It’s that awful/joyful holiday time when we do our best to join with the joy of the season but are weighed down by the pain we perceive around us. Of those pains, nothing feels more significant than that of someone lost to suicide.

When that final act is committed by a veteran or active-duty member of our armed forces, it goes beyond personal to national grief, almost beyond solace. The VA puts the rate of suicide for veterans at 22 per day. Deeper research reveals it to be closer to twice that: 44 per day. 44 per day!!! Despite millions/billions of dollars thrown by the VA at this problem, the statistic holds steady.

That number can and needs to be lessened in 2025. It can be done if we take lessons from the much-beloved movie classic, It’s a Wonderful Life!

An Opportunity to earn your wings

Let me explore the wisdom of that story and why you should be a recruit to an important cause.

Its protagonist, George Bailey has given up on his personal dreams by taking on the burden of managing the business of the Bedford Falls Savings and Loan willed to him by his father.

All is relatively well until, through a cruel twist of fate, he finds himself at the edge of bankruptcy and personal ruin on Christmas Eve. It’s just too much to take. His solution, his way out, is to commit suicide so that his $15,000 life insurance policy will cover the losses. In driving snow, he heads to a bridge over a surging river to do exactly that.

Heaven sends an unlikely rescuer, Angel 2nd Class Clarence Odbody, who, over the past 200 years, has yet to do enough good to get his wings. His assignment: bring George, who wishes he had never been born, to a better understanding of the value of his life and lead him from this desperate act.

What value?” George would argue, unaware that had there been no George Bailey, there would not have been a war-hero aviator brother downing Japanese Kamikazes to save a transport ship full of soldiers, no one to rescue a pharmacist from a 20-year manslaughter sentence for incorrectly filling a prescription causing a child to die, no one with the moral fiber to balance the greed and avarice of the banker, Harry Potter, and…well…you get the idea.

Finally aware, George returns home to face his fate head-on, but this time full of gratitude, only to find that the townspeople and his family and friends have rallied to more than meet the deficit and save the Savings and Loan (and George from prison). Not to forget the bonus. George, in turn, helped Clarence to earn his wings. 

Raise your right hand and swear in as a much-needed 2025 Clarence

End Veteran Debt (EVD), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit private foundation, along with a significant number of veteran organizations and charities, has taken on the task to think nationally and act globally in a campaign we call Operation Debt-Day. Nationally,EVD will bring America’s attention to veteran suicide by eliminating $1M in veteran debt across the country. Acting locally, monies from co-fundraising will meet the immediate financial challenges individuals and families afflicted cannot handle. 

Why this collaboration in this fashion? 

To create country-wide awareness of veteran debt of all sorts, be it the pressure of putting food on the table, getting tires for the car to get to work, or meeting a mortgage payment to keep from becoming homeless are social determinants of suicidal ideation and the act itself.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that. 

I also bet you didn’t know that there are only 1.4M Americans in the military today out of a population of 330M. Another 19 million Americans are veterans. At only seven percent of the population, veterans contribute to 20+ percent of suicides.

Somewhere within you, is there that much-needed “Clarence” quality that this season calls for? We urge you to visit our site and select your best path to make the lives of our returned warriors easier. Donor, Partner or Sponsor, we want to be at your swearing-in. There is no guarantee you will get your wings, but your efforts most surely will add a feather or two towards that end. 

Forgive veteran debt. For them. For us. For good.

DONATE HERE