Veteran's Day

(Cartoon from the AAEC).

I was thinking of how I could fit Veteran's Day into the theme of my blog– women veterans? Integration of the military? Don't ask, don't tell? Then I figured, why not just veterans in general?

It seems kind of strange to think of veterans as a minority group. Then again, veterans make up less than 1% of the general population of the United States, and veteran status is protected in many university nondiscrimination policies.

The state of veterans, especially today, is rather depressing. It hardly matters whether or not one supports the United States' current military action in foreign countries. Clearly, life is a lot worse for veterans than for non-veterans. The suicide rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using VA (Veterans Affairs) healthcare is more than triple that of the general population. The unemployment rate for the general population is 9.1%; for veterans, 12.1%. This number only gets worse when we look at only veterans aged 18-24, who have a 30.4% unemployment rate. Perhaps the previously mentioned suicide numbers are exacerbated by the fact that there are so few prospects available for young veterans, a hopelessness which only adds on to the trauma of going to war.

How could this be? What is happening in our country that veterans suffer so much, especially from unemployment? Well, one answer is that the current employment crisis has been particularly hard on those in rural areas, those with only a college education, and/or those who work for the government– demographics that represent quite a few recent veterans. Few of those people are eligible to work in computer programming jobs, or other positions in currently booming industries.

Luckily, there is some hope for veterans. The Senate just passed a bill that offers tax incentives to businesses that hire veterans, and the House is expected to pass it as well. Then again, with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year, we could see another unexpected influx of primarily young, high school-educated men and women into the job market, and many of them will still have a hard time finding jobs.

Veteran's Day has passed. However, the problems facing veterans occur every day. If you know a veteran, take the time to thank them for their service. The battle is not over when a veteran comes home.