Homeless veterans "ain't too proud to beg" but too proud to ask for help

America we have a serious problem in this country when a veteran is not ashamed to ask for spare change or beg for a place to sleep when the shelters are full but they are too proud to ask for help to heal, stop self-medicating themselves to death and do whatever it takes to hold their families together. What's wrong with us? As the media reports more and more on PTSD how is it that the numbers of homeless veterans, attempted suicides and successful suicides goes up instead of down? How is it that with years of covering the veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq, they have not managed to get it into our brains that this nation needs to fully mobilize to help them come back home? Read this from July.

Homeless veterans face new battle for survival
Story Highlights
More veterans are facing a new enemy on the nation's streets
Veterans make up almost a quarter of homeless population
Homeless rate among veterans expected to rise



By Mike Mount
CNN

(CNN) -- "I can't find the right words to describe when you are homeless," says Iraq war veteran Joseph Jacobo. "You see the end of your life right there. What am I going to do, what am I going to eat?"


Jacobo is one of an increasing number of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who come home to life on the street. The Department of Veterans Affairs is fighting to find them homes.

Veterans make up almost a quarter of the homeless population in the United States. The government says there are as many as 200,000 homeless veterans; the majority served in the Vietnam War. Some served in Korea or even World War II. About 2,000 served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The VA and several nongovernmental organizations have created programs that address the special needs of today's veterans returning from war. In addition to treating physical and mental injuries, there are career centers and counseling programs. But the VA still expects the homeless rate among the nation's newest veterans to rise because of the violent nature of combat seen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Officials say many more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than veterans of previous wars. The government says PTSD is one of the leading causes of homelessness among veterans.

"They come back, and they are having night trauma, they are having difficulty sleeping. They are feeling alienated," says Peter Dougherty, the director of homeless programs for the VA.

The VA says 70 percent of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan saw some form of combat, either through firefights, rocket attacks or the most common strikes on troops -- roadside bomb attacks on their vehicles.


That is three times the rate of combat experienced by Vietnam veterans, according to the VA.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/02/homeless.veterans/index.html

Maybe it didn't matter than much back then because it was the summer after all and the weather was warm. We tend to not think of the homeless when it's not freezing outside but we never stop to think about things like them swelter in the heat of a summer day and not having enough fluid in them to stay alive. Well this is approaching winter as snow comes into parts of the nation right now and ski enthusiast take to the slopes. Better start to think about them if you managed to forget about them the rest of the year.

We really have a bigger problem than we know about. It's because of the attitudes of so many disinterested people in this country we have the veterans and their families falling apart with so little help from their own communities. Sure things are better than they were when the veterans came straggling home from Vietnam one by one, but National Guards and Reservist go straggling back to jobs and businesses one by one. Veterans go back to school or begin civilian jobs one by one. They are left to wonder if they are the only one going through what they are going through. Wouldn't it be great if they had a friend to talk to who knew exactly what the "thing" was when their friend mentioned it? Wouldn't it be wonderful if a wife confided in a co-worker or parent about the changes in her husband and have the person respond with "It may be PTSD" instead of silence or "you should leave him" the way people will use blanket responses instead of informed ones. It would really be even better if no one ever had to wonder what PTSD was because they had been exposed to it so much that it was as obvious as talking about any other illness from erectile dysfunction to bone loss in women. But it isn't and it isn't very likely to happen unless all the information out there gets as much attention.

The obvious answer would be for the pharmaceutical companies making the drugs to treat PTSD to do what they do for the other illnesses they push pills for and make people wonder enough to learn. That would be a great place to start to stop the veterans from being too proud to ask for help but not too proud to beg for pocket change. When you think about it, think about the lack of commercials on it, it's easy to understand why most of this is happening and will very likely get much worse.


Chaplain Kathie
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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

Chambliss sees "win" when he's a loser for veterans?

I thought Georgia cared about their veterans but when you think about the two senators they have voting against veterans, they must not really care that much. Just look at this.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

GOP image goes from bad to worse, even Lincoln would have switched
Georgia
Senator Saxby Chambliss D-
Senator Johnny Isakson F

I guess that in the case of veterans, and the troops when you get right down to it, Georgia must not rank veterans very high on their list of priorities. Maybe Chambliss thinks he deserves to go back to the senate since his counter part is even worse when it comes to veterans. I wounder if he would appear to be so smug if he had to look a veteran in the eye to explain his voting record against them?

