A nice lady named Nadia McCaffrey, who lost her boy in Iraq, wants to set up a house for vets suffering from PTSD in wine country, CA. But that has made some neighbors hoppin' mad that they're going to have a bunch of Rambo types running around with their guns n' craziness driving down the property value. Sadly, this seems to be a discouraging trend in a society that has little understanding of the reality of modern conflict. Not only do they want to get involved with it, they don't even want to know about it.
Not to fear. IAVA has an open letter to the media requesting an increase in coverage of the wars that a small percentage of Americans face, while spending less time on journalistic inquiry into the hairstyles of Paris Hilton's dog. This could drastically help awareness in a vapid society lacking any sense of priorities. Check it out.
21 March 2008
No Dogs or Vets on the Lawn
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6 comments:
The sad or unfortunate thing about this lady's story is it says in the article that now the building sits there not finished. Well, they gave her the permits in the first place to build -- now it's not right for the neighborhood, it doesn't fit it, blah, blah, blah.
While I can understand community concerns of not wanting to bring bad people into a neighborhood, these are vets and they're not bad people. They're not halfway house criminals.
So it's okay if they were still in Iraq or Afgh. doing their duty, but not for them to come home and live in your neighbodhood?
I would hope the community is at least willing to work with her to get to a solution. Sounds like she is trying to do good.
Well said, anonymous. It doesn't say very much about Californians.
The vets are welcome to come to OK where the fishin' and huntin' are good, but the views are kind of flat and lonely. Property is much cheaper, though.
Ms. Bag Blog,
You are too kind, not sure why you removed the comment on Chrissy, that was a hilarious zinger!
What is nearly the worst part is that the "ewwww, an apartment building!" reaction is nearly as strong a motivation as the fear of a bunch of (mythical) kill-crazy vets.
I agree with anonymous in that the community could have worked with McCaffrey to resolve some of the specific complaints in terms of the retaining wall, parking, and so on.
It is painfully obvious that no one in that community has ever served...
Casey,
Definitely, the ruse employed to say that it's a building violation is just thinly veiled criticism against having wounded vets around. These not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) types are prevalent in the Golden State.
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