Welcome Back!

      Welcome Back! We have taken a hiatus from the blog to focus on our media outreach. From this point on our postings will be the work of the program coordinators here at the Circle of Friends on all things Veterans. Our purpose is to increase public knowledge of the issues facing Veterans, so please follow along as we will begin posting regularly.

To find out more information on our organization: 

• Go to our website- www.vetsvision.org 
• Like us on Facebook- The Circle of Friends for American Veterans 
• Follow us on Twitter- @COFAVets 

        Last week, our program coordinators attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Overall, the experience was great and we made a lot of contacts for the organization. CPAC was a great way to get out of the office and interact with people that are interested in our organization. There were definitely some highlights to the trip. 

       Our program team attended the session with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. His session focused on Poverty in America and the best way to attack that issue. Veterans have been plagued by poverty and homelessness, so Speaker Ryan's attention to this issue is encouraging. Due to the election year and the overall stalemate of Congress right now, we will soon see what can actually be done for the poor and the homeless. 

        When we were there, we noticed that there was one session on Veteran's issues and only one Veteran's organization that had a booth in the CPAC hub. We hoped there would be more focus on Veterans because they deserve to be a top priority. Veteran's are the reason that we are able to freely attend a conference like CPAC and express our ideas. We can speak freely because the brave American men and women fought for that right. They deserve our respect and attention to their issues.

        In a speech about latino voters, Mike Madrid mentioned the brave immigrants that fight for our country as well. His speech focused on latino voters and the Republican party. Madrid emphasized that we should not be dehumanizing these people if they are immigrants. He placed emphasis that the immigrants that serve in the army are brave men and women that are risking their lives for America because they believe in our values and our country. We need to respect them and support them. This statement was particularly interesting because there has been news stories lately of immigrants serving in the United States Military and being deported when they come back. As a country, we should not stand for this type of behavior. We must hold our government officials to a higher standard, so that they take care of our veterans when they return from war. 

    

-Jess