Letter to the President this November

Dear Mr. President,

You don't know me, but you pretend to know my situation. You have never lived in my shoes or better yet sat at my table. You send out out your fancy letters, yes I read them, and I saved most of them, that say glorious things to the Families and Soldiers that are fighting for this Countries freedoms. Yet I see the real things that are happening to these Families that you are writing to.

Do you know that the the other day I was driving down the street, past the local soup kitchen, and I saw one of our newest homeless members wearing an Army PT shirt. Yes, he was a veteran and now homeless. What are you going to do about that? The homeless veterans seem to be growing at an alarming speed since this war broke out. Women veterans with children are among those that are becoming homeless, they fought for our Country and now they don't have a roof over their heads!! You have a roof with and a bed to sleep at night. I bet those sheets have a nice threat count.

The plane flew into post today, carrying another body home. It was met by a grief stuck wife, mother and father who would be having a sadden Thanksgiving this year and every year from here on out. You are in the process of Pardoning Tom, why didn't you give this Soldier a Pardon. He has a baby due later this year. That baby will never met his father the HERO.

While at work today another Soldier came to tell me that his wife had left him, taken the children and went back home. She said that he wasn't the same since he came home from war. He was distant, withdrawn, and drank to much. He didn't know what he was going to do without them. He didn't know that he was that way, he knew things were different but he didn't know how it was affecting her. They had been married for 15 years, they were high school sweethearts. What are you going to do for that Family?

I attended a Memorial today, the Soldier was just 19. He took his own life. He was suffering from PTSD and depression. He kept telling his Squad Leader, but he was told that he was being weak. He fought hard to win the battle within his head, He was one of my husband's friends. No one within the Unit he was in cared at the time they had a mission to Afghanistan to get ready for. He needed to get ready for it. My husband listened, and this is what he heard " No one cares, I don't want to go back to the unit." Those were his last words to my husband before they found him DEAD three days later. Have you ever had to bury a friend because no one cares?

Do you sit on my couch day after day with my husband who is scared from this war? He has left his soul behind in a land that will be at war long after we are gone. Do you feel my pain as I watch the husband I had slip away?

Mr. President, keep writing your fancy letters, I will read them and think again how you have never been in my shoes. Jobs, education and mental care are needed for our Families but what would be nice is for someone to STOP THIS WAR! Wives, children, mothers and fathers are losing their children. Veterans are living on our streets due to mental illness and lack of income. Marriages are splitting up after years together because of multiple deployments and not being able to connect again. Soldier are taking their own lives because of the war inside their heads and the Ranks higher perceive them as weak. Warriors have left their souls behind in a land that will forever be fighting.

One letter, one Hub, one word may not matter to you, but to us that are left behind to watch the events unfold it matters. It matters to me every Soldier that I serve, it matters to me every Soldier that has Fallen, wounded, or that their Family has Fallen apart. I stand and put my hand over my Heart in RESPECT for that Family.