Last week a close friend and fellow activist was a victim of a home invasion. He was beaten and abused by the intruders while his female partner was made to sit and watch the brutal actions of the intruders.
There were six to eight of them coming and going in the couple’s home. They ransacked the place. They dumped drawers and personal belongings on the floor. They even went into their refrigerator.
Larry and Melissa had just returned from a long trip to visit her elderly grandfather and grandmother. They were tired and just wanting to watch the basketball game on the tube. Their evening was interrupted by loud banging on their door.
Shortly after the knocking and someone yelling at Larry to open the door the apartment was full of people abusing Larry and Melissa. They were pushed to the nearby futon couch. Their cats were terrorized with the strangers entering the place. When Melissa asked if the cats could be put in a locked room, there was no response. Larry attempted to stand up to take the cats to the locked rooms and was assaulted by a female in the mob.
He was pushed to the floor; part of his hair was literally pulled out by another thug. Later Larry would be punched and taunted by yet another intruder. His hands were bound. His shirt was nearly ripped from his body.
Melissa was forced to sit and watch as the man she loved was assaulted and terrorized by the group. She kept begging them not to hurt Larry.
Luckily in the end both Larry and Melissa survived the frightening and terror filled attack.
They didn’t call the police, however..
It was the Denver Police Department that committed this crime. They were the thugs entering Larry and Melissa’s home.
Larry has been a longtime activist in several areas of peace and justice here in the Denver area. One area he’s focused on has been police brutality. He and another longtime activist have often observed police arresting people on the streets of Denver and also in Aurora, the large suburb of Denver. They’ve even taken to using their camcorders to document the arrests of the police.
Recently a black brother was shot in the back by the Denver Police in a case of mistaken identity. The brother had a past criminal record that included theft or something of that order but nothing violent.
After the shooting the brother was sent to jail on a parole violation which wasn’t related to the shooting. Larry kept in touch with him and when he came back out on parole offered his apartment as a place for the brother to live.
An arrangement was made over the telephone with the parole officer of the brother coming out of prison. He would be allowed to stay with Larry and Melissa but would be subject to visits and searches of his living area in the apartment. There wasn’t an agreement that Larry and Melissa would be subject to search.
The parolee quickly got himself an evening job which was a godsend considering the difficulty of anybody having a criminal record getting employment. The night of the home invasion the parolee was at his work.
The banging on the door was by the Denver Police Department. They demanded entrance into Larry’s home for a parole visit. Larry explained to them the parolee was at work. They still demanded entry. Once Larry opened the door the ransacking and physical assaults began.
Larry asked to be shown badges and to be given business cards to have a record of who entered his home. In Denver there’s an ordinance the police are to provide business cards to anybody they contact if the card is asked for.
The police didn’t provide the cards asked for and shoved badges quickly into his face before pushing him to the futon.
During the reckless search of Larry’s apartment a bag with some bullets was discovered in a box of private possessions. Larry told the police the bullets were his that he hadn’t disposed of but there was no gun in the house. That admission seemed to only intensify the ransacking of Larry and Melissa’s belongings.
A short time later Larry was pushed to the floor on his stomach when he stood up to rescue the cats. His standing only occurred after several requests by Melissa and Larry to let them secure the cats in a locked area so they couldn’t run away through the door the police kept opening and shutting. He announced to the police he was going to secure the cats.
A policewoman put an arm lock on one of Larry’s arms by twisting it behind his back and pulling it upward toward his shoulders. His other arm was pinned under his body. Two large policemen sat on top of Larry pushing him into the floor face down. One of them began pulling at Larry’s hair and pulled two handfuls out by the roots.
During this time of the assault police were yelling at Larry to quit resisting. Larry weighs less than 150 pounds and wasn’t resisting by his own account. Melissa witnessed the takedown and following actions and also says Larry wasn’t resisting.
The police finally picked Larry up with his hands cuffed behind him. He was in socks only, wearing a ripped tee shirt and a thin flannel pair of trousers. He was pushed out of his apartment and down a set of stairs to the building entrance. He stumbled at the top of the stairs and was dragged by the hand-cuffed arms out into the 30 degree night.
They pushed Larry up against one of the squad cars standing. A policeman came from behind Larry and pushed down on the hand cuffs with great pressure causing circulation problems. Larry asked him to stop the painful tactic. The policeman pushed his face toward Larry and told him “we can do a lot worse”
Larry lost it at that point and called the guy a “pig”. Larry’s head was pushed into the side of the car before he was pushed down into the back seat.
He was taken to an unidentified precinct station. There he was placed in a paddy wagon with three or four other males. All were either black or Latino. One of the other prisoners holding a sweat shirt offered it to Larry when he saw him shivering in the cold wintry night.
From there Larry was taken to city jail and booked for interference. He had been told earlier he would be booked as a “John Doe” so he’d spend at least three days in lock up and possibly be placed on a mental health hold because he’d been observed trying to harm himself during the melee at his apartment.
Meanwhile, Melissa was left behind at the apartment as the ransacking continued. She was handcuffed to a chair during that time. The police eventually left the apartment freeing Melissa from the cuffs. She immediately set about trying to bail Larry out of the jail. The jail only accepts credit cards or cash for bail. Melissa and Larry don’t have credit cards. So, Melissa had to use five hundred dollars intended for the monthly rent to post bail for Larry. He wasn’t set free until the next morning.
He left with bruises and scrapes. He was stiff and aching from being sat on. His wrists were swollen from the tightening of the cuffs.
If it hasn’t become obvious by now, Larry is a black male. He wears dred-locks. He is employed. He doesn’t use drugs, doesn’t drink and doesn’t possess a fire-arm. The bullets had sat around for years.
I can recall having a sock full of rounds for a rifle I no longer own laying in my dresser drawer in my bedroom for many years. I didn’t want to dispose of them carelessly. The thought of a child or even a garbage guy being harmed by one exploding always crossed my mind. So, the presence of bullets isn’t something that would alarm me. Having them isn’t illegal and there wasn’t a gun for them.
Back in the 70’s I used to work with a VVAW member who was also the local director of the Black Panther breakfast program. He was a beautiful soul that always spoke softly and always maintained a sense of great dignity. He always respected other people around him.
The brother had lost part of his foot in Vietnam from a booby-trap. He later lost his leg up to his thigh after poor medical care at an Army hospital resulted in gangrene. He was also given narcotics for his pain and became addicted. He was weaned off the narcotics by his family. The Army and the VA failed to even recognize he’d become addicted.
During the time I knew this brother the Denver Police Department made almost weekly raids of his home. His wife and three kids were usually there when the raids occurred.
His wife was a joyous woman who dearly loved her kids and husband. And she could keep up with the best of us in political activism.
I visited their home on several occasions and saw the aftermath of the police raids. Wall paneling was stripped off to look into the joist spaces. Kitchen equipment was thrown about, drawers emptied, beds overturned and clothing thrown about the rooms following searches.
There was always some “tip” about drugs and weapons that justified the raids in the Denver Police Department’s way of thinking.
On several occasions the brother was thrown to the floor in front of his kids and wife. One time he was raided in the middle of the night. The Vietnam veteran responded as most of us would. He became ready to fight. He was attacked by a number of police, his prosthetic for the amputation stub was kicked out from under him and he was cuffed face down on his bedroom floor as his crying children looked on.
It would have been damn easy for this brother to become bitter and hostile toward my white face coming into his world after the many raids by the police who were always white. Instead this brother never wavered in his kindness toward me. He and I continued to work in VVAW to bring the troops home. Both of us testified at the local Winter Soldier’s Investigation the last weekend of June 1971.
He and his wife also fed me from their organic garden, showed me how to mulch and use different planting methods. My wife often came with me to visit and they came to our home to visit.
I marveled at Butch’s resolve and courage in the face of the harassment and violence the Denver Police inflicted on him because he was black, a Black Panther and a member of a rogue veteran group, VVAW.
This last week all those memories of Butch and his family came back to me when I read Larry’s email describing the police home invasion. Larry reminds me a lot of Butch because he also demonstrates a quiet dignity and great resolve for justice. He may appear slight in stature but his heart is courage personified.
A group of Denver activists appeared in front of Denver Police Headquarters last evening. It was probably the most diverse group I’ve seen in some time here in Denver. We all seemed to think it was a shame it always takes outrageous violence such as that imposed on Larry and Melissa to bring us together.
Here in Denver the brutality of the police is not uncommon. We’re probably second or third in police shootings in the U.S.. There’s been so many cases of brutality and accidental shootings they seem to dilute the responses of the citizenry. And because they’re almost always people of color victimized the outcry is limited.
I’ve grown old and seen the Civil Rights Movement come and then erode over the years. I’ve seen leaders assassinated if they challenged the status quo. I heard the dream of Martin Luther King spoken by Martin. I heard the outrage of Malcolm X spoken by Malcolm. I remember the dogs and fire hoses being shown on television screens from places like Montgomery and Selma. I remember the Watts riots. I remember the death of Martin as I sat in Vietnam wondering what was happening to this nation. Later I heard the report of Robert’s assassination over Armed Forces Radio while in Vietnam. I wasn’t surprised. I wasn’t surprised by the riot of police at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
I quit being surprised at history repeating itself. I look at Iraq and see the veterans coming back and they appear with the same thousand yard stare and weariness Vietnam vets brought back from their war. I hear of police brutality and remember Butch. I remember walking down a Capitol Hill street in the summer of 1970 with another veteran. We crossed an alleyway and looked down the alley to see two Denver policemen “working over” a suspect on the hood of their car. They were beating him with their long metal jacketed flashlights. His face had large welts and bruises. His nose was bleeding. He was drooling blood from his mouth.
My friend and I approached the scene almost running toward the cops. We demanded to know why they were beating the brown skinned man who was obviously subdued. One of them drew his pistol on us, He told us to back “the fuck up” or he’d shoot us. He was clearly serious.
I was sickened by what I’d seen and the lack of power I felt. I was sickened to leave the Chicano brother in the hands of the two thugs. There were no cell phones to call such a thing in to somebody. And it was a wasted call because like today there was no accountability for police brutality.
Let’s not think the attack on Larry and Melissa was a purely racist act. It surely was a racist act but it was also an attack on thoughts and ideas. It was an attack on the freedom to dissent and challenge authority run amuck. It was an attack on all of us. But the black man or the brown man or some other non-white gets to take the physical pounding for us all.
And this is only one form of the attack. The daily rousting of non-whites by white cops is an attack. The daily slurs of the “cowboy” cop against a poor neighborhood are an attack. The daily differential treatment of whites compared to non-whites by cops is an attack. Continued racial profiling is an attack. One look at the prison system is abundant evidence of attack.
Serve and protect means nothing when all that is served is the system that continues to oppress and all that is protected is the status quo of white power. Police want respect but think it comes at the end of a baton or from the barrel of a gun. That same attitude is the attitude of occupation being used in Iraq. The “thin blue line” of police covering each other’s ass even when brutality occurs is the same mindset of the military covering up the atrocities of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The “movement” is splintered and the attacks will continue until there are ten or twenty activists standing behind activists like Larry and Melissa. Every time a beating goes down by rogue cops the numbers of the movement should grow.
Will we confront the new “dogs and fire hoses” of this day and age as Martin and his brothers and sisters did? Or will we allow Larry and Melissa and all the other brothers and sisters beaten to go it alone?
Wm Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat vet (Vietnam ’67-’69)
Tuesday, December 4
Monday, December 3
Losing the Battles at Home
I checked my email in the middle of the night as I’m prone to do and found a note from a friend informing me of the death of another Iraq veteran. She had killed herself. She had returned home from the horrors of war but couldn’t endure staying alive once home.
I didn’t know who the vet was until a day or so later. I kept remembering the faces of the Iraq veterans I marched with from Mobile to New Orleans back in 2006 and prayed it hadn’t been one of them. But that made no sense, either. It was still another young life stolen from this country by the masters of war who have betrayed all the young troops they sent to their illegal and immoral war.
The suicide of veterans hasn’t been a well hidden secret by the war-mongers. The secondary body count of war stacks up by the month and mental health experts voice an alarm they failed to voice when this war first began.
