By Dalia Diaz
Throughout the year, Rumbo attends and reports on veterans’ benefits and ceremonies through the Merrimack Valley. We also find many local newspapers honoring veterans. We often complain about the status of Lawrence and how little they do to support veterans on Veterans Day. We usually write about these things after Veterans Day ceremonies, throughout Massachusetts, take place. However, this year we thought we report before Veterans Day, how the city still lacks the coverage of assisting our veterans, by seeing how other cities do.
Other cities provide parking for veterans in specific places throughout the city. Not Lawrence. Not one store, in Lawrence, offers veterans’ discounts as other cities and towns do. There is not much of a veteran preference for hiring into the Lawrence government or its school district as many other cities do. Lawrence provides no education or knowledge of the issues veterans and their families deal with from any of the hundreds of non-profits in Lawrence that receives so much taxpayer’s funds.
Some cities in Massachusetts have sponsored housing for veterans. Not Lawrence. Lawrence isn’t even close to being on the 100 best cities for veterans to buy a home or best cities for veterans to live. Seeing that veterans have the ability and ease to obtain a VA loan, you’d think that the housing market (from real estate agents) would be kind to them, nope. Places like Century 21 North East has real estate agents like City Inspector Julian Perez working to buy up city properties and then flip them for maximizing profits through his own employers and friend Nelly Soto.
Basically in Lawrence, the only thing veterans can obtain is a spot in the city’s cemetery plot for when they pass away and for those living, a ceremony for Veterans Day with some VIP from outside of the city – not a veteran from Lawrence that we should honor, but a veteran from outside the city. We, residents of this city, don’t even know our heroes in our city because we don’t highlight them and/or their service until they died like Marc Laplante is doing for WWI veterans. We don’t honor military families whether or not their loved one is deployed. Our public safety departments don’t honor their veterans (which they have more veterans staff than any other department) because of civil service.
We take a day off for Veterans Day, but what we should do is service veterans on their day. In an effort to build and expand a sense of community unity, cities across the country are rallying around a population that supports veterans. In other cities across Massachusetts, local officials bring together area credit unions, non-profits like the area agencies on aging and community action agencies, as well as federal partners at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to improve the homes of Veterans and ensure they can safely access their homes and age in place. Lawrence’s Inspectional Services should be assisting and donating time and effort to do that.
Many cities, right here in Massachusetts, have a Veterans Tax-Work off Program, a veteran’s honor roll, a veterans council, blue star banners, and even free newspapers for veterans that are deployed. Others have a Veterans breakfast, or better yet highlight veteran own businesses and/or have parades! Some cities have a book club discussing, in their town or city’s library, to read books written by veterans.
I think the only good things happening for veterans in Lawrence is that MassHire has a veterans representative for employment search assistance and the city assist veterans monetarily through MGL 115. Both of those benefits are mandatory under laws of the Commonwealth. If it weren’t mandatory under law, you would not see it in Lawrence.
I wonder how our city veterans were taking care of during and after the gas fires/explosions?
