04 December 2007
03 December 2007
Blaming the Victim
In 2006, Congress ordered the Secretary of Defense to assess the mental health needs of the Armed Forces and the ability of the DoD to meet those needs. As a result, the DoD created a "Mental Health Task Force" which concluded:
The unmet mental healthcare needs of the men and women we send to wage war in other countries are causing them to wage their own wars, within themselves and with others, in this one.
For example, 1st Lt. Whiteside faces criminal prosecution for trying to kill herself while serving in Iraq. Granted, when she had her psychological breakdown, she waved a gun around at her fellow soldiers to keep them away so she could successfully shoot HERSELF (TWICE) in the stomach. She did not, however, actually harm anyone else.
Research by CBS news revealed that an average of 120 veterans committed suicide every week in 2005. SEVENTEEN VETERANS COMMITTED SUICIDE EVERY DAY THAT YEAR.
I wonder how many service members and veterans attempted to kill themselves the day that Lt. Whiteside tried to kill herself? I wonder how many succeeded?
Iliona Meagher has been compiling data on PTSD-related incidents around the United States since 2005 for ePluribusMedia. PTSD that is undiagnosed, mismanaged, or untreated can, in its most extreme form, manifest itself as violence towards one's self and/or towards others. We don't keep official records of these casualties.
Americans like to keep the ugliness of war contained so as to maintain an illusion of civility. This illusion is hard to maintain when the people we send away to fight these wars actually come back; living testaments to what our country has instructed them to do in its name.
In short, we have evolved enough as a species to feel shame about engaging in acts of war but we haven't evolved enough to avoid these acts in the first place. When we SEE the men and women who have been broken, physically or psychologically, by combat, the degree to which we have failed to be civilized is hard to accept.
In the book, "Just and Unjust Wars," the author wrote, "what we often think of as inhumanity is really just humanity under pressure." Our wounded warriors reflect the side of human nature in general, and America in particular, that Americans do not want to think about.
So rather than take responsibility for sending these men and women to another country to do something that is really quite brutal and inhumane (if necessary), we ignore, minimize, or villify the men and women who, in a very normal fashion, were traumatized by what we told them to do or made them witness. The more our institutions make their problems about THEM, the less uncivilized and inhumane and unreasonable WE are.
Hence the appeal of the refrain, "he volunteered to join the Army." Which is kind of like saying that a woman asked to be ganged raped because she went to a guy's apartment after a movie. Maybe she did go to his apartment thinking about maybe having sex with her date, that doesn't mean that she wanted five of his friends to have sex with her too. She TRUSTED her date to keep the evening between the two of them only.
Well, a service member likewise joins with the very honorable intention of protecting our country and defending our constitution. There is TRUST that you will not be EXPLOITED or ABUSED when you join.
Perhaps you should be thinking that for these men and women, their trust has been violated, and if you feel betrayed, imagine how they (and their families) feel after five years and multiple deployments?
My point is this: our discomfort with our wounded warriors makes us even less civilized, not more. The very people whose wounds make us feel the least amount of pride individually are giving us an opportunity to do something to feel the most pride collectively. By tending to the wounds of those who remind us of our inhumanity, we become more humane. That means we have to do more than just bring our troops home, we have to take care of them when they are here.
Pretending we don't see them, or trying not to think about them, does not make them go away; it just makes it easier not to care.
the system of care for the psychological health that has evolved over recent decades is insufficient to meet the needs of today's armed forces and their beneficiaries, and will not be sufficient to meet their needs in the future.
The unmet mental healthcare needs of the men and women we send to wage war in other countries are causing them to wage their own wars, within themselves and with others, in this one.
For example, 1st Lt. Whiteside faces criminal prosecution for trying to kill herself while serving in Iraq. Granted, when she had her psychological breakdown, she waved a gun around at her fellow soldiers to keep them away so she could successfully shoot HERSELF (TWICE) in the stomach. She did not, however, actually harm anyone else.
Research by CBS news revealed that an average of 120 veterans committed suicide every week in 2005. SEVENTEEN VETERANS COMMITTED SUICIDE EVERY DAY THAT YEAR.
I wonder how many service members and veterans attempted to kill themselves the day that Lt. Whiteside tried to kill herself? I wonder how many succeeded?