After multiple deployments and separations from family and friends the American military has reached a crisis of fatigue and disillusionment not known since Vietnam. Only this crisis exceeds the one seen in the troops of Vietnam. PTSD, traumatic brain injury and suicides are coming at a far greater rate than seen in Vietnam. The VA and the military healthcare systems have failed to keep up following years of cuts from a Congress and Executive Branch long ago out of touch with the real people they send to die.
The sons and daughters of America dying in the dirty little war for oil and profit aren’t the sons and daughters of the American “elite” and rich. They are the sons and daughters of the urban centers of America, the farmlands of America and the disappearing middle-class of America.
The ultimate betrayal of the American young is that few of the old cynical bastards in government have ever put their lives on the line for the “homeland” they constantly claim to protect. The regime of the Bush administration has fomented fear and hysteria but a closer look at the architects of war will show they “were too busy” or had other reasons not to serve in the military they so easily send to die.
The voluntary military created to avoid the resistance caused by the draft in Vietnam has allowed most Americans to “go shopping at the mall” while soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen and women soak the desert sands with their blood.
Yellow ribbons adorn the SUV’s and ever larger oil and gas consuming trucks and cars of this nation while the forgotten volunteers die to protect the continued gluttony and consumption by the drivers claiming to “support” the troops.
The silence of the American public is the greatest betrayal to these troops. They still allow the Bush regime to commit their criminal acts and steal their Constitutional rights. They still continue to allow sleazy politicians of both parties to sell their souls and influence to the corporate masters of war without holding them accountable. They still allow fear and jingoistic hysteria to immobilize them. They still allow corporations to steal their wages and benefits while the corporate profit margins reach the highest levels in history.
The silence of the moral leaders of this nation is a compelling repudiation of their morality. Church leaders fall in line with Bush and his group of evangelical fanatics in apparent attempt to gain advantage against the Islamic world and to reap profit from a voucher system for the failing public schools. They fail to lead against a corrupted government that time and again has allowed injustice and oppression to flourish. They fail to implicate the Bush administration for their neglect of the poor, the hungry and homeless.
Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel and Blackwater will forever be known as the beneficiaries of American tax payer dollars going down the drain. A trillion dollars later, Iraq still remains a country without an infrastructure and worse off than it was before the great boondoggle of “shock and awe”. 8 billion dollars left in the hands of Paul Bremer somehow came up missing and unaccounted for. Blackwater bullies start a riot in Fallujah, get killed and the entire city is bombed back to the Stone Age. Halliburton/KBR are given no bid contracts, hire slave labor and skim millions if not billions by charging two to three times to haul oil as the local Iraqi oil company. Empty tankers escorted by American troops are sent out onto roads full of IED’s and possible ambushes simply to justify billing millions of dollars for work not done.
Meanwhile young American troops are getting head injuries, amputations and mental trauma in an unjustified war and return home to shallow promises of care. Many present with classic signs of PTSD and are court-martialed for bad conduct or given personality disorder diagnoses. Instead of treatment they are discharged and made ineligible for benefits.
The abuses of troops following wars are nothing new. From WWI to Iraq the American people have promised their war veterans they would be taken care of when they returned. Following every war the veterans were left to fend for themselves or subjected to bureaucratic stalls to prevent them from getting what had been promised.
Mustard gas, nerve gas, Agent Orange and depleted uranium are only a small list of toxic and deadly agents troops have been subjected to during the many wars of protecting American “freedoms”. Not only are few veterans given the necessary treatment but the nations polluted by the toxins are left to care for the innocents subjected to them. The numbers of innocent are ten times more than the troops affected.
Over 800,000 individuals are still waiting for entry into the VAMC system for needed care. Most are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Of the 230,000 individuals from those wars who have gained some form of treatment at the VA, 84,000 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. The stories of young men and women dying on return from combat grow. The stories of spouses and children abused by untreated veterans from these wars grow. Stories of homicide, substance abuse, acts of violence and other adjustment problems on return from combat grow.
New studies, new reports and new investigations reveal what every veteran knows. The systems meant to support, to treat and to welcome back the young men and women sent to the killing fields of war aren’t doing the job.
Imagine being the parent or spouse or child of one of these veterans who survived the combat only to come home and lose the battle for life in a dark cloud of despair that leads to suicide. Imagine how much despair and hopelessness it takes to reach a decision to end your own life.
Politicians use “support the troops” as a mantra to show their patriotism, flag wavers use yellow ribbons to say support the troops, peace activists let the troops speak against the war but seldom about their problems, mental health experts decry the conditions of the care available and everybody says they want the best for them but each day more die in despair or their rage boils over and ruins a life.
These expressions of concern ring hollow. The actions needed to avoid another young woman who recently killed herself or another young man who got in a stand off with police is missing. That is the stark testimony of how we really support the troops.
William T. Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran (Vietnam ’67-’69)
I didn’t know who the vet was until a day or so later. I kept remembering the faces of the Iraq veterans I marched with from Mobile to New Orleans back in 2006 and prayed it hadn’t been one of them. But that made no sense, either. It was still another young life stolen from this country by the masters of war who have betrayed all the young troops they sent to their illegal and immoral war.
The suicide of veterans hasn’t been a well hidden secret by the war-mongers. The secondary body count of war stacks up by the month and mental health experts voice an alarm they failed to voice when this war first began.
After multiple deployments and separations from family and friends the American military has reached a crisis of fatigue and disillusionment not known since Vietnam. Only this crisis exceeds the one seen in the troops of Vietnam. PTSD, traumatic brain injury and suicides are coming at a far greater rate than seen in Vietnam. The VA and the military healthcare systems have failed to keep up following years of cuts from a Congress and Executive Branch long ago out of touch with the real people they send to die.
The sons and daughters of America dying in the dirty little war for oil and profit aren’t the sons and daughters of the American “elite” and rich. They are the sons and daughters of the urban centers of America, the farmlands of America and the disappearing middle-class of America.
The ultimate betrayal of the American young is that few of the old cynical bastards in government have ever put their lives on the line for the “homeland” they constantly claim to protect. The regime of the Bush administration has fomented fear and hysteria but a closer look at the architects of war will show they “were too busy” or had other reasons not to serve in the military they so easily send to die.
The voluntary military created to avoid the resistance caused by the draft in Vietnam has allowed most Americans to “go shopping at the mall” while soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen and women soak the desert sands with their blood.
Yellow ribbons adorn the SUV’s and ever larger oil and gas consuming trucks and cars of this nation while the forgotten volunteers die to protect the continued gluttony and consumption by the drivers claiming to “support” the troops.
The silence of the American public is the greatest betrayal to these troops. They still allow the Bush regime to commit their criminal acts and steal their Constitutional rights. They still continue to allow sleazy politicians of both parties to sell their souls and influence to the corporate masters of war without holding them accountable. They still allow fear and jingoistic hysteria to immobilize them. They still allow corporations to steal their wages and benefits while the corporate profit margins reach the highest levels in history.
The silence of the moral leaders of this nation is a compelling repudiation of their morality. Church leaders fall in line with Bush and his group of evangelical fanatics in apparent attempt to gain advantage against the Islamic world and to reap profit from a voucher system for the failing public schools. They fail to lead against a corrupted government that time and again has allowed injustice and oppression to flourish. They fail to implicate the Bush administration for their neglect of the poor, the hungry and homeless.
Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel and Blackwater will forever be known as the beneficiaries of American tax payer dollars going down the drain. A trillion dollars later, Iraq still remains a country without an infrastructure and worse off than it was before the great boondoggle of “shock and awe”. 8 billion dollars left in the hands of Paul Bremer somehow came up missing and unaccounted for. Blackwater bullies start a riot in Fallujah, get killed and the entire city is bombed back to the Stone Age. Halliburton/KBR are given no bid contracts, hire slave labor and skim millions if not billions by charging two to three times to haul oil as the local Iraqi oil company. Empty tankers escorted by American troops are sent out onto roads full of IED’s and possible ambushes simply to justify billing millions of dollars for work not done.
Meanwhile young American troops are getting head injuries, amputations and mental trauma in an unjustified war and return home to shallow promises of care. Many present with classic signs of PTSD and are court-martialed for bad conduct or given personality disorder diagnoses. Instead of treatment they are discharged and made ineligible for benefits.
The abuses of troops following wars are nothing new. From WWI to Iraq the American people have promised their war veterans they would be taken care of when they returned. Following every war the veterans were left to fend for themselves or subjected to bureaucratic stalls to prevent them from getting what had been promised.
Mustard gas, nerve gas, Agent Orange and depleted uranium are only a small list of toxic and deadly agents troops have been subjected to during the many wars of protecting American “freedoms”. Not only are few veterans given the necessary treatment but the nations polluted by the toxins are left to care for the innocents subjected to them. The numbers of innocent are ten times more than the troops affected.
Over 800,000 individuals are still waiting for entry into the VAMC system for needed care. Most are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Of the 230,000 individuals from those wars who have gained some form of treatment at the VA, 84,000 have been diagnosed with mental health problems. The stories of young men and women dying on return from combat grow. The stories of spouses and children abused by untreated veterans from these wars grow. Stories of homicide, substance abuse, acts of violence and other adjustment problems on return from combat grow.
New studies, new reports and new investigations reveal what every veteran knows. The systems meant to support, to treat and to welcome back the young men and women sent to the killing fields of war aren’t doing the job.
Imagine being the parent or spouse or child of one of these veterans who survived the combat only to come home and lose the battle for life in a dark cloud of despair that leads to suicide. Imagine how much despair and hopelessness it takes to reach a decision to end your own life.
Politicians use “support the troops” as a mantra to show their patriotism, flag wavers use yellow ribbons to say support the troops, peace activists let the troops speak against the war but seldom about their problems, mental health experts decry the conditions of the care available and everybody says they want the best for them but each day more die in despair or their rage boils over and ruins a life.
These expressions of concern ring hollow. The actions needed to avoid another young woman who recently killed herself or another young man who got in a stand off with police is missing. That is the stark testimony of how we really support the troops.
William T. Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran (Vietnam ’67-’69)
Monday, November 12
Veterans Day
Every Veterans Day is a time I hate. It depresses and outrages me.
This year the local parade was the center of attention for the veterans in the peace movement in Denver. At first they were told they wouldn’t be allowed to march with the other veterans in the traditionally poor attended Veterans Day Parade. The reason given by a group called by the oxymoron, United Veterans Council, was the Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Iraq Veterans Against the War had chanted, “troops out now” at last year’s parade. That was a political statement which the “council” wanted to avoid. Not sure if it was the troops out now or the political statement they meant.
I attended last year’s parade despite my great dislike for such events and don’t remember the chanting. I know I didn’t chant. I do remember quite a bit of spectator applause along the route despite our group being last in line.
I do remember seeing the “Young Marines” atop a float raising the flag ala Iwo Jima. The poor kids had to maintain that position throughout the parade route. But I’m sure they were proud and honored to do it.
Now that was a political statement to see young kids dressed in combat gear imitating Ira Hayes and friends!!
How much more political does it get than to indoctrinate young boys ten or eleven years old to the fine arts of combat? Of course, no doubt those young kids were playing the latest version of “Call to Duty” on their X-Box or Wii play stations already.
The VFP and others decided at first they would do a counter march along the side walk at the parade since they were being excluded in the “official” march. It had been suggested they march in back of the street sweepers without a permit if the Denver Police Department refused to provide their permission. The police did as expected and refused to issue another permit for the same parade.
I was of the opinion the veterans opposing the war should take a chance of being arrested and walk behind the street sweepers anyway. What better symbol of this nation’s disregard for all veterans than walking behind street sweepers? After all, the Bush administration has tried since the war began to sweep the veterans’ issues under any convenient rug they could. Budget cuts and abuse of active duty and National Guard troops in multiple rotations to an illegal and immoral war are only the beginning of the administration’s lack of respect for the individual troop.
