Today, the First Lady [Michelle Obmama] announced that America's businesses nearly tripled the goal set by President [Barack] Obama and did so eight months early. The private sector has already hired or trained 290,000 veterans and military spouses.
The First Lady also announced that American companies have committed to hire or train another 435,000 veterans and military spouses over the next five years.
For example:
- BNSF Railroad committed to hire 5,000 veterans and military spouses in the next five years.
- UPS committed to hire 25,000 in the next five years.
- Home Depot committed to hire 55,000 in the next five years.
- McDonald’s committed to hire 100,000 in the next three years.
- Walmart committed to hiring any veteran that served honorably the year after they separate from the service.
- Deloitte will double its veteran hiring over the next three years.
- USAA pledged that 30% of its new hires will be a veteran or military spouse.
- The Blackstone Group challenged each of the 50,000 managers at its affiliated businesses to hire at least one veteran.
- AT& T committed to creating an online military talent exchange.
- The International Franchising Association has helped more than 4,300 veterans own their own business since 2011.
- The U.S Chamber of Commerce just held its 400th hiring fair since last March for veterans.
Ricardo Lopez (Los Angeles Times) notes that 2012 saw the jobless rate to be 3.3% higher among "veterans" than the general population. I've put "veterans" to emphasize we need to be clear. Lopez isn't. The 9.9% refers to veterans of today's wars also classified as post-9/11 veterans. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden (in a column for Fortune) note, "We're encouraged that the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans dropped by 2.2% in 2012. But it is still too high; because as long as any veteran or military spouse who needs a job is unable to find one, then we still have work to do."*
Lopez adds that Target, Wal-Mart and Home Depot have also committed to hiring veterans. Pacific Gas and Electric Company notes they are committed "ot hire or train more than 290,000 veterans and military spouses, nearly tripling the initial goal well ahead of schedule. PG&E is supporting further veteran hiring and placement by committing to increase its own hiring and placement of veterans by 10 percent through the end of this year." This is a problem that happens after every war and it's a problem that needs attention because the numbers seeking jobs is only going to increase. Trevor Shirley (WWSB) speaks with Florida Suncoast Workforce's Joshua Matlock who explains "that as the wars overseas wind down, the number of job seekers is going up, putting the onus on veterans to make a hard sell with potential employers."
[*I know, like and respect Dr. Jill Biden. After the 2008 election I noted that we would not chart her here because the White House is a fish bowl and anyone in a fish bowl can make a mistake and I never want to have to be in the position of calling out Jill. So we don't note her here or quote her here. The column she co-wrote with Michelle Obama is our first and probably only exception. Looking for an authoritative source using the precise terms, I read the column the two women wrote and they are an authoritative source so I'm using it. If you feel that in doing so I've broken a ground rule, please let me know and it's not my intent to quote Jill here again. I know, like and respect Joe Biden. We do quote him here but he's Vice President and I have no problem holding him accountable or calling him out in that role. I never want to have to say anything negative about Jill so we don't note her. I've clearly bent -- if not broken -- the rule today. My apologies.]
If the above shows progress and improvement (and it does), other veterans issues are not demonstrating the same progress. Aaron Glantz has another major report. The Daily Beast carries it here and you can read it at the Center for Investigative Reporting here. Glantz opens by sharing the story of how Vietnam veteran Jack Cornelius was honorably discharged and attempted to seek Post-Traumatic Stress treatment "in July 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs denied his widow's request to help pay for his burial and declined to grant the monthly compensation intended for survivors of veterans with deaths linked to military service." It would take a year for the VA to correct its mistake and, by then, Sheryl Cornelius "had lost her home to foreclosure and racked up $700 in interest on a high-interest loan she'd taken out to pay for the funeral."
April 11th, the House Veterans Affairs Committee heard from VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. In the hearing, US House Rep Phil Roe raised the topic Glantz is reporting on.
US House Rep Phil Roe: An issue I brought to you, six weeks ago, was when a veteran dies -- and there's no discussion about that. You have a death certificate. This veteran dies and their spouse sometimes takes months or as much as a year to get their benefit. That is absolutely unacceptable. When you've got a veteran out there -- a spouse, a man or a woman -- and they're -- especially the older veterans that are out there, that are living on a very meager income and then to have them wait? And they have a house -- as we talked about -- they have a house payment, they have food to buy, they shouldn't miss a check. That should not even be questioned.
It's very easy for someone like Sheryl Conrelius, faced with funeral bills she shouldn't have to be paying and denied the spousal support check she should be receiving, to lose close to everything because of the VA. That's why it's such a serious issue.
Aaron Glantz reports:
Those documents also show that the bureaucratic logjam follows veterans to the grave. The ranks of widows, widowers,
children and parents waiting for a nominal burial benefit—between $600
and $2,000—nearly tripled during Obama’s first term: from 23,000 to
65,000.
The average wait time for a funeral subsidy had reached 207 days in December, from two months four years before.
In
addition, 50,000 survivors were waiting an average of 229 days to find
out whether they qualified for a pension—twice as long as in 2009. That
part of the backlog is especially tragic, observers say, because most of
the survivors are elderly widows who depended on their husbands’ VA
pensions before their deaths.
The following community sites -- plus Susan's On the Edge, The Diane Rehm Show, Antiwar.com, Adam Kokesh, Black Agenda Report, On the Wilder Side, Pacifica Evening News, Ms. magazine's blog and NPR music -- updated last night and this morning:
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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