Neighbors Vs Good Neighbors

I’ve always been taught to love my neighbors.   I do – I have no trouble loving anyone I meet whether through our church, within a business, on the street, or even on the net.  

I have to confess that I love some gooder than others (gooder is a good southern word, thank you).  Some are just fine people and they always exhibit good vibes whenever you speak to them.  Good Neighbors are also the first to pony up to help someone out.  Oh, they complain about this or that, but it is good naturedly and accompanied by a winning smile of acceptance.   

This is Veterans Day and I was prompted to think about the Good Neighbors that are in service to our country and particularly those that have already served – our veterans.  

What better neighbor can you have than one that served to keep us free?  What better neighbor can we have that unselfishly put themselves in harms way, under threat of being maimed and possibly death?   These are among the goodest neighbors we can hope to have.

I was impressed today at the little cafeteria where we ate after church, when so many men came in decorated with pins, flags, and name tags that their churches and synagogues had pinned on them so we would know that a good neighbor, a hero, was in our presence.   I managed to shake a few hands and express thanks.  Not enough for what they did for us.  Not nearly enough.

We have some Good Neighbors right here on the net.   Wanderingvet for example.  A homeless veteran that is about as fine a person as you can find even in his present situation.  A working veteran with not enough income or steady jobs to have a roof.   Go read some of his stories as he lives a life on the streets and sleeps on the hillsides.  It is a struggle but he hands out useful advice to other homeless on how to cope, useful advice to other veterans on how to get help.   Maybe one or two can help him.

Another Good Neighbor is VA234 who is a disabled veteran in Ohio that started his blog while he was still homeless.  If you go back far enough and read forward you will get the real story of what it is like to struggle with life from the street side, negotiating toward a real place to live.

Another Good Neighbor is Patriot Guard of North Dakota These fine people show up at military funeral services when some of our not-so-good neighbors threaten protests.  You’ve heard of groups that come out and carry signs demonizing the soldier hero being brought home to rest and doing so at the expense of the grieving family and friends.  The Patriot Guards show up on motorcyles and reverently stand guard to make sure the services are not disturbed.   The North Dakota Patriot Guard is particulary close to my heart because they went to the rescue of a veteran that was about to be put out on the street and his home torn down.   They did far more than that.  You can find it in earlier posts.

Al and Perry, homeless veterans here in Marietta are Good Neighbors.  I’m sorry that I can’t give you a link to them because they still live in the woods.   Pat of Georgia Home Staging, her husband Scott, and several others in our church are especially Good Neighbors for coming to the aid of Al and Perry (and other homeless), taking food and clothing, bringing Al and Perry into our church, breaking bread with them over lunch each Sunday.    They are encouraging Al and Perry to get help through the VA by providing information and assistance to get it done.

The Golden Corral seems to be a Good Neighbor.  They don’t need a link, just go find one if you are a veteran, or have a meal there anyway because they are such Good Neighbors.  (They also helped us out with Habitat meals).  Monday, November 12 is this years “Military Appreciation Day” in which they will give any and all veterans that show up a free meal.   I learned that at another Good Neighbor, Homeless Family Blog.  I’m not sure he is a veteran, but he has a veteran’s heart and writes a good blog.   I know he was homeless at one time and allowed me to quote him several times.  

There are countless others that I don’t have links for that fall into the Good Neighbor category.  

The title of this article is “Neighbors vs Good Neighbors” so now I’m going to go over to the bad side, the simply neighbor side, to live up to the billing of Oldtimer Speaks Out.  I know I’m supposed to love my neighbor as myself, but I’m having a really hard time doing that with an internet neighbor.  This neighbor is one of the bad ones.  He wrote me today in response to a comment about medical care for our heroes and it nearly ruined my whole day: 

“They’re treating heroes – but why??? I’m (sic) don’t understand.”  

At first I thought it had to be a typo, (as in meaning to say “mistreating heroes”) but then I looked up the guy’s website and found it was a site that is anti-war, anti troops, a hate site.   Now it is not a stretch to see that some would be against the war, as I’m not thrilled about that myself.   But this group and this person is also against our troops.   Against our troops so much they want them to go untreated, to suffer, to even die.   It is this type of bad neighbor that would carry a sign and shout and disrupt a solumn funeral for a war hero while the family grieves nearby.  Thus the reason for such Good Neighbors as the Patriot Guard.

Yes, I do have compassion for this person for his bitterness.  But I’m not allowing him to post on this website.  It is the only one I’ve turned down so far.  He may be a neighbor, but God and I may have a conversation tonight about whether I should love him.   Anyway, I’ve hope that He would agree that I don’t have to let this neighbor over the threshold and enjoy the comforts of my home.  

