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On the Matter of Veterans vs. Refugees.


A few days ago, while at Walmart, I saw a man wearing a T-shirt that stated the following:
VETERANS BEFORE REFUGEES
As a human rights activist, this T-shirt sort of shocked me.  I should say that being in my mid-40's it takes me a lot longer to look away and tell myself that I need to put on a poker face.  So, the man, who was probably in his early 30's, saw me stare at his shirt and noticed that I did not put on a poker face. Surprisingly, he did not stare back at me or say anything.  
After I became aware of my stareing issue, I composed myself and shook my head. He went his way and I went mine.  The only question I asked myself (and wished I had asked him) was, "who made that a choice?"  What idiot decided to put two groups who are affected by war the most, veterans and displaced people (refugees) against one another?  Now, I have seen these words prior to this T-shirt. Unfortunately, it was from family members who would post this same meme on Facebook, but to see it on a T-shirt means that this idea has been planted in many veterans’ heads. My father is a Vietnam veteran and my husband served in Iraq in the early 90's.  For these reasons alone, as a liberal peace-loving, human rights having activist, I am very sensitive to veterans and their rights and issues.  How can I convince veterans that it is not a reasonable choice?  That it shouldn’t be a choice at all. (Well my husband, Joe, thinks like me, so he also thinks it is ridiculous to even offer as a choice.)  Then again, maybe because Americans are in this "America First" attitude, which includes xenophobia and racism, that is why this slogan is easy to plant.
I guess many other veterans think that our country is asking itself: "If I was on a boat with a veteran or a refugee..."  (and I hate that fucking game).  I wouldn't throw anyone out of the boat, either we all survive or we all die.  Only sociopathic corporatist like to play that game.  If you were a true moralist or had a Jesus complex, you would throw yourself overboard.  The only people who seem to benefit creating an illusion that this is a choice, are those who don't like paying for taxes.  When our veterans fought in these foreign wars, the really wealthy benefit the most from modern warfare, think oil, open markets, etc.  Again, it goes along with the argument that many economic leftist state:  "the wealthy should pay their fair share."
We are the world's richest nation. We can take care of both.  We should take care of both, our veterans and the refugees from nations, especially those nations that we helped destroyed. We are solely responsible for putting our soldiers in harm's way in fighting ideologies, whether we call it communism or terrorism.  In my opinion, the only "freedom" that we sacrificed our soldiers for are for "Free Markets" or multinational corporations.  While fighting these wars or conflicts, we also created victims, refugees.  Both groups need our support and our compassion.  There is no choice, but a duty to take care of both.
If we have money for tax breaks then we have money for veteran medical and psychological care for life.  We have money for veterans for school and training.  If we have money to increase defense spending than we have money for housing for veterans AND refugees.   We have a $603 billion defense budget, more than any nation on this planet. If we even took half that and reapplied it toward veterans and refugees, we could help both, as we should.
My point is that we cannot take one disenfranchised group and put it up against the another.  We cannot continue to let this oligarchy have us fighting over the crumbs while they make off with the cake. We will not blame another oppressed group (Immigrants, Minority groups, women, etc.) that our lives are not getting better.  The discussion should remain on who is holding all the purse strings, and it's not the veterans or the refugees.

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