As Veteran’s Day approaches, we are poised on the edge of a
decision that will create more veterans who have experienced
combat.
Dear Editor,
As Veteran’s Day approaches, we are poised on the edge of a decision that will create more veterans who have experienced combat. Typically, we view Veterans Day in the same way we do Memorial Day, we focus on the greatest sacrifice that our veterans have given, their lives, but Veteran’s Day was put into place to honor our living veterans as well. Recently I have read a number of articles regarding Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the difficulties they have had returning from war.
My experience is not of a Veteran, but of the wife of a Veteran. In the 1st and 2nd World Wars there was a more general understating that war effects people, sometimes more severely than we can imagine, but the community understood that and accepted it as a result of our decisions as a country to go to war.
My husband is a Vietnam Veteran. I can’t imagine what it was like in 1970 to be drafted at 18 and become an NCO sergeant in an engineering division and get shipped out to Vietnam, only to find that the Army needed him to be a medic instead. After months of working as a medic with a MACV unit and an ARVN patrol, they were overrun and he was sent to another job. By 19 he had been sent back to the U.S. with the expectation that you were just to forget it all and become a regular citizen. Met by angry protesters, his experience became even more difficult. Thankfully he has had an outlet, running. As a high school student he was on the track team his senior year and ran the mile, he then took to longer runs and has since been focused on the marathon. Initially he ran to be by himself, now I think that he just does it because he loves it.
When we had our children, we started an evening blessing before every meal. It is very simple, Bless the Troops, amen. When there was no war for many years that the U.S. was involved in, my husband would point out that there are soldiers throughout the world that need our thoughts and prayers as they will be impacted by their experience.
Now that we are at war and have been for a while, the expectation that our veterans will just come home and be able to pick up where they left off is often not a valid expectation. The incidence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is increasing and the trauma of having expected to come home and then having your tour extended is beyond belief. Coming back to a country in recession makes it all so much worse.
This Veteran’s Day let us think not just of the veterans who have sacrificed their lives by dying on the battlefield, but also to the veterans who continually experience this sacrifice. For them, a big thank you with compassion, understanding and appreciation. Bless the Troops, amen.
Lesley Miles, Morgan Hill
Local home ownership is a privilege, not a right
Dear Editor,
Dina Campeau wants you to pay more so that others can pay less. She mentions the high price of housing in Morgan Hill, but fails to mention that subsidization to low-income buyers fuels this cost increase. Neighbors of BMR residents must typically pay $50,000 more per house so that BMR buyers can pay $300,000 less. She tells us that these folks, good or bad, would have to move away if the taxpayers don’t help them buy a home. Are you for real? Maybe they should think about renting. It’s what my parents did until they could afford to buy a home.
I have an extremely low income, and can’t afford to buy a house, so I rent an affordable rate apartment. I shrug in disbelief to think that the Low-Income Housing Nazis would demand that the residents of Morgan Hill buy me a home. It’s even more astonishing to think that home ownership for police officers and young professionals who make $84,000 a year must be subsidized. What crazy land do you live in? The numbers you present sound like voodoo math.
Let’s take a moment to cast a bright light on the falsehoods and half-truths Campeau, and her camp, bandied about.
As a person who lived in low-income housing for 12-plus years, I can tell you stories that would chill the average citizen. Peaceful enjoyment was a term rarely understood by my neighbors. Drug dealing, gang violence, prostitution, intimidation, and mayhem occurred with terrifying regularity. Not a week went by when I wasn’t awakened by the wail of police sirens. I know for a fact that many of my neighbors lied about their place of residence to get into the program. It was a common joke, with the application-fudging techniques shared frequently. Until Campeau has lived in low-income housing, she hasn’t got an ideological leg to stand on.
The mongers of misinformation use public funds to wage a war on your pocket book and reshape the town to fit their lop-sided agendas. I encourage all citizens of Morgan Hill to discover the true details of the draft Housing Element, and the guidelines it proposes (guidelines, not laws – no penalties for non-compliance). Subsidizing a rental at a cost of a few hundred dollars a month is one thing, but subsidizing hundreds of thousands of dollars for home ownership is quite another.
D. Salcido, Morgan Hill
Support those fighting to bring affordable health care to all
Dear Editor,
Some Americans are saying “Let’s Take Our Country Back” and “Throw Them All Out.” No one can blame them if their Senators and Representatives are owned by the health insurance lobby and do the bidding of their owners instead of the people who elected them. We are fortunate to live in California’s 11th Congressional District, served by Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Diane Feinstein and Congressman Jerry McNerney, who fight to bring affordable, quality healthcare to California families. Neighboring districts are equally fortunate. Support those brave Americans who are fighting to take back their representation from the health insurance companies and encourage them to keep fighting.
Frank Crosby, Morgan Hill
Two First Amendment Clauses regarding religion in conflict
Dear Editor,
On Nov. 10, 1786, my ancestor Nehemiah McAshan, signed the first of five petitions to the Virginia House of delegates. The argument made was because all the churches and property formerly owned by the Church of England had been transferred to the Episcopal Church. The Commonwealth of Virginia was then also paying for all the Episcopal clergy salaries and parsonages.
The petition signers thought it was unfair that even though they were free to practice whatever faith they chose, they were still paying taxes to maintain and keep up all the Episcopal churches, farmlands owned by the church, and clergy salaries.
They saw unfairness in members of one church being taxed to support another church of a different denomination. The petition demands were straightforward: sell all the churches and lands owned by Virginia and the Episcopal Church, and use the money to retire tax levies in the respective districts. Let the Episcopalians pay their own way.
This series of petitions eventually led to Thomas Jefferson creating the First Amendment to the Constitution. There are two parts to it, the one of interest here being the “establishment” clause.
The Establishment Clause refers to the first of several pronouncements in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, stating, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Together with the Free Exercise Clause, (” … or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”), these two clauses make up what are commonly known as the “religion clauses” of the First Amendment.
It seems these two parts of the First Amendment are frequently in conflict. A test I use is “Although I am Christian, if I were Jewish, Buddhist, atheist etc. would it be fair?”
The Mojave Cross on public land, for instance, as a war memorial was not seen as being fair by other faiths. I don’t know what the final ruling by the Supremes will be, but I have my guess. National Veterans Cemeteries do not have an “establishment” problem with crosses, or Wicca or Atheist symbols. You can have what you want on your VA tombstone.
Now about the World Series and the soldier singing “God Bless America,” I know a little about religion as practiced in the military, Chaplains for instance can hold a non-denominational service and use “God, Lord etc.” without a problem. Were they to use “Allah, Jesus, Buddha etc” then they are promoting religion from a specific perspective and that violates the “establishment” clause.
Several years ago, a Navy Chaplain was court martialed for events leading out of his insistence on preaching the Baptist perspective of religion.
That a majority of taxpayers want this or that doesn’t really matter unless you get a Constitutional Amendment to make the U.S. a Christian country. Let me know how you make out!
Michael Moore (not the actor and not your staff writer – the OTHER one!), Morgan Hill
