Clements/O’Hare Honor Veterans for Memorial Day – O’Hare Seeks Benefit Cards for Vets

Life-long friends, George O’Hare (left) and Father George Clements called on all Americans to honor veterans this Memorial Day. O’Hare seeks national veterans benefit card program

 

By Chinta Strausberg

 

Father George Clements Saturday said all Americans should be forever grateful for those soldiers who made it possible for us to have a Memorial Day.

“We should be grateful to them also for all of the benefits that we get from being in this country,” said Clements.

“And, we have to be mindful of the sacrifices that both blacks and whites made in the military to enable us to be living this way, “ said Clements who is not taking life for granted in America.

Clements is appreciative of the blood that has been spilled in so many wars and mindful of broken families who have suffered the brunt of these sustained military conflicts.

He will be joined by his life long friend, George O’Hare, a U.S. Navy veteran, Monday’s Memorial Day, May 31, 2011, where he will give the invocation at the Lawrence Pucci Wedgwood Society of Chicago & Co-Sponsor Chicago Cultural Mile Association’s 14th annual ceremony and dedication of the General John A. Logan Monument.

The event kicks off at 11 a.m., in Grant Park at 9th and Michigan Avenue.

Reached at home, O’Hare said to all veterans, “Thank you, thank you for what you have done for our nation, for our country. They have to know that they are wanted.

“Veterans today are being short-changed on the benefits they deserve,” he said. “We as a nation of leaders have not made it clear to them that they have specific benefits and give them a checklist so they can see who to call to get those benefits,” O’Hare said.

“And, those who do go to the veterans facilities are told to come back which results in some veterans just giving up,” O’Hare said. The American Legions veterans know where to go, but other veterans who get sick go to our veteran’s hospitals and they are told to come back over and over again.” O’Hare said that is not right and no way to treat our veterans who risked their lives for this country.

“I want every man and woman veterans to have a card to spell out what their rights are and phone numbers for those benefits.  I am a veteran and I don’t know where to go but thank God I have insurance as a retired Sears employee. I pay for my insurance full price. Thank God I can afford to pay for that because most veterans can’t.”

O’Hare said he would like the federal government to issue these benefit cards to very veteran. “This card should state the benefits and where to call to get more information.” On the card, O’Hare also wants the phone number of the Veterans Affairs Department along with an 800 number if veterans don’t get callbacks or results from federally run veterans facilities.

To the women and men who have love ones in the military, I say to you thank you for giving our soldiers the confidence and love they need to make it through every day. We can only imagine what they are going through in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can only imagine their running and ducking bullets and driving through some heavy firepower, and we don’t know what they are thinking about coming back home.

But, we all can pray for their safe return and to give thanks to all of them for putting their lives on the line for America. God bless our soldiers, and I pray for their safe return.

I also agree with O’Hare that this nation must do better by our returning veterans. They should never want for a home, a house or adequate health care, and no veterans should ever be homeless.

I too will be speaking at Monday’s event. I’ll be talking about my cousin, Pfc. Milton Lee Olive III who at 18 was the first African American to have received the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. On October 22, 2011, Olive, whom we called “Skipper,” saw a live grenade, placed it on his stomach allowing it to explode. He saved the lives of four comrades two of whom are living today and all either have grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

America must step up to the plate when it comes to its treatment of veterans who are seduced to join the military but forgotten once they come home.

If Skipper were alive, I know he would be out front demanding equality for all veterans just like he did as a teenager when he ran away from home and joined the Mississippi Voter Registration campaign. His father found him and gave him three choices: go back to school, get a job or join the military.

Skipper is not here, but if, as Mr. O’Hare says, our veterans facilities are not providing adequate health care to our veterans, then why not privatize these facilities so health care will always be available to them? We all must fight for fairness for veterans many of whom, like Skipper, paid the ultimate price…their life.

Remember and respect all veterans and give thanks to them on Memorial Day.

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host.

Photo: Chinta Strausberg