The leadership of the local VFP and other groups weren’t of the mind to risk arrest, however. I wasn’t surprised at all by that decision. The timidity of the peace movement’s veterans groups in Colorado has been an ongoing thing that has kept me from being a full participant in group actions and attendance at meetings.
I’ve grown really tired of the constant tactical scheme of marches, parades, rallies and speeches by the peace movement.
The urgency of young men and women dying in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to warrant a greater sense of urgency by the “movement” instead of weekend events and a return to normal following them.
The urgency of probably a million Iraqis dead since 2003 because of the war seems to warrant greater reactions than time consuming organization of rallies and marches.
The continued budget cuts of human services and all aspects of social safety net programs across the nation while 500 billion dollars drains into the bloody soil of Iraq and Afghanistan seems to warrant an attitude of outrage followed by outrageousness.
But the reality has been the “movement” holds out the deluded hope it can bring the end to the wars and the changes to government through the electoral process in place across this nation. The elections of 2006 were said to be a referendum on the war and the results were a clear message citizens of this country wanted it ended.
The response of the newly elected Democratic controlled Congress has been a classic demonstration of cowardice of politicians lacking a moral compass. Their only compass has pointed toward the green fields of cash offered by special interest groups.
And still the peace movement fails to change tactical strategies! The movement congratulates itself on lying down in the streets of America to be arrested in the
“catch and release” tactic of civil disobedience (often coordinated with officials of government and police to avoid anyone being upset). It hails the large rallies in Washington D.C. with hundreds of thousands of activists as a symbol of resistance when in truth they are the same people from the last rally and the rally before that.
They continue to be the same choir of voices that have been ignored by the general population, the press and certainly the Congress and the administration.
The veterans’ peace groups continue to follow suit with the same strategy. I’ve attended two actions that could be called grass roots; the Camp Casey event in Crawford, Texas in August of 2005 and the Veterans and Survivors March in spring of 2006.
Camp Casey became engulfed by the groups like United For Peace and Justice that wanted on the Cindy Sheehan bandwagon. Pretty soon it became indistinguishable from the rest of the movement.
The Veterans and Survivors March drew international attention but couldn’t sustain the momentum because too few of us were willing to forsake our lives to attend to the crisis we have in our nation. Instead we wait for the next election or the next Cindy Sheehan to galvanize us to action. While we wait the erosion of rights and the continued takeover of the nation by the “ghost government” epitomized by Blackwater destroys what little semblance of freedom and democracy we have left.
The Veterans Day Parade in Denver took place on Saturday, November 10, 2007 before a meager crowd along a route near the State Capitol and the City and County of Denver Civic Center. The United Veterans Council relented and allowed the veterans opposing the war to march after pressure from the city’s mayor. The national Veterans For Peace took credit for creating a letter writing campaign.
The grand result of the Veterans Day Parade in Denver was a four day media mention for the anti-war veterans. The veterans who marched got a few seconds of airtime on local television news. Some chose to march in their old uniforms and resembled the other veterans in the parade dressed in uniform. Some chose to wear the uniform of the antiwar movement which seems to be tee shirts with organizational emblems and banners and posters with three or four word quips like “Troops Out Now”.
In Iraq, troops continued to be killed despite parades and graveside memorials. New studies came out indicating one of four homeless people in America is a veteran. One in four (or more) of the prison population is a veteran. Nearly five hundred confirmed suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have occurred. One of every three veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan has required some mental health treatment. The infrastructure of Iraq remains in ruin. Potable water in most of Iraq remains scarce. Childhood cancer rates in Iraq continue to soar. Depleted uranium in Iraq continues to be used. Healthcare access for returned veterans of all wars remains inadequate for the needs. The nation’s safety net programs, educational programs and human service programs continue inadequate because of funding shortages. Living wages and employment security continue as problems. Thirty to forty percent of all Americans remain uninsured for healthcare. Unions continue to dwindle and die while the cost of living, cost of transportation and the cost of gasoline rises at record rates. Housing has recorded the highest foreclosure rate in history. Environmental consequences of neglect and abuse are now being seen in epic storms, fires and pollution. The American economy is on the verge of collapse under the weight of debt caused by endless war.
This list of conditions that should elicit outrage is only partially complete. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, religious oppression and fanaticism, child abuse, domestic violence and gun violence should also be mentioned.
And the “movement” response to the outrage? The continued use of rallies marches and parades! Don’t like something going on in your world? Go to the rally on Saturday. Help organize the march for the Democratic convention in Denver. Write a letter, sign a petition, email a congress person. And then go shopping because there’s a hell of a lot of bargains for Veterans Day!!
I watched the footage of the parade on the late news Saturday, the 10th. I saw vets in uniforms looking proud because they’d served their country in time of war. I saw marching units of ROTC, Army, Navy, Marine and Navy. I saw high school marching squads. I saw veterans for peace, many in uniform marching, with the same prideful appearance. And I wondered. What do we have to be proud about? What pride is there in that uniform we wore to war? Do veterans who profess to be about peace still take pride in their “service”? Should I take pride in seeing the after effects of napalm strikes on a village in the Danang area? Should I take pride in burning down other villages and creating refugees? Should I take pride in watching as a form of “water-boarding” and torture is used on a female prisoner by military intelligence officers accompanying my unit on a patrol in which she’s to show us enemy positions? Should I take pride in a body count when another Marine decided to extract gold teeth from the dead? Should I take comfort in a prisoner hit in the face with a metal entrenching tool by another Marine?
What the hell am I supposed to be proud of doing? What pride do I derive from my alleged service to my country, guys?? What victory is there in fifteen minutes of media coverage for a parade that glorifies war and the poor bastards who die and are wounded in war? Is Semper Fi supposed to make me feel all warm with unit pride?
I take no pride. I want nothing to do with any uniform. I detest a military state of mind that allows for the destruction of human life and fails to meet the basic needs of humans worldwide.
When will the outrage be enough that parades, marches and rallies are no longer enough?
This year the local parade was the center of attention for the veterans in the peace movement in Denver. At first they were told they wouldn’t be allowed to march with the other veterans in the traditionally poor attended Veterans Day Parade. The reason given by a group called by the oxymoron, United Veterans Council, was the Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Iraq Veterans Against the War had chanted, “troops out now” at last year’s parade. That was a political statement which the “council” wanted to avoid. Not sure if it was the troops out now or the political statement they meant.
I attended last year’s parade despite my great dislike for such events and don’t remember the chanting. I know I didn’t chant. I do remember quite a bit of spectator applause along the route despite our group being last in line.
I do remember seeing the “Young Marines” atop a float raising the flag ala Iwo Jima. The poor kids had to maintain that position throughout the parade route. But I’m sure they were proud and honored to do it.
Now that was a political statement to see young kids dressed in combat gear imitating Ira Hayes and friends!!
How much more political does it get than to indoctrinate young boys ten or eleven years old to the fine arts of combat? Of course, no doubt those young kids were playing the latest version of “Call to Duty” on their X-Box or Wii play stations already.
The VFP and others decided at first they would do a counter march along the side walk at the parade since they were being excluded in the “official” march. It had been suggested they march in back of the street sweepers without a permit if the Denver Police Department refused to provide their permission. The police did as expected and refused to issue another permit for the same parade.
I was of the opinion the veterans opposing the war should take a chance of being arrested and walk behind the street sweepers anyway. What better symbol of this nation’s disregard for all veterans than walking behind street sweepers? After all, the Bush administration has tried since the war began to sweep the veterans’ issues under any convenient rug they could. Budget cuts and abuse of active duty and National Guard troops in multiple rotations to an illegal and immoral war are only the beginning of the administration’s lack of respect for the individual troop.
The leadership of the local VFP and other groups weren’t of the mind to risk arrest, however. I wasn’t surprised at all by that decision. The timidity of the peace movement’s veterans groups in Colorado has been an ongoing thing that has kept me from being a full participant in group actions and attendance at meetings.
I’ve grown really tired of the constant tactical scheme of marches, parades, rallies and speeches by the peace movement.
The urgency of young men and women dying in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to warrant a greater sense of urgency by the “movement” instead of weekend events and a return to normal following them.
The urgency of probably a million Iraqis dead since 2003 because of the war seems to warrant greater reactions than time consuming organization of rallies and marches.
The continued budget cuts of human services and all aspects of social safety net programs across the nation while 500 billion dollars drains into the bloody soil of Iraq and Afghanistan seems to warrant an attitude of outrage followed by outrageousness.
But the reality has been the “movement” holds out the deluded hope it can bring the end to the wars and the changes to government through the electoral process in place across this nation. The elections of 2006 were said to be a referendum on the war and the results were a clear message citizens of this country wanted it ended.
The response of the newly elected Democratic controlled Congress has been a classic demonstration of cowardice of politicians lacking a moral compass. Their only compass has pointed toward the green fields of cash offered by special interest groups.
And still the peace movement fails to change tactical strategies! The movement congratulates itself on lying down in the streets of America to be arrested in the
“catch and release” tactic of civil disobedience (often coordinated with officials of government and police to avoid anyone being upset). It hails the large rallies in Washington D.C. with hundreds of thousands of activists as a symbol of resistance when in truth they are the same people from the last rally and the rally before that.
They continue to be the same choir of voices that have been ignored by the general population, the press and certainly the Congress and the administration.
The veterans’ peace groups continue to follow suit with the same strategy. I’ve attended two actions that could be called grass roots; the Camp Casey event in Crawford, Texas in August of 2005 and the Veterans and Survivors March in spring of 2006.
Camp Casey became engulfed by the groups like United For Peace and Justice that wanted on the Cindy Sheehan bandwagon. Pretty soon it became indistinguishable from the rest of the movement.
The Veterans and Survivors March drew international attention but couldn’t sustain the momentum because too few of us were willing to forsake our lives to attend to the crisis we have in our nation. Instead we wait for the next election or the next Cindy Sheehan to galvanize us to action. While we wait the erosion of rights and the continued takeover of the nation by the “ghost government” epitomized by Blackwater destroys what little semblance of freedom and democracy we have left.
The Veterans Day Parade in Denver took place on Saturday, November 10, 2007 before a meager crowd along a route near the State Capitol and the City and County of Denver Civic Center. The United Veterans Council relented and allowed the veterans opposing the war to march after pressure from the city’s mayor. The national Veterans For Peace took credit for creating a letter writing campaign.
The grand result of the Veterans Day Parade in Denver was a four day media mention for the anti-war veterans. The veterans who marched got a few seconds of airtime on local television news. Some chose to march in their old uniforms and resembled the other veterans in the parade dressed in uniform. Some chose to wear the uniform of the antiwar movement which seems to be tee shirts with organizational emblems and banners and posters with three or four word quips like “Troops Out Now”.
In Iraq, troops continued to be killed despite parades and graveside memorials. New studies came out indicating one of four homeless people in America is a veteran. One in four (or more) of the prison population is a veteran. Nearly five hundred confirmed suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have occurred. One of every three veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan has required some mental health treatment. The infrastructure of Iraq remains in ruin. Potable water in most of Iraq remains scarce. Childhood cancer rates in Iraq continue to soar. Depleted uranium in Iraq continues to be used. Healthcare access for returned veterans of all wars remains inadequate for the needs. The nation’s safety net programs, educational programs and human service programs continue inadequate because of funding shortages. Living wages and employment security continue as problems. Thirty to forty percent of all Americans remain uninsured for healthcare. Unions continue to dwindle and die while the cost of living, cost of transportation and the cost of gasoline rises at record rates. Housing has recorded the highest foreclosure rate in history. Environmental consequences of neglect and abuse are now being seen in epic storms, fires and pollution. The American economy is on the verge of collapse under the weight of debt caused by endless war.
This list of conditions that should elicit outrage is only partially complete. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, religious oppression and fanaticism, child abuse, domestic violence and gun violence should also be mentioned.
And the “movement” response to the outrage? The continued use of rallies marches and parades! Don’t like something going on in your world? Go to the rally on Saturday. Help organize the march for the Democratic convention in Denver. Write a letter, sign a petition, email a congress person. And then go shopping because there’s a hell of a lot of bargains for Veterans Day!!
