Army advises court-martial in soldier suicide

So sad, there is never an excuse for this.

Army advises court-martial in soldier suicide

The Associated Press

Posted : Monday Jan 23, 2012 10:28:43 EST

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. military hearing has recommended that an American soldier be court-martialed over abuse that led to a fellow infantryman's suicide in southern Afghanistan.
Spc. Ryan Offutt is one of eight soldiers charged in the death of 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen, who shot himself in a guard tower three months into his tour in Afghanistan.
Chen's relatives have said the New York City native was teased during training because he was Chinese-American and was subjected to brutal hazing in Afghanistan.
The U.S. military said Monday that an Army hearing has recommended Offutt face court-martial on 11 charges, including assault, negligent homicide, and reckless endangerment. The hearing ended Sunday.
The regional U.S. military commander will make a final decision on any court-martial.

Status of Veterans Unemployment - Important!!!

Watching Tom Tarantino talking about the unemployment among Iraq and Afghanistan Vets and he is answering questions. If you have not seen this or did not watch it it is great. He makes a good poin especially in my field when he states that "no body talks better to a Vet than another Vet".

Tim Embree is Congressional Relations Officer at U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Status of Veterans Unemployment

Committee:

House Veterans Affairs

Spokeperons:

Tim Embree

Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member, and members of the subcommittee, on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s one hundred and eighty thousand members and supporters, I would like to thank you for allowing us to testify before your subcommittee. My name is Tim Embree and I served two tours in Iraq with the United States Marine Corps Reserves. The “Status of Veterans Employment” is a critical issue facing many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and IAVA welcomes the opportunity to discuss this issue at length with you.
Executive Summary:
America’s newest veterans face serious employment challenges. The process of returning to civilian life is complicated by the most severe economic recession in decades. Furthermore, many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, leaving the active-duty military, find civilian employers who do not understand the value of their skills and military experience. As a result, unemployment rates for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are staggering. Additionally, the National Guardsmen and Reservists who leave behind their civilian lives to serve alongside active-duty troops, are inadequately protected against job discrimination. The experience of previous generations of veterans who faced similar situations suggest that today’s veterans may continue to struggle for years to come.

IAVA recommends the following to combat veterans’ unemployment:

• Fully restore funding to the ESGR, which provides critical USERRA protections for deploying Guard and Reservists. ESGR is slated to be cut 17% in FY 2011.
• Grant Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to veterans who enroll in apprenticeships, On the Job Training, and vocational programs.
• Allow service-disabled veterans the option to use their education benefits and voc-rehab services concurrently.
• Extend the tax credit in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which incentivizes hiring Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, beyond 2010.
• Increase Department of Labor VETS budget by $7.3 million for FY 2011 to improve job placement programs.
• Mandate public reporting of all VETS–100 forms (# of veterans hired by Federal contractors).
• Create civil and criminal penalties for employers who knowingly violate USERRA protections.
• Extend USERRA protections to National Guardsmen, Reservists, and servicemembers working in domestic response operations, such as hurricane or wildfire missions.

I. Status of Veterans Employment

“I have had to move my family 2-3 times in search for employment… I have had LOTS of difficulty finding employment” – IAVA Vet

Unemployment rates among new veterans have risen significantly in the last 2 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2009, the average unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans was 10.2 percent. Unemployment rates from 2007 and 2008 were 6.1 percent and 7.3 percent respectively. The unemployment rate of Reserve and National Guardsmen, who often leave behind civilian jobs when they deploy, have more than quadrupled since 2007. They now rival that of veterans recently discharged from the military – 10.6 percent vs. 13.8 percent.

Disturbingly, the situation appears to be deteriorating further. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in March 2010, the unemployment rate of Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans was 14.7 percent. [i]
“All the jobs I found that would hire vets were security jobs
that pay $8 bucks an hour” –IAVA Vet

Finding a job for a returning veteran is hard, but finding quality employment is extremely difficult. Sixty-one percent of employers do not believe they have “a complete understanding of the qualifications ex-service members offer” [ii] and recently separated servicemembers with college degrees earn on average almost $10,000 less per year than their nonveteran counterparts. [iii] This wage gap could continue for decades; Vietnam veterans earned significantly less than their civilian peers till they were in their fifties.
IAVA is also concerned about the duration of new veterans’ unemployment. In 2009, 75,000 Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans suffered from long-term unemployment—15 weeks or more. This represents more than 45 percent of all unemployed new veterans in 2009.