Iliona Meagher has been compiling data on PTSD-related incidents around the United States since 2005 for ePluribusMedia. PTSD that is undiagnosed, mismanaged, or untreated can, in its most extreme form, manifest itself as violence towards one's self and/or towards others. We don't keep official records of these casualties.
Americans like to keep the ugliness of war contained so as to maintain an illusion of civility. This illusion is hard to maintain when the people we send away to fight these wars actually come back; living testaments to what our country has instructed them to do in its name.
In short, we have evolved enough as a species to feel shame about engaging in acts of war but we haven't evolved enough to avoid these acts in the first place. When we SEE the men and women who have been broken, physically or psychologically, by combat, the degree to which we have failed to be civilized is hard to accept.
In the book, "Just and Unjust Wars," the author wrote, "what we often think of as inhumanity is really just humanity under pressure." Our wounded warriors reflect the side of human nature in general, and America in particular, that Americans do not want to think about.
So rather than take responsibility for sending these men and women to another country to do something that is really quite brutal and inhumane (if necessary), we ignore, minimize, or villify the men and women who, in a very normal fashion, were traumatized by what we told them to do or made them witness. The more our institutions make their problems about THEM, the less uncivilized and inhumane and unreasonable WE are.
Hence the appeal of the refrain, "he volunteered to join the Army." Which is kind of like saying that a woman asked to be ganged raped because she went to a guy's apartment after a movie. Maybe she did go to his apartment thinking about maybe having sex with her date, that doesn't mean that she wanted five of his friends to have sex with her too. She TRUSTED her date to keep the evening between the two of them only.
Well, a service member likewise joins with the very honorable intention of protecting our country and defending our constitution. There is TRUST that you will not be EXPLOITED or ABUSED when you join.
Perhaps you should be thinking that for these men and women, their trust has been violated, and if you feel betrayed, imagine how they (and their families) feel after five years and multiple deployments?
My point is this: our discomfort with our wounded warriors makes us even less civilized, not more. The very people whose wounds make us feel the least amount of pride individually are giving us an opportunity to do something to feel the most pride collectively. By tending to the wounds of those who remind us of our inhumanity, we become more humane. That means we have to do more than just bring our troops home, we have to take care of them when they are here.
Pretending we don't see them, or trying not to think about them, does not make them go away; it just makes it easier not to care.
29 November 2007
Old Problem ~ Freakishly God-awful new twist
Just go to the site.
I can't bear to type it again (not for fingers/time, just makes me too freakin angry) -- a military family is currently being forced:
I can't bear to type it again (not for fingers/time, just makes me too freakin angry) -- a military family is currently being forced:
- out of their home on post -- weeks before Christmas with no warning & no place to go
- out of their sole income, out of the military to which they've committed their lives, with three deployments of sacrifice
- into a fight for their immediate future -- for no reason.
Well, one reason: One bad leader. And one colonel us diagnosis. Proven, confirmed by doctors to be false.
But all it takes is one bad leader. And, in this case, another to stand by and do nothing.
We could use ANY ideas; please check it out.
My extremely amateur page, w/a rundown of the details, is at -
http://military.medicine.issues.googlepages.com/examples
28 November 2007
New blogger here!
Yes, there's a new face on this blog.
Which is a very good thing, because RaginRanger and I are too paranoid after our experiences with the military medical system (and too beat down by current medical messes, story to follow), to write nearly as much as we'd like.
Carissa, on the other hand, is a freakin powerhouse of expression-- a proud military wife whose husband will deploy again in a few short months. She also is a lawyer, mother & gifted organizer-- in the leadership of VMFP (Veterans & Military Families for Progress) and the Founder/President of MSC, Military Spouses for Change, at the link above.
As anyone who's been in the military knows, it's a full-time job just being a supportive spouse alone. The fact that Carissa has been the driving force behind a new, nonprofit organization to empower military wives, along with her family obligations, speaks volumes about her level of passion and devotion to do all she can to do right by troops & the wives who go through everything alongside those troops.
We are thrilled and honored to have her as a contributor.
I also hope her postings will shame my depressed, sorry ass into pushing the "post to blog" button more often instead of stewing in silence :-)
Her postings about her organization, he life as the wife of an Army Blackhawk pilot, and news of interest to military spouses are on her blog:
Which is a very good thing, because RaginRanger and I are too paranoid after our experiences with the military medical system (and too beat down by current medical messes, story to follow), to write nearly as much as we'd like.
