Discarded Veterans "Homeless for the Holidays"

Before my old and very crappy laptop melts my lap completely tonight, or just plain dies -- I'm on the road, so having to post with this -- I didn't want to let Thanksgiving Day go by without a mention of a very serious issue, so well covered by another blogger: the concept of homeless veterans.  New studies are coming out that say at least 1 in 4 homeless are veterans, but the numbers could be actually much higher.  For some truly insightful and comprehensive coverage of how veterans have historically been "discarded" -- a very striking word indeed, and one that carries a lot of meaning -- read the wonderful OldTimer's Wordpress blog, linked here.  The whole blog is great, but his extensive piece on the history of veterans being treated poorly, and becoming homeless -- not just in this war, but in a whole series of them in the past, is especially worth reading at this time.  What could be more painful than serving honorably and getting cast aside, to fend for yourself at this (holiday or any other) time -- as opposed to having the country you served look out for you?  It's a terrible tragedy that we as citizens are also responsible for, because we let it go on.  In this burgeoning holiday season, please take more than a moment to think of the fate of homeless veterans, and what we OUGHT to be doing for them.  As an total, overall issue, we haven't exactly excelled with the topic of helping the homeless in our society.  But having homeless veterans casts a real shadow of shame on us as a country.  Please think about what more we could be doing, and begin to take steps to help solve this crisis.  To paraphrase a quote I'm frankly too sleepy to go look up, we'll be judged as a society by how we treat the least of our citizens -- and our homeless, by default, end up being them.  If you need to be sensitized to how important shelter is, just do a little reflection yourself, or be intellectual about it and read about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  If you want to be moved by someone who gets their plight and cares, read OldTimer's excellent blog entries on the same, linked here.  Thank you and good night.