“First interview question was ‘Are you going to be hired and then have to leave again?’” – IAVA vet

Employers are growing increasingly wary of hiring or reemploying National Guardsmen and Reservists because of their unprecedented mobilization rates. Tens of thousands of reservists returning from combat are not being promptly reemployed or when reemployed they are not receiving the pay, pensions, health care coverage, and other benefits they are entitled to. More than 40 percent of Guardsmen and Reservists lose income when they are mobilized. [iv] Self-employed reservists are suffering 55 percent earnings losses when they are activated.

II. Existing Programs
Federal veterans’ employment services can be categorized into one of three types of programs: job training, job placement and job protection. A proper balance of attention and resources must be dedicated to each category to ensure our nation’s veterans can successfully return to work.

A. Job Training Programs
GI Bill Benefits

“After approximately 30 interviews and temporary positions
I chose to attend school under the new GI Bill.” –IAVA Vet

The new GI Bill is the greatest investment in veterans and their families since World War II and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Veterans, facing tough economic times and high unemployment numbers, are flocking to universities across the nation, making themselves more marketable on the job front. The Post-9/11 GI Bill has enabled over 230,000 students to attend first-rate colleges and universities.

“This was a huge disappointment to me when I found out my schooling was not covered under the new GI Bill… I am a mechanic by vocation, there are no 4-year degree programs for people like me.” –IAVA Vet

Unfortunately, a significant number of veterans have been short-changed under the new GI Bill. Apprenticeships, On-the-Job-Training and vocational programs are excluded from the new GI Bill. IAVA believes the Post-9/11 GI Bill should be extended to veterans enrolled in these highly beneficial programs.

Non-degree granting schools, or vocational schools, are specifically excluded from the new GI Bill and no provision was made for Apprenticeship and On-the-Job-Training (OJT) programs. Both types of programs were covered under the old GI Bill. Oddly, a veteran can still use their new GI Bill to obtain a vocational certificate just not at a vocational school.
Veterans pursuing vocational training should not be penalized for going to a strictly vocational school. The WWII GI Bill sent over 8 million veterans to school. More than half of those veterans were not seeking a college degree; they participated in some type of vocational training program. Unfortunately, nearly 16,000 modern veterans pursuing vocational training will not be able to access the new GI Bill.

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services (Voc-Rehab)
The Voc-Rehab program offers individual rehabilitation programs for disabled veterans with an emphasis on employment counseling and services, as well as assistance finding a job. For severely disabled veterans, unable to return to work, the program gives them the tools to live as independently as possible. Participants who complete the rehabilitation earn on average six times what they did before the program. [vi] Over 110,000 veterans participated in FY2009 [vii]; double the number of veterans who participated in FY2003.
Unfortunately, only a small percentage of veterans who enroll in Voc-Rehab successfully complete the program. [viii] And according to a 2004 VA Voc-Rehab Task Force, the type and timeliness of its employment services are “out of sync” with the 21st century labor market and attitudes towards persons with disabilities. [ix] For example, to use Voc-Rehab to pay for college, veterans must convince Voc-Rehab counselors that they are actually smart enough to succeed at the college of their choice. We have heard countless anecdotal stories where this process has pitted a disabled veteran against their counselor when the veteran wants to challenge themselves at a tougher school.

We believe that by breaking down the bureaucratic wall between the new GI Bill and vocational rehabilitation and by allowing service-disabled veterans the option to use their GI Bill benefits and vocational rehabilitation services concurrently, disabled veterans will have access to quality rehabilitative services without the hassle of proving their mental acuity.

Transition Assistance Program/ Disabled Transition Assistance Programs (TAP & DTAP)
Servicemembers approaching separation can take advantage of the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), which provides employment and training information as well as a variety of counseling programs. The Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Labor partner to conduct the three-day workshops where servicemembers learn interview skills, tips for job searches, and how to prepare civilian resumes and cover letters. The program has shown some effectiveness; servicemembers who participate in TAP find their first post-military job three weeks faster, according to DOL. [x]

Regrettably, utilization of TAP is low. The Marine Corps is the only branch of service that requires its members to sign up for TAP briefings but attendance is still not mandatory. The DOD has established a goal of 85 percent participation across the services [xi], yet only 60-65 percent of all separating active-duty servicemembers attend the TAP employment seminars. [xii] In the National Guard and Reserves, the usage rates are even lower: only 30 percent of all separating Reservists or National Guardsmen attend some portion of TAP. [xiii] In addition, all aspects of TAP are not always available and the time constraints of troops’ demobilization process can also make attending a TAP session difficult, if it is available at all. [xiv] To encourage greater participation, the DOD launched TurboTap.org in 2007. The Defense Department website allows active-duty and reserve servicemembers access to transition resources on their own time, including information on military and VA benefits and employment assistance.