Chambliss predicts victory in Georgia
By David Edwards
Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Fox’s Chris Wallace that he would “win again” in Georgia’s runoff election. Chambliss appeared on Fox News Sunday.

“If voters turnout in the same ratios and same numbers we’ll win again,” Chambliss said.

Projections suggest that black voters will only make up 23 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election. African American voters made up about 35 percent of the vote in the Nov. 4th general election. The high black turnout was credited with making Chambliss’ opponent, Jim Martin, competitive on Nov. 4th.

Chambliss doesn’t concede the black vote. “There were an awful lot of African Americans that voted for me,” he said. “I’ve reached out to the African American turnout and I continue to do that.”

This video is from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast Nov. 30, 2008.
click link for video and watch for yourself.

This must come from the fact that Chambliss didn't go when it was his turn. Remember the attacks against Max Cleland? As Max points out in this, Martin did serve but Chambliss had better things to do.

Saturday, November 1, 2008
Cleland criticizes Chambliss over Viet Nam
Former Democratic Senator Max Cleland of Georgia is accusing Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of avoiding the Vietnam War "with a trick knee." Cleland, who lost his seat to Chambliss in 2002, has pointed to Chambliss' lack of military service before, but his criticism Friday was unusually direct. In a conference call with reporters, Cleland said Chambliss "got out of going to Vietnam with a trick knee and in many ways he tricked people." In contrast, Cleland said, Chambliss' current Democratic opponent, Jim Martin, served in the war. Chambliss' campaign did not immediately respond. Chambliss received a student deferment from the draft and later was turned down for service because of a bad knee. Martin worked as a noncombat personnel officer in Vietnam, while Cleland served in combat and lost three limbs in a grenade blast during a 1968 mission.

(Associated Press)
http://gpbnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/cleland-criticizes-chambliss-over-viet.html

Too bad that the people of Georgia don't value the veterans enough that they matter more than keeping these two senators on their jobs when they keep voting against veterans and attacking them when they want to. Let's see what happens on Tuesday with the runoff election. I really hope Georgia plans on making something so wrong finally right. kc

“I asked for an Xbox 360 and I got a 12,500 square-foot building" for Fort Sam wounded

$5M oasis for war wounded to open at Fort Sam

By Michelle Roberts - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Nov 29, 2008 14:30:03 EST

SAN ANTONIO — Judith Markelz has relied on volunteers for years to help the war wounded and their families. They’ve brought meals, DVDs, event tickets and an endless supply of cookies to help comfort those whose lives are suddenly upended by a bomb or a bullet.

So when a new volunteer, Les Huffman, arrived at the chaotic 1,000-square-foot room used for the Warrior and Family Support Center in January 2007 and asked what Markelz needed, the program manager said a new video game system.

But Huffman, the president of a small commercial development firm, wanted to do more. And when Markelz conceded she could use a little more room, that’s what she got: a $5 million building designed like a Texas Hill Country home with a therapeutic garden, classroom, video game room and kitchen — all paid for by private donations. It’s the first center of its kind built on an Army post.

“I asked for an Xbox 360 and I got a 12,500 square-foot building,” she laughs. “Nice trade-off.”

Markelz gets the keys to the new place, built at Fort Sam Houston, on Monday.

Cash donations to the Returning Heroes Home, the nonprofit Huffman Developments set up to oversee the project, were supplemented by subcontractors eager to give their time and by suppliers willing to give materials for free or at steep discounts.

“Whenever we’ve needed anything, things have just come together,” said Beverly Lamoureux, the Huffman Developments executive vice president who helped oversee the design and building of the new center.

go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_warwounded_112708/

Licking ground was idea of troops, police say

Licking ground was idea of troops, police say

The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Nov 29, 2008 14:38:14 EST

MADISON, Wis. — Two police officers accused of forcing two Iraq war veterans to lick what the officers believed was one of the men’s urine claim it was the veterans’ idea.

