Although there are those who would have you believe that the Declaration of Independence only guarantees "the pursuit of happiness" and this country doesn't owe anyone anything, I beg to differ. There is one group of Americans that this great nation of ours, owes everything to, and that is to veterans of our military and especially to those who are homeless. These individuals sacrificed so that other Americans could enjoy their freedoms and their "pursuit of happiness".
Late last month, Titusville closed 11 homeless camps in and around town, several of which were occupied by homeless vets. At a rally this past Friday, some of those vets spoke about those raids and how it affected their lives. One vet told how the burial flag of his father who was a World War II veteran, was thrown in the trash by city officials who conducted the raid. Another vet was not given time to retrieve his false teeth before being ordered out of the camp. Yet another vet had all his work tools confiscated, depriving him of any means to support himself. There were at least 2 vets who were forced from their camps with nothing more than the clothes on their backs (Link).
Before anyone starts to try and characterize these vets as "lazy" or "hooked on drugs or alcohol", these Americans served their country proudly and deserve our respect. If not for the way they choose to live, most definitely for their past service to this great nation of ours. The raids on their campsites (their homes) was unconscionable and a disservice to the very American burial flag that was so callously thrown in a trash heap during those raids.
After the rally on Friday, I spoke to Titusville Mayor Jim Tulley about his feelings on the raid. He told me that he had no idea on whose order the raid was carried out or why, and only learned of the raid when he read about it in the paper. He did say that subsequently, he learned that residents of those camps were first warned to vacate those camps back on May 13th, and then twice more after that. He also said that the raids may have been initiated to prevent panhandling during the upcoming final Shuttle launch. He did tell me that he "needed to get to the bottom" of why the raids were carried out in the manner that they occurred. When I spoke to him, it was almost a full week since those raids and he seemed well informed on events leading up to the raids, except for who ordered them and how long it would take to get that information. My last question to him was if he had any prior knowledge of the raids and he said he did not.
Regardless as to who ordered the raid or who knew about it, our veterans deserve better than this. How can we call ourselves Americans when we allow those who served our great nation to be treated in such a way? I am so proud that IBEW Local 606, the Central Florida Building Trades and 2 incredible women, Jenny Kenny and Rosemary Copple, raised $1800 for the veterans of Titusville who were displaced by those raids. I encourage everyone to visit the National Veterans Homeless Support website (Link) and learn more about the great and necessary work George Taylor is doing to help homeless vets in Florida. I also encourage all to give what they can, either in treasure or time to help those vets that ensured the very freedoms we all enjoy. To those who say that this country owes our veterans "nothing", your freedom to say so was guaranteed by those very veterans.
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