I watched the footage of the parade on the late news Saturday, the 10th. I saw vets in uniforms looking proud because they’d served their country in time of war. I saw marching units of ROTC, Army, Navy, Marine and Navy. I saw high school marching squads. I saw veterans for peace, many in uniform marching, with the same prideful appearance. And I wondered. What do we have to be proud about? What pride is there in that uniform we wore to war? Do veterans who profess to be about peace still take pride in their “service”? Should I take pride in seeing the after effects of napalm strikes on a village in the Danang area? Should I take pride in burning down other villages and creating refugees? Should I take pride in watching as a form of “water-boarding” and torture is used on a female prisoner by military intelligence officers accompanying my unit on a patrol in which she’s to show us enemy positions? Should I take pride in a body count when another Marine decided to extract gold teeth from the dead? Should I take comfort in a prisoner hit in the face with a metal entrenching tool by another Marine?
What the hell am I supposed to be proud of doing? What pride do I derive from my alleged service to my country, guys?? What victory is there in fifteen minutes of media coverage for a parade that glorifies war and the poor bastards who die and are wounded in war? Is Semper Fi supposed to make me feel all warm with unit pride?
I take no pride. I want nothing to do with any uniform. I detest a military state of mind that allows for the destruction of human life and fails to meet the basic needs of humans worldwide.
When will the outrage be enough that parades, marches and rallies are no longer enough?
Damn Liars!
I sit again in the darkness of my soul with the hour late and my life ever older,
I see the liars of the war clearly from the left and right probing at the wounds.
The masters of war want more, more, more and the peace groups always less,
But both care little ‘bout the wounded, the maimed or the dead of war.
Both say they do but their actions say they don’t. They lie to us and lie to themselves.
The masters of war carry on for the profit of the dead and maimed they’ve caused.
The liberals and progressives only see the warriors as a tool for their personal use.
Both groups use the warriors and victims to prove the other wrong and themselves right.
Both claim moral superiority but both lie and care little but for themselves.
Both claim loyalty but their actions of deceit and falsehoods show them as cowards.
They preen and clamor to have themselves famous and seen for all to know them.
They make a drama and a play of the dead and wounded; the scarred and traumatized.
They use the soldiers and their victims as tools to seek their fame and abandon them.
They move on to their next victims of their little play and toss them out as well.
War is their play, their moral way, their passion and their constant cry for fame.
War is their pulpit to debate the morality of their particular political thought and belief.
War keeps them relevant and at odds with one another as the tools die and bleed for them.
Liberal, progressive, right, conservative, left, moderate; they’re all the same.
They talk and talk while soldiers die in battle or die at home for lack of caring.
They talk and talk while children die from the soldiers’ weapons and lack of concern.
Talk is cheap and useless while others die, starve, thirst and fester from their wars.
Don’t be fooled by the patriotic fervor of the masters of war flying their flags so high.
Don’t be fooled by the peace groups’ rallies and marches incessantly all the same.
Neither side wants the war to really end and peace to reign in their separate worlds.
For the end of war would strip them of their stage, their drama and their reason for being.
Liars, damn liars, filthy liars, fucking liars, liars of the left, liars of the right; all liars!!
I see the liars of the war clearly from the left and right probing at the wounds.
The masters of war want more, more, more and the peace groups always less,
But both care little ‘bout the wounded, the maimed or the dead of war.
Both say they do but their actions say they don’t. They lie to us and lie to themselves.
The masters of war carry on for the profit of the dead and maimed they’ve caused.
The liberals and progressives only see the warriors as a tool for their personal use.
Both groups use the warriors and victims to prove the other wrong and themselves right.
Both claim moral superiority but both lie and care little but for themselves.
Both claim loyalty but their actions of deceit and falsehoods show them as cowards.
They preen and clamor to have themselves famous and seen for all to know them.
They make a drama and a play of the dead and wounded; the scarred and traumatized.
They use the soldiers and their victims as tools to seek their fame and abandon them.
They move on to their next victims of their little play and toss them out as well.
War is their play, their moral way, their passion and their constant cry for fame.
War is their pulpit to debate the morality of their particular political thought and belief.
War keeps them relevant and at odds with one another as the tools die and bleed for them.
Liberal, progressive, right, conservative, left, moderate; they’re all the same.
They talk and talk while soldiers die in battle or die at home for lack of caring.
They talk and talk while children die from the soldiers’ weapons and lack of concern.
Talk is cheap and useless while others die, starve, thirst and fester from their wars.
Don’t be fooled by the patriotic fervor of the masters of war flying their flags so high.
Don’t be fooled by the peace groups’ rallies and marches incessantly all the same.
Neither side wants the war to really end and peace to reign in their separate worlds.
For the end of war would strip them of their stage, their drama and their reason for being.
Liars, damn liars, filthy liars, fucking liars, liars of the left, liars of the right; all liars!!
Rant to A Friend
D,
There are times in my moments of deepest despair that I wonder if I ever did come back home. I went as an idealistic 18 year-old and seemed to come back with the cynicism of an old embittered man. Is that coming back? I don’t know. But that’s the way things happen in life. We make one fateful decision when we’re young and it changes the course of our entire life. I know you can certainly relate to that.
There are also some moments in time which I find life is glorious because by absolute happenstance I’ve met people or seen things that lift the darkness to reveal beauty, kindness and love; yeah love. Meeting P-- was one of those times. Seeing my sons born were also times like that. The path that led me to the struggle for peace has shown me many of those times. The introductions to the passionate and caring people like you are also such times.
Sometimes I wonder if being ignorant of world affairs, choosing to ignore poverty, buying into the great American dream of consumerism, being self-centered, allowing television to narcotize and insulate me and not wanting to hear anything that’s bad news isn’t healthier. Sometimes I almost wish I could overlook genocide, dying children every thirty seconds, smart bombs, collateral damage, destruction of the environment, consumerism that is epitomized by spending 5 billion dollars this year on Halloween and 500 billion dollars spent to destroy Iraq.
I wonder if there’s a balance in life that allows us to care but not be overwhelmed by all of it. If not overwhelmed, I wonder if there’s a way to not allow the anger to consume us. And yet not allow ourselves to believe we can meditate the world into peace and justice.
Yeah, I’m angrier than ever about the band (USMC band mentioned) and the dirge it plays. I’m pissed at Christians in name but despicable and hateful Pharisees in actions. I’m pissed at the smug and self-serving liberals who divide up in a thousand special interest groups fighting one another while the world burns in the background. Are they any better than the tyrants and fascists who have succeeded in their attempts to widen the gap between the rich and the poor? Can you own a hybrid and live in a 10,000 square foot home and still be considered progressive while the rest of the world lives in squalor?
In my youth I lost myself in sports. I played baseball from sunrise to sunset in the summers. I played football in the fall and basketball in the winter. When I wasn’t playing I was watching. I filled my mind with the inane statistics of the batting averages of people like Aaron and Mantle and the passing percentages of Unitas and Tarkenton. I imagined jumping like Elgin Baylor and shooting like Jerry West. These were my heroes.
As I matured the natural progression from the wars of the playing field became the wars of nationalism. Young men fighting for words like democracy and freedom became my heroes. Skilled liars from rich and elitist families indoctrinated us with the idealism of fantasy. They made us believe they were with us and like us instead of the pawns of empire we really were. And when my time was up on the playing fields of empire I was like a pawn taken by the knight in a chess game of war and nationalism; pushed aside and discarded.
Now I’ve become the bitter and angry old veteran who watches as a new roster of pawns play on a new field of death and lies. New liars with the same lies are better able to distribute their lies but they are the same lies. The constant weeding out of the impoverished and the weak continues while the obscenely wealthy become even more obscene.
Now the masses continue with the delusional belief they too can become wealthy and have the fairy tale life. Instead they become prisoners of debt in their foolish attempt to emulate the elite who grow even richer from the mindless spending. The children of the pawns continue to learn the lessons of capitalism and consumerism without thought of scenes like Cambodia in the 1970’s and Darfur in 2007. They can’t find Baghdad or Basra on the world map but know how to travel the fantasy world of Halo and Call of Duty.
The children no longer play on the vacant lots of my childhood. They no longer find the joy of school yard football. The adults found out they can control the kid’s games. They found out they can make billions from the games once played for the fans but now played for the corporate interests of mass media and their advertisers. The games once played in the sun are now played in “prime-time” with kids unable to watch unless they stay up well beyond their bedtime. Instead they play fantasy games with the images of the players on their X-Boxes.
Our games, our entertainment and our lives are part of the nationalistic plot of the military-industrial complex. Fear and wars keep the masses in line to perpetuate the game. Lies told often enough become truth to the feeble-minded. Right becomes wrong and wrong becomes truth and righteousness. Priests and men of God continue to push the lies that lead the poor to the killing fields. Fight for God, Allah or some other spiritual being that may or may not be myth or real.
People of color, people labeled “illegal” and people of poverty become either the pawns of war or the capital of the new prison industry. Prisons need bodies to flourish and the bodies of those unable to defend themselves in the “injustice system” of the wealthy bring great profits to private prisons without the word “rehabilitate” in their vocabulary.
The maintenance of fear requires the scapegoat. Hitler used the Jews, Christianity used the nations of Islamic belief and the tyrants of today use the invasion of “illegals” and the “Islamofascist” terrorists to continue the needed level of fear and hysteria.
The mindless masses tape windows with duct tape and store up water and food in fear of attack while their sons and daughters use weapons of horrific destruction to attack the innocents as well as the perceived enemy. They never question why there may be hate in the world for a nation that spends more on weapons than any other nation, spends 5 billion for a children’s holiday meant only to enrich the corporate coffers, utilizes slave labor to manufacture overpriced consumer items and rapes the environment of third world nations for the natural resources available to fuel the lifestyle of the few privileged to live in comfort.
I know I’ve been privileged to live in this land called America or to some the United States but the pride I once had has turned to shame. The words of the founders of this nation were grand and idealistic but shallow and hollow in truth. There never was a democracy in this nation. There never has been equality and justice for all. There’s never been freedom for all.
Division and hate continues to keep groups of people from joining together to bring the tyrants and criminals of war to justice. Foolish thinking that fosters racism, misogyny and injustice continues to flourish while the purveyors of evil hatefulness steal the soul and conscience of this nation.
America has become the Amerika of Franz Kafka in a way even the mind of Kafka couldn’t imagine. It has become Orwellian in ways “1984” failed to portray. Thought police and repression come in the guise of “homeland security” and anti-terrorism. The people endure searches and spying for security. They endorse torture to feel peace of mind. They look the other way as children die under the bombs of “peacekeepers”. The most important thing on their minds is the winner of American Idol or Dancing With The Stars.
Politicians spend more than the GNP of most nations to win election and become the whores of the corporate masters who pay for special favors and looking the other way. If not the corporate masters, the Zionists use the guilt of the camps and the lure of geopolitical empire to push for the extinction of indigenous people and the theft of their lands. And still the progressives and liberals delude themselves into believing a letter or petition can make a difference. The sad truth is the system is broken and a revolution of ideas and new tactics will be necessary.
When I was young the thought of revolution seemed insane to me. But now I understand the words of Malcolm and Che were thoughtful and true. Now I understand Bobby Seale and the Panthers knew their letters and petitions were wasted efforts and only revolution could bring changes necessary for them to survive.
Every day I wonder why we fail to see the fantasy and lies we’ve been taught. I wonder why we can’t see the emperor without clothes and the wizard as the small man behind the curtain. I wonder what it takes before the darkness of nationalism will give way to the dawn of a new age of cooperation and awareness. And then I realize I’m the deluded one.
The lies of leaders and the corporations exploiting the workers continue unabated and yet the American people sit in a stupor without protest. The constant giving back to the company without loyalty or anything in return goes on without so much as a whimper because somehow the workers fear they’ll lose what little they’re left with. They long ago gave up the little dignity they once had before the unions were thrown out.
Ah, but you knew that anyway.
This is a response to your letter telling me of your love and gratitude I did return from my own personal nightmare. Such words of encouragement sustain me, believe me.
