ARMED FORCES CANNOT TAKE A CHRISTMAS BREAK

It is hard to imagine not being able to be at home with family and love ones during the holidays but this is the plight of service members. For the last eight years thousands of military men and women have been in harm’s way on Christmas Day – Fortunately service members have an uncanny ability to look after each other especially during the holidays.

This Christmas they are onboard ships ready to respond where they are needed. Others are standing watch, patrolling, providing escorts or in combat. Their Christmas Day meal may be a MRE (Meals Ready to Eat), or turkey and trimmings prepared in a tent galley or onboard a ship. The meal may not compare to a home cooked meal, but it will do. In the end each sailor, soldier, airman, marine and Coast Guardsman will rally together and offer support to their comrades. Some will pray that next year they will be home with their families -- others will pray for peace and safety. And when the meal is over they will go back to doing what they were trained to do – The men and women of the greatest military in the world will continue to defend and protect their country.

Merry Christmas to the men and women of the armed forces and God speed.

ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY MEMBERS AND VETERANS DESERVE HELP TOO

This year disabled veterans and military retirees will not get their annual cost-of-living adjustment. I understand the rationale behind this decision. The cost-of-living index or COLA is equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of one year to the third quarter of the next. If there is no increase, there is no COLA http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/latestCOLA.html. Apparently there was no increase this year -- oh well.

Never the less, I imagine most retirees and disabled veterans like me were looking forward to the annual increase regardless of how small that increase might have been. The bailout money Wall Street Bankers such as Goldman Sachs received suggests that they are much more important than the men and women who risk their lives for our country.

There are 20,000 homeless veterans right now additionally there are active duty members who are forced to make multiple tours to Iraq and Iran, while their families struggle to make ends meet. I am not homeless, nor so destitute that a lack of cost-of-living increase will break me, but there are millions of veterans and active duty military members who are struggling and need help just as much or even more help than Wall Street Bankers.

Writer Dylan Ratigan offers a novel solution for present and former warriors -- Dylan Ratigan: Veterans: Lip Service, Bankers: Billions & America: Foreclosures - Here's The Fix
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-rati... I think he presents a strong argument for providing homeownership to Iraqi vets – there is already assistance from the Veterans Administration for home buyers but Ratigan's idea is very different from simply guaranteeing a percentage of the mortgage. Time will tell if our elected officials consider his suggestion. In the meantime, next January I will quietly deal with not getting a COLA increase just like all the other disabled veterans and retired military members.
Copyright © Sharon D. Powell, 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED