[Publius Scipio]

500,000 homeless vets? What a load of crap.

[lafroste]

the estimated 500,000 veterans who will become homeless at some point this year

Oh Bull. Where does this number come from? Who's number is this? I don't believe it, either that or I'm "homeless" right now because I'm not in my own living room at the moment.

[Captain Rhino]

>>Like many of the estimated 500,000 veterans who will become homeless at some point this year<<

Seems high, very high. Would like to know what the source of this statistic is.

[x1stcav]

Vicki Smith is a silly tw@t. How can any editor let this sort of dribble pass as responsible journalism?

[MisterRepublican]

I am skeptical of the Associated Press. I know there are "homeless" veterans but whether this story accurately describes the problem is questionable.

It is also suspicious that this is the third AP "homeless" story, that I am aware of, in the past three days. Agenda?

[Little Pig]

"And when you get out, you don't want people telling you what to do."


No offense, but there's a big part of this guy's problem right there. If someone becomes so destitute that they are homeless (not by choice), personal decisionmaking played the biggest role in getting them there. Unless you run a private company, you will always have someone telling you what to do.

This guy doesn't like people telling him what to do? Here's another service saying that should help: "Suck it up and drive on".

[robowombat]

This seems to be an attempt to continue the drugged out societal reject stereotype that was pinned on Viet Nam vets by the likes of Kerry and to expand it to vets in general.
Mr. Marsh, who is used as symbolic of 'homeless vets' suffers from "depression, he was also taking drugs for a tumor on his forehead, polyps in his nose and hepatitis C."

Later the same character is quoted as opining "Marsh says veterans are difficult to reach, physically and emotionally. Many lack access to a newspaper, TV or computer. They have learned to do without."

Painting the usual picture of the vet as screwed up outsider. Earlier in the article is this classic "Veterans account for nearly one-third of all homeless men in America, even though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says they comprise only 13 percent of adult males in the general population. In West Virginia, where Marsh now struggles to rebuild his life, one in nine people is a veteran - the highest per capita rate in the nation in the 2000 census." Thus combining a statistic for which no supporting data is giving stigmatizing vets as society's losers along with an irrelevant note that WVA has the highest per cent-age of vets per capita of the 50 states. Meaning what? WVA is full of drugged out loser vets?

This is the same old stigmatizing, smearing, media view of veterans. The media populated by twits who cannot believe anyone 'normal' would voluntarily do what military people do can't figure veterans out and look for sly ways to smear and demean them while posing as sympathetic reporters.

[armymarinemom]

What kind of agenda is this? Why don't we look at the number of homeless who attended public school, came from broken homes, or those who never should have been turned out of a Mental institution.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Anyone ask to see his DD 214?

Oh yeah, still waitng for sKerry to sign that SF 180.

[George Smiley]

Dude clearly hasn't done any research.

[Jaxter]

"He loved the military, particularly the travel. But when an officer told him to re-enlist because he'd be good at nothing else, Marsh heard a challenge."

Well, I guess he really showed that officer.

"One day I just said, 'I'm going down to Louisiana,'" he recalls, smoking a cigarette..

"He hasn't seen a dentist since 1996. Many of his teeth have shattered and blackened, and a cracked back molar causes constant pain."

So, he can afford cigarettes but not tooth paste? No sympathy for this whiner.

[SuzyQue]

This is disgusting. And, an old tactic to tarnish the military in general, and veterans in particular.
About 10 years ago, I ran across a similar story and was able to contact the writer. Through the course of seveal conversations I asked him how he knew they were vets. He said that they told him they were and that they had no reason to lie to him. I pointed out that they might prefer to be considered heroic veterans of a war rather than say they were failures, druggies, criminals, having mental health problems, or however they arrived at homelessness. That was the last conversation we had.