Remember our Vets

[Al Willits]

No matter what your political views or views on the current war are, let me ask you to take a few minutes and remember our Veterans this Thanksgiving, the local Vets homes here in Mpls are asking for donations for a thanksgiving feed for the Vets who live there.

They have 7 buildings full of Vets who are there for various reasons, whether injured during service to their country or have gotten to the point they need help with day to day living, and there's no one else to help them.
They even have a few WW2 vets that need help.

No I'm not asking anybody to come to Mpls to help, but if you have a few minutes please check to see if you have a Vets home in your area and call and see what you can do to help.

Ours needs both food and volunteers, maybe if there's one near you a couple of canned goods would help or even a bit of your time.
I guarantee a day with the Vets will be both a humbling and heartwarming experience...

Please help them if you can.


Al

[randall rosenthal]

thanks al....i couldnt agree with you more. its always a good time to send a check to a veterans organization. i support "wounded warrior" but there are many others....thanks again

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n186/randallro/woundedwarrior.jpg

[Al Willits]

Truly amazing what some of them Vets are going though, my wife works at the local VA credit union and she tells of Vet who came in on his wheel chair and was so happy as he could now say "Hi Lori" wasn't to long ago he could say nothing...be a cold sob who wouldn't have a tear in his/her eye after seeing that.

Personally I consider it a honor to be able to help them, and a duty too.

Al

[Keith Outten]

Al,

People can help they just don't want to. They say they are to busy but that is just an exccuse to keep from getting involved. I don't think I have ever met anyone who couldn't squeeze a few hours now and then to help an American vet, but they don't. Yet they lay their heads down at night safe from harm because there are those who are willing to serve and risk their lives to protect their way of life.

It's not just the current generation of Americans either, this has been going on for as long as I can remember. America's greatest Patriots are treated worse than criminals in some cases. Our wounded warriors receive a mere pittance of a check from our society for their sacrifice and the majority thinks that is fair. It's very sad.

How many of the companies that you know of move their Veterans Day or Memorial Day holidays to some other date so their employees can have a long weekend. A lot of people will have a three day weekend next week because they worked on Veterans Day so they can have the day after Thanksgiving off. This is the ultimate act of disrespect.
.

[Justin Leiwig]

Al,

People can help they just don't want to. They say they are to busy but that is just an exccuse to keep from getting involved. I don't think I have ever met anyone who couldn't squeeze a few hours now and then to help an American vet, but they don't. Yet they lay their heads down at night safe from harm because there are those who are willing to serve and risk their lives to protect their way of life.

It's not just the current generation of Americans either, this has been going on for as long as I can remember. America's greatest Patriots are treated worse than criminals in some cases. Our wounded warriors receive a mere pittance of a check from our society for their sacrifice and the majority thinks that is fair. It's very sad.

How many of the companies that you know of move their Veterans Day or Memorial Day holidays to some other date so their employees can have a long weekend. A lot of people will have a three day weekend next week because they worked on Veterans Day so they can have the day after Thanksgiving off. This is the ultimate act of disrespect.
.

I can appreciate your position on this Keith, but maybe they don't help because they don't know how. Or maybe they are intimidated by trying to help someone who has laid their life on the line for someone else. Maybe they don't feel worthy of helping. I'm not necessarily saying it's any of these things, but after acting as a volunteer coordinator in the past for an organization, you would be amazed at some of the reasons that people honestly believe why they can't help.

Now as far as veteran's day holiday. That one truely is a shame, but I think as long as they have things like schools open on veterans day it will never be honored as it should.

[Al Willits]

Keith, I don't know why more don't get involved, but I suspect some do have problems with the war and feel they don't want anything to do with it or the Vets, which like said, if they'd understand the ability to disagree comes from the men and women who have served...get a clue is my only printable response to them.

Some may be they just don't know, every charity or relief fund seems to advertise like crazy and while folks are sending money off the the needy in foreign countries, we have our own to take care of, not sure what the answer is, I can only hope my post may help a few.

Al

[randall rosenthal]

having met scores of wounded vets let me add a positive note to this discussion. modern medicine is truly amazing. i was at a dinner and this young man was standing on the other side of the table. when he walked around to my side he had two prosthetic legs. unbelievable adaptation. another amazing young man who did one tour as a sniper and another as a demo expert told me he disarmed 714 IEDs before a small device blew his foot off....his assertion..."in a year i will be able to run faster than you" if these young men and women dont make you proud to be Americans .....nothing ever will.

all thats fine but its the after, after care where the help is needed!!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

For the first time in the 22 years I've been employed by this company....and folks it's a very big company.....one of the biggest.....the corporation celebrated "Veterans Day".


When we had children at home at Christmas several years we called nursing homes and asked if they had any patients that were veterans that would like to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with us. We even did that when the grandkids started arriving. One Christmas we had an elderly gent over for Christmas...bought him some socks and some shaving lotion...not much....he was overjoyed to spend time playing with our young grandkids and eating dinner with us. A couple of days later the staff at the nursing home called to say they couldn't believe the change in his demeanor since the event.

Veterans are just people....like you and I......

[Justin Leiwig]

Veterans are just people....like you and I......

I disagree. They are much more than that. They are true American Heros. Regardless of whether they saw action or not they put their lives on the line so we could have ours.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Justin,

I am an 8 year U.S. Navy veteran.

My point was most veterans just want to be treated like everybody else.