To the bad neighbor that doesn’t know “why???”, I’ll answer your question anyway.  Because they more than deserve it.  They served their country to protect the hide of someone like yourself, for me, for all the other Good Neighbors that have already served, for your families and mine, to protect and serve – that is why.   Never mind how this war started, never mind whether you think it is unjustified … these patriotic young men and women stepped up to the plate when the plate was empty, stayed at the plate as the strikes went by and stand there now to hit the winning home run.   Ever ready to protect the bitter worthless souls such as yourself  that would deny them the comfort and aid of treatment.   

Another bad neighbor is the retailer’s gross use of Veteran’s Day to post advertizements such as I’ve seen so many of today.  “Come celebrate Veteran’s Day at our car lot”. “At our white sale”, “at our drugstore”.  No other mention of Veterans except as an excuse to shop them.  No flags, no parades, no contributions to veteran’s benefit.  Simply a gross excuse to ride on the back of a day meant to honor our heroes.   

To my Good Neighbors and Good Friends all over this web that are Veterans and Soldiers,  I hope this Veterans Day is a particularly good one for you!  And to the bad neighbors, I propose Grace and Peace to you as well and hope you soon see the light.

 Oldtimer

 

 

 

  

 

Homeless Veteran Hasseled at Truck Stop

This story was passed to me by wanderingvet  (Homeless Veteran Survival Guide)

You can read his account there.   I want to say something about our homeless heroes and how they are often shamefully treated.  

The gist of this particular problem as related by Wandering Vet is that on his way to a Stand Down in Nashville, he was dropped off at a Birmingham truck stop manned by a security guard who seems to have a problem with homeless people and with homeless veterans in particular.  

Never mind that this is a veteran who honorably served active duty in service to our beloved country. 

Never mind that this hero was being very careful to not bother anyone, who had purposely purchased a cola so that he was a paying customer, who had agreed to stand off the property and wait for a ride… never mind all that.  

This is a problem that our homeless friends deal with all the time.   It is a problem that all too often doesn’t differentiate a homeless man from a homeless hero.  To me there is a difference.  We owe these men and women that risk their lives for our country and all too often end up homeless through no fault of their own.   We should do better.

The abuse often starts for our heroes when they first hit the VA radar, sometimes even before.    The VA far too often either fails to properly diagnose a service related problem like PTSD or does so after so much delay that the Hero Veteran, who is unable to hold a job loses his home, then his family, then his pride, and then ends up homeless, living in the streets or the woods.  Sometimes the problem is that the military takes the easy way out and dischages the soldier under a guise of preconditional personality disorder so that they end up without benefits and sometimes charged back for sign up bonus money.

Our veteran heroes make up 27% of our male population but 43% of the homeless male population.   That implies that they are vastly over represented among the homeless.  It is apparent that military service is an overriding causal factor in this overrepresentation.    Our country has a history of such shabby treatment of our veterans!

The abuse continues when a veteran encounters the police who are instructed to move the homeless out of town any way they can.   Unwarranted questions, unwarranted and often illegal searches, unwarranted demands to leave a park or bench or even the county, moved on with threats of arrest.

Homeless veterans suffer the same types of abuse and sometimes violence against them that all of our homeless have to submit to, as it often is not apparent that that homeless man trying to get a meal or asking for a job or looking for a place to camp or for a ride is actually a veteran victim of our system that honors our warriors until they are used up and then dumped on our streets, to be honored no more.  

Heroes don’t stop being heroes just because they have fallen on hard times.  

The Wanderingvet’s story is typical of what all our homeless suffer.  What makes it so egregious is that the security guard and the police both soon knew that he was a veteran, yet he was disrespected instead of shown compassion, forced to give up his rights instead of helped, forced to suffer in the sun instead of given an opportunity to get a ride, forced to walk instead of roll.     

It will be worth your while to check out his story and file a comment with the corporate office of this trucking firm (see the link at the end of his story).  There are two sides to every story, but I come down on the side of those who fought for our freedom, for those who are among our poorest, and those who are willing to fight back, as they are most often in the right.   I filed a complaint.   If enough of us do, maybe the next homeless veteran that comes through Birmingham and stops at the Pilot Fuel Plaza will get the hero treatment he or she deserves.

Keep in mind that it is not so much the trucking firm as it is an employee of a security company and his training and attitude that seem to be an issue here.  However the trucking firm is responsible for the policy of how it handles its customers and any homeless person that comes by and how the security handles it.   The firm should change its policy (in writing) when it comes to compassion for the homeless and in particular for the homeless who have served their country and helped keep us all free – including the truckers. 

Our Heroes Deserve Better Than This!

Oldtimer