As usual, I was listening to the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC while driving home from school today. Among the many topics covered relating to Veteran's Day, the segment "Backstory: The History of PTSD" with directors/producers John Alpert and Matt O'Neil really stuck with me. You may know Alpert and O'Neil from their HBO film "Baghdad ER" - they're back with a new film, "Wartorn 1861-2010" which premiers on HBO tonight. The film chronicles and discusses the history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, more commonly known as PTSD - given how suicide rates among service members is still (horribly) on the rise, this film could not have come at a more critical time.
You may find a link to the broadcast of the interview by clicking here.
I urge you to watch this film and to also please educate yourself about PTSD and what you might be able to do to help a veteran in need.
In gratitude. Mahalo.
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
11 November 2010
02 December 2009
WTF?
Funding a needless/useless/costly war over funding universal health care?
That makes TOTAL sense.
In a warped & parallel universe.
When will our elected officials wake the fuck up?
That makes TOTAL sense.
In a warped & parallel universe.
When will our elected officials wake the fuck up?
11 November 2009
Today is Veteran’s Day
In honor of our Veterans I am urging you to please take a few minutes out of your day to contact Senator Tom Coburn (R – OK).
There is an important and major bill regarding Veteran’s Benefits (S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009) that Sen. Coburn has placed on hold. The longer this bill goes un-passed the more our Veterans will suffer.
Here are several key things this bill will do:
•S. 1963 will allow VA to recruit and retain nurses, home health aides, and specialty care providers.
•S. 1963 also contains measures that would improve the efficiency of health care delivery to veterans, including a number of pilot programs designed to help VA find new and innovative ways to deliver better, faster, and more comprehensive treatment.
•S. 1963 would expand eligibility and authority for the Vet Centers to provide needed services, and would commission a comprehensive study on suicides among veterans so that we can improve efforts to prevent such tragedies.
•S. 1963 would also provide support for homeless veterans through a proposed series of innovative pilot programs. These programs are designed to significantly improve VA outreach to these veterans, in order to help them access the benefits and services provided by VA.
To read more about this comprehensive bill, click here and here.
Suicide rates are WAY UP, particularly among service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is awful, awful, AWFUL! We can NOT abandon the very people we have asked to serve three and four tours of duty in these war zones. OUR TROOPS NEED OUR SUPPORT.
Senator Coburn MUST be asked – “Do you support our troops?” If he says yes – then you MUST ask “Why then, are you blocking this important legislation S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009?”
You may contact Senator Coburn in the following places:
Washington D.C.:
Phone: 202-224-5754
Fax: 202-224-6008
Tulsa:
Phone: 918-581-7651
Fax: 918-581-7195
Oklahoma City:
Phone: 405-231-4941
Fax: 405-231-5051
Now more than ever our Veterans need us. PLEASE, let's do them this little favor and really show our support. Phone or fax Senator Coburn and help get this bill passed.
Thank you.
There is an important and major bill regarding Veteran’s Benefits (S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009) that Sen. Coburn has placed on hold. The longer this bill goes un-passed the more our Veterans will suffer.
Here are several key things this bill will do:
•S. 1963 will allow VA to recruit and retain nurses, home health aides, and specialty care providers.
•S. 1963 also contains measures that would improve the efficiency of health care delivery to veterans, including a number of pilot programs designed to help VA find new and innovative ways to deliver better, faster, and more comprehensive treatment.
•S. 1963 would expand eligibility and authority for the Vet Centers to provide needed services, and would commission a comprehensive study on suicides among veterans so that we can improve efforts to prevent such tragedies.
•S. 1963 would also provide support for homeless veterans through a proposed series of innovative pilot programs. These programs are designed to significantly improve VA outreach to these veterans, in order to help them access the benefits and services provided by VA.
To read more about this comprehensive bill, click here and here.
Suicide rates are WAY UP, particularly among service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. This is awful, awful, AWFUL! We can NOT abandon the very people we have asked to serve three and four tours of duty in these war zones. OUR TROOPS NEED OUR SUPPORT.
Senator Coburn MUST be asked – “Do you support our troops?” If he says yes – then you MUST ask “Why then, are you blocking this important legislation S. 1963, the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009?”
