As a returning veteran and a local born and raised in this community, I am very disappointed in what myself and other veterans face when it is coming to getting hired in our communities.
That is especially true for those [who, like me], are also currently serving in the North Carolina National Guard. What fellow veterans and I have observed is that people will be quick to thank you for your service; however, when it comes to job hiring, our service and sacrifices don’t make a difference (let alone if you have a college degree).
I can’t speak for all the younger veterans, but I would prefer not having to move from this lovely county that I was born and raised in, but in order to provide for my family I will have to eventually move where my skills and experience are better appreciated by the private sector and local government.
Veterans have experience that you can’t find in just a recent college graduate or someone who has only experienced this area’s environment. I only hope our county government can do more to perhaps encourage local veterans to stay in this region and work in whatever sector they specialize in.
Personally, I have applied to many jobs and occupations here [and in the Asheville area] that are tailored to my experience, education and specialty. No luck.
This is just something to ponder over for the upcoming year. For some, it’s a constant struggle week to week to find a job that will provide for their families and fit the experience and training the military provided.
The next time you are thanking a veteran, maybe thank them with something more than just a handshake and self-fulfilled appreciations.
Brandon Monteith
Sylva
Thank you for service; I am sorry you are having a hard time finding satisfying gainful employment. Perhaps you should’ve stayed in the military? Perhaps you should utilize your VA educational benefits and seek degree? Perhaps you should seek employment elsewhere; Asheville is a service industry economy. Perhaps you should utilize http://www.usajobs.gov as an honorably discharged vet has priority for support positions listed.
I have my Bachelors Degree and I am National Guard so I was only on active duty for a deployment.
Politics. Stay involved in politics.
The idea of more opportunity and income at the base of the economic pyramid for each US citizen means there’s going to have to be public intervention in the system.
As a fellow Vet I am completely onboard with you in regards to this letter and wish you the best. Unfortunately, supporting the troops does not always mean that much when we come home and I also add that finding affordable housing for Vets in this area is a big problem. Thanks For Your Service sounds good but it doesn’t feed or house you or your family when you come home.
Politics. Stay involved in politics.
We have to constantly fight government interference in the economy.
TIM,
Without government regulation; income disparity, lack of rights in the work place…ect etc would be much more of a problem. Do you like weekends, a minimum wage, and protected bank deposits (just to name a few); if so THANK A DEMOCRAT.
6:07pm, Dec, 30, 2014 AD.
Brandon-
Please disregard Tim Peck and connected home grown fascist comments. Think 1932 Beer Hall Putsch.
Look up “The Bonus Army”- by any search engine that you care to use. Veterans vs. over-armed aggressive police (sound familiar?) Then see how badly vets have been treated from WWI until the present time. The government promised them one thing, but did not deliver. American police shot veterans and their families down in the streets with no conscience for the crime of protesting for what they were owed. A younger Patton gladly murdered the same soldiers that saved his life during WWI.
It ain’t the black guy in the White House who treats vets badly. It is the military industrial complex that shafts you. Eisenhower’s farewell address should set you straight (if you bother to read it) , but most likely your higher up officers in the military don’t want you to do your homework to read that for yourself.
However, please do not act as if being a veteran entitles you to a job or anything better than those who proudly serve at home aka teachers (those on the real front lines- if only they received body armor for being shot at) , firefighters, judges, etc. aka “real American heroes”. Far right Free Market types would say if you don’t have the right skills, then feel free to starve to death. The far right would also claim that for job hunting that you knew what you were getting into for joining up as there is not a draft . Hint- those who say “thanks for your service” actually mean “thanks for my rich kid not having to serve- we need him at home to run the family business and marry into money”.
Plenty of real American heroes have worked to improve the home front while unconstitutional wars were being fought over oil, natural gas and “American exceptionalism” (America trying to make the rules across the globe but refusing to follow the rules they force upon the rest of the world- torture, secret prison camps that jail people with no charges without legal counsel, etc etc).
Sadly the officers that scream at you to do this, do that while wearing a uniform do not care to inform you what happens when you come back home and try to fit in to the cluster@#$% that is the home front.
Get thee to a library, and realize that the American flag is used as a shield for those with no conscience just as much as it is used to spread (ahem) freedom around the world.
Weekends? Sometimes. I like workdays were I have a job. If you like workdays, thank a Republican.
Minimum wage? Absolutely not. Minimum wage laws are immoral and create poverty; especially for unskilled minorities.
Protected bank deposits? Absolutely not. Deposit insurance creates moral hazard and allows banks to take on risky gambles. I prefer Free Banking…
No thanks, Democrat. I’ll take Hong Kong, you can have Detroit.
Detroit is an example irresponsible government w/out accountability… Kind of like our unregulated banking system pre 08 crash. You can have Communist China owned Hong Kong; I’ll take any Nordic Model countries who where left unscathed during the Great Recession… All but Iceland who DID deregulated their banking system like every other country who crashed then…. But within two weeks Iceland revolted, rewrote the constitution, and imprisoned there prime minister and heads of their banking system. That’s a true democracy (accountable government)…. Unlike we who paid banks back (not a negotiated rate) but the full price for THEIR lack of accountability; all on the backs of the withering middleclass taxpayer.
1. Detroit is an example of progressive government. And it is a failure in need of a bailout by the middle class.
2. Hong Kong became the most prosperous city on Earth with its economic freedom. The closest the world has ever come to capitalism. Now it is under Communist rule and declining. The progressive government there will the prosperity dry. Like every parasitical progressive form of government.
3. The Nordic model is one that is recovering from socialism. They have implemented some free market reforms and the Nords have done well to reverse the failing effects of progressivism.
4. Free banking used in Scotland had been very successful until they implemented progressive controls. The banks in Iceland had already failed before deregulation. Just like American banks have already failed and are being artificially propped up by a progressive government. Deregulating without fixing the underlying problems only reveals the damage done by progressivism.
Detroit was killed by the collapse of the American auto industry, white flight from the city into the suburbs, and the GOP Great Recession, not any ideology, certainly not anything remotely “progressive”.
Finally, blaming ‘Too Big to Fail’ and the permanent Welfare State of the Rich on ‘progressivism’ is too Orwellian to even respond to.
This letter-writer is bemoaning his lack of a job, and you take advantage of it to spread Ayn Rand fantasy propaganda? Why don’t you give him a break and find another state house campaign to sink?
“too Orwellian to even respond to.”
Blessed relief.