Memorial Day, part ii

So I've been thinking about my Memorial Day post about homeless veterans. Thinking so much that last night I dreamt that a friend from high school lectured me about it. I keep thinking about my parents-in-law: They are freedom fighters, who put their lives at risk in order to promote democracy in Kenya. They were driven away from their home because of their work and their commitment to democracy. They are as much veterans as the men and women I work with.
It's tricky. Because of my work, veterans hold a special place in my heart. At the same time, I question how much I ennoble them above others. True: they put themselves at risk to protect our country (once again, I set ideology aside because I'm not convinced that military action is always so protective of our country). True: some of them were forced into situations where they made terribly difficult moral/ethical decisions in split seconds (some of these are labeled heroic and others had unfortunate consequences that veterans still deal with 50 years later). True: veterans joined the military for all sorts of reasons, some volunteered out of duty or patriotic obligation; some joined because of the draft; some joined to pay for college; and some because they wanted to get out of their homes. It is also true that these are everyday citizens, many of whom were placed in extraordinary circumstances. Veterans deserve our gratitude for the sacrifices they signed up to make. We have what we have in this country because some put their lives on the line with the idea that they were protecting us from a threat to this way of life (set aside the fact that I would like to see a lot of improvements to the way of life in this country). At the same time, we have what we have in this country because everybody who lives here put ourselves on the line to make it what it is. Some exploited people and resources, and some dedicated their lives to service and betterment. All of us dedicate ourselves to just trying to get by the best way we know how. So who deserves to be homeless?
I'll tell you: The people who fucked up the system in such a way that homelessness became inevitable. No, that's not true (my nicer side tells me). Nobody deserves to be homeless, and we have to figure out how to use our incredible wealth as a country to help our own citizens as well as the rest of the world (a lot of whom were exploited to make us rich).
You know, since I started working with veterans, I've noticed an increase in patriotism. I often ask myself if I'm somehow being chauvinistic about the country I was born in. I actually think I'd be as patriotic about wherever my home is, because I live here, and I care about my neighbors. And my neighbors include the whole planet.