatment for their injuries or conditions (directly attributable to combat). The US can't pay military personnel a decent wage, but spend billions for Blackwater mercenaries (earning 10-fold) to commit murder. We have paid billions more to Haliburton to provide our soldiers with contaminated, un-filtered water (which undoubtedly will lead to disease) and have left many of our service personnel without body armor or adequate equipment.
Those who signed up for the National Guard in their states are on their 2nd or 3rd tours of duty, and their employers have been forced to give their jobs to others, so their prospects of getting their old jobs back are nill.
Many are returning with PTSD and other ailments, which render them unable to hold full-time employment upon their return. Their families suffer economic hardships while they're away, and then moreso when they return, if jobs are unavailable, or the vet is unable to work. They no longer have access to health care, and lose everything they had, all for the privilege of serving this country.
If we can't treat our veterans with the respect and dignity, provide support services for them, then we'll soon have no military left. Why would someone in their right mind enlist, knowing they'll be degraded, lose their job, health, and possibly their life, while those responsible for putting them in that predicament disavow any obligation to help and support them?
200,000 homeless veterans is a shame. While many homeless are addicts, alcoholics, or mentally disabled (non-veterans), there are also some non-veterans who've lost everything due to medical bills for a family member.
Gen. Mac Arthur used active duty troops to run World War I veterans out of Washington when those men protested over their treatment by the government. Most of the VA's estimate of homeless veterans appear to be Vietnam vets, men and women who serves in a war that ended more than thirty years ago. Now, Gulf War, Iraq War, and Afghanistan War vets, are part of this group of live "unknowns."
Bill O'Reilly only reflects the attitudes of many Americans who want it this way.