I write rants of discouraging things I observe. I should take time to write ones of the inspiring people like you who do sustain me. The dangers of dissent are great and the payoff is seldom what it should be. And yet there are so many willing to carry on. For all of you, I’m grateful and my heart full of love.
See you when I see you…..peace and love
T
There are times in my moments of deepest despair that I wonder if I ever did come back home. I went as an idealistic 18 year-old and seemed to come back with the cynicism of an old embittered man. Is that coming back? I don’t know. But that’s the way things happen in life. We make one fateful decision when we’re young and it changes the course of our entire life. I know you can certainly relate to that.
There are also some moments in time which I find life is glorious because by absolute happenstance I’ve met people or seen things that lift the darkness to reveal beauty, kindness and love; yeah love. Meeting P-- was one of those times. Seeing my sons born were also times like that. The path that led me to the struggle for peace has shown me many of those times. The introductions to the passionate and caring people like you are also such times.
Sometimes I wonder if being ignorant of world affairs, choosing to ignore poverty, buying into the great American dream of consumerism, being self-centered, allowing television to narcotize and insulate me and not wanting to hear anything that’s bad news isn’t healthier. Sometimes I almost wish I could overlook genocide, dying children every thirty seconds, smart bombs, collateral damage, destruction of the environment, consumerism that is epitomized by spending 5 billion dollars this year on Halloween and 500 billion dollars spent to destroy Iraq.
I wonder if there’s a balance in life that allows us to care but not be overwhelmed by all of it. If not overwhelmed, I wonder if there’s a way to not allow the anger to consume us. And yet not allow ourselves to believe we can meditate the world into peace and justice.
Yeah, I’m angrier than ever about the band (USMC band mentioned) and the dirge it plays. I’m pissed at Christians in name but despicable and hateful Pharisees in actions. I’m pissed at the smug and self-serving liberals who divide up in a thousand special interest groups fighting one another while the world burns in the background. Are they any better than the tyrants and fascists who have succeeded in their attempts to widen the gap between the rich and the poor? Can you own a hybrid and live in a 10,000 square foot home and still be considered progressive while the rest of the world lives in squalor?
In my youth I lost myself in sports. I played baseball from sunrise to sunset in the summers. I played football in the fall and basketball in the winter. When I wasn’t playing I was watching. I filled my mind with the inane statistics of the batting averages of people like Aaron and Mantle and the passing percentages of Unitas and Tarkenton. I imagined jumping like Elgin Baylor and shooting like Jerry West. These were my heroes.
As I matured the natural progression from the wars of the playing field became the wars of nationalism. Young men fighting for words like democracy and freedom became my heroes. Skilled liars from rich and elitist families indoctrinated us with the idealism of fantasy. They made us believe they were with us and like us instead of the pawns of empire we really were. And when my time was up on the playing fields of empire I was like a pawn taken by the knight in a chess game of war and nationalism; pushed aside and discarded.
Now I’ve become the bitter and angry old veteran who watches as a new roster of pawns play on a new field of death and lies. New liars with the same lies are better able to distribute their lies but they are the same lies. The constant weeding out of the impoverished and the weak continues while the obscenely wealthy become even more obscene.
Now the masses continue with the delusional belief they too can become wealthy and have the fairy tale life. Instead they become prisoners of debt in their foolish attempt to emulate the elite who grow even richer from the mindless spending. The children of the pawns continue to learn the lessons of capitalism and consumerism without thought of scenes like Cambodia in the 1970’s and Darfur in 2007. They can’t find Baghdad or Basra on the world map but know how to travel the fantasy world of Halo and Call of Duty.
The children no longer play on the vacant lots of my childhood. They no longer find the joy of school yard football. The adults found out they can control the kid’s games. They found out they can make billions from the games once played for the fans but now played for the corporate interests of mass media and their advertisers. The games once played in the sun are now played in “prime-time” with kids unable to watch unless they stay up well beyond their bedtime. Instead they play fantasy games with the images of the players on their X-Boxes.
Our games, our entertainment and our lives are part of the nationalistic plot of the military-industrial complex. Fear and wars keep the masses in line to perpetuate the game. Lies told often enough become truth to the feeble-minded. Right becomes wrong and wrong becomes truth and righteousness. Priests and men of God continue to push the lies that lead the poor to the killing fields. Fight for God, Allah or some other spiritual being that may or may not be myth or real.
People of color, people labeled “illegal” and people of poverty become either the pawns of war or the capital of the new prison industry. Prisons need bodies to flourish and the bodies of those unable to defend themselves in the “injustice system” of the wealthy bring great profits to private prisons without the word “rehabilitate” in their vocabulary.
The maintenance of fear requires the scapegoat. Hitler used the Jews, Christianity used the nations of Islamic belief and the tyrants of today use the invasion of “illegals” and the “Islamofascist” terrorists to continue the needed level of fear and hysteria.
The mindless masses tape windows with duct tape and store up water and food in fear of attack while their sons and daughters use weapons of horrific destruction to attack the innocents as well as the perceived enemy. They never question why there may be hate in the world for a nation that spends more on weapons than any other nation, spends 5 billion for a children’s holiday meant only to enrich the corporate coffers, utilizes slave labor to manufacture overpriced consumer items and rapes the environment of third world nations for the natural resources available to fuel the lifestyle of the few privileged to live in comfort.
I know I’ve been privileged to live in this land called America or to some the United States but the pride I once had has turned to shame. The words of the founders of this nation were grand and idealistic but shallow and hollow in truth. There never was a democracy in this nation. There never has been equality and justice for all. There’s never been freedom for all.
Division and hate continues to keep groups of people from joining together to bring the tyrants and criminals of war to justice. Foolish thinking that fosters racism, misogyny and injustice continues to flourish while the purveyors of evil hatefulness steal the soul and conscience of this nation.
America has become the Amerika of Franz Kafka in a way even the mind of Kafka couldn’t imagine. It has become Orwellian in ways “1984” failed to portray. Thought police and repression come in the guise of “homeland security” and anti-terrorism. The people endure searches and spying for security. They endorse torture to feel peace of mind. They look the other way as children die under the bombs of “peacekeepers”. The most important thing on their minds is the winner of American Idol or Dancing With The Stars.
Politicians spend more than the GNP of most nations to win election and become the whores of the corporate masters who pay for special favors and looking the other way. If not the corporate masters, the Zionists use the guilt of the camps and the lure of geopolitical empire to push for the extinction of indigenous people and the theft of their lands. And still the progressives and liberals delude themselves into believing a letter or petition can make a difference. The sad truth is the system is broken and a revolution of ideas and new tactics will be necessary.
When I was young the thought of revolution seemed insane to me. But now I understand the words of Malcolm and Che were thoughtful and true. Now I understand Bobby Seale and the Panthers knew their letters and petitions were wasted efforts and only revolution could bring changes necessary for them to survive.
Every day I wonder why we fail to see the fantasy and lies we’ve been taught. I wonder why we can’t see the emperor without clothes and the wizard as the small man behind the curtain. I wonder what it takes before the darkness of nationalism will give way to the dawn of a new age of cooperation and awareness. And then I realize I’m the deluded one.
The lies of leaders and the corporations exploiting the workers continue unabated and yet the American people sit in a stupor without protest. The constant giving back to the company without loyalty or anything in return goes on without so much as a whimper because somehow the workers fear they’ll lose what little they’re left with. They long ago gave up the little dignity they once had before the unions were thrown out.
Ah, but you knew that anyway.
This is a response to your letter telling me of your love and gratitude I did return from my own personal nightmare. Such words of encouragement sustain me, believe me.
I write rants of discouraging things I observe. I should take time to write ones of the inspiring people like you who do sustain me. The dangers of dissent are great and the payoff is seldom what it should be. And yet there are so many willing to carry on. For all of you, I’m grateful and my heart full of love.
See you when I see you…..peace and love
T
Friday, November 9
The Coming Storm
Since before the war in Iraq, there have been a number of us older veterans who warned about the problems troops coming home would encounter. The human cost of war was as inevitable as the war itself.
Some of us tried early on to present the issues to peace groups, community members and others to prepare for what was bound to happen. The thinking was prevention might be better than crisis intervention.
I don't think we succeeded in the attempt for prevention. We heard a lot of people express limited interest but when push came to shove the yellow ribbons on cars and the use of veterans to speak out against the war were about the most that ever happened. All the efforts to raise public awareness were mostly lost on the general public.
I apologize if this sounds harsh but for the past four years I've been part of a group of veterans dedicated in tracking the problems of returned troops. The list of violence and destructive behaviors by troops who have been in combat grows ever larger and more families are destroyed.
Unlike Vietnam, this is a war fought by young men and women who "volunteered" and most Americans feel they're not affected by what happens to the troops. I've heard Marines say they fight for their lives while America shops at the mall. Being a former Marine, I know the deep seated sarcasm of what they say. And agree with them.
Of course Americans are affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The money spent on these wars is drained from every part of America except the rich and the profiteers aligned with the rich. Schools, healthcare, housing, treatment for substance abuse, treatment for mental illnesses, living wages, job creation, justice and all facets of the American social fabric are touched by the wars.
What's overlooked; however, are the young men and women who went to the killing fields. They aren't the problem. They're the symptoms. Since there's no draft it's become pretty damn easy to overlook men and women who volunteer for military service but little understanding why they join. The poverty draft and the lure of college funding made many of the troops a prime target for recruiters. Fear tactics and overt nationalism following September 11, 2001 led many to believe they were protecting "the homeland".
Most Americans only want to hear from the returning troops during events to rally support for the war or during anti-war events to rally opposition. In the elections since 2003, politicians from both sides have used returned veterans as props for their campaigns to demonstrate they "support the troops" more than the opponent.
They don't want to hear about their nightmares, their flashbacks, their cold sweats, the hyper-vigilance, the thoughts of suicide, the murderous thoughts when provoked, the hateful things said to loved ones, the awful things spoken to their children in the moments of unpredictable rage, the overuse of pot, alcohol and other drugs to drown out the images in their head, the depression that immobilizes them, the difficulties keeping a job or the homelessness.
Americans don't like to hear 25% of the prison population is veterans. They don't like to hear 25% of the homeless are veterans. They don't want to hear 1 in 3 Iraq/Afghanistan vets are seeking mental health treatment. They don't want to hear about the wives killed at Fort Campbell or the murders of other soldiers at Fort Bragg. They don't want to hear 30-40% of the inmates in the brig at Camp Pendleton are incarcerated following behaviors that are classic symptoms of PTSD. Instead of punishment they should have been treated.
There is an urgency to end the wars. Veterans know that all too well. There's many things needed to be done to make this a better and truly moral nation. Activists seem to have all the bases covered in pointing out what needs to be done except the care of the returned troops.
Veterans are welcome to tell their horror stories of combat and atrocity in the peace movement but the story of the war they face in returning to "the world" is too often seen as secondary or whining. The question of their futures is seldom asked or thought about. Where will the vet with amputated legs get the help needed to live as normal a life as possible? Where will the vet with untreated PTSD live and work? What will become of them in twenty years?
Some activists are even angry about the role of veterans in the peace movement. They wonder how someone could have volunteered to take part in what is so obviously an immoral war to activists. They dislike the "hero" status that seems to be given to the veteran. They wonder how truly devoted to peace a veteran is when the ambivalence of allegiance to friends still in the war often comes out. Some of the veterans seem to talk and act like they're still in the military. They tell war stories. They seem aloof and detached from the rest of the group.
In some ways this attitude is no different from the military toward a combat vet that wants to become a conscientious objector AFTER they've been in combat. The military believes the vet can't morally object to the war if they've taken part in it. Of course they can! Who better knows the reality and horror of war? Who better knows the immorality of war than the man or woman sent illegally into war?
I don't propose veterans be given hero status. I've never felt my combat experience was in any way heroic. A young Marine sums it up in the CD "Voices From the Front". The CD is a collection of raps, rhymes, songs and discussions by Marines in Iraq that have been in combat. The young Marine says he's asked how many people he killed by friends back home and responds that even if he knew he'd never tell because what he did is between him and God. What he did, he did to survive.
