Guest Blog: Democrats, Walking the Walk, Supporting the Troops

Delivering the packages

This is a guest blog from Terry Riley and George Boersig, who worked hard on this project along with many other Democrats in Albuquerque: We so often hear politicians talk about supporting our troops. That is usually used to encourage us to not ask to bring our troops home and to encourage the next war. It would seem that truly supporting the troops would be doing something that reduces their risk of getting killed or injured. It also should mean providing all of the health and other care that they may need after they have served for us.

This Saturday, December 22, 2007, the Bernalillo County Democratic Party delivered clothes, toiletries, and food to the New Mexico Veterans Integration Center. The NMVIC is a housing, counseling, and job placement center for homeless veterans. This is not a government institution, though they do receive some government money. There are presently 69 male residents and three female residents. Members of the party gathered the items and brought them to the Bernalillo County Democratic Party third Thursday regular business meeting and then sorted items and boxed them so that we could wrap a variety of items in one box per individual. We collected more than enough for the residents so we were able to give the extra items such as underwear and towels for the NMVIC “general store” for later use.

Members of the US military branches believe in not leaving a soldier behind on the battlefield. The NMVIC believes in “Beyond the Battlefield”. Their hope is to provide needed help to any veteran. Our country needs to adapt the policy of leaving no soldier behind, active or veteran, no matter what his or her ailment or problem may be. We must act to fully fund our Veterans Administration so that the best care is available to everyone who served, no exceptions! This is Supporting Our Troops!

Sorting and filling the packages

Walk the walk. Vote for candidates who pledge to REALLY support our troops AND our veterans. Follow through, check on the people you voted for and make sure that they do vote to provide the needed services and care for ALL of our veterans. Help your elected officials keep their promises and replace ANY elected officials who do not do everything possible to Support Our Troops!

Now, after all of this we have an important request to make of everybody. The NMVIC has a serious budget shortfall and has asked for emergency appropriations from the state legislature. If you consider that New Mexico provided approximately $275,000 this last year for operations at the NMVIC and that New Mexico spent approximately $9,000,000 for monuments and memorials for those who served and for the campaigns they served in, it would seem a better choice to spend a lot of money on people who served – AND ARE IN NEED AND STILL ALIVE, than to spend on commemorations on those who have passed.

George with wrapped packages

Please contact your state legislators and ask them to commit to always spending more money on veterans who are alive than they spend on memorials. Just imagine how many veterans could be helped and how much care could be provided if we had multi-million dollar appropriations.

This is a guest blog by Terry Riley and George Boersig of Albuquerque. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. If you'd like to submit a piece for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.