REMARKS
Council Member Vickie Paladino discusses challenges in veteran self-identification and political engagement
0:41:40
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96 sec
Council Member Vickie Paladino shares her thoughts on the challenges of identifying veterans and encouraging their participation in politics. She recounts a personal anecdote about a young navy veteran who chose to return to her home state to run for office, highlighting the difficulty of retaining veteran talent in New York City.
- Paladino emphasizes the recurring issue of veterans needing to self-identify for proper engagement and support.
- She expresses concern that many veterans are working without claiming their veteran status, potentially missing out on benefits.
- The council member notes a reluctance among younger veterans to self-identify, which hampers efforts to involve them in civic engagement and politics.
Vickie Paladino
0:41:40
Just a statement.
0:41:42
Just to go back to what Bob just brought up, I have a navy vet, young girl, thirty six years old, who's been renting in the apartment upstairs from my house.
0:41:54
And sadly, She's going back to Idaho to run for her office.
0:41:59
She's off the charts right, and she stayed here about 5 or 6 years to what you're saying.
0:42:05
And I said, Andrea, why don't you run for office?
0:42:08
You would be outstanding.
0:42:10
And she says, nope.
0:42:12
Not here.
0:42:13
I'm gonna go to back home title, and that's what she's doing.
0:42:17
But to your point, commissioner, we always end up at the back at this very same space, which is They need to self identify for us to know that they're vets and that we could take it that one step further with them.
0:42:33
Once we know, we're talking to a vet, and then we could explore and to have caught through conversation.
0:42:40
Try to figure out where their niches.
0:42:42
A lot of them are working already and never claimed that they were veterans.
0:42:46
And again, we come back to the same thing, that they're entitled to just so many benefits, and I implore them to get involved and to find out what's there.
0:42:56
And these younger people in their forties and fifties and some are in their late twenties.
0:43:01
Doesn't seem like anybody wants to self identify, which I think is a shame.
0:43:06
So, you know, we're working with a small number that we know of, but we know the numbers far greater than that.
0:43:12
Mhmm.
0:43:14
But she you know?