Veterans are survivors not heroes. They can be the verbal historians of the experience of war. Their history can be used to avoid the insane impulses or the calculated madness of wars. They can be powerful voices to challenge politicians who are willing to throw away the lives of the nation's youth. They can resist war and their courage to do so become heroic at times but no more than the dedicated activist who has resisted all along
But the veterans must also find some peace and sanity for themselves. They must get the care needed for the wounds inflicted upon their bodies and minds. They can't be ignored. Their wounds will be healed or fester into an epidemic that will infect the entire nation. America can pay now or pay much more if it waits until later to help them heal.
The peace movement can demonstrate they do support the troops by making the needed care for emotional and physical wounds part of their agenda. They can reach beyond the normal group of activists and come together with families and community members just as concerned. The common ground of caring for the veterans can be used to have conversation and true dialogue with people outside the movement.
The returning troops can be witnesses to the truth about war. Their revelations about war experiences can provide young people vitally important information to make informed decisions if recruiters attempt to lure them into enlistments based on sugar-coated perspectives of the military. The troops can cause Americans to question the rush to war by an administration manipulating data to create fear.
The American soldier is the personification of the American society. A government of the people must decide how much longer we want to keep sending our children to kill the children of other people around the world. We must decide if we will send another generation to the killing fields and like in all the past wars forget them once their bodies and minds have been consumed by the horrors they endured.
The care of the returning men and women from Iraq and Afghanistan is the responsibility of all Americans whether for or against the war. We can pay the costs now or pay it later with much regret and sorrow.
With all that said I'm posting another article to give further evidence of the impending crisis we face in this nation.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW
USMC combat veteran of Vietnam
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: November 8, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.
Joe Williams lives in a homeless shelter in Washington.
Experts who work with veterans say it often takes several years after leaving military service for veterans' accumulating problems to push them into the streets. But some aid workers say the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans appear to be turning up sooner than the Vietnam veterans did.
"We're beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters," said Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center. "But we anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami."
With more women serving in combat zones, the current wars are already resulting in a higher share of homeless women as well. They have an added risk factor: roughly 40 percent of the hundreds of homeless female veterans of recent wars have said they were sexually assaulted by American soldiers while in the military, officials said.
"Sexual abuse is a risk factor for homelessness," Pete Dougherty, the V.A.'s director of homeless programs, said.
Special traits of the current wars may contribute to homelessness, including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, which can cause unstable behavior and substance abuse, and the long and repeated tours of duty, which can make the reintegration into families and work all the harder.
Frederick Johnson, 37, an Army reservist, slept in abandoned houses shortly after returning to Chester, Pa., from a year in Iraq, where he experienced daily mortar attacks and saw mangled bodies of soldiers and children. He started using crack cocaine and drinking, burning through $6,000 in savings.
"I cut myself off from my family and went from being a pleasant guy to wanting to rip your head off if you looked at me wrong," Mr. Johnson said.
On the street for a year, he finally checked in at a V.A. clinic in Maryland and has struggled with PTSD, depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. The V.A. has provided temporary housing as he starts a new job.
Tracy Jones of the Compass Center, a Seattle agency that has seen a handful of new homeless each month, said she was surprised by "the quickness in which Iraqi Freedom veterans are becoming homeless" compared with the Vietnam era. The availability of meth and crack could lead addicts into rapid downhill spirals, Ms. Jones said.
Poverty and high housing costs also contribute. The National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington will release a report on Thursday saying that among one million veterans who served after the Sept. 11 attacks, 72,000 are paying more than half their incomes for rent, leaving them highly vulnerable.
Mr. Dougherty of the V.A. said outreach officers, who visit shelters, soup kitchens and parks, had located about 1,500 returnees from Iraq or Afghanistan who seemed at high risk, though many had jobs. More than 400 have entered agency-supported residential programs around the country. No one knows how many others have not made contact with aid agencies.
More than 11 percent of the newly homeless veterans are women, Mr. Dougherty said, compared with 4 percent enrolled in such programs over all.
Veterans have long accounted for a high share of the nation's homeless. Although they make up 11 percent of the adult population, they make up 26 percent of the homeless on any given day, the National Alliance report calculated.
According to the V.A., some 196,000 veterans of all ages were homeless on any given night in 2006. That represents a decline from about 250,000 a decade back, Mr. Dougherty said, as housing and medical programs grew and older veterans died.
The most troubling face of homelessness has been the chronic cases, those who live in the streets or shelters for more than year. Some 44,000 to 64,000 veterans fit that category, according to the National Alliance study.
On Wednesday, the Bush administration announced what it described as "remarkable progress" for the chronic homeless. Alphonso R. Jackson, the secretary of housing and urban development, said a new policy of bringing the long-term homeless directly into housing, backed by supporting services, had put more than 20,000, or about 12 percent, into permanent or transitional homes.
Veterans have been among the beneficiaries, but Mary Cunningham, director of the research institute of the National Alliance and chief author of their report, said the share of supported housing marked for veterans was low.
A collaborative program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the V.A. has developed 1,780 such units. The National Alliance said the number needed to grow by 25,000.
Mr. Dougherty described the large and growing efforts the V.A. was making to prevent homelessness including offering two years of free medical care and identifying psychological and substance abuse problems early.
One obstacle is that many veterans wait too long to seek help. "I had that pride thing going on, `I'm a soldier, I should be better than this,'" Mr. Johnson said.
Kent Richardson, 49, who was in the Army from 1976 to 1992 and has flashbacks from the gulf war, said, "when you get out you feel disconnected and alone."
Mr. Richardson said it took him two years to find a job after leaving the Army. Then he became an alcoholic. He now stays at the Southeast Veteran's Service Center in Washington, awaiting permanent subsidized housing.
Joe Williams, 53, spent 16 years in the Army and the Navy, including a deeply upsetting assignment in the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the dead from the gulf war were taken for autopsies.
For the past three years Mr. Williams has lived in a bunk bed in a Washington shelter. He was laid off, his car and house were repossessed, and his wife left him. He moved to Georgia, where he lost another job.
Broke and depressed, he walked from Georgia to a V.A. hospital in the Washington area, where schizophrenia was diagnosed. Now, after three years of medication and therapy, he feels ready to start looking for work.
"I have a mission I've got to accomplish," Mr. Williams said.
Sean D. Hamill contributed reporting from Pittsburgh, Michael Parrish from Los Angeles and J. Michael Kennedy from Seattle.
Some of us tried early on to present the issues to peace groups, community members and others to prepare for what was bound to happen. The thinking was prevention might be better than crisis intervention.
I don't think we succeeded in the attempt for prevention. We heard a lot of people express limited interest but when push came to shove the yellow ribbons on cars and the use of veterans to speak out against the war were about the most that ever happened. All the efforts to raise public awareness were mostly lost on the general public.
I apologize if this sounds harsh but for the past four years I've been part of a group of veterans dedicated in tracking the problems of returned troops. The list of violence and destructive behaviors by troops who have been in combat grows ever larger and more families are destroyed.
Unlike Vietnam, this is a war fought by young men and women who "volunteered" and most Americans feel they're not affected by what happens to the troops. I've heard Marines say they fight for their lives while America shops at the mall. Being a former Marine, I know the deep seated sarcasm of what they say. And agree with them.
Of course Americans are affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The money spent on these wars is drained from every part of America except the rich and the profiteers aligned with the rich. Schools, healthcare, housing, treatment for substance abuse, treatment for mental illnesses, living wages, job creation, justice and all facets of the American social fabric are touched by the wars.
What's overlooked; however, are the young men and women who went to the killing fields. They aren't the problem. They're the symptoms. Since there's no draft it's become pretty damn easy to overlook men and women who volunteer for military service but little understanding why they join. The poverty draft and the lure of college funding made many of the troops a prime target for recruiters. Fear tactics and overt nationalism following September 11, 2001 led many to believe they were protecting "the homeland".
Most Americans only want to hear from the returning troops during events to rally support for the war or during anti-war events to rally opposition. In the elections since 2003, politicians from both sides have used returned veterans as props for their campaigns to demonstrate they "support the troops" more than the opponent.
They don't want to hear about their nightmares, their flashbacks, their cold sweats, the hyper-vigilance, the thoughts of suicide, the murderous thoughts when provoked, the hateful things said to loved ones, the awful things spoken to their children in the moments of unpredictable rage, the overuse of pot, alcohol and other drugs to drown out the images in their head, the depression that immobilizes them, the difficulties keeping a job or the homelessness.
Americans don't like to hear 25% of the prison population is veterans. They don't like to hear 25% of the homeless are veterans. They don't want to hear 1 in 3 Iraq/Afghanistan vets are seeking mental health treatment. They don't want to hear about the wives killed at Fort Campbell or the murders of other soldiers at Fort Bragg. They don't want to hear 30-40% of the inmates in the brig at Camp Pendleton are incarcerated following behaviors that are classic symptoms of PTSD. Instead of punishment they should have been treated.
There is an urgency to end the wars. Veterans know that all too well. There's many things needed to be done to make this a better and truly moral nation. Activists seem to have all the bases covered in pointing out what needs to be done except the care of the returned troops.
Veterans are welcome to tell their horror stories of combat and atrocity in the peace movement but the story of the war they face in returning to "the world" is too often seen as secondary or whining. The question of their futures is seldom asked or thought about. Where will the vet with amputated legs get the help needed to live as normal a life as possible? Where will the vet with untreated PTSD live and work? What will become of them in twenty years?
Some activists are even angry about the role of veterans in the peace movement. They wonder how someone could have volunteered to take part in what is so obviously an immoral war to activists. They dislike the "hero" status that seems to be given to the veteran. They wonder how truly devoted to peace a veteran is when the ambivalence of allegiance to friends still in the war often comes out. Some of the veterans seem to talk and act like they're still in the military. They tell war stories. They seem aloof and detached from the rest of the group.
In some ways this attitude is no different from the military toward a combat vet that wants to become a conscientious objector AFTER they've been in combat. The military believes the vet can't morally object to the war if they've taken part in it. Of course they can! Who better knows the reality and horror of war? Who better knows the immorality of war than the man or woman sent illegally into war?
I don't propose veterans be given hero status. I've never felt my combat experience was in any way heroic. A young Marine sums it up in the CD "Voices From the Front". The CD is a collection of raps, rhymes, songs and discussions by Marines in Iraq that have been in combat. The young Marine says he's asked how many people he killed by friends back home and responds that even if he knew he'd never tell because what he did is between him and God. What he did, he did to survive.
Veterans are survivors not heroes. They can be the verbal historians of the experience of war. Their history can be used to avoid the insane impulses or the calculated madness of wars. They can be powerful voices to challenge politicians who are willing to throw away the lives of the nation's youth. They can resist war and their courage to do so become heroic at times but no more than the dedicated activist who has resisted all along
But the veterans must also find some peace and sanity for themselves. They must get the care needed for the wounds inflicted upon their bodies and minds. They can't be ignored. Their wounds will be healed or fester into an epidemic that will infect the entire nation. America can pay now or pay much more if it waits until later to help them heal.
The peace movement can demonstrate they do support the troops by making the needed care for emotional and physical wounds part of their agenda. They can reach beyond the normal group of activists and come together with families and community members just as concerned. The common ground of caring for the veterans can be used to have conversation and true dialogue with people outside the movement.
The returning troops can be witnesses to the truth about war. Their revelations about war experiences can provide young people vitally important information to make informed decisions if recruiters attempt to lure them into enlistments based on sugar-coated perspectives of the military. The troops can cause Americans to question the rush to war by an administration manipulating data to create fear.
The American soldier is the personification of the American society. A government of the people must decide how much longer we want to keep sending our children to kill the children of other people around the world. We must decide if we will send another generation to the killing fields and like in all the past wars forget them once their bodies and minds have been consumed by the horrors they endured.
The care of the returning men and women from Iraq and Afghanistan is the responsibility of all Americans whether for or against the war. We can pay the costs now or pay it later with much regret and sorrow.