The National Guardsmen, Sgt. Anthony Anderson and Spc. Robert Schiman, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit for the June incident in the Wisconsin Dells. It names Officers Wayne Thomas and Collin Jacobson as well as another officer, the chief and the city.

click link for more

VA has a history of losing papers

While it is not a new problem, it is a larger one than ever before. There is a saying among veterans trying to have claims approved. "It was lost in translation." In their case, they are talking about how the VA requires veterans to have their papers and claims all in within a certain timeframe, but the translation on the VA end is "whenever" they process it. We've heard stories of lost files for years.

VA has a history of losing papers
Tampabay.com - St. Petersburg,FL,USA
By William R. Levesque, Times staff writer
Sunday, November 30, 2008

Air Force veteran David Chini has lost track of all the times the Department of Veterans Affairs lost records he sent to it.

Registered mail? A VA worker signed, and the paperwork vanished. By fax? Chini, 69, of St. Petersburg said the VA claimed it never arrived. Regular mail? Don't even ask.

And if something doesn't arrive, the agency threatens to discontinue his medical benefits because Chini isn't sending the papers it needs.

"It's just totally demoralizing," he said.

Recent revelations that workers in 41 of 57 VA regional benefits offices, including St. Petersburg, improperly set aside hundreds of claims records for shredding came as no surprise to veterans.

The VA, critics say, has long operated in a veritable culture of lost paper and was losing records many years before this latest scandal. Lost paperwork sometimes leads to delayed, denied or abandoned claims for medical or financial assistance.

And it leaves some questioning if workers lose it deliberately to ease workloads. At least two VA employees outside Florida are being investigated for just that.

"I remain angry that a culture of dishonesty has led to an increased mistrust of the VA within the veteran community," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The VA notes it is the most paper-intensive federal bureaucracy, sifting through 162-million pages of claims documents a year.

And while the VA hopes to have largely paperless claims filing by 2012, the size of the agency makes computerization a challenge.
click link for more

The usual explanation for lost files when it comes to Vietnam veterans is that the papers were all lost in the fire in St. Louis. Read about it here.

Veterans Still Burned Over 35 Year Old Fire
For more than 30 years many a veteran has been faced with the chilling reality of discovering that their military service records had gone up in smoke in a St. Louis fire.
Since that time countless numbers of veterans have been fired up by responses to inquiries and benefits applications that include the now infamous "Your records were burned…" statement.
To this day among many veterans the standard wisecrack upon being told that a service or VA document of theirs has been misplaced or is temporarily unavailable is- "Must have had another fire in St. Louis." More skeptical vets feel that the fire offered a convenient opportunity for covering up long standing mismanagement of important records and offered the system yet another means of dodging the benefits bullet.
What about the fire? And what was burned? The only answer is the official one and official answers tend to serve only as confirmation to the believers and fuel for fire for the skeptics. Nonetheless, here it is:
"On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records (NPRC-MPR) in St. Louis destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files."The National Archives
Just as important an issue is- Which records went up in smoke? Once again, the official word from The National Archives:
"Army records: Personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960. 80% estimated loss.Air Force records: Personnel discharged, September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.). 75% estimated loss."
click link above for more

The problem with this is they don't seem to talk very much about all the unit records that were not destroyed. Most of the bases kept the same files because the DOD does everything in multiple copies. It they really wanted to find the files they needed, they could but that would take too much time and too much manpower to do it. Wouldn't it be worth it to the veterans if they did find the copies available to speed up some of these claims? Wouldn't it be a better idea for the VA to hire enough workers so that these claims are not trapped with all the new ones? After all, we're not just talking about claims. We're talking about veterans and their families waiting to have their claims honored.

Demand up for mental health care

Demand up for mental health care
Denver Post - Denver,CO,USA
Although no one can say for sure, anecdotal evidence lays blame on economic stress.
By Kevin Simpson
The Denver Post

They come in for counseling related to a DUI, but it turns out the alcohol was meant to kill the depression of a lost job, a lost house, a lost spouse — or maybe all three.

They ask for help with gas money or car repairs so they can make their therapy appointment.

They struggle to make co-payments.

They rush to take advantage of employee assistance programs — sometimes fearful they might lose their job, sometimes trying to grapple with their job loss before employee benefits expire.

