By Stewart Resmer
I have been outspoken on veterans issues here in Santa Monica because I have seen the damage done.
We have seen the damage done, as is evidenced by the statistics we observe in our homeless population here that the city wrestles with right now.
And now, the scandal in our nation’s capital at the Army hospital!
In my lifetime, I have known three veterans who have put a gun to their head in complete despair, they fired. More recently, an Iraqi vet did the same here.
It is beyond the moment to ask ‘Why?’ It is time to act... what more can we as a community do? Do we establish a veterans commission within the city that I, for one, think is long overdue? Do we voice the city’s displeasure over this scandal in the name of The People here who have long borne responsibility for those we see on our streets?
The time is now.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 7, 2007. Read the original PDF.