Eye On Illinois: Proper care for those who served is a permanent public commitment

Tuesday is Veterans Day, which used to be an opportunity to ask readers barreling toward Christmas to pause to remember more than just Thanksgiving.

But after a couple decades beating that drum, and a resurgence in programming and observances in schools and communities, it seems awareness of Veterans Day isn’t a significant concern.

Whether we properly care for people who served the country the other 364 days a year is a different issue.

According to the CensusReporter.org , which formats data from the federal Census bureau, the current estimate is Illinois is home to 459,569 veterans, about 4.7% of overall population. Of those, 43,008 are women. The number of living veterans has generally decreased yearly, but again Illinois account for about 3.2% of the nation’s 14.2 million veteran