It has taken me awhile to post this. I've gone over whether this was necessary and I'm resting on…read morethe fact that one mistreated veteran is one too many. I'm from a military family, generations of Marines, Air Force, Army, and Navy. My family has served in WWII, Desert Storm, first on the ground in Fallujah, and now in the air in Korea and Germany. I share this as background to illustrate the level of dedication to service and sacrifice my family and many families provide to this community and this country.
We have been fortunate in that we have not lost anyone physically in battle. However, we have many who suffer the deep and harrowing consequences of serving in the military and sacrificing so much for the people of this country. I stress this, again, to force the realization that we can never know the stories that each person carries when they cross our paths.
Near Father's Day I picked up my hero, my big brother, our Marine, from a Veterans Home we were able to get him into after years of fighting addiction, homelessness, and complete detachment after we lost our eldest brother to Cancer. It was the one enemy our Marine couldn't eliminated from our big brother's body and when we lowered him into the ground, our Marine struggled to live in a world without his hero. This blow to the family brought us all to our knees. No one more than my brother and our mother who ended her own battle with cancer this February, yet another blow to our family and another reason for my brother, our Marine, to want to be outside of his mind and body, escaping into addiction.
However, this past Father's Day, we picked up my brother from his refuge from homelessness and planned to help him get cleaned up before spending the day with his kids. He's been on the path to healing and he was excited to spend Father's Day with his twins.
We went to 4 different barbershops in Visalia. The first two were busy with a line of guys who had appointments and both barbershops were apologetic and one even took my number in case he had a no-show.
East/West barbershop was our 3rd try and seeing that WALK INS WELCOME was blasted across the front awning, we were hopeful. Upon walking in, the two youngish men clearly relaxing on their phones made little effort to acknowledge my brother. They both said they couldn't take a walk-in and one even moved as if to escort my brother out of the barbershop. I stood there confused and with a sick turn of my stomach. Yes, my brother, our Marine, looked disheveled and like he is living on hope and prayer. That's because his is!
My brother left with a dismissive, "Happens all the time, Sis," He is a very proud man and to see him take it in stride sent me reeling, made me want to jump out of my skin and say something I'm sure I would regret. We left and made our way to The Oval, where he said, "shoulda started here anyway.." For those who don't know, The Oval is an area that the homeless frequent, a place a recovering addict avoids at all cost. We found a shop, they cleaned him up and even gave him a straight razor shave topped off with a hot towel and the respect each individual should be given no matter who they appear to be. A paying customer should be treated with this kind of dignity, especially if the paying customer is a veteran of one of the Armed Forces.
My brother, my hero, our Marine, has gone above and beyond to be of service. Not only did he serve his country with pride, he went on to be the youngest on a team in sales, made 6 figures, owned property in several states, traveled around the country, lived a life we never imagined possible, only to find himself alone in a two-bed-room, breaking bread with fellow servicemen who have lost everything and are slowly return to us.
All of this, to say, Do Better.
Honor your fellow man and woman.
Judge as you wish to be judged.
I hope when the owner reads this that he has a good long talk with his team and stresses the importance of compassion and kindness. It goes such a long way, much longer than the mind numbing doom scrolling that these young barbers felt was more important than providing a veteran with a haircut.
Just do better.