Layoffs, corporate cutbacks, a tumbling stock market and the credit crunch have ratcheted stress to new levels, prompting many experts to connect the economic downturn to a recent uptick in requests for mental health services even as some patients can hardly afford them.

Although most say it's too early to pinpoint the precise cause of the jump, anecdotal evidence from both caregivers and consumers suggests the failing economy has pushed more people toward therapeutic relief.

Variations on the theme have emerged all across the country — muted only slightly in Colorado, said George DelGrosso, executive director of the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, a statewide association of community mental health centers.
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Excessive force lawsuit in Florida after Hurricane Ivan

When you think of what life is like after a hurricane comes thru, houses destroyed after neighborhoods have been evacuated, it's easy to understand how people can be hyper-vigilant. This sounds as if everyone was trying to do the right thing when all hell broke loose.

We moved to Central Florida from Massachusetts right before all the hurricanes hit. Charlie was the worst for us. I remember walking around, looking at all the damage on my street, in shock. None of my neighbors evacuated because Charlie was not supposed to hit here. None of us bordered up our windows either. Adding in all that stress, topping it off with an evacuated neighborhood, it's easy to understand all that happened that day to the people involved in this.

'Excessive force' lawsuit filed over post-Ivan confrontation (with documents)
Andrew Gant
Daily News
A federal lawsuit is stirring in Santa Rosa County, four years after the plaintiffs say they were beaten - one Tasered - and wrongfully arrested during post-Hurricane Ivan looting.

Daniel and Cathy Thompson of Navarre and former Navarre resident Edgar Knowling are seeking unspecified damages from Sheriff Wendell Hall and seven others for "blatant use of excessive force," according to their complaints.

"Since the incident ... (the Sheriff's Office) has also engaged in a course of misconduct to cover up, conceal and/or manipulate facts surrounding the case," according to the plaintiffs' complaint.

One defendant, former Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Farnham - accused of being the main aggressor - already has been convicted of civil rights violations in his own trial.

The Sheriff's Office, the Thompsons and Knowling all declined to comment on the case, but the complaints are long and detailed.

The facts

Knowling spotted two strangers near a neighbor's garage on Tidewater Lane late Sept. 20, 2004, four days after Ivan struck and knocked out power and devastated homes in Navarre.

Knowling, a retired Air Force colonel, was armed with a long-barreled shotgun that night. He fired a warning shot into the ground and told the men to get away from his evacuated neighbor's home.

Nearby, Daniel Thompson, a retired New York City police captain, heard the gunshot, woke up and came outside with his chrome revolver.

But the men in the garage weren't looters. They were sheriff's deputies investigating prior reports of looting, according to court records.

What happened next is disputed.
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PTSD and John 3:16

By Chaplain Kathie
from web site http://www.namguardianangel.com/
As we enter into the Christmas season, while we begin our shopping for family and friends, it is too often forgotten what this time of year actually means. It's not about long lines at the mall or holiday parties. It's not about sending Christmas cards to people you don't think about the rest of the year. This is what it's all about.

John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It's about love. Why is it that we can remember people we love outside of our own family during Christmas but we can't seem to think of them the rest of the year? Donations to charities go up this time of year. We dig into our pockets when we hear the bell of the Salvation Army ringer sitting by the red kettle, often too embarrassed to simply pass by. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we see the advertising in our local papers to donate to the paper's Christmas fund for the less fortunate. We think about the kids who have very little during the year and we want to make sure they have something for Christmas morning. Come New Year's Day, all that sense of compassion and random acts of kindness get replaced with our own needs and wants.


For some, it never goes away. In my case, hanging onto it was not a noble undertaking. As a matter of fact, it was selfish. Because we suffered so much during the years of our marriage with PTSD eating it alive, I grew more determined to not let "it" win. I'm stubborn. My father said it was the Scottish blood in my veins and my mother said it was the Greek nothing is impossible attitude. Having that combination must have made me unable to surrender. I will not surrender to PTSD. I'm going to fight it until my last breath. Not just for my family but fall all families. "It" wins if we forget, stay silent and ignore what needs to be done to defeat it. While love alone cannot conquer this enemy of all we hold sacred as humans, it must be fortified with it.