“Once I learned how to translate my skills into civilian-speak, I found I was in high demand and very competitive for several good positions.” –IAVA vet

While IAVA is happy to see that the President’s budget request for FY 2011 is asking for a 14% increase in funding for TAP trainings, we believe that we must modernize TAP and universally require the civilian employment training to ensure every separating veteran has the skills they need to secure meaningful employment. There is no commonly accepted translation of military certifications, training and experience to their civilian counterparts. For example, Navy Corpsmen and Army medics are performing difficult medical procedures under unimaginable conditions but they do not qualify for employment in a similar medical field once they transition to the civilian world. To improve the TAP courses a study should be commissioned that will report recommendations to Congress on the differences between DOD and civilian vocational certifications and licenses to ease the transition of certifications into the civilian world.

B. Job Placement
Tax Credits
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the “Stimulus bill,” authorized a two year tax credit for employers who hire unemployed Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans. This tax credit of up to $2,400 per unemployed veteran was created to incentivize employers to hire veterans who were taking the brunt of the unemployment blight.

“Many employers say they 'value Veterans', but sometimes it's just about the bottom line. Providing monetary or tax incentives may make employers think more about employing Veterans” – IAVA Vet

IAVA and many other veterans organizations lauded this tax credit when it passed. We believe that this tax credit should be extended indefinitely. Given the current state of the economy and the fact the other groups, such as ex-felons, are permanently eligible for the same tax credit it is the right thing to do.

“My employer knew nothing about tax benefit for hiring disabled vet
until after I was hired.” – IAVA Vet

The unemployed veteran tax credit is accompanied by a permanent tax credit for the hiring of disabled veterans, worth up to $4,800 per disabled veteran. However, the VA and the Department of Labor VETS program have done a poor job advertising either of these tax credits to potential employers and job seeking veterans. A tax credit designed to spur the hiring of veterans that no one knows about is ineffective and can lead to frustration and misunderstanding between veterans and the business community. IAVA believes that there needs to be a coordinated outreach effort by the VA and Department of Labor to educate employers and veterans about this helpful benefit.

Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Services
Low-income, homeless, or disabled veterans can turn to the Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). The VETS program provides grants to state and local agencies to provide services, such as training, licensing and certification, one-on-one employment counseling, and support services. These programs helped over 850,000 veterans last year. [xv] Other grants fund representatives to work with employers and human resources personnel to increase employment opportunities for veterans.

“New York State has a good department of labor in helping vet's find jobs” –IAVA Vet

IAVA is concerned that while the President’s request for the VETS budget contains a modest increase in funding (2.4%), none of this increase will be spent on improving or expanding veterans job placement programs. We are also concerned that some VETS programs may not be correctly measuring or reporting their effectiveness as reported by the Government Accountability Office. [xvi] In some states, VETS programs are either understaffed or splitting their time between serving veterans and nonveterans. IAVA concurs with this committee’s minority views and believes the DOL VETS program should have their funding increased by an additional $7.3 million. [xvii] This funding would used to train veteran employment specialists and improve federal oversight of these programs.

Federal Hiring: Veterans Preference
The Federal Government hires three times the percentage of veterans as the private sector [xviii] and therefore plays a critical role in combating veterans’ unemployment. Last November President Obama issued an executive order outlining the Veterans Employment Initiative. [xix] This order required enhanced recruitment and promotion of employment opportunities for veteran within the Federal government and established a Council on Veterans Employment. The Federal government has already stood up a website, www.fedshirevets.gov and released a strategic plan to implement this goal of increasing the number of veterans working in the Federal government.

“I searched usajobs.gov, submitted applications but never heard from them. I guess there is a magic way to write your job description.” –IAVA Vet

IAVA is highly encouraged to see the speed and thoroughness of this Council in addressing these employment issues. We believe that their website is well organized and extremely helpful to job seeking veterans. However, it still lacks a clear explanation of what the 5 or 10 point veteran preference actually means in terms of the federal hiring process and the job bank is just a link to usajobs.gov. The Council’s strategic plan lays out a clear and ambitious set of goals and we believe that it will take both the Executive and Legislative branch working together to ensure that these goals are implemented all the way down to the GS-11 Human Resources Specialist responsible for hiring the veterans in each agency.

