They weren’t supposed to have to fight anymore.

That’s what one local veteran relayed to us recently when discussing the future of the facility he once considered his last place of residence.

In just two weeks, he and 80 of his peers — all war heroes — will be forced to call a new location home as the Georgia War Veterans Home domiciliary unit closes its doors, another victim of state budgetary cuts. Just two weeks out from the Nov. 30 closing deadline, only about half of these men have arrangements for relocation lined up — another 30 to 35 are still awaiting word on a room at the nearby Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin.

We’re facing difficult economic times as we all know and funding sacrifices have to be made to offset the budgetary blows, but it seems that a number of the cuts being handed down by the state — such as the closing of the domiciliary unit — are impacting those among us who have the least means for fighting back, such as our veterans and more recently, our retired teachers who will likely see no cost of living increase for the first time in 50 years.

And it seems this trend has been mounting for some time now.

A few years back, it was the closing of the skilled nursing unit at Central State Hospital, which housed profoundly mentally retarded adults. Then there was the medical surgical unit at CSH, which closed its doors, shifting the burden for emergency medical care for CSH consumers to local taxpayers. None of these segments of our community were in a position to fight back when they were placed on the state budgetary chopping block — and now the cuts have hit our veterans. And while it may be too late to prevent the domiciliary closing, it doesn’t mean we should forget about it. While these brave men may not have the means to fight back, we have the voice to let our state leaders know how we feel about this closing on their behalf. We can tell our state leaders to look elsewhere for their cuts — like their own pet projects for their hometowns — instead of our retirees, nursing home patients, the profoundly challenged and our veterans. Simply put: Pick on someone your own size.

The governor’s office has said that the domiciliary program is simply too expensive a cost to keep up and running. It’s certainly a good thing the veterans who live there didn’t uphold the same sentiment when they were asked to answer the call for duty. We’re certainly glad these brave men didn’t feel like the freedoms they fought for — the same freedoms we as Baldwin County residents and our state leaders share — were too high an expense to pay.

It’s a shame that this closing had to occur within the same month a day is set aside to honor our veterans. No, these men shouldn’t have to fight anymore — because they have already paid a price many of us, particularly our younger generations, cannot begin to fathom. They deserve better from us, and we should let our state level officials know it.