Picture PTSD as Satan's foot. When men and women come back from combat, they come back with the events they endured ingrained within them. Some change is very small ways but it all came home with them. For others, their character, all that made them who they were inside, is being infected by trauma. For the families and friends loving them becomes very difficult when they are no longer the same person. That's Satan's foot. It causes sense of self to get in the way when they act differently. If we take a leap of faith, understanding that there is a reason for the change, then we explore it until we can understand it. Understanding what PTSD is, why the person we thought we knew could seem more like a stranger, we kick Satan's foot out of the way and begin to help the veteran of combat heal.


Our eyes are as open as our hearts are willing to allow. Instead of thinking they want to hurt us, we see how much they are hurting inside of themselves. Instead of thinking they are selfish, we understand that deep inside of themselves, they regret the fact they came home when others died. Instead of allowing them to believe God judged them and condemned them by supporting that thought with the way we treat them, we can instead show love, compassion and forgiveness. They are able to see God's love thru our actions and thru the eyes of love.


Love is not supposed to be temporary or seasonal. It is not supposed to end when our feelings are hurt or we don't get what we want. It should not be surrendered as easily as we return the gifts to the store the day after Christmas because we thought we deserved better. It is a commitment that we take all too lightly.


Think of it this way. How much time do you spend looking thru sales flyers to make sure you get the best deal for what you want? How much time do you spend going thru the newspapers looking for coupons to save? Have you spent nearly as much time in learning about PTSD when you have someone serving in your own family? Are you afraid to do it? Do you think that you have enough to worry about and don't want to even think they could have PTSD? Well, I have news for you. If you think you've got enough to worry about and they do come home with PTSD, the troubles you think you have will be minor in compassion to what PTSD can do to your family if you don't know what it is or how to fight it.


My videos above will explain what it has taken me over 25 years of constant study and living with it took to learn. There are two I want you to watch about this for a start. PTSD Not God's Judgment and PTSD I Grieve. Begin to learn in this season of love to awaken a part of your heart that has been asleep.


Let's make this Christmas a time when we change our hearts and minds to understand that love is a gift to be cherished and invested in.

Soldier found dead in Richardson barracks

Soldier found dead in Richardson barracks
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Nov 29, 2008 15:54:00 EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Army has launched a criminal investigation into the death of a 25-year-old soldier whose body was found in his barracks at Fort Richardson.

Army officials say Spc. Blake A. Bronaugh of Wichita Falls, Texas, was found dead of unknown causes on Thanksgiving Day.

Bronaugh was a construction equipment operator assigned to C Company, 864th Engineer Combat Battalion.

He joined the Army in September 2005.

He received his engineer training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and arrived in Alaska in April 2006.

Officials say Bronaugh’s next of kin have been notified of his death.

Military Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders

Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders
By LOLITA C. BALDOR (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 29, 2008 10:24 AM EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky - Some 15,000 soldiers are heading home to this sprawling base after spending more than a year at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military health officials are bracing for a surge in brain injuries and psychological problems among those troops.

Facing prospects that one in five of the 101st Airborne Division soldiers will suffer from stress-related disorders, the base has nearly doubled its psychological health staff. Army leaders are hoping to use the base's experiences to assess the long-term impact of repeated deployments.

The three 101st Airborne combat brigades, which have begun arriving home, have gone through at least three tours in Iraq. The 3rd Brigade also served seven months in Afghanistan, early in the war. Next spring, the 4th Brigade will return from a 15-month tour in Afghanistan. So far, roughly 10,000 soldiers have come back; the remainder are expected by the end of January.

Army leaders say they will closely watch Fort Campbell to determine the proper medical staffing levels needed to aid soldiers who have endured repeated rotations in the two war zones.

"I don't know what to expect. I don't think anybody knows," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, as he flew back to Washington from a recent tour of the base's medical facilities. "That's why I want to see numbers from the 101st's third deployment."

What happens with the 101st Airborne, he said, will let the Army help other bases ready for similar homecomings in the next year or two, when multiple brigades from the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division return.

Noting that some soldiers in the 101st Airborne units have been to war four or five times, Chiarelli said he is most worried the military will not be able to find enough health care providers to deal effectively with the troops needing assistance.

