Homelessness Brought Home

Justin and I went for an interview on KILI radio today. This is the radio station serving the Pine Ridge reservation and nearby Indian populations. Justin brought facts and figures from Save our VA committee,while I came to discuss my book, Reveille in Hot Springs. It was my second interview at KILI. I wrote about the first interview on veterans day in my blog titled "Hindsight."

A new interview....a new experience....new insights. There were three Indians conducting the show, all veterans who use and are passionate about saving our Hot Springs VA. Everyone knew their material and each one shared their points of view with a raw honesty, refreshing to me, as it may also have been to the listeners. There was one moment that took my breath away.

One of the veterans is a columnist for the Native Sun Newspaper. I have been a long reader of his column and was aware that a short time back he had left the paper, citing personal reasons as I best recall. Today I brought up the topic of the homeless veterans and my anger that their needs could be met at our VA, long equipped and capable of housing, treating and training veterans. Why the government was not using our facility was a cause of distress.

This veteran quickly and casually responded to my remarks. "I am one of those homeless veterans. I lost my job and after the market crash I couldn't find another one.  I lost my family and my home in Rapid City. I lived in my car in the Hills. When winter set in my cousin let me live in his warehouse on the Rez. I was so cold that I made a tent around my car and plugged in a space heater. I went to the VA and they helped me. I am back in school again and I am going to write my column for the paper."

I was stunned. How do you respond to such honesty, announced to the entire listening radio audience? His words overwhelmed me. My anger at veteran homelessness had a face. He was sitting across from me, speaking into a microphone. He had a name, a reputation as a writer, an admirer of our VA and my book, and a veteran who had fought for our country, and he had been homeless in our beautiful Black Hills.

The interview was over and this veteran disappeared from the studio. I know no more, but I do know that today I looked homelessness in the face. He is not a statistic to me. He is a human being who worked hard all of his life, fell onto bad times, and who, at one time, by serving his country, served all of us.