September 10, 2011 11:49 AM UTC

Thoughts on 9-11 and Veterans

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• by: Ray Springfield

In this weekend to reflect, mourn, and contemplate the future, I’ll go to the Civic Center Party and then a multi-faith service at the request of Rabbi Joe Black. I’ll drive down Colfax and recall so many people no longer on the planet. I remember some drunks I used to know, like Bobby Broshears, who’d rather drink himself to death than sober up. Perhaps Bobby had  a different but more accurate view of freedom. I’ll have  Kris Kristofferson’s song Billy D. (based I’m sure on street people he knew while drunk and broke just back from Vietnam) running through my mind……then my attention turns to the 50% of new homeless in Denver County–Iraq and Afghan vets whose jobs weren’t there when they came home. Did they choose their suffering? Sunday the politicians will thank them for their service, cry academy award winning  tears, wave the flag, but fail to treat their PTSD, or give them a job. After all the ceremonies end, the local politicians  will have their underlings tell war heros that they are lazy,and  throw them  in prison for self medicating. Many will blow their heads off tormented by a decade of war that protects heroin traffickers. Bin Laden is dead. It’s time to come home.

If you want to see the heros of the last deacde, drive down East Colfax. Drive down the allies in Capitol Hill. You don’t have to look far. Drive by the Samaritan Shelter…it’s not far from the baseball field. You can stay in your car and head to I-25 or Brighton Blvd. See how many people are passed out next to the dumpsters….trying to hide from the “Denver Cares” van..