Federal Contracting

“I ended up getting a job with a company that is contracted out by the government and is unionized. So everyone is understandable and supports my actions with the military.” – IAVA Vet

The Federal Government is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services, with purchases totaling over $425 billion each year. With this level of spending the Federal Government can leverage its purchasing power to require potential contractors to increase veterans hiring. Current federal law mandates federal contracts over $100,000 “take affirmative action to employ” veterans. [xxi] These contractors are required to publish job openings with the state job banks and to annually report the number of veterans they have retained by submitting a VETS-100 form to the Department of Labor. These contractors are also prohibited from discriminating against veterans.

Unfortunately, the data collected from VETS-100 forms is aggregated and only partially published in the DOL VETS annual report. IAVA believes that these forms should be publically reported, allowing interested parties to review whether contractors are actually following through on these contracting mandates. The hope is that the public disclosure of these forms will create a healthy competition between contractors on which contractor hired more veterans. IAVA would love to see Boeing and Lockheed Martin making these statistics part of their bids for the next big defense contract.

Failure to comply with established contracting requirements can lead to the suspension or disbarment of that contractor from receiving future contracts. IAVA believes violations of USERRA protections should also be included as grounds for suspension or disbarment.

Finally, IAVA was troubled to learn the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), authorizing up to $770 billion to bailout banks, exempted banks receiving federal bailouts from veterans hiring requirements, while protections for minorities, women and disabled individuals were still included. IAVA believes that TARP should be amended to force compliance with veterans’ preference rules and that all future stimulus programs should not overlook veterans hiring preferences.

Small Business Help
Many veterans have chosen self-employment over unemployment by starting their own small business ventures. Veterans represent 14.5% of small business owners nationally. [xxii] For reservist and veteran business owners looking for technical or financial assistance, support is available through the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Last year, the SBA assisted more than 180,000 veterans, reservists, active servicemembers and spouses through its entrepreneurial counseling and training services. [xxiii] The agency offers low-interest capital through the new Patriot Express Pilot Loan program. The SBA Office of Veterans Business Development also operates five veteran-specific business outreach centers and provides federal contracting assistance to veterans, although it has relatively limited resources to do so.
In addition, the SBA has teamed up with the VA and the International Franchise Association to create the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, which offers 30 percent off franchising fees for veterans.
Veterans can also turn to the VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE) for assistance with starting or expanding their businesses. However, since this committee recently held a hearing on this particular issue we would like to associate our comments with the testimony of Joe Sharpe, from the American Legion when he concluded, “The implementation of CVE is small and does not necessarily provide the right assistance to veterans. The Vetbiz.gov website is not easily navigated and needs to become a more user-friendly website.”
“During my deployment I had to totally shutter the doors on my construction business. It put my family in a very difficult position” – IAVA Vet

IAVA believes that the VA must work to mitigate the effect of frequent and lengthy deployments by providing small businesses owners in the National Guard and Reserves with additional access to capital, insurance, and bonding via the VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise. The Center for Veterans Enterprise should receive appropriate funding and resources to achieve this goal.

Other
We would be remiss to omit several other veterans’ jobs programs that exist such as www.vetsuccess.gov, www.warriorgateway.org and Helmets to Hardhats. The VA has extensively briefed IAVA on their new job search website for veterans and more specifically disabled veterans. We applaud the VA for reaching out to potential employers and recruiting them to participate. However, we believe that vetsuccess.gov should be integrated with www.fedshirevets.gov and expanded for all veterans creating a single jobs for veterans portal. Warrior Gateway was created by the Business Executives for National Security at the request of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to assist OIF and OEF veterans navigate the government agencies and non-profits serving veterans. Helmets to Hardhats is a Department of Defense funded initiative to place separating servicemembers in skilled labor positions and we have heard very good feedback from our members about this program.

C. Job Protections
USERRA
Although National Guardsmen and Reservists are legally protected under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), many troops still experience employment discrimination because of their military service.
“I can offer no quotes, smoking guns, or neon signs stating that ‘reservists’ need not apply, but I have heard the tone of an interviewer become cold the instant the ‘reserves’ comes up in the conversation.” – IAVA Vet
Among National Guardsmen and Reservists who have served since September 11, 2001, “Nearly 11,000 were denied prompt reemployment;” [xxiv] “More than 22,000 lost seniority and thus pay and other benefits;” [xxv] “Nearly 20,000 saw their pensions cut;” [xxvi] and “Nearly 11,000 didn’t get their health insurance back.” [xxvii]