With all that said I'm posting another article to give further evidence of the impending crisis we face in this nation.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW
USMC combat veteran of Vietnam
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: November 8, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 — More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.
Joe Williams lives in a homeless shelter in Washington.
Experts who work with veterans say it often takes several years after leaving military service for veterans' accumulating problems to push them into the streets. But some aid workers say the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans appear to be turning up sooner than the Vietnam veterans did.
"We're beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters," said Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center. "But we anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami."
With more women serving in combat zones, the current wars are already resulting in a higher share of homeless women as well. They have an added risk factor: roughly 40 percent of the hundreds of homeless female veterans of recent wars have said they were sexually assaulted by American soldiers while in the military, officials said.
"Sexual abuse is a risk factor for homelessness," Pete Dougherty, the V.A.'s director of homeless programs, said.
Special traits of the current wars may contribute to homelessness, including high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury, which can cause unstable behavior and substance abuse, and the long and repeated tours of duty, which can make the reintegration into families and work all the harder.
Frederick Johnson, 37, an Army reservist, slept in abandoned houses shortly after returning to Chester, Pa., from a year in Iraq, where he experienced daily mortar attacks and saw mangled bodies of soldiers and children. He started using crack cocaine and drinking, burning through $6,000 in savings.
"I cut myself off from my family and went from being a pleasant guy to wanting to rip your head off if you looked at me wrong," Mr. Johnson said.
On the street for a year, he finally checked in at a V.A. clinic in Maryland and has struggled with PTSD, depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. The V.A. has provided temporary housing as he starts a new job.
Tracy Jones of the Compass Center, a Seattle agency that has seen a handful of new homeless each month, said she was surprised by "the quickness in which Iraqi Freedom veterans are becoming homeless" compared with the Vietnam era. The availability of meth and crack could lead addicts into rapid downhill spirals, Ms. Jones said.
Poverty and high housing costs also contribute. The National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington will release a report on Thursday saying that among one million veterans who served after the Sept. 11 attacks, 72,000 are paying more than half their incomes for rent, leaving them highly vulnerable.
Mr. Dougherty of the V.A. said outreach officers, who visit shelters, soup kitchens and parks, had located about 1,500 returnees from Iraq or Afghanistan who seemed at high risk, though many had jobs. More than 400 have entered agency-supported residential programs around the country. No one knows how many others have not made contact with aid agencies.
More than 11 percent of the newly homeless veterans are women, Mr. Dougherty said, compared with 4 percent enrolled in such programs over all.
Veterans have long accounted for a high share of the nation's homeless. Although they make up 11 percent of the adult population, they make up 26 percent of the homeless on any given day, the National Alliance report calculated.
According to the V.A., some 196,000 veterans of all ages were homeless on any given night in 2006. That represents a decline from about 250,000 a decade back, Mr. Dougherty said, as housing and medical programs grew and older veterans died.
The most troubling face of homelessness has been the chronic cases, those who live in the streets or shelters for more than year. Some 44,000 to 64,000 veterans fit that category, according to the National Alliance study.
On Wednesday, the Bush administration announced what it described as "remarkable progress" for the chronic homeless. Alphonso R. Jackson, the secretary of housing and urban development, said a new policy of bringing the long-term homeless directly into housing, backed by supporting services, had put more than 20,000, or about 12 percent, into permanent or transitional homes.
Veterans have been among the beneficiaries, but Mary Cunningham, director of the research institute of the National Alliance and chief author of their report, said the share of supported housing marked for veterans was low.
A collaborative program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the V.A. has developed 1,780 such units. The National Alliance said the number needed to grow by 25,000.
Mr. Dougherty described the large and growing efforts the V.A. was making to prevent homelessness including offering two years of free medical care and identifying psychological and substance abuse problems early.
One obstacle is that many veterans wait too long to seek help. "I had that pride thing going on, `I'm a soldier, I should be better than this,'" Mr. Johnson said.
Kent Richardson, 49, who was in the Army from 1976 to 1992 and has flashbacks from the gulf war, said, "when you get out you feel disconnected and alone."
Mr. Richardson said it took him two years to find a job after leaving the Army. Then he became an alcoholic. He now stays at the Southeast Veteran's Service Center in Washington, awaiting permanent subsidized housing.
Joe Williams, 53, spent 16 years in the Army and the Navy, including a deeply upsetting assignment in the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the dead from the gulf war were taken for autopsies.
For the past three years Mr. Williams has lived in a bunk bed in a Washington shelter. He was laid off, his car and house were repossessed, and his wife left him. He moved to Georgia, where he lost another job.
Broke and depressed, he walked from Georgia to a V.A. hospital in the Washington area, where schizophrenia was diagnosed. Now, after three years of medication and therapy, he feels ready to start looking for work.
"I have a mission I've got to accomplish," Mr. Williams said.
Sean D. Hamill contributed reporting from Pittsburgh, Michael Parrish from Los Angeles and J. Michael Kennedy from Seattle.
Wednesday, November 7
1 in 4 Homeless are Vets: Tsunami of Iraq/Afghanistan Vets to Come
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 21 minutes ago
November 7, 2007 915pm
WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.
"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.
While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.
"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.
"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."
Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success — one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.
"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.
After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.
Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.
The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness — mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.
Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.
Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.
After World War I, thousands of veterans — many of them homeless — camped in the nation's capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.
The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.
Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic, recalled Sister Mary Scullion, who has worked with the homeless for 30 years and co-founded of the group Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.
"It takes more to address the needs because they are multiple needs that have been unattended," Scullion said. "Life on the street is brutal and I know many, many homeless veterans who have died from Vietnam."
The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.
"Clearly, I don't think that's going to totally solve the problem, but I also don't think we're simply going to wait for 10 years until they show up," Dougherty said. "We're out there now trying to get everybody we can to get those kinds of services today, so we avoid this kind of problem in the future."
In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.
The group recommends that 5,000 housing units be created per year for the next five years dedicated to the chronically homeless that would provide permanent housing linked to veterans' support systems. It also recommends funding an additional 20,000 housing vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans, and creating a program that helps bridge the gap between income and rent.
Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.
On a recent day in Philadelphia, case managers from Project H.O.M.E. and the VA picked up William Joyce, 60, a homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair who said he'd been sleeping at a bus terminal.
"You're an honorable veteran. You're going to get some services," outreach worker Mark Salvatore told Joyce. "You need to be connected. You don't need to be out here on the streets."
___
Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.
___
On the Net:
National Alliance to End Homelessness
New Directions
Project Home
County of Lancaster
Veterans Affairs Department
U.S. Vets
1 hour, 21 minutes ago
November 7, 2007 915pm
WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.
And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.
The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness, a public education nonprofit, based the findings of its report on numbers from Veterans Affairs and the Census Bureau. 2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.
In comparison, the VA says that 20 years ago, the estimated number of veterans who were homeless on any given night was 250,000.
Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.
"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.
While services to homeless veterans have improved in the past 20 years, advocates say more financial resources still are needed. With the spotlight on the plight of Iraq veterans, they hope more will be done to prevent homelessness and provide affordable housing to the younger veterans while there's a window of opportunity.
"When the Vietnam War ended, that was part of the problem. The war was over, it was off TV, nobody wanted to hear about it," said John Keaveney, a Vietnam veteran and a founder of New Directions in Los Angeles, which provides substance abuse help, job training and shelter to veterans.
"I think they'll be forgotten," Keaveney said of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. "People get tired of it. It's not glitzy that these are young, honorable, patriotic Americans. They'll just be veterans, and that happens after every war."
Keaveney said it's difficult for his group to persuade some homeless Iraq veterans to stay for treatment and help because they don't relate to the older veterans. Those who stayed have had success — one is now a stock broker and another is applying to be a police officer, he said.
"They see guys that are their father's age and they don't understand, they don't know, that in a couple of years they'll be looking like them," he said.
After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.
Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.
The Iraq vets seeking help with homelessness are more likely to be women, less likely to have substance abuse problems, but more likely to have mental illness — mostly related to post-traumatic stress, said Pete Dougherty, director of homeless veterans programs at the VA.
Overall, 45 percent of participants in the VA's homeless programs have a diagnosable mental illness and more than three out of four have a substance abuse problem, while 35 percent have both, Dougherty said.
Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as "tramps," which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University's Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.
After World War I, thousands of veterans — many of them homeless — camped in the nation's capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.
The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.
Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic, recalled Sister Mary Scullion, who has worked with the homeless for 30 years and co-founded of the group Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia.
"It takes more to address the needs because they are multiple needs that have been unattended," Scullion said. "Life on the street is brutal and I know many, many homeless veterans who have died from Vietnam."
The VA started targeting homelessness in 1987, 12 years after the fall of Saigon. Today, the VA has, either on its own or through partnerships, more than 15,000 residential rehabilitative, transitional and permanent beds for homeless veterans nationwide. It spends about $265 million annually on homeless-specific programs and about $1.5 billion for all health care costs for homeless veterans.
Because of these types of programs and because two years of free medical care is being offered to all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Dougherty said they hope many veterans from recent wars who are in need can be identified early.
"Clearly, I don't think that's going to totally solve the problem, but I also don't think we're simply going to wait for 10 years until they show up," Dougherty said. "We're out there now trying to get everybody we can to get those kinds of services today, so we avoid this kind of problem in the future."
In all of 2006, the National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 495,400 veterans were homeless at some point during the year.
The group recommends that 5,000 housing units be created per year for the next five years dedicated to the chronically homeless that would provide permanent housing linked to veterans' support systems. It also recommends funding an additional 20,000 housing vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans, and creating a program that helps bridge the gap between income and rent.
Following those recommendations would cost billions of dollars, but there is some movement in Congress to increase the amount of money dedicated to homeless veterans programs.
On a recent day in Philadelphia, case managers from Project H.O.M.E. and the VA picked up William Joyce, 60, a homeless Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair who said he'd been sleeping at a bus terminal.
"You're an honorable veteran. You're going to get some services," outreach worker Mark Salvatore told Joyce. "You need to be connected. You don't need to be out here on the streets."
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Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson contributed to this story from Philadelphia.
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On the Net:
National Alliance to End Homelessness
New Directions
Project Home
County of Lancaster
Veterans Affairs Department
U.S. Vets
Friday, November 2
At Least 430 Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans Have Committed Suicide
This was posted on the vetsandsurvivors discuss group (group of vets and Katrina survivors):
It's time to change the count of American war dead upward.
The Associated Press has got hold of a preliminary government study on suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. According to the VA, at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and the end of 2005 took their own lives. In addition, 147 troops have killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began bringing the government count to 430.
The VA's count is not a complete one, however. It does not include members of the military who returned from Iraq and then killed themselves before being discharged from the service – people like Sgt Brian Rand who shot himself in the head after returning home from his second tour.
It also doesn't include the deaths of people like Sgt. James Dean who was shot by Maryland state troopers after he barricaded himself in his father's farmhouse. Observers call those deaths "suicide by cop."
And it doesn't include the deaths of people like Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, a 32 year old Indiana National Guardsman, who died at Fort Knox five months after returning from Iraq with brain damage from a roadside bomb.
How many more American deaths continue to go uncounted?
Regardless, it's clear is that we need to change our count of casualties upward from 4,229 US military deaths (3,842 in Iraq and 387 in Afghanistan) to closer to 5,000 – possibly more when you consider those deaths that still haven't been counted.
It's time to change the count of American war dead upward.
The Associated Press has got hold of a preliminary government study on suicides by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. According to the VA, at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 and the end of 2005 took their own lives. In addition, 147 troops have killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars began bringing the government count to 430.
The VA's count is not a complete one, however. It does not include members of the military who returned from Iraq and then killed themselves before being discharged from the service – people like Sgt Brian Rand who shot himself in the head after returning home from his second tour.
It also doesn't include the deaths of people like Sgt. James Dean who was shot by Maryland state troopers after he barricaded himself in his father's farmhouse. Observers call those deaths "suicide by cop."
And it doesn't include the deaths of people like Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, a 32 year old Indiana National Guardsman, who died at Fort Knox five months after returning from Iraq with brain damage from a roadside bomb.
