We must not let yellow ribbons fade and unravel

MICHELE MARR

In the early weeks and months of our war with Iraq, many places of

worship organized groups of adults and children to provide our troops

with spiritual, emotional, practical and moral support.

Prayer groups formed. Prayer partnerships developed. Vigils

proliferated.

Children crafted handmade cards, bearing personal messages of

encouragement and thanks, to send to soldiers, airmen, sailors and

Marines.

Ad hoc assembly lines packed parcels in auditoriums and parish

halls. Everything from phone cards and candy bars, toilet paper and

T-shirts to socks and sunscreen was shipped to our service men and

women. A surge of websites like adoptaplatoon.org and anysoldier.org

hit the Internet to promote the support of our deployed troops

through care packages, letters, pen pal campaigns and fiscal

donations.

Yellow ribbons adorned our cityscapes. Bumper stickers urged,

“Support our troops.”

War has a way of bringing the needs of those who fight our wars to

our attention. At least for a time. But a protracted war, fought not

under our noses but in a distant land, tests our attention spans.

Prayers may still be offered for our active military members on

Sunday morning. In some homes and hearts, they are remembered in

private prayers. But the weekly and monthly organized grassroots

efforts to carry our concern and our care abroad have dwindled as

staples on church rosters.

Many of the yellow ribbons have come and gone. Many of those that

remain are faded and frayed and forgotten.

Sun-bleached bumper stickers, the daily drone of reports of

continued unrest and yet another suicide bomber, and the relentless

commentaries of Robert Scheer linger to remind us the war, whose

major combat President Bush declared over on May 1, 2003, isn’t quite

over yet.

With the approach of Memorial Day, a recent e-mail newsletter from

Sojourners -- a Christian ministry dedicated to social justice --

asked, “How does the United States really treat its soldiers (I’d add

Marines and sailors and airmen. I don’t think Sojourners intended to

leave them out) and its veterans?”

This country was born of a revolutionary war, then held together

through a civil war less than 100 years later. It has engaged in

several dozen wars and conflicts since. We have always had veterans

living among us, often far too invisibly.

How do we say thanks for their sacrifices? How do we repay those

who serve in our nation’s armed forces and those who survive its

wars?

Sojourners’ e-mail focused on war veterans, active and retired,

and barely scratched the surface of service members’ concerns, which

can range from low income, inadequate housing and medical care,

lengthy separation from families, cost and access of education, and

transitioning from military service to civilian life.

Retirees and their dependents have growing difficulties accessing

many of the benefits they were promised and are entitled to, as more

and more military bases close.

Sojourners offered some statistics. More than one million service

members have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 2001. A

third of them have served in those areas more than once. More than

12,000 have been physically wounded, with hundreds of them losing a

limb, a thumb, a finger or an eye.

A study from the New England Journal of Medicine indicated 17% of

those who serve in Iraq return home with symptoms of major

depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder; more than 60%

of them go untreated.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reports that 23% of

our nation’s homeless are veterans, even though they compose 9% of

the country’s population. Although not homeless, other veterans find

themselves living in poverty.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ website greets visitors with

an upbeat, “How may we serve you?”

But those who seek the department’s help often find it overtaxed

and underfunded.

And the current administration continually seeks to cut funding

for and access to military benefits, and to increase enrollment fees

and co-payments for health care and prescriptions. It has sought to

eliminate more than $300 million for nursing home funding and another

$4 million from Veterans Administration medical and prosthetic

research.

That’s hardly putting money where the president’s mouth is in

thanking our troops for their service to their country.

In the past, voters have defeated similar proposed budget cuts by

writing letters to legislators and letters to editors, making their

views known on veterans’ issues and raising awareness of them.

Those of us who live so near the Veteran Administration’s Long

Beach Healthcare System have the opportunity to do something even

more personal. We can volunteer.

The medical center has volunteers from 14 to 90 years old. It’s

always in need of more to help provide services and a friendly,

smiling face to hospitalized veterans.

Volunteers can help organize events, provide office assistance,

drive a bus, van or and tram, be part of the hospital’s patient

escort service, serve coffee or help in the pharmacy, radiology,

recreation therapy, patient care, the welcome center, the child care

center and many more areas.

The hospital is about 10 miles and 20 minutes from here -- 5901 E.

7th Street in Long Beach. You can contact the hospital at (562)

826-8000.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at michele@soul foodfiles.com.