The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) is the single best resource for educating employers and veterans on USERRA rights and for resolving USERRA issues quickly and informally. However, the President’s budget request for FY 2011 plans to slash the ESGR budget by nearly 17%, this will effectively cripple this great asset. These cuts could not have come at a worse time with the rising number of USERRA violations and the fact that of the tens of thousands of reserve component troops who have suffered this discrimination, approximately three-quarters of them do not seek assistance.32
A common reason veterans are not seeking help is the lack of familiarity with USERRA protections and obligations. Twenty-eight percent of reservists report not receiving information on USERRA/reemployment rights during activation or deactivation.33 More than a third of employers surveyed by Military.com were unaware that USERRA regulations required them to give a returning veteran the same or an equivalent job.34 IAVA believes that the ESGR must be fully funded, not cut by 17% in FY 2011. We also believe that DOD should implement an extensive notification program for servicemembers’ employers specifically informing them of their USERRA obligations.
“Even though I was hired back right away I lost 3 years of raises and my company doesn’t trust me because they are scared I will be deployed again” – IAVA Vet

We believe that USERRA must be modernized and strengthened to handle the historic levels of deployments of the National Guard and Reserves. We believe this can be done by:

• Creating civil and criminal penalties for employers who knowingly violate USERRA protections.;
• Granting servicemembers their day in court, as intended by the original USERRA statute by making USERRA complaints exempt from predispute binding arbitration agreements;
• Preventing employers from firing an employee while a USERRA claim is being processed, by requiring courts hearing USERRA complaints to utilize their full range of legal powers, including injunctions when appropriate; and
• Protect Reservists and Guardsmen from termination, loss of seniority and loss of sick and vacation time from their civilian jobs while they receive DOD medical treatment for injuries the servicemember sustained in the uniformed services.

USERRA compliance is also not uniform across the board. Some federal and state employees do not enjoy the same level of protection under USERRA as employees in the private sector. Astonishingly, National Guardsmen and Reservists serving in domestic disaster response situations are not eligible for USERRA protections at all. IAVA recommends extending USERRA protections to National Guardsmen, Reservists, and to servicemembers working in domestic response operations such as hurricane or wildfire missions and holding federal and state governments to the same standards of USERRA compliance as private sector employers.

Department of Labor VETS
Mobilizations have put a strain on businesses, and especially small businesses, that employ reservists.52 Employers often struggle to maintain their workforce and keep their businesses afloat while their reservist employees are called up for multiple tours, often with little notice and without a clearly-defined length of absence. For some businesses, the cost to train their replacements can be steep. According to Dave Miller, vice president of a national trucking firm with approximately 50 employees deployed, the company is spending up to $100,000 to train each replacement.53
IAVA recommends offering tax credits for employers who, when their reserve component employees are called to active-duty for over 90 days, continue to support their employees by paying the difference between the servicemembers’ civilian salary and their military wages. Furthermore, tax credits should be provided to businesses that provide additional training for returning Reservists and National Guard members to bring them up to same level of training as their non-veteran peers.

