The Neighborhood We Live In

Yesterday, dozens of military family members convened in Washington to present the findings of the Blue Star Families’ 2010 Military Family Lifestyle Survey, marking the opening of the Joint Congressional and Senate Military Families Caucus Event.

Spouses and parents, for the most part, made up the 3,634 people who took the online survey in May. Their top concern was for pay and benefits, but the next-greatest concern was the toll a parent’s deployment takes on children. The biggest differences between respondents’ concerns this year and last was in children’s education. Twelve percent of respondents this year called it a major concern, compared to 3 percent last year.

Douglas B. Wilson, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, spoke at the event about a new program called ‘Me and a Friend,’ which he created as a result of a conversation with a deployed servicemember. The program, hosted by Blue Star Families, issues free tickets to sporting and cultural events for military children and their friends.

“It’s a matter of looking into our community and understanding that maybe the next-door neighbor is overseas, but maybe the neighbor’s child would like to go to an event,” he said.

The words of Martin Luther King Jr., echoed through the day:  “If you’re not as concerned with your neighbor’s child as you are with your own, you’ll wake up one day and not recognize the community you live in.”

The Defense Department alsohas announced it will undertake for the first time a Military Family Life Project survey, which will examine the broad impact of deployments.   Here are links to a video  about the event, and the article that was the source of this post.