You may contact Senator Coburn in the following places:
Washington D.C.:
Phone: 202-224-5754
Fax: 202-224-6008
Tulsa:
Phone: 918-581-7651
Fax: 918-581-7195
Oklahoma City:
Phone: 405-231-4941
Fax: 405-231-5051
Now more than ever our Veterans need us. PLEASE, let's do them this little favor and really show our support. Phone or fax Senator Coburn and help get this bill passed.
Thank you.
07 April 2009
Reminding us of what's going on "over there"
For the first time in 18 years, the media is once again allowed to record the return of fallen military members as their flag-draped coffin(s) unload from the plane - as long as the family gives the okay.
We, as a nation, are far too detached from the wars we're involved in. I hope this helps remind everyone and make them question what we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson says in this interview, "We need to know."
We, as a nation, are far too detached from the wars we're involved in. I hope this helps remind everyone and make them question what we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson says in this interview, "We need to know."
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
20 October 2008
stunning photos
There are some incredibly stunning photos by PLATON at the New Yorker Online.
You can view the entire slide show here.
Photo courtesy of PLATON and The New Yorker
You can view the entire slide show here.
Photo courtesy of PLATON and The New Yorker
11 June 2008
06 June 2008
they really lied and there's hard proof of it
and it makes me want to scream that these people in the highest offices of our country won't be held accountable. SCREAM!
06 May 2008
This is an atrocity - I don't even know what to do about it.
There's a story that came out yesterday on Bloomberg that says:
"The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said."
Suicides will exceed combat deaths?
Something needs to be done about this and I don't even know where to begin since the MSM don't seem to want to make this a major issue by plastering it all over their newscasts and front pages.
I don't even know what to say. Where do you start?
For the few people that happen to read my blog, please do pass this information around. And if you happen to be a vet that reads this and you're experiencing depression or PTSD, there is help for you out there in form of your fellow soldiers and Marines. PLEASE contact VETS 4 VETS and get the help you so deservedly need.
"The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said."
Suicides will exceed combat deaths?
Something needs to be done about this and I don't even know where to begin since the MSM don't seem to want to make this a major issue by plastering it all over their newscasts and front pages.
I don't even know what to say. Where do you start?
For the few people that happen to read my blog, please do pass this information around. And if you happen to be a vet that reads this and you're experiencing depression or PTSD, there is help for you out there in form of your fellow soldiers and Marines. PLEASE contact VETS 4 VETS and get the help you so deservedly need.
01 May 2008
(un)happy anniversary
Today marks the fifth anniversary since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished"
This is the letter I wrote to him today....
Dear Mr. Bush,
Happy Anniversary!! It's been five years since you declared major combat operations over in Iraq. Since then more than 4000 American military members have died, more journalists than all other wars combined and countless Iraqis. You must be so proud.
Do you think I'll get a response?
This is the letter I wrote to him today....
Dear Mr. Bush,
Happy Anniversary!! It's been five years since you declared major combat operations over in Iraq. Since then more than 4000 American military members have died, more journalists than all other wars combined and countless Iraqis. You must be so proud.
Do you think I'll get a response?
09 April 2008
15 February 2008
"We will not fear any longer."
Keith Olbermann gives an impassioned and poignant special comment on his show Thursday, 14 February 2008. Please watch it.
14 November 2007
It was just Veteran's Day...
As I was driving home Tuesday night from the bus and listening to the news on my local CBS AM radio station, I caught the tail-end of a story they were simulcasting from the CBS Evening (TV) News. It was about the suicide rate among Iraq "War" Veterans and the information CBS News uncovered is astounding.
("CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information. And what it revealed was stunning. In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.)
I know this subject is kind of a bummer; However it gives me pause to think about the soldiers and Marines who managed to make it out of Iraq alive only to come home and kill themselves because of the inadequate support offered by the Veterans Administration, our government and the current administration who SWEARS they "Support the Troops"
It is clearly NOT okay that our returning troops don't get the care and support they so desprerately need and the information gets swept under the rug. This should be headline news!! EVERYONE should know about this!
