Obama Promises New Opportunities For Veterans Seeking Jobs

Mike & Friends Blog

Dan Rackley

Dan Rackley is a US Naval veteran living in Philadelphia and a contributor to "Will They Ever Trust Us Again?"

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August 5th, 2011 5:25 PM

Obama Promises New Opportunities For Veterans Seeking Jobs

Today at a press conference, President Obama took to a podium and finally spoke on an issue that I am sure has been sticking in the side of many veterans. He said that the government was going to start giving tax incentives to employers that hire unemployed veterans and disabled veterans. This is music to many ears and one more step in the right direction to finally giving veterans the full respect they deserve.

When someone gets discharged from the military, more often than not they tend to fade in the background. Once they take off the uniform for the last time they seem to be a little less important to the American people than they once were. Especially in an economy that has been in the dumps for as long as it has been, it is especially hard for vets to find some kind of employment after leaving the military. Because after all, most of our trained skill set is no longer useful to many places. So many of us, and let’s face it because it’s the truth, tend to have to take jobs that are an affront to our learned skills. We tend to get stuck with the leftovers of jobs and get stuck with the most demoralizing. Imagine being in charge of driving an eight hundred plus foot naval vessel, then come home to be told the best they can do for you is holding a stop sign at the end of a construction zone. I’ve had that happen to me, and it makes you feel like your sacrifice is for nothing. We should all be given something comparable with the skills we have, not tossed what is left over.

But I have to admit that it is just a little bit sad that the President would have to dangle a twenty five hundred dollar carrot in the faces of employers to get them to hire a veteran. I’ve seen it many a time when a veteran like myself would go and apply for a job only to get turned away. Places of business should be grateful and lining up to hire someone that has been in the military. It should not take an act of government to entice business to hire vets. We stood up at the front of the line and said that we would die if it came to it for our country; we should be put at the front of the line when we need a job when it’s all over. A veteran putting their military experience on a resume should no longer be looked at as a waste of ink. It should be looked at as someone that will be a dependable, loyal employee.

But I believe that the message sent by President Obama today was another good step in the right direction. By promising to make it just a little bit easier for returning veterans to find work, it’s one more way of showing that we are not just expendable castoffs that outlive our usefulness on our discharge date. I would also like to defy any politicians or pundits that think that this is another bad Obama idea. People that are dead set against someone in politics will dog them to the ends of the Earth. So even if you are against Obama, just be quiet this one time. All he is doing is trying to give us the help that we deserve.