For Rafael Castro, as for many other combat vets, it's been anything but easy
By: Jeffery Kurz , Record-Journal staff
MERIDEN - After he returned home from serving in Iraq, the city declared July 6, 2005 "Rafael I. Castro Day."
Not much has gone well for the 32-year-old Castro since. In the ensuing three years, Castro's marriage fell apart and he lost connection with his children. He's had run- ins with the law and has not been able to hang on to a job. And now he is about to lose his Meriden home.
On a recent early afternoon, garbed in his Army Reserve fatigues, Castro sat on the stoop of his Plumb Avenue house, shakily holding a cigarette in the fingers of one hand and an eviction notice in the other. The notice had appeared on his door that morning, telling him he had until the end of this month to clear out.
The letter was confirmation of what Castro had been expecting for a while, but that didn't make it easier. He led a brief tour inside the home, empty save for a few mementos from his service in Iraq and a handful of scattered, small American flags.
"I'm getting ready to leave," he said, wistfully. "My American dream is at an end."
"These days, I just don't know how I feel about my country," he said.
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When Rafael Castro said "These days, I just don't know how I feel about my country," it made me furious. Think about this for a second. We have faith in them but when it's all said and done, their mission is over, can they say the same thing about us? Do we ever prove they can have faith in us? Do we ever even come close to it?
Sure we can use a lot of words, wave the flag and sing patriotic songs. The military bloggers can put up thousands of posts supporting what the troops are doing, but I hardly ever read any post on what we are not doing for the troops. They will post about the good things organizations are doing but never seem to want to touch what is not being done. The "liberal" bloggers do a good job of covering what is not being done but most of them fail to post about good things happening. On that I'll be the first to admit the good reports are hard to find.
Take this quote from George Washington. It's the one I use when I send out emails and do posts like this one. "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
When the GI Bill came out, it was suppose to be about taking care of this generation and rightly earned, but what it left out was other generations. When McCain made his speeches against this bill, he said it was "too generous" and would "cause the troops to leave the military" but he never explained how anything could be considered "too generous" to the men and women risking their lives everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When will we ever get any of this right? When will the troops ever say this country has been too good to them? Will they ever say they were taken care of promptly for their wounds and all their needs met? Will homeless veterans ever say that? Isn't it time veterans like Castro knew how we feel about them by making sure the government reflects that all the way?