That's why I'd like you (all three of my readers) to PLEASE go (I'm seriously begging here) read this story from CBS News and tell as many people as you know who will listen about this awful, awful thing. Ideally, the more people that know, the less the government can cover up what they're NOT doing for our armed forces.
And, if you happen to be a vet reading this, please check out Vets 4 Vets. It was started in 2005 "by a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam" FOR other Veterans as a means of support. Who better to talk about your experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan with than your fellow troops?
If you claim to support the troops, this is something you CANNOT turn your back on.
Namaste
("CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information. And what it revealed was stunning. In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.)
I know this subject is kind of a bummer; However it gives me pause to think about the soldiers and Marines who managed to make it out of Iraq alive only to come home and kill themselves because of the inadequate support offered by the Veterans Administration, our government and the current administration who SWEARS they "Support the Troops"
It is clearly NOT okay that our returning troops don't get the care and support they so desprerately need and the information gets swept under the rug. This should be headline news!! EVERYONE should know about this!
That's why I'd like you (all three of my readers) to PLEASE go (I'm seriously begging here) read this story from CBS News and tell as many people as you know who will listen about this awful, awful thing. Ideally, the more people that know, the less the government can cover up what they're NOT doing for our armed forces.
And, if you happen to be a vet reading this, please check out Vets 4 Vets. It was started in 2005 "by a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam" FOR other Veterans as a means of support. Who better to talk about your experiences in Iraq or Afghanistan with than your fellow troops?
If you claim to support the troops, this is something you CANNOT turn your back on.
Namaste
11 July 2007
cherry picking history
In one of the last pieces veteran reporter David Halberstam wrote for Vanity Fair before his untimely death in April of 2007, he examines how "Bush's "history," like his war, is based on wishful thinking, arrogance, and a total disdain for the facts."
"We are a long way from the glory days of Mission Accomplished, when the Iraq war was over before it was over—indeed before it really began—and the president could dress up like a fighter pilot and land on an aircraft carrier, and the nation, led by a pliable media, would applaud. Now, late in this sad, terribly diminished presidency, mired in an unwinnable war of their own making, and increasingly on the defensive about events which, to their surprise, they do not control, the president and his men have turned, with some degree of desperation, to history. In their view Iraq under Saddam was like Europe dominated by Hitler, and the Democrats and critics in the media are likened to the appeasers of the 1930s. The Iraqi people, shorn of their immensely complicated history, become either the people of Europe eager to be liberated from the Germans, or a little nation that great powerful nations ought to protect. Most recently in this history rummage sale—and perhaps most surprisingly—Bush has become Harry Truman." Read the rest by clicking this sentence...
"We are a long way from the glory days of Mission Accomplished, when the Iraq war was over before it was over—indeed before it really began—and the president could dress up like a fighter pilot and land on an aircraft carrier, and the nation, led by a pliable media, would applaud. Now, late in this sad, terribly diminished presidency, mired in an unwinnable war of their own making, and increasingly on the defensive about events which, to their surprise, they do not control, the president and his men have turned, with some degree of desperation, to history. In their view Iraq under Saddam was like Europe dominated by Hitler, and the Democrats and critics in the media are likened to the appeasers of the 1930s. The Iraqi people, shorn of their immensely complicated history, become either the people of Europe eager to be liberated from the Germans, or a little nation that great powerful nations ought to protect. Most recently in this history rummage sale—and perhaps most surprisingly—Bush has become Harry Truman." Read the rest by clicking this sentence...
27 April 2007
02 August 2006
WHERE is the oversight????
I am enraged by a story I just read on washingtonpost.com...
Click HERE for the complete article
The headline reads:
Much Undone In Rebuilding Iraq, Audit Says
Here are several choice quotes I plucked from the article that need further commenting:
"NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 1 -- A flailing Iraq reconstruction effort that has been dominated for more than three years by U.S. dollars and companies is being transferred to Iraqis, leaving them the challenge of completing a long list of projects left unfinished by the Americans.
While the handover is occurring gradually, it comes as U.S. money dwindles and American officials face a Sept. 30 deadline for choosing which projects to fund with the remaining $2 billion of the $21 billion rebuilding program. More than 500 planned projects have not been started, and the United States lacks a coherent plan for transferring authority to Iraqi control, a report released Tuesday concludes."
