Surely Baltimore can be proud to host an event that raises money for veterans experiencing homelessness ("Charity race helps homeless vets," May 25). Yet the story includes two ironies. The larger one concerns the need for events such this race. Our political leaders are far more eager to risk the lives and limbs of patriotic volunteers than to assist them upon their return. The Department of Defense, with its 2015 appropriation of $598.5 billion, is not compelled to organize charitable events to purchase tanks and bombs. Laudable agencies like the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training have $75 million in housing dollars annually, only enough to help 7,500 of the 100,000 veterans experiencing homelessness each year.
Secondly, the story asserts that the "setting was appropriately chosen, as the plaza honors those who have served the nation in wartime." Last year, the state spent $450,000 to build a fence around the War Memorial Building so that homeless veterans could not take shelter from the elements under the building's portico. Not only was this mean-spirited but we could have housed 45 homeless veterans for one year with those terribly misspent dollars.
President Richard Nixon's budget director Roy Ash famously observed that "budget is policy." Our public policies toward homeless veterans are as impoverished as our policies toward so many of our vulnerable neighbors. This is further proof that we don't need to get back to normal — we ought to do so much better.
Jeff Singer, Baltimore