11/11/2024
Today is Veterans' Day, and that means a lot of different things to different people. Good Doggy Saratoga is veteran-owned and operated, and we'd like to ask you to join us in supporting America's Vet-Dogs.
A personal message from the owner:
Both of my grandfathers served; one in WW2 and the other in Vietnam. Both of my parents served, as did all of my father's siblings. I was in the Navy and am a disabled veteran. And, my father died on Veterans' Day 2009.
My family and lived experience has shown me first hand that the United States locks its best social support structures behind military service. The military industrial complex provides one of the few routes out of poverty, offering steady income, healthcare, and education. It's how I escaped poverty myself, being in a place where I was choosing between bills, groceries, and rent before joining. Financial insecurity is something the military relies upon to fill its ranks. Then our most vulnerable youth are indoctrinated into a jingoistic nationalism masquerading as patriotism, trained to dehumanize the enemy and kill brown people to support domestic corporate interests under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy.
In a very real way, veterans are victimized by a multi-billion-dollar propaganda campaign and then used until broken (in the Navy, our common refrain was "I am a blue tool, I will be used until broken and then replaced," - I've heard similar versions from members of other branches). Helping to support the veterans who slip through the cracks is the least we can do, until we stop sending our poor and our young to die in the rich man's wars.
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