Dear Next President,

I believe we don’t do enough for our veterans. Yes I will say that we have done a lot to help our vets, but overall I think that the United States of America could do better. Here are some of the problems that veteran face.

Problem number one. “What do I do after the war.” Most people would say get a job but there is a slight problem with that. The problem is that veteran unemployment rate is TWICE as high as the national average. That is because of one simple thing they are only taught how to kill and survive on their own not many trade skills come out of that. Along with the TBI(Traumatic Brain Injury) this makes it really hard to work somewhere with a lot of noise. I can’t think of a workplace that doesn’t have a lot of noise. A loud noise has the chance to trigger the fight or flight mentality that is buried deep within their head. I have seen this happen with my uncle Ray. He is a vet and I was making popcorn and he wouldn’t leave his room because he thought someone was shooting at him.

People might say that “Oh vets hospital bills and college funds are a lot less than other people.”

Granted that is still true. Nevertheless that doesn’t really help a family that need that vet because sure they can pay for the hospital bills and can go to college but what help would that be if they can’t land a job. The real problem is that vets who have a house can’t usually keep it and vets who don’t have a house can never get one. That needs to change if you want America to thrive.

In addition to not having the same chance of getting a job, female veteran are 3 times more likely to commit suicide between the age of 18-34. This can not continue.This was all recorded by Dr. Jan Kemp who runs the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Suicide Prevention Hotline. This was used in a study that found out that it is true that female vets are more likely to commit suicide than their peers. For example "The woman had had a recent argument with her husband and had come to the conclusion that he and her two young children would be better off without her," Kemp said. "She had [post-traumatic stress disorder]. She had a history of MST — military sexual trauma — and she just couldn't get it together — and was tired of trying. So she had gathered up a lot of pills, she had them with her, and she called us because she wanted us to let him know that it wasn't his fault, that she was doing this for him.” In another study done by a student from Portland State University took data from 16 states (state names were not listed) all about female deaths. What he did was compare the rate of suicide of veteran women and compared it to normal women. What he saw was that veteran women had a 3 times higher of a chance to commit suicide than their non veteran friends.

All in all America is a great place, but if you really what to make America great you need to change this because this can hurt us as Americans. In short if this doesn’t change this has a chance to be one of the reasons America falls.

Thank you,

Concerned citizen