---

[i] Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment Situation Summary: March 2010,” April 2, 2010, Table A-5: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm.
[ii] Military.com, “Military.com Study Reveals Profound Disconnect between Employers and Transitioning Military Personnel,” November 5, 2007: http://www.military.com/aboutus/twocolumn/0,15929,PRarticle110507,00.html.
[iii] Abt. Associates, Inc. “Employment Histories Report, Final Compilation Report,” March 24, 2008: http://www1.va.gov/vetdata/docs/Employment_History_080324.pdf.
[iv] “41 percent of drilling unit members reported income loss [when mobilized for a contingency operation].” GAO-03-573T, “Military Personnel: Preliminary Observations Related to Income, Benefits, and Employer Support for Reservists During Mobilization.” March 19, 2003: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03549t.pdf.
[v] Spring 2010 GI Bill Benefit Processing, http://gibill.va.gov/spring2010.htm
[vi] Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Policy and Planning, “Women Veterans: Past, Present and Future,” September 2007, p. 19-20: http://www1.va.gov/womenvet/docs/WomenVet_History.pdf.
[vii] Department of Veterans Affairs, Annual Benefits Report FY 2009, (Page 67), http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/abr/2009_abr.pdf
[viii] “Despite the tens of thousands of VR&E program participants in a given year, the number of veterans rehabilitated by obtaining a job or achieving independent living goals averages only about 10,000 a year.”VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Task Force, “Report to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs: The Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program for the 21st Century Veteran,” 2004, p. 4: http://www1.va.gov/op3/docs/VRE_Report.pdf.
[ix] Ibid., at 5.
[x] Gerry Gilmore, “Pentagon Improves Services for Transitioning Servicemembers, Families,” American Forces Press Service, May 19, 2008: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49927.
[xi] Joseph C. Sharpe, Jr., Deputy Director of the American Legion National Economic Commission, Testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, “U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/U.S. Department of Defense Cooperation in Reintegration of National Guard and Reserve,” June 24, 2008: http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=32446&Newsid=260&N....
[xii] Ibid.
[xiii] Women Veterans in Transition Pilot Research Study by Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, “Building Strong Programs and Policies to Support Women Veterans,” p. 2: http://www.bpwusa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5383.
[xiv] Department of Labor, “Employment Situation of Veterans: 2007,” April 10, 2008, p. 3: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/vet.pdf.
[xv] U.S. Department of Labor, “Budget in Brief FY 2011”, page 76, http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/2011/PDF/bib.pdf
[xvi] GAO-07-594, “Veterans’ Employment and Training Service: Labor Could Improve Information on Reemployment Services, Outcomes, and Program Impact,” May 2007: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07594.pdf.
[xvii] House of Veterans Affairs Committee Minority, Views and Estimates for FY 2011, page 9, http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/documents/FY2011RepublicanVandE.pdf
[xviii] Office of Personal Management, “The Governmentwide Veterans’ Recruitment and Employment Strategic Plan for FY 2010-FY2012,” page 2, http://www.fedshirevets.gov/pdf/Vets_Initiative_Strategic_Plan.pdf
[xix] Executive Order, President Obama, November 9th, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-veterans-empl...
[xx] http://www.sba.gov/contractingopportunities/index.html
[xxi] 38 U.S.C. 4212
[xxii] Characteristics of Veteran Business Owners and Veteran-owned Businesses Chapter 5 of The Small Business Economy for Data Year 2006, A Report to the President, http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/sbe_07_ch5.pdf
[xxiii] Small Business Administration, FY 2009 Performance Report, page 66, http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/fy_2011_cbj_...
[xxiv] United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, “Kennedy Holds Hearing on Veterans’ Employment Issues,” November 8, 2007: http://help.senate.gov/Maj_press/2007_11_08_b.pdf.
[xxv] Ibid.
[xxvi] Ibid.
[xxvii] Ibid.

18 veterans commit suicide each day

This topic was brought up in the debates last night along with jobs. This topic needs the attention it is receiving.

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Apr 22, 2010 14:56:43 EDT

Troubling new data show there are an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department.
Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months.
The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care.
Access to care appears to be a key factor, officials said, noting that once a veteran is inside the VA care program, screening programs are in place to identify those with problems, and special efforts are made to track those considered at high risk, such as monitoring whether they are keeping appointments.
A key part of the new data shows the suicide rate is lower for veterans aged 18 to 29 who are using VA health care services than those who are not. That leads VA officials to believe that about 250 lives have been saved each year as a result of VA treatment.
VA’s suicide hotline has been receiving about 10,000 calls a month from current and former service members. The number is 1-800-273-8255. Service members and veterans should push 1 for veterans’ services.
Dr. Janet Kemp, VA’s national suicide prevention coordinator, credits the hotline with rescuing 7,000 veterans who were in the act of suicide — in addition to referrals, counseling and other help.
Suicide attempts by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans remains a key area of concern. In fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30, there were 1,621 suicide attempts by men and 247 by women who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, with 94 men and four women dying.
In general, VA officials said, women attempt suicide more often, but men are more likely to succeed in the attempt, mainly because women use less lethal and less violent means while men are more likely to use firearms.
Suicide attempts among veterans appear to follow those trends, officials said.

Army suicide rates decline for first time in 4 years

This is a topic that always needs to be discussed and should never fall out of the spotlight. The most important thing service members and veterans need to remember is there are people who can help and by making the step to talk to someone is the bravest thing anyone can do.

Army suicide rates decline for first time in 4 years
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

Army suicide rates declined for the first time in four years in 2011, the result of a complex effort to identify soldiers engaged in risky or self-destructive behavior, according to the outgoing vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli.

"I think we've at least arrested this problem and hopefully will start to push it down," Chiarelli said Thursday, citing additional numbers showing an increase in hospitalizations for soldiers who talk of suicide. "For all practical purposes … it has leveled off."

But he said there also remain second- and third-order effects from a decade of war and multiple deployments, including a sharp rise in sexual assaults and child and domestic abuse in the Army.

"We see these problems, we see where we've had successes. And we're attacking those areas where we've got problems," Chiarelli said. "After 10 years of war … we had problems that no one could have forecast."

Suicides among active duty soldiers and those in the National Guard and Reserve who are not on active duty fell by 9% last year from from 305 deaths in 2010 to 278 in 2011.

It is the first good news on suicide for the Army since those deaths began a steady increase among active-duty soldiers in 2004.

