Semper Fi (2002-03-25)
For many veterans, the fighting didn’t end when they returned home. Some continue to combat trauma, alcoholism or substance abuse. Some fight to eke out a living on the fringes of a society that forgot or rejected them. They are disowned, dispossessed, weary and wary. On Saturday, at the Brevard Stand Down in Cocoa, they got a day to rest up, patch up, eat up before they resumed their private battles.

The term stand down dates to the Vietnam War, and refers to exhausted combat units returning from the jungle to rest and recover. It’s now the vernacular for events that take place across the country to help homeless vets come in from the cold--or better their chances for survival on the street.

Semper fidelis. Always faithful. Leave no man behind. Veterans continue to look after their own.

The Korean War Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Brevard Veterans Council, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, former WAVES and former Lady Marines joined Wuestoff Hospital, the Veteran’s Administration, Volunteers of America and Brevard Job Link to put on the Brevard Stand Down. Folding tables flanked the perimeter of the Armory’s large hall. Behind each, doctors, lawyers, nurses, food servers, clergy members, employment specialists, and social workers served over 100 veterans who ambled, limped, and shuffled in.

Attorney Leonard Speilvogel spent the day helping vets with their legal problems: writing up wills; answering questions about divorce, VA claims, criminal proceedings--even real estate transactions. Circuit Judge Charles Holcomb joined him at the table to show his support. Both men are veterans, ex-Marines.

“We owe a great debt to our veterans,” says Holcomb, “…It really breaks your heart to see veterans who gave so much so down and out.”

Behind a gauzy blue curtain in the corner of the hall, a hairdresser runs a free barber shop. A veteran herself, she hasn’t forgotten when she was homeless and veterans organizations helped her put her life back together. Now that she’s got a job at Supercuts, she’s sees donating her skills as just giving back.

“We should have more than this, really,” she says.

At the clothing table, a young girl smiles up to a weathered man in baggy pants, cuffs dragging, who has shuffled up to inspect what’s on offer. At a nearby table, women load up bags of non-perishables. The men of the Korean War Veterans’ Association, bent with age, meander back and forth, helping veterans from place to place. Men with faded blue tattoos and ball caps hunker down at tables in the center of the hall to enjoy a hot lunch.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there are over 1,000 homeless veterans in Brevard County. They make up roughly 40 percent of the county’s homeless population.

Bill Vagianos, a Vietnam veteran and clinical outreach specialist for the Veterans Health Administration, says, “What these do is say, yeah, we care.”

Girls in the system (2002-03-20)
I neglected my blog while working on a freelance piece on girls in the juvenile justice system. To assuage my guilt, I've compiled this list of the studies and stats I consulted to write the story. National research shows that girls are more likely than boys to be put away for minor offenses and for violations of probation or parole in the absence of new offenses. A majority of girls in the juvenile justice system were victims of physical or sexual abuse before they wound up there. Girls' trauma, depression and past victimization can't be solved by shoving them into programs originally designed for boys. Read more:

• Justice by Gender.
  A report by the American Bar Assoc. and the National Bar Assoc. May 2001.
  
• Juvenile Female Offenders.
  A Status of the States Report. October 1998.
  
• An Overview of Research on Girls and Violence.
  Institute for Minority and Urban Education. 1999.
  
• Guiding Principles for Positive Female Programming.
  Greene, Peters and Associates. 1998.
  
• Key Studies: Girls in Juvenile System.
  Building Blocks for Youth.
  

• Fact Sheet on Residential Correctional Facilities.
  Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
  
• Fact Sheet on Female Offenders.
  Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
  
• 2001 Outcome Evaluation Report.
  Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
  
• Educate or Incarcerate.
  Report on Girls in the Florida and Duval County Juvenile Justice Systems. November 2000.
  
• Fact Sheet on Kids in Florida's Adult Prisons.
  Justice Policy Institute.
  

How quickly we forget (2002-03-01)
The New York Times announced this week that the Bush administration plans to foot the bill for a radio transmitter in Kurdish Northern Iraq or neighboring Iran so Iraqi opposition can whip up support for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

"There are increasing signs that the Bush administration is girding for a political - and potentially military - showdown with Iraq over Saddam Hussein's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction," reports the Times.

Hmm. This same course of action was taken by the senior Bush ten years ago -- and failed.

After the Gulf War, the CIA hired the Rendon Group to build support for Iraqi opposition. With million in covert funding, Rendon set to work producing two clandestine radio stations: Radio Hurriah and the Iraqi Broadcasting Corporation. The stations were destroyed in 1996 and 1997 in reprisals following a failed paramilitary campaign against Hussein reminiscent of the Bay of Pigs. Read the full story at ClandestineRadio.com.

The now-defunct Office of Strategic Influence recruited Rendon to join it’s overseas propaganda campaign. (See February blog Your Tax Dollars at Work'.)