So we're handing back to Iraqis a stalled, actually FAILED, reconstruction effort that they should have been involved in in the first place.
This next part really takes the cake:
"This story is a very disappointing one. Everywhere you look, goals have not been achieved," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who will hold a hearing on the reconstruction today. "I don't think we can ever get back the billions of dollars that have been lost to poor planning, outright fraud and corruption."
"We paid for air conditioning and ended up with a ceiling fan," Dorgan said. "You had a big pot of money and you had a lot of hogs in the creek wallowing and shoving and grunting, trying to get some of it. It looks like they were a lot more effective at getting the money than they were at doing reconstruction."
So U.S. hired private contractors to do reconstruction work in Iraq, work that plenty of Iraqis were probably MORE than qualified to do. We spent, or squandered rather, billions... BILLIONS!!! of dollars for projects that 1. have NOT been completed or 2. have NOT been started, and yet these contractors STILL get paid!!!???!!?!?
WHY HASN'T A STOP PAYMENT BEEN PLACED ON THESE CHECKS??!!?!?!
If a private citizen hired a contractor to do work at their home and the contractor didn't show up for work and didn't complete the project, would it seem out of line to NOT pay the contractor for services NOT rendered?
Why should it be ANY different for THIS COUNTRY??
If the head of a company were to squander 21 BILLION dollars, that person would at the very least be fired and hopefully be thrown in jail AND asked to pay restitution. Hmm, wait... That DID happen to the head of a company. Does anyone remember ENRON???
WHERE is the oversight?
I REALLY hope that come this November, the Democrats take at least one of the Houses. They don't even have to take both... I'll settle for ONE... then maybe, JUST MAYBE we'll get some MUCH NEEDED oversight.
Click HERE for the complete article
The headline reads:
Much Undone In Rebuilding Iraq, Audit Says
Here are several choice quotes I plucked from the article that need further commenting:
"NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 1 -- A flailing Iraq reconstruction effort that has been dominated for more than three years by U.S. dollars and companies is being transferred to Iraqis, leaving them the challenge of completing a long list of projects left unfinished by the Americans.
While the handover is occurring gradually, it comes as U.S. money dwindles and American officials face a Sept. 30 deadline for choosing which projects to fund with the remaining $2 billion of the $21 billion rebuilding program. More than 500 planned projects have not been started, and the United States lacks a coherent plan for transferring authority to Iraqi control, a report released Tuesday concludes."
So we're handing back to Iraqis a stalled, actually FAILED, reconstruction effort that they should have been involved in in the first place.
This next part really takes the cake:
"This story is a very disappointing one. Everywhere you look, goals have not been achieved," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who will hold a hearing on the reconstruction today. "I don't think we can ever get back the billions of dollars that have been lost to poor planning, outright fraud and corruption."
"We paid for air conditioning and ended up with a ceiling fan," Dorgan said. "You had a big pot of money and you had a lot of hogs in the creek wallowing and shoving and grunting, trying to get some of it. It looks like they were a lot more effective at getting the money than they were at doing reconstruction."
So U.S. hired private contractors to do reconstruction work in Iraq, work that plenty of Iraqis were probably MORE than qualified to do. We spent, or squandered rather, billions... BILLIONS!!! of dollars for projects that 1. have NOT been completed or 2. have NOT been started, and yet these contractors STILL get paid!!!???!!?!?
WHY HASN'T A STOP PAYMENT BEEN PLACED ON THESE CHECKS??!!?!?!
If a private citizen hired a contractor to do work at their home and the contractor didn't show up for work and didn't complete the project, would it seem out of line to NOT pay the contractor for services NOT rendered?
Why should it be ANY different for THIS COUNTRY??
If the head of a company were to squander 21 BILLION dollars, that person would at the very least be fired and hopefully be thrown in jail AND asked to pay restitution. Hmm, wait... That DID happen to the head of a company. Does anyone remember ENRON???
WHERE is the oversight?
I REALLY hope that come this November, the Democrats take at least one of the Houses. They don't even have to take both... I'll settle for ONE... then maybe, JUST MAYBE we'll get some MUCH NEEDED oversight.
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