Still, the suicide rate in the Army, estimated at 24 per 100,000 last year, remains far higher than a similar demographic among civilians, estimated at 19 per 100,000. The rate among soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan ranges even higher, up to 38 per 100,000, the Army says.

As the increase continued, Chiarelli was appointed in 2009 to look at underlying causes and began a campaign of targeting risky behavior across the service, demanding more accountability from commanders.

He said Thursday that the efforts have been successful.

According to a trend analysis released Thursday, the number of soldiers kicked out of the service for misconduct increased by 57% since 2006, and the Army did away with accepting convicted felons on special waivers.

The result was to bar from enlistment or muster out about 40,000 potential people in that time, according to the report. Overall crime is down. The number of soldiers committing multiple felonies has dropped.

But with alcohol abuse in the Army at record levels, sexual assault and domestic violence have increased.

The percentage of soldiers committing sex crimes has increased 32% since 1006.

The number of domestic abusers in the Army grew by 50% from 4,827 in 2008 to 7,228 last year. During that same, the number of child-abuse offenders is up 62% from 3,172 to 5,149, according to the report released Thursday.

Other findings:

— Years of combat, along with more aggressive efforts to screen for mental illness and brain injury, have had an impact. More than 15,000 concussion cases were identified in the Army in 2010, five times as many as diagnosed in 2000. The nearly 11,000 PTSD cases in 2010 were 15 times higher than in 2003.

— The Army estimates that the total number of servicemembers from all branches of service afflicted with PTSD may be nearing a half million, half of them soldiers.

— More complex wounds have led to longer periods of rehabilitation before soldiers return to duty or leave the Army. Nearly 7,000 have been convalescing for one to two years, and nearly 1,300 for two to three years.

You think they would have learned this earlier...

ISAF limits details of troops killed by Afghans

By Tom Vanden Brook - USA Today
Posted : Tuesday Jan 17, 2012 21:38:47 EST

Military commanders in Afghanistan have stopped making public the number of allied troops killed by Afghan soldiers and police, a measure of the trustworthiness of a force that is to take over security from U.S.-led forces.
The change in policy comes after at least three allied troops have been killed by the Afghan troops they trained in the past month and follows what appears to be the deadliest year of the war for NATO trainers at the hands of their Afghan counterparts.
The International Security Assistance Force in Kabul had responded to previous requests for details on cases where Afghan troops — screened and trained by ISAF and Afghan officials — have turned their weapons on NATO troops.
Navy Lt. Cdr. Brian Badura said ISAF has a new policy to release only limited information about casualties, leaving the responsibility for detail to the troops’ home countries. The policy went into effect in the latter half of 2011, he said.
Since 2005, more than 50 troops had been killed and 48 wounded by Afghan troops, according to data released before the policy changed and USA Today research. In 2011, Afghan troops killed at least 13 ISAF troops.
Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said information about the killing of U.S. troops by Afghan troops or police is important because it shows whether the U.S. withdrawal plan is realistic.
“It’s not just a matter of the number of ISAF or U.S. troops getting attacked. The real question is will this force be loyal to the government?” he said. “The constant question has to be, ‘Did you rush out to set impossible levels of quantity without addressing the quality of Afghan security forces?’“
President Obama has said he intends to hand off security responsibility to the Afghan government in 2014. NATO forces train Afghans to fill the ranks of the country’s military and police forces to keep the Taliban insurgency from regaining power.
There are about 306,000 Afghan soldiers and police, and the force is scheduled to grow to 352,000 by October. The United States has spent $11 billion to train and equip those forces in the past year.
In 2012, Afghan security forces have killed at least one ISAF member. In the latest incident, a man wearing an Afghan army uniform killed a coalition soldier, ISAF said Jan. 8. Two days later, the Pentagon said Pfc. Dustin P. Napier, 20, of London, Ky., had died from small-arms fire on Jan. 8 but released no further details.
More than a third of the attacks stemmed from combat stress as opposed to Taliban infiltration, an ISAF review of incidents found last year. About one-fifth of the attacks were caused by insurgents goading or coercing Afghan troops.
Infiltration of local forces is a common tactic among insurgents anywhere, said Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the RAND Corp.
“In general, they are part of a broader insurgent effort that involves assassination, intimidation and infiltration,” Jones said. “Insurgents have been doing it for decades — actually centuries — in Afghanistan and other wars.”

The biggest problem the Army and service members face is the stigma that is associated with a PTSD diagnosis. If we can beat this we will get those who need help the help they need. In being true to my preaching I have decided to speak with a counselor even if it just for a wellness check and to ensure that there is something I am not seeing. Do the same.....
"A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in October found that soldiers were two to four times more willing to report PTSD, depression, and suicidal thoughts if they were allowed to answer a survey anonymously, rather than put their names on a routine post-deployment screening form."

