Gusse: One year later, movement to help veterans still needs help

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A new year brings about resolutions in which people make promises to do something or improve an aspect of their life. By now, many have broken those promises and are back to doing whatever they vowed to change.

In reading many statistics regarding New Year resolutions, it was interesting to see what “promises” were made, how long they lasted and those that were kept for longer than a year. For many it does not take a New Year’s resolution to jump on board to a promise, significant change or an improvement, but what drives people to keep those promises?

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his “I have a dream” speech, “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the movement.” We all understand the driving issues behind the equal rights movement and the fact many lives were lost in this battle for equality. But how many lives must be lost for this nation to realize the urgency of any given movement?

A year ago in January, a group of Maricopa citizens got together to start a movement of our own regarding the many suicides and deaths of our military veterans (22 veterans commit suicide every day). The death of Johnathon Guillory, a Maricopa resident and military veteran, affected not only his friends and family but also the two police officers who fatally shot him and the community as a whole. We gathered at the steps of City Hall to voice our concerns; as troops return to our communities they are in need of support services that are severely lacking.

Our goals were to make sure not one more veteran would lose his/her life to suicide or the way Guillory died. This movement went off its trajectory when a citizen joined the gathering to protest the actions of the Maricopa police officers. Some of us made it very clear that we were not there to protest the police actions but rather bring attention to this matter and request that the City take action.

This same small group of citizens formed a local non-profit organization (VetIT) to help drive this movement. This country is failing our veterans and we need people to stand up for them.

If you are willing to make a New Year’s resolution and are willing to join this movement, please attend a VetIT meeting at the Maricopa Center for Entrepreneurship on the last Thursday of the month 5:30–6:30 p.m.

Julia Gusse is a veteran living in Maricopa.

This opinion was published in the February issue of InMaricopa News.