Today let us honor those who have given their life, their mind, their body and their being, so that we can have our freedoms!

Let us also remember what those freedoms are, and never take them for granted,

 and let us make sure they are available to ALL!! 

'lilith contemplates the cost of wars ....' (2015)

Let us honor our heroes and veterans by demanding better services and support systems for them and their families, once they return from the battlefields.  

It is a crime to ask fellow citizens to fight for their country 

but then abandon them upon their return. 

(see below for stat about homeless veterans) 

Let us demand other options, than asking men and women to leave their loved ones, and to see and to experience horrors that most of us could never comprehend.  

Let us believe as Martin Luther King, Jr. believed, 

"that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... 

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

numbers regarding homeless veterans:

Homeless veterans are younger on average than the total veteran population. Approximately 9% are between the ages of 18 and 30, and 41% are between the ages of 31 and 50. Conversely, only 5% of all veterans are between the ages of 18 and 30, and less than 23% are between 31 and 50.

America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era. Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.

About 1.4 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

How many homeless veterans are there?

Although flawless counts are impossible to come by – the transient nature of homeless populations presents a major difficulty – the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 47,725 veterans are homeless on any given night.

Approximately 12,700 veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation New Dawn (OND) were homeless in 2010. The number of young homeless veterans is increasing, but only constitutes 8.8% of the overall homeless veteran population.

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans

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