Over the past few weeks, I think we've all noticed posts on social media regarding the Syrian refugee crisis and how we should be focusing on helping our homeless veterans instead. As much as I disagree with the idea that we can only do one or the other and not both, I do agree that taking care of our homeless veterans is important. But I find it incredibly disheartening that the issue of veteran care and veteran homelessness has only been brought up recently in the midst of other issues--I saw people all of a sudden posting about how we need to take care of our veterans who had seemingly never cared before. This isn't a new issue I've noticed. Multiple times now, I've noticed occasions where people only recognize our veterans when it's convenient or when they're using veterans' issues to complain about or outright ignore other important issues. Quite frankly, it disgusts me, and it disgusts me even more when in the midst of all of this, a man in our community was voluntarily living homeless to raise money and awareness for veteran homelessness. He announced the project months ago and had already been living on the streets of Uniontown for a couple weeks when the social-media uproar happened.
I urge you to listen to Brandon Rumbaugh's story and his motivation in his own words, but I also urge you to donate to his cause. While I don't now how much he collected in person, a quick glance at the GoFundMe page indicates only 71 people have donated a total of just over $4,000, far below the campaign's $50,000 goal. With all this talk of how we need to be taking care of our veterans, this is pitiful. Fayette County, we can do better to support Rumbaugh and the homeless veterans he's trying to help. If you were one of those people sharing those posts on social media, this is your chance to actually do something, to be a part of a campaign that can help people, and I urge you to take it.
Put your money where your mouth is, Fayette County. Donate to help homeless veterans today.
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