Carissa, on the other hand, is a freakin powerhouse of expression-- a proud military wife whose husband will deploy again in a few short months. She also is a lawyer, mother & gifted organizer-- in the leadership of VMFP (Veterans & Military Families for Progress) and the Founder/President of MSC, Military Spouses for Change, at the link above.
As anyone who's been in the military knows, it's a full-time job just being a supportive spouse alone. The fact that Carissa has been the driving force behind a new, nonprofit organization to empower military wives, along with her family obligations, speaks volumes about her level of passion and devotion to do all she can to do right by troops & the wives who go through everything alongside those troops.
We are thrilled and honored to have her as a contributor.
I also hope her postings will shame my depressed, sorry ass into pushing the "post to blog" button more often instead of stewing in silence :-)
Her postings about her organization, he life as the wife of an Army Blackhawk pilot, and news of interest to military spouses are on her blog:
Why I have a bee in my bonnet...
Yes, I wrote that. I say things like "aren't you the cat's pajama's?" too. It's part of my charm.
Anyway.
I go on and on and on about this Presidential Forum on Veterans, Wounded Warriors, and Military Families. I work tirelessly. I blog. I email people and call people and network and research and write and constantly look for another reason why America should care, the candidates should care, the networks should care...
I believe our service members do the work that needs to be done, that others don't want to do, that others don't want to think needs to be done... the dirty work of war that continues among men today (I use the word man in the general sense). Yet for this work, they are not adequately compensated, nor are they justly rewarded. In fact, we have evolved just enough as a species to feel shame for these acts of war but not enough to avoid engaging in these acts. So now our "warriors" are relegated to the status of "necessary evil" and all that is associated with that is easily demonized or quickly dismissed.
An example, I think, of how the military is marginalized and unappreciated by both parties:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/9/204920/645
First, that broke my heart.
Then it just pissed me off.
So I keep writing. And blogging. And work on helping others find their voices to share their stories. Because the military and veteran community should NOT be marginalized. It should not exist in the shadows of a great nation. It should not be a tool for abuse by a great nation nor should it be abused BY a great nation. It should be a reflection OF a great nation and that is what I plan to make it.
(Cross posted http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=153)
Anyway.
I go on and on and on about this Presidential Forum on Veterans, Wounded Warriors, and Military Families. I work tirelessly. I blog. I email people and call people and network and research and write and constantly look for another reason why America should care, the candidates should care, the networks should care...
I believe our service members do the work that needs to be done, that others don't want to do, that others don't want to think needs to be done... the dirty work of war that continues among men today (I use the word man in the general sense). Yet for this work, they are not adequately compensated, nor are they justly rewarded. In fact, we have evolved just enough as a species to feel shame for these acts of war but not enough to avoid engaging in these acts. So now our "warriors" are relegated to the status of "necessary evil" and all that is associated with that is easily demonized or quickly dismissed.
An example, I think, of how the military is marginalized and unappreciated by both parties:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/9/204920/645
First, that broke my heart.
Then it just pissed me off.
So I keep writing. And blogging. And work on helping others find their voices to share their stories. Because the military and veteran community should NOT be marginalized. It should not exist in the shadows of a great nation. It should not be a tool for abuse by a great nation nor should it be abused BY a great nation. It should be a reflection OF a great nation and that is what I plan to make it.
(Cross posted http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=153)
19 October 2007
Failing Our Veterans - washingtonpost.com
Failing Our Veterans - washingtonpost.com
Special thanks, from the bottom of my heart, to Lynne Morgan for a powerfully worded letter to the Editor, as posted on WaPo 17 October. I don't often hear anyone fed up with the systematic lack of priorities in DC in general, especially concerning the disconnect between all the pride, outreach & passion when political-types *talk* about service, vets, sacrifice (rah rah, shish boom bah, here's a flag) and the realities we face (sorry dude, the HMO/contractor/big-airplane-maker/Pentagon-gardener's-nephew's-union has a lobby & a ton of cash--unlike YOUR sorry ass who was merely patriotic-- why don't you just go ahead and suck it up some more?)
