The Long Walk Home . org

Petition to Congress Last year, I started out on a very unusual 3,400-mile journey across the country. I walked barefoot from Boston, MA, to Santa Monica, CA. The trip took 10 months, and as I walked I wore a sign that said "18 VETS A DAY COMMIT SUICIDE" to raise awareness about military Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Almost every day on this walk (from June of 2010 to March of this year), I met family members of vets who had committed suicide, and I cried with them as I shared their grief. I encountered many people who said they felt better knowing somebody cared. Mothers would make a U-turn in the road, get out of their car, and cry as they told me how they lost a loved one to suicide, after they had arrived home safely. They would invite me, a stranger, into their home to give me a donation and pray for me as I walked. I received media coverage in dozens and dozens of newspapers and on TV and the internet. As a former Marine, I am deeply disappointed that vets are not receiving the care they need from our government. I am asking for a nationwide plan to offer mandatory stress counseling for all military personnel prior to discharge. The facts are overwhelming: 18 veterans a day in the U.S. commit suicide. 40 percent of the homeless are Veterans Drug and alcohol abuse, family disintegration, and incarceration are rampant among veterans. I am attaching a copy of a petition addressed to the White House and Congress, which is supported by scores of veteran and family organizations across the country. Your office may have already received emails from constituents regarding this petition. I humbly ask that you read and sign petition, which can also be found on our website, thelongwalkhome.org. All three points on the petition have been practiced successfully or are currently in use in our military today. The only difference is that this plan asks that these approaches be made mandatory standard procedure for all military personnel to address root causes as well as to erase the perceived stigma of PTSD. I will be speaking before the Committee for Veteran Affairs shortly. This meeting is being organized by Congressman Philip Roe. You may call his office at 202-226-8079 for more details. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely Ronald Zaleski
Over Ten Thousand hand signed petitions:
Arizona Arkansa California Connecticut Florida New Mexico New York Oklahoma Pennsylvania Politicians Tennessee Texas Virginia Additional States States we have not visited yet
Link to Sign The Petition To Congress online: http://petition2congress.com/2/3256/three-point-program-to-address-military-stress-related-issues/ Join The Cause: http://Causes.com/causes/498220/about/ The Long Walk Home

	Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking a few minutes to do something towards what we believe in: Make calls, one to the President (202-456-1414), another to your Congressperson and Senators (you can find their number on our how to help page as well as our form letter). Let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Send them an email. If you really want to have an impact send them a snail mail letter! Regarding our efforts to ensure proper counseling for all military personnel prior to discharge, Ileana Ross Lathin's office has been very helpful and we have heard from Senator Bill Nelson's office as well. I am encouraged. At times, due to my impatience, I am not able to discern whether I am being helped or placarded. In either case, we pursue our goal until its fruition. To make a difference you could send a copy of our form letter to your Congressmen who are on the Armed Service Committee. The DoD told me that they don't determine what happens to our military personnel, the Armed Services Committee does, so we have to tell them what we want so they can do it.
	We went upstate July 14 to check in to the condition of the houses being donated, find out what we are allowed to do, meeting with town officals, realestate consultants, accountants and attorneys. Hopefully we will be able to house homeless vets, those coming home that are starting to experience difficulties and have a program in place to help them reintergate into an asemblance of a normal life. UPDATE: We were unable to obtain the property upstate NY because of a lack of staff and funding at this time and hope to be in a better position to take advantage when the opportunity presents itself. Here in the Keys we have been enrolling people to write the Department of Defense and their congressmen by standing in front of Winn Dixie, marching in the 4th of July Parade and handing out form letters at St Justins. We also have form letters at Dr Lu's, Papa Johns and Froggy's Gym. Congresswoman Ileana Ross had put me in touch with Mr. Wilkie who was the Assistant Director of the DoD. When I called he had been replaced by Ann Marie Amaral who hung up on me. I called Ileana again who wrote a letter of introduction for me to Ms Elizabeth King, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs who when I called said she never recieved the letter, but was nice enough to talk to me. After describing our points she said it was out of their hands and we would have to talk to the Armed Services committee which is composed of 61 congressmen. They are from every state in the union so we need to send letters to all of them to make this happen.
MISSION STATEMENT
The Long Walk Home is committed to improving the emotional and physical well-being of all American military personnel active and inactive, through education, establishing and enacting programs in boot camp and prior to discharge from military duty that deal in particularly with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

CURRENT SITUATION
Significant numbers of discharged combat personnel are afflicted with PTSD. Such people exhibit an inordinately high incidence of homelessness, suicide, psychoses, and fractured family relationships among other symptoms. Eighteen such veterans commit suicide every day on average. One fourth of the homeless in our country are veterans, and the incidence of divorce, abandonment, and domestic violence is much higher among veterans as compared with the average population. Through hearings and lobbying, the Federal Government has come to recognize the problem, but unfortunately the programs put into place to deal with it are inadequate because they require the veteran to take the treatment initiative. Far too often upon their separation from military service, combat veterans are unaware of their need for counseling and/or therapy. Their commanding officers are often reluctant to refer them for therapy because a higher incidence of therapeutic needs among their retiring personnel reflects negatively upon their efficiency reports. There is, unfortunately, a social stigma associated with seeking psychological help, so many veterans who would greatly benefit from such therapy do not take the initiative for obtaining it.

OBJECTIVE
The Long Walk Home is seeking adequate funding and support to realize the following objectives. A) To increase public awareness of the direct results of PTSD and its collateral damage in order to obtain the backing of individuals and other like minded organization's, thereby ensuring that effective programs are instituted. B) To provide grieving counseling for all military personnel prior to deployment, similar to what the firemen and police force receive to help them be more effective in dealing with personal losses and those of the people they serve. C) To institute a Mandatory Civilian Reentry Program prior to discharge giving them the tools they need to cope and handle the stress of reentering the Civilian world. Making it mandatory would also take a away the stigma of being weak or broken, allow for more effective screening and counseling prior to discharge. It would also ensure that those that would be getting a section 8 or conditional discharge, who have the greatest need would be getting the help they need. D) To utilize the homes donated to The Long Walk Home to provide temporary housing as well as forming support groups so that those who are experiencing difficulty in adjusting have a place to which they can go where peers and therapists can help to guide them in the reentry process. These programs will be documented in the hopes the Federal Government will assume the responsibility for making the programs universally applied thought the American armed forces.

PROJECTS
Go to "how to help" to see a form letter to write your congressman. Addresses can be found here as well. Acquiring, rebuilding and staffing housing for Vets, an on going project For more information or to volunteer call Ron at (305)852-4782