USA Cheerleaders: Executive Director Stance Against Homeless Veterans
I got this email from Ken Martin founder of the USA Cheerleaders and longtime friend of the site:
Hi Everyone,
This is Ken Martin and I am the Executive Director of the USA Cheerleaders. I started this program to Support our Troops over 5 years ago and over those years I have had the chance to meet many of our Troops from Active Duty to Retired Vets to our Wounded Warriors.
Recently an event happened, that has opened my eyes to life in general and it has made me do a lot of soul searching and made me look at what I have been doing with my life.
The word Support can mean so many things to many different people and it is how we decide to Support whatever it is that mean something to you in your life.
Well our Troops are who I Support and I am 100% committed to supporting them. Now I can sit back and Support them from home, my computer, and so on, but I choose not to for I would much rather be on the front lines showing that I support them whole heartedly.
I recently met a 25 year old veteran who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meeting him help put many things in my life in prospective. He came to be homeless over 2 months ago and it was through no fault of his own. After serving his country he came to the Metro area to put down some roots and he starting working and found a place to live.
A couple months ago, there was a knock on his front door and when he opened it, he was handed some paperwork and was told he had to vacate the property immediately because the house was being foreclosed. He paid his rent on time every month but the owners did not pay their mortgage and thus the foreclosure. He had no other choice but to leave and the only option to him was to live in his car. @ days prior he had paid his rent to the landlords and he did not have the money to rent another place because everyone want a security deposit plus one or two months rent in advance and he simply could not afford it.
I won’t go into too much detail right now but my conversation with him came to him asking me if I would spend a night or two with him to see what and how he has been living, basically for me to see for myself instead of the questions.
Well the more I thought about it, I could only come to one conclusion. I decided to not only spend a night seeing how he lived. I am going to spend a month or more out there seeing what he has been going through and meeting the people he has been telling me about and hopefully making a major change in his life, mine and hopefully many more as well.
This decision came very easy for me. I can’t believe in this day and age that we as Americans can treat our Veterans in this way, plus how we treat our citizens who have came upon hard times in this economy.
We have helped so my other nations and their citizens, who need the help, like Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so many others. How is it that we cannot help our own US Citizens who need our help? They are in dire need of help and we need to change how and who we help!
Who am I to think I can change the way we do things? I am nobody important, but I know what I care about and that is our Troops and the American people and our Way of Life!!!
If I can help one person from my experience that it was well worth doing!!!
I am going to be making a video diary of my experiences so you can see first hand what I see. I will ask people that I meet in my journeys if I can interview them for the video but, they must have to want to do it and I can’t force anyone, because I know some people do not want their name or face shown because it is am embarrassing situation to be in for many.
I will talk with John, the 25 year old vet and hopefully I can get him to tell all of you about his journey and how much his life has changed.
I am really excited to be doing this and I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel about this, because for some reason, it was meant to be. The only thing that is changing in my life, is my start and end of the day, where I wake up and where I sleep. Of course there will be other challenges along the way but I will deal with those as they happen.
I hope that all of you will come along the journey with me and hopefully together we can change a life or two. If we can’t rely on our Government too help, then we must take matters into our own hands and help our citizens who need our help!!!
Thank you for taking the time to read my note and about my journey into the unknown. Please feel free to email me your thoughts, your questions, or to just drop me a note because I would love to hear from you. Email me at: ken@cheerleading-usa.com
Thanks again,
Ken
