Veterans Affairs Report – Jan/Feb/Mar 2025
I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and that you all have a happy and safe New Year. I hope that we all checked on family members and others to make sure they were ok. The holidays are a notorious time for depression and the only way to help someone is to go and ask. It can be a hard thing to do, especially if they are close to you, but these things need to be done to protect not only that person, but the families involved as well. This is something that we often overlook as we talk about depression and suicide, the “others,” the family of the victim, their friends and acquaintances. Depression and suicide have an impact on more than just the victim. It impacts many others including the First Responders and others who happen to witness the act or encounter the aftermath. If you can prevent something like this by a simple text, phone call or dropping by, isn’t that worth the effort? I hope so, and I encourage you all to make that effort and check on each other and keep these kinds of devastating events from happening.
On another note, things are starting to crank up. St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and I know that we are all going to be busy with events surrounding the day of our Patron Saint. This year it falls on a Monday, so I hope that we can all participate in our local communities with our friends and family in a safe and respectful way.
One thing that I do want to do, is to force the Veterans Administration to acknowledge the contributions of Irish Americans to the history of our country by declaring March as “Irish American Heritage Month.” To do this, we need your help. The Veterans Administration operates a “Veteran of the Day” program that highlights a specific veteran each day of the year. What I would like us, as the AOH, to do is to flood the VA with nominations and see if we can’t get at least one AOH member or “person adjacent” (brother, father, grandmother) on their website each day in March and demonstrate to the VA just how much the Irish have devoted to this country. The website for this effort is https://news.va.gov/28415/contribute-veteran-day . Please help me to make sure that the VA recognizes the contributions of the Irish Americans throughout our history.
As I sit here and contemplate the last few lines of my article for this edition, I happened to spin around in my chair … and was confronted with a calendar. It is “Fire Trucks in Action.” That led me to reflect on not only the Veterans History of the AOH, but also our community service. There is a stereotype out there of the Irish Cop and the Irish Firefighter, and while not all of the stereotype is true, there are elements that give the story its kernel of truth. Throughout the history of the U.S., Irish Americans have been firefighters, police and military. We have also been teachers, grocers, clergy, bankers, union leaders, and more than a few politicians. Much of the history of Irish Americans is Service, whether for the country or the community. It is what we have done and what I hope we will continue to do into the future. I hope that in this New Year we can continue to live up to that and I encourage all of us to support the other Hibernian Committees, like Hunger Project, FFAI, Catholic Action and Pro Life and all the others.
I was also just informed by Brother Don Connelly, of D.C., that the “Hello Girls” of World War I are to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Thanks to Don and his efforts to get this passed for the history of World War I and the Irish who served.
