Iraq vet struggling to afford college is just wrong: vet reaches out to John Kerry

[whometense]

What is happening to our veterans is scandalous. The Bushies just use them and toss them away.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/22/put_college_within_reach

...Along with his classmates, he was assigned to research and write about college financial aid, a subject dear to many Bunker Hill students. Around Him decided to turn the assignment into a letter to US Senator John Kerry, a decorated war veteran.

His letter to Kerry laid out his situation. "I am sure you, a veteran of the Vietnam War, can relate to putting your life on the line; to live in an environment of gunfire, explosions, chaos and confusion, wondering if the next second might be your last.

"For most students, the idea of being shot at and delaying enrollment to earn money for college isn't very appealing. But for those students, like me, who do not qualify for federal financial aid, it may be the only option."

He wasn't really expecting a response. But he got one, quickly.

"His letter was very articulate, moving, forceful, and very compelling," Kerry said by phone last week. "When I read the letter and learned that they would be interested in me coming out there, I went as soon as I could. I wanted to know what was going on in their lives." Kerry met with the class last week on the Charlestown campus...

[blm]

1. Iraq vets having to STRUGGLE with college costs to this degree is just plain WRONG.

.

[MH1]

2. When republicans say "support the troops" what they mean is...

"support the NEED to HAVE more troops!"

[blm]

3. GOPs support defense INDUSTRY executives' lifestyles. Dems support troops, vets

and their families.

[karynnj]

4. It is shocking that the current GI bill doesn't pay enough for a community college!

I had always thought that one of the benefits of risking your life in the military was the GI bill. It never occured to me that it didn't provide enough money to do this.

This is pathetic.
"Around Him spent one year in Iraq, driving a tank in Baghdad. After his discharge, he moved to Boston. He said it was a better place to pursue a college education than South Dakota.

There was just one catch. The GI Bill doesn't pay enough to finance a college education. Around Him works 50 hours a week as a stockboy to pay his rent and other living expenses. He figures that, at his current rate of two courses a semester, he will finish college when he's 35."

Good for Kerry for speaking with them.

[sandrakae]

5. It is a crying shame this man is not our President.

[whometense]

6. Amen to that.

It's a crime that he isn't.

[karynnj]

7. True and what a difference it would have made

More than anyone running this year, his history would realy have lent credibility to him leading a major change in the way America acts in the world. Between his incredible Senate statement in 1971, where he spoke not only of ending the war, but keeping faith and healing the soldiers and at the end of the speech a call for America to turn, to his recent brokering of a tribunal for the Pol Pot era Cambodian crimes, he has shown leadership, morality and wisdom. Others are now echoing his call for moral leadership in the world, but they don't have the track record that he does.

[blm]

8. A track record accumulated over the many years because his COMMITMENT is constant

and not just election year rhetoric as you hear from so many politicians and lawmakers.

[ThomCat]

9. It should be a damned crime.

They market the military as a way to pay for college, and then the GI bill doesn't even pay for a community college. x(

[blm]

10. That's a good point. I hope legislation can put a stop to these lies -

increase the funding for these vets and put in jail those who would lie to the recruited.