Many of the military bases are near small or remote communities that do not have access to the number of health professionals who might be needed as a great many soldiers return home.

click post title for more
Linked from RawStory

Our Lady of the Angels: The fire that 'changed everything'

Firefighter Richard Scheidt rushes from the school with John Jajkowski, 10. (Steve Lasker / Chicago American) More photos

50 years later: The fire that 'changed everything'

Our Lady of the Angels: The fire that 'changed everything'
By Rex W. Huppke Tribune reporter
November 29, 2008

On Dec. 1, 1958, a fire consumed Our Lady of the Angels grade school on the West Side of Chicago, killing 92 children and three nuns.

A wire story from that day captured a fragment of the desperation:

"Max Stachura stood outside the burning building, begging his little boy, Mark, 9, to jump into his arms. Children were falling all about the father and he caught or stopped the fall of 12 of them. But little Mark was too frightened or he didn't understand his father. Mark didn't jump."

Fifty years later, Mark's mother has the day in crisp focus, and adds a missing detail.

As Mark stood at that second-floor window, fire to his back, he held a small statue in his hand and waved it proudly through the black smoke, hoping his father would notice. Mark had won the statue that day — a figure of an infant Jesus — for being first to answer a quiz question.

"I guess he was just so proud of that prize," said Mary Stachura, now in a retirement home in Bartlett. "I don't think he really understood what was happening."

Few of the children trapped in the school could have grasped the enormity of the danger they faced, and few of the panicky adults on the ground — parents and neighbors and firefighters — had time to reflect. They acted, grabbing ladders of all lengths from garages, reaching through broken windows to haul small, waterlogged bodies from the flames.

Max Stachura watched as other children pushed his son back, away from the window and into the flames. The boy was later identified by a homework sheet crumpled in his pocket.

Max rarely spoke of that day. He died suddenly of a heart attack at 52.

"He was much too young," said Mary, now 85. "That fire. It changed everything."

The fire at Our Lady of the Angels remains one of the worst tragedies in Chicago's history, a ghastly few hours on a cold, sunny afternoon that shattered families and knocked a hopeful, growing community forever off its path.

The cause of the fire was never officially determined, and no one was held accountable. Some parents who lost a child--or children-- found ways to blame each other and wound up divorced. Others sold their tidy two flats and moved away, hastening the flight of the middle class from the city's West Side.
click link for more

2 heroes risk life to save soup kitchen manager after firey crash

SNN PHOTO / CRAIG BURDICK A soup kitchen manager died Friday morning when her car was rear-ended in front of Wal-Mart near U.S. 301. The driver that hit her is charged with DUI manslaughter.

Woman killed in fiery crash

By HALLE STOCKTON
Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.

MANATEE COUNTY - Two witnesses fought flames spurting out the back of a car that was crumpled by an alleged drunken driver in a rear-end collision that killed a local soup kitchen manager around 6 a.m. Friday.

One man reached into the car to check for the occupant's pulse and felt nothing, while the other used a fire extinguisher from their Waste Management truck to douse the flames.

The two then smashed the window and cut off the 77-year-old woman's seat belt to remove her because the blaze continued to flare.

"We weren't sure if she was gone," said Charlie Hall, a driver for Waste Management. "And even though she was, I didn't want that lady to burn up because that would have been more horrific for the family."

Hall and co-worker Lorne Hancock were two of the first people at the fiery accident on State Road 70 and 30th Street East -- a busy intersection of retail hubs on the biggest shopping day of the year.

A 20-year-old Bradenton woman was the driver of the midsize sport-utility vehicle that plowed into the rear of the elderly Bradenton woman's car, Florida Highway Patrol said. Both vehicles were headed west in front of the Wal-Mart.

Mary DeLazzer -- the manager for more than 20 years at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen in the 1400 block of 14th Street West -- died at the scene. She was most likely on her way to the kitchen when she was hit, a friend said.
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Chicken soup for a complex problem, homelessness

Maybe you're like I was at a time in my life when I thought the homeless people received enough help so they didn't need me. I was actually afraid of them when I was walking around. My excuse, well I was just a teenager at the time. When I grew up, my attitude did too.

