Thank and support veterans, and work for peace

Veterans for Peace march in Arizona.

TUCSON -- Today is Veterans Day, a time to remember and thank the millions of people who have served our nation in the military, and often died or been wounded. My grandfather was a WWII Navy vet, and my dad is an Vietnam-era Army vet.

No matter how we feel about war, we should always respect and help our veterans and members of the armed services, and only send them in to conflict as a last resort. For far too long, veterans have been treated as 'disposable', ordered in to battle by distant commanders, and then been largely ignored after leaving the military. Sadly, in recent years, federal veterans benefits have been cut.

Many of the homeless people in Tucson and across the nation are vets, including a growing number who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

With Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the southern Arizona VA hospital and thousands of vets in my south side district 29, veterans issues are important to me. As a compassionate Representative in the State House, I will do what I can to help veterans.

Comments

On this day I always remember my step father who helped raise me since I was three. After fighting two tours in Viet Nam as army foot soldier, he eventually succumbed to cancer from exposure to agent orange.

He was the first meaningful person in my life who supported my early development as an ardent pacifist. Before he died he gathered all his numberous medals together and we went to the ocean and buried them there.

To all veterans in all wars, may you seek peace first and foremost within your hearts and within your families.

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