Idea to take the 'D' out of PTSD being studied

By Lindsay Wise

Houston Chronicle

Published: January 16, 2012

 

The president of the American Psychiatric Association says he is "very open" to a request from the Army to come up with an alternative name for post-traumatic stress disorder so that troops returning from combat will feel less stigmatized and more encouraged to seek treatment.
Dr. John Oldham, who serves as senior vice president and chief of staff at the Houston-based Menninger Clinic, said he is looking into the possibility of updating the association's diagnostic manual with a new subcategory for PTSD. The subcategory could be "combat post-traumatic stress injury," or a similar term, he said.
"It would link it clearly to the impact and the injury of the combat situation and the deployment experience, rather than what people somewhat inaccurately but often assume, which is that you got it because you weren't strong enough," Oldham said.
The potential change was prompted by a request from Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, who wrote to Oldham last year, suggesting APA drop the world "disorder" from PTSD.
"Calling it a disorder contributes to the stigma and makes it so some folks -- not all, but some folks -- don't get the help they need," Chiarelli said.
The general doesn't like to use the word disorder. "It's not a dirty word, but I think it's misused here," he said. "I don't think that the post-traumatic stress that soldiers experience is a disorder. It's not something that happens just to weak people or people that are somehow inclined to be affected by horrible things that they see or are required to do. I think it causes an actual injury to the brain and how the brain works."
Early discussions
After receiving Chiarelli's letter, Oldham wrote back to say he appreciated his concern, but dropping the word disorder might not be the best way to go. He said he was eager to work with Chiarelli to see what APA could do.
The general invited Oldham to the Pentagon to discuss the situation. They met for about an hour and a half on Dec. 9. Oldham agreed to bring the general's suggestion to the APA work group tasked with reviewing PTSD for the next version of the association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the classification book used by psychiatrists in America. APA is finalizing the fifth edition of the manual, due in May 2013.
Oldham cautioned the discussion is very preliminary but speculated that a new subcategory like "combat post-traumatic stress injury" might work.
Although Chiarelli still would prefer to lose "disorder" entirely, he said a new subcategory would be a start. "I'm frustrated with how long this is taking to be honest," he said.
The general pointed out that PTSD has had many names over the years, from shell shock to battle fatigue. "It's been called all kinds of different things and somehow we decided to go with PTSD and I think that's just wrong," he said.
Chiarelli's campaign to change the name of PTSD is part of the Army's effort to reduce alarming suicide rates among soldiers. Statistics released last month identified 260 potential suicides in 2011. Of that total, 154 were active-duty soldiers, 73 were National Guard troops and 33 were reservists.
Silence over stigma
Stigma is a major problem. A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in October found that soldiers were two to four times more willing to report PTSD, depression, and suicidal thoughts if they were allowed to answer a survey anonymously, rather than put their names on a routine post-deployment screening form.
Of the soldiers who screened positive for PTSD or depression, 20 percent said they weren't comfortable answering honestly on the routine form. The study concluded that the Army's screening process misses most soldiers with significant mental health problems.
Dr. Harry Croft, a psychiatrist in San Antonio, said the findings jibe with what he hears from veterans he treats for PTSD.
"Even though the rules, as I understand them, say you don't get kicked out if you get diagnosed with PTSD, depression or any other issues, a lot of veterans say, 'I knew damn well if I answered the questions right my chance to get promoted was gone,' " Croft said.
Croft has mixed feelings about changing the name of PTSD. He understands the concern about stigmatizing troops but thinks whether the condition is called PTSD or something else will have little effect on the suicide rate.
"Rather than concentrate on what we call it, we need to concentrate more on how to help warriors coming back from the combat zone, because I don't think the name we give it will have much of an impact on the 18 suicides a day and all the other problems that we see," Croft said. "That's putting a Band-Aid on a much bigger wound."
Chiarelli says his main concern is getting soldiers into treatment, so if calling post-traumatic stress a disorder keeps them from seeking help, then the wording needs to change, the sooner the better.
"You can have the very, very best treatments in the world, but if you can't get people take advantage of them, they don't do any good," he said.

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]"

"In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action." If you believe in something you have to take action and get your word out. This is just not a day off this is a day of reflection and a day of action.

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"Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]"

<><> <><> <>16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants--for example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" We decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I it" relationship for an "I thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some -such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle--have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as "dirty nigger-lovers." Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if thechurch does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.
It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."
I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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King, Martin Luther Jr.