Enormous priority on Bosses' well being, at the workers' expense, is the way of the world, I know. It sucks, but it's not something that keeps me up at night in the course of normal industry.
The reason it's so heinous in our, um... industry, is that we who are entrusted with ANY sort of leadership & responsibility over troops are instilled from Day 1 with the sense that we have a moral obligation--almost a sacred duty--to take care of the troops under us.
There is NO upper limit when it becomes acceptable, in our world, to live it up and let the little people fight it out amongst themselves. The E-4 in charge of 2 lives, E-7 in charge of 30, O-3 legally responsible for 120 troops + their families... up to the O-8 commanding an entire division (~20,000) & beyond: we have one basic responsibility to push ourselves to make sure we're providing the best training, equipment, environment & care available. If we don't get our staff to get its head out of its ass to take care of something, this sort of honor-code says it's us, the boss (& staff if necessary) who go without heaters, food, ammo, *whatever* until we make shit happen.
Obviously the political world works differently, which is exactly why most troops prefer to avoid anything to do with politics, politicians, policy, or anything that takes such a mental re-set button to understand, much less navigate.
No troops, except perhaps the senior leaders who interface daily with, say, the senior civilian Chain of Command, should *have* to be concerned with a single matter of politics. Now we are.
Sometimes it's easier not to know. Not because we're dumb little simpletons, but because it's too damn hard to be "in the moment" enough to function & stay sharp in military stuff, while also doubting and second-guessing. The House-Divided-Falls and all that. Focus, compartmentalize, train, mission, bring people home alive, and screw the rest-- at least for now. Yes, some officers have flirted with political issues--often to their own detriment--out of either ambition or necessity as they find the Pentagon ever more politicized... BUT, that's been widely criticized both inside the military *and* among the soldier-scholars whose work revolves around this "Professional Military Ethic" (PME)... which is a can of worms I'll definitely punt for now)
blah. i feel catharsed, or whatever the hell a "catharsis" might be in verb form. but also in need of sleep after a good laugh. E! channel had SNL's episode w/SNOOP DOG(G?) hosting the other night, and i hope to heaven that it taped ok! Is there any not-so-cheesy way to sign off?... probably not. more later.
Special thanks, from the bottom of my heart, to Lynne Morgan for a powerfully worded letter to the Editor, as posted on WaPo 17 October. I don't often hear anyone fed up with the systematic lack of priorities in DC in general, especially concerning the disconnect between all the pride, outreach & passion when political-types *talk* about service, vets, sacrifice (rah rah, shish boom bah, here's a flag) and the realities we face (sorry dude, the HMO/contractor/big-airplane-maker/Pentagon-gardener's-nephew's-union has a lobby & a ton of cash--unlike YOUR sorry ass who was merely patriotic-- why don't you just go ahead and suck it up some more?)
For all those who didn't make it that far in the Oct. 14 front-page article "A Wife's Battle," in the 43rd paragraph we learned that, in a city where the rich ride in limousines and federal workers get 48.5 cents a mile, disabled veterans are still paid the 1977 mileage reimbursement rate of 11 cents a mile...It's hard to find great examples like that! I mean, ones that actually show proportionality so the problem is *clear* to anyone with a brain... something that can't be spun so it just sounds like whiny "Yeah man, us against The Man"... (It's not like we get f'in royalties on all those political speeches, nor any of the other times troops are there in the background, smiling, staring, nodding off, adding "national security authenticity" or whatever)
Enormous priority on Bosses' well being, at the workers' expense, is the way of the world, I know. It sucks, but it's not something that keeps me up at night in the course of normal industry.
The reason it's so heinous in our, um... industry, is that we who are entrusted with ANY sort of leadership & responsibility over troops are instilled from Day 1 with the sense that we have a moral obligation--almost a sacred duty--to take care of the troops under us.
There is NO upper limit when it becomes acceptable, in our world, to live it up and let the little people fight it out amongst themselves. The E-4 in charge of 2 lives, E-7 in charge of 30, O-3 legally responsible for 120 troops + their families... up to the O-8 commanding an entire division (~20,000) & beyond: we have one basic responsibility to push ourselves to make sure we're providing the best training, equipment, environment & care available. If we don't get our staff to get its head out of its ass to take care of something, this sort of honor-code says it's us, the boss (& staff if necessary) who go without heaters, food, ammo, *whatever* until we make shit happen.