I started to see them as people that once had families and friends, jobs, places to live and bank accounts. After all, my father did. He was a Korean War veteran and 100% disabled. He was also an alcoholic. My father never ended up homeless but spent about a year in a project living in a tiny apartment. Because of him, I understood how families could turn their backs on one of their own. Having a parent come home drunk with half the neighborhood talking about him was not something to be proud of. There were constant fist fights and shouting matches. He stopped drinking when I was 13 and joined AA. My parents separation ended and he moved back home.

His alcoholism and recovery changed my mind about homeless people. I understood that my father could have been one of them. Then as I grew older, they captured my heart.

It was not until my husband's PTSD got so bad that I was considering sending him to the homeless shelter in Boston that my eyes were fully opened. Homeless veterans also walk the streets with all the others. Imagine being willing to lay down your life for the sake of the other people in the country only to be left abandoned by them, homeless and walking the streets for the rest of you life. Fighting for a bed to sleep in or someplace out of the snow, rain and freezing temperatures. Wondering when you'll eat next or when you have taken your last chance. While all homeless people mattered to me, the veterans being homeless broke my heart. Considering I almost had two of them in my own life, it isn't hard to understand why that is.

Some use drugs and alcohol to the point where their lives fall apart but others see hard times come into their lives and they cannot cope with them. There are as many reasons for homeless people as there are homeless people. Some never had a close family to take care of them. Some have mental illness and there are no jobs for them even if they could work.

What really go to me is that there is the most famous homeless person in the history of mankind. His name is Jesus. Remember He didn't really have a home to go to at the end of working a long day spreading the word of God. He didn't have a stock of food to eat whenever He wanted to or clothes in suitcases. He had to rely on the kindness of strangers to take care of His needs. His Disciples gave up their homes, families and livelihoods to follow Him. They were taken care of by the people in the towns they traveled to. No one asked them why they didn't have a place to live. No one asked them why they couldn't find real jobs to take care of their own needs. No one judged them. They just took care of them.

Think about it the next time you find nothing wrong with homeless people walking our streets with not enough people to take care of them, feed them, shelter them and clothe them.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"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

Chicken soup for a complex problem

By Cristina Silva and Austin Bogues, Times Staff Writers
In print: Sunday, November 30, 2008

Laura Lanciotti was hooked on cocaine and liquor, unemployed and living under a highway overpass in downtown St. Petersburg when advocates for the homeless told her about Pinellas Hope.

She moved into the outdoor tent shelter in unincorporated Pinellas County in October, quit the booze and drugs and got a job as a security guard at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Pinellas Hope "helped me put my life back together," said Lanciotti, 55.

Once regarded as an experimental, quick fix to the area's growing homeless problem, Pinellas Hope has quickly become Pinellas County's leading social service provider since the shelter opened 12 months ago.
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Darryl E. Owens: Salvation Army needs your sweaters, not just pennies

A couple of times a year I go thru what we don't need anymore and donate them to the Vietnam Veterans. After reading this, I'm going to do it one extra time this year and drop them off at the Salvation Army. How about you? I know times are tough and you may want to sell some of the things you don't need at a yard sale, but you do get a tax deduction with donating to the Salvation Army at the same time you're doing something good for someone else.

Darryl E. Owens: Salvation Army needs your sweaters, not just pennies
Black Friday

with shoppers lining up at ungodly hours to nab heavenly deals -- traditionally starts the winter-holiday shopping season.

Traditionally, it has also marked high tide in the flood of donations to charitable groups such as the Salvation Army, as enlightened altruists think end-of-the-year tax breaks.

But then, traditions are made to be broken.

If the past six months are prologue, the group known for trotting out a red kettle during Christmastime may need to pass around a tin cup to scare up enough donations to serve the swelling ranks of the needy who depend on its thrift stores to clothe their families.

From the beginning, donated items plunged. Daily donations that once averaged about 8,000 pieces of clothing have slumped to between 4,000 and 5,000.

"We don't know if people are wanting to hold on to items or stretch the life of their clothing or bric-a-brac," says Justine Birmingham, a spokeswoman for the charity.

Meanwhile, the plunging financial markets sparked soaring thrift-store sales, Birmingham says.

Only supply isn't meeting the record demand.

"While we have large numbers coming in wanting to purchase, wanting to make their dollars stretch more, unfortunately, we don't always have the products," Birmingham says.
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