Obviously the political world works differently, which is exactly why most troops prefer to avoid anything to do with politics, politicians, policy, or anything that takes such a mental re-set button to understand, much less navigate.
No troops, except perhaps the senior leaders who interface daily with, say, the senior civilian Chain of Command, should *have* to be concerned with a single matter of politics. Now we are.
Sometimes it's easier not to know. Not because we're dumb little simpletons, but because it's too damn hard to be "in the moment" enough to function & stay sharp in military stuff, while also doubting and second-guessing. The House-Divided-Falls and all that. Focus, compartmentalize, train, mission, bring people home alive, and screw the rest-- at least for now. Yes, some officers have flirted with political issues--often to their own detriment--out of either ambition or necessity as they find the Pentagon ever more politicized... BUT, that's been widely criticized both inside the military *and* among the soldier-scholars whose work revolves around this "Professional Military Ethic" (PME)... which is a can of worms I'll definitely punt for now)
blah. i feel catharsed, or whatever the hell a "catharsis" might be in verb form. but also in need of sleep after a good laugh. E! channel had SNL's episode w/SNOOP DOG(G?) hosting the other night, and i hope to heaven that it taped ok! Is there any not-so-cheesy way to sign off?... probably not. more later.
VA: 10 patients died under care of former surgeon at IL hospital - Boston.com
VA: 10 patients died under care of former surgeon at IL hospital - Boston.com
Hmmm. 9 deaths for this doc, compared w/his peers' average of 2. Now this is starting to sound like a doctor near and dear to us Fort Campbell vets "lucky" enough to have seen Dr. Tw----e at Blanchfield/BACH. A proud combination of "inept" and "obstructionist"... with dashes of passive aggression to make the mix really fun. We only managed to get any help w/that after the Scandal Of Which We May Not Speak, which wasn't even (directly) medical. But not until he'd severely screwed us up.
I don't usually have the heart or energy to blog much anymore; every story seems like another droplet in a really big monsoon--something I can't change, but have to live with the consequences--while meanwhile there's some asshole of a weatherman smiling on tv insisting it's only a passing drizzle.
Hopefully [sic] getting into the habit of posting articles like this, keeping commentary to a minimum to try to avoid it snowballing into a rant, will wind up being healthier than closing the page and pretending to ignore it, then having it build up inside and turn cancerous.
More Quickies later :-)
--> Does anyone know what studies have been done on the correlation between blogging & depression, or how soothing/maddening the blog tends to be (compared with other forms of writing or expression)?
Ten patients died under the care of an embattled surgeon during the roughly 20 months he worked at a Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Illinois, according to a letter released Friday.But wait -- sh*t happens... people die in hospitals, right?
Durbin said last month VA officials told him nine veterans -- all in some way linked to [Dr.] Veizaga-Mendez -- died at the hospital during a six-month period ending in March, during which the hospital would have expected only two deaths.
Hmmm. 9 deaths for this doc, compared w/his peers' average of 2. Now this is starting to sound like a doctor near and dear to us Fort Campbell vets "lucky" enough to have seen Dr. Tw----e at Blanchfield/BACH. A proud combination of "inept" and "obstructionist"... with dashes of passive aggression to make the mix really fun. We only managed to get any help w/that after the Scandal Of Which We May Not Speak, which wasn't even (directly) medical. But not until he'd severely screwed us up.
I wonder how this punk finally got in trouble?
[He] worked at the Marion hospital from January 2006 until he resigned Aug. 13, three days after a Kentucky man apparently bled to death after undergoing gallstone-removal surgery Veizaga-Mendez performed.
Ew.
I don't usually have the heart or energy to blog much anymore; every story seems like another droplet in a really big monsoon--something I can't change, but have to live with the consequences--while meanwhile there's some asshole of a weatherman smiling on tv insisting it's only a passing drizzle.
Hopefully [sic] getting into the habit of posting articles like this, keeping commentary to a minimum to try to avoid it snowballing into a rant, will wind up being healthier than closing the page and pretending to ignore it, then having it build up inside and turn cancerous.
More Quickies later :-)
--> Does anyone know what studies have been done on the correlation between blogging & depression, or how soothing/maddening the blog tends to be (compared with other forms of writing or expression)?
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