How many more American deaths continue to go uncounted?
Regardless, it's clear is that we need to change our count of casualties upward from 4,229 US military deaths (3,842 in Iraq and 387 in Afghanistan) to closer to 5,000 – possibly more when you consider those deaths that still haven't been counted.
Monday, October 15
Toxic Care - Revised
This is a revision to the previous article, Toxic Care. Some minor details were in error in the first article but the main content of the stories remain the same. I've also added a story a wife emailed to me after the original article.
I spoke with a mom yesterday who told me her son, who served as a combat medic in Iraq, is having his PTSD diagnosis revoked until he can produce three witnesses to corroborate his traumatic events. The soldier was in Iraq three years ago. After his tour in Iraq he was assigned to work as a medic in Walter Reed's spinal cord injury and amputee unit.
Walter Reed became a nightmarish recreation of Iraq for the medic. Eventually he was involuntarily extended and sent back to a combat unit about to deploy to Afghanistan. He wasn't able to redeploy, however, because of a physical injury incurred while serving in Iraq that required surgical repair.
After coming back from Iraq and while working at Walter Reed, the medic began to drink and was having combat nightmares. He was constantly depressed and having suicidal thinking at times.
He resisted seeking mental health care because he felt it would adversely affect him if he did have to redeploy. He feared others in his unit wouldn't trust him if he was considered a "nut case".
Finally with continued urging from his family and friends outside the military, he did seek mental health care. The medic was diagnosed with PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder. He also entered a treatment program to help prevent the use of alcohol as a way to self medicate.
The medic had turned against the war during his time in Iraq but continued to do his duty without a strong declaration of that opposition. He felt an obligation toward his fellow soldiers to support them which kept him from overt dissent.
Finally in 2005 he joined anti-war veterans to oppose the war when he wasn't on duty. Finally, the young medic decided the only way he could truly support his fellow troops was to oppose their deployment and redeployment. And to support them coming home.
The Army came to the conclusion the soldier couldn't be successfully rehabilitated for physical and emotional problems while in the service. He's being told he’ll receive a medical discharge in the near future.
It now appears the Army has decided to award the young medic's duty of treating wounds of other troops by revoking his PTSD diagnosis if he fails to produce three witnesses to specific events of trauma.
How ludicrous the Army appears to demand a combat medic prove he witnessed the trauma of war while assigned to a combat unit in Iraq. How foolish they appear telling this medic he needs witnesses three years after he served in Iraq.
Any soldier or Marine who served in combat knows there is a constant flux of men coming and going in their unit because of death, wounds requiring evacuation and just the normal rotation for discharge and end of tours.
Any soldier and Marine knows finding witnesses to what they are asked to do in combat is the farthest thing from their mind. And a military personnel record can verify if an individual has been in a combat situation.
Any professional with experience in combat induced PTSD can testify memory loss and repression of memories are cardinal symptoms of the disorder. They can also testify that suicidal thinking, depressive symptoms and hyper-vigilant and paranoid appearing behaviors are common symptoms of PTSD. Use of alcohol or other substances to try forgetting horrible events of combat (self medication) is very common, as well.
The medic exhibited all the classic symptoms of combat induced PTSD, was diagnosed with the disorder and was treated for the disorder. But, now, the Army has mysteriously decided to make his continued treatment much more difficult or impossible with the foolish imposition of witness corroboration.
Not too long ago, the VA attempted to do the same thing with Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Only a loud outcry by veterans' advocacy groups stopped that attempt.
The callous attempt to manipulate combat veterans' treatment has an obvious reason. The reduction of healthcare costs for veterans will be at the expense of their healing. Once again it is the veteran who will bear the costs of war even in the promised care for their wounds.
The Army says the young medic can go to the VA to regain his diagnosis of PTSD once discharged. His mom rightfully worries it will be a long time before he can be seen at the VA to determine he has PTSD that has already once been diagnosed. She worries he'll be without treatment and his symptoms and problems will worsen.
All recent studies and investigations have shown the VA system fails the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan because of poor funding and understaffed clinics. Waits for disposition of diagnoses such as PTSD have been as long as two or more years.
Any professional with experience in treating combat induced PTSD can testify the best prognosis for controlling PTSD symptoms and avoid intractable, lifetime symptoms is early intervention.
A key problem with the care of active duty and VA eligible veterans struggling with PTSD continues to be the lack of experienced therapists. Seventy per cent of the therapists treating the men and women presenting with symptoms of PTSD have no previous experience in treating the disorder.
I also recently spoke with a soldier who was about to be redeployed even though he'd been diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Major Depression.
The young soldier had attempted to harm himself but a fellow soldier had intervened.
Another soldier had called me because he was worried the young soldier would harm himself before he deployed or once he was back in Iraq. He asked that I call his friend to consult with him about his mental health issues.
I called and began a lengthy evaluation of the soldier's situation over the phone. I have several years experience working with psychiatric emergency teams, emergency phone triage and in a psychiatric emergency room.
The soldier was very polite, using the word, "Sir", often in our discussion. He told me he was worried he couldn't perform the duties he would be asked to do if he was in Iraq because he was having daily panic attacks. The attacks were increasing in number and duration.
The soldier also had an eighteen year old wife who had taken a restraining order out against him. There hadn't been violence but the soldier had become involved in verbal altercations with his wife and she was frightened he might act out against her.
He also has a three month old daughter he hasn't been able to see since the restraining order had been taken out. He worries about the care of the daughter because he discovered his wife is going out with old high school friends every weekend while leaving the daughter with the wife's mother. The wife was spending late hours in bars with the friends.
He reported having suicidal thoughts almost daily. He says he's had thoughts of killing his squad leader who has been petty and harassing toward him since his return from Iraq.
The soldier was seen by an Army psychologist recently and diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Major Depression. The psychologist arranged an appointment with an Army psychiatrist for the soldier to be evaluated for medication treatment.
The appointment date with the doctor just happened to be one day after the soldier was to return to Iraq. His command told him mental health treatment would be available for him once he got settled in his base at Iraq.
The soldier knew, however, the mental health unit (Combat Stress Team) wasn’t on the base he was to be assigned to. The soldier would have to be taken by convoy to the where the stress team was located. Fellow soldiers would have to accompany him to go to the appointments for his treatment.
The soldier adamantly told me he'd never put fellow soldiers at risk for possible IED and roadside bomb attacks to transport him to have treatment.
He was also clear he felt he'd be unable to be as reactive and alert as he would need to be in a combat situation because his panic attacks were unpredictable and made him "freeze up".
The soldier asked me if I felt he should be treated before returning to Iraq. I reviewed his risk factors with him.
He had panic attacks with increasing regularity and intensity. He had suicidal thinking. He was having domestic problems. He had homicidal thinking. He faced a return to combat and he was untreated for any of his emotional problems.
The soldier was sure he couldn't get the help he wanted through the military healthcare system because he'd already tried and they dismissed his symptoms as normal. He didn't feel they were "normal".
My assessment from our discussion was he had significant risks that would make him a danger to himself or others. I felt his risks would be especially debilitating should he be in a combat zone trying to perform the duties of a combat infantryman.
I told him that I wouldn't want him covering my back in the condition he described. I felt I had a certain expertise from my own combat experiences as a Marine infantryman in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the following eleven months.
I suggested the soldier could use a emergency room at a civilian hospital to get a full psychiatric evaluation if he felt sure the Army hospital on base wouldn't address his mental health issues. The soldier told me he'd consider taking such action.
I found out the soldier did go to a local hospital ED the following day with two active duty soldiers accompanying him. He was placed on a mental health hold and admitted to the hospital's psychiatric unit. They kept the soldier hospitalized over a week before discharging him back to the military.
In today's healthcare system being admitted to a psychiatric unit requires an individual be an extreme risk to themselves or others or be gravely disabled. The fact this soldier was hospitalized confirmed what I feared when I spoke with him.
I was later told the soldier was medically discharged from the Army under honorable conditions about a week after he left the civilian hospital. Now he faces getting his treatment expedited at the VA.
The good news in his story would be he didn't go to Iraq again and possibly endanger his own life or the lives of his fellow soldiers.
Had the soldier gone along with the military in seeking help for his PTSD condition he'd be in Iraq with his symptoms worsening every day he was in country. And, he'd be without treatment.
The sad news in the story is the news he was medically discharged proved to be untrue. Instead, the young soldier was placed on a temporary medical hold but will soon return to his unit and be redeployed to Iraq.
Another mom called a friend of mine seeking help for her son stationed in Iraq. My friend works with local military families who are opposed to the war. Her son is the combat medic I first wrote about.
The mom with her son in Iraq was frantic because her son had gotten in trouble with his command. He was facing a Summary Court Martial for threatening the life of his 1 st Sergeant, failing to carry out several normal duties expected of him and missing several formations.
The soldier had seen some of his fellow troops killed during his tour in Iraq and had been shot himself but his Kevlar vest had prevented him being wounded. He had also become suicidal as well as homicidal.
His command placed the soldier on suicide watch and placed him in a barracks closet for observation purposes. The closet was situated next door to the quarters of his 1st Sergeant. The closet had a fire ax and ropes that weren’t removed even though the soldier could harm himself or someone else with them if he wasn't closely watched.
This soldier had enlisted in Colorado despite his mom's objection. His mom was terribly worried about him enlisting because he'd been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder when he was eight years old.
He'd been treated with medications with only partial effectiveness up until the time of his enlistment. His psychiatrist, who testified by phone at his Summary Court Martial, stated he would be unable to function in the Army if he stopped taking his medication and in all likelihood even if medicated he'd be unable to withstand military life.
The soldier's recruiter in Colorado was informed of the ADD by the mother. The recruiter told the mom he'd "note" it on the recruit's record. During an Inspector General's investigation requested by the soldier, there was no record of the recruiter "noting" the ADD diagnosis.
The soldier says the recruiter had advised him not to mention the diagnosis because “plenty” of soldiers had the ADD diagnosis. The recruiter denied doing this during the IG inspection. The IG found no basis for the recruiter falsely enlisting the soldier.
They did find basis for the soldier being prosecuted for fraudulent enlistment under federal law. If convicted of that charge the soldier could be sentenced up to ten years in federal prison.
The soldier's mom went to her congressman's office for help. She felt she was patronized by the military liaison. He told her the soldier should just go along with "the program" to avoid problems. He said the soldier reminded him of himself when he was a young rebellious soldier.
The frustrated mom then went to her Senator's office. They told her it would take up to three weeks to do a welfare check. They also told her the soldier faced "big trouble" for his fraudulent enlistment and should just accept the Summary Court Martial and move on with his military service.
Finally the mom became frantic and called my friend who works with military families. She had some previous contact with the Senator's military liaison. My friend was able to cajole the liaison to make an inquiry faster than the three weeks the mom had been told it would take.
The mom was also advised to seek legal assistance. She hired a local attorney who had military law experience. That attorney contacted a friend of his in the Green Zone to request that he make inquiries about the soldier's case.
The attorney in the Green Zone told the local attorney he felt the commanding officer of the soldier planned on making an "example" of him because he'd made a threat against the 1 st Sergeant.
He also said the Combat Stress Team had not become involved while the soldier was under indictment for a Summary Court Martial. Only the soldier's civilian psychiatrist would testify about his mental health problems.
The soldier was convicted and sentenced to 15 days in the stockade in Kuwait and another 15 days in a Baghdad stockade. After his Baghdad incarceration the soldier was to return to his unit under the same command of the 1 st Sergeant and commanding officer.
Currently there has been conflicting reports the Army plans on mustering the soldier out with a medical discharge based on his preexisting condition of ADD or that he will have to make up the time spent in the stockade and finish his tour in Iraq.
If the soldier is discharged for the preexisting condition he'll be ineligible for VA benefits and all other veteran benefits. He'll be without benefits despite being shot, though saved by his Kevlar vest, and spending time in combat.
The last time the mom heard from her son he told her he'd still not been given medications despite the psychiatrist's testimony. In fact, the soldier hasn't had medications since he joined the military.
There is some research that shows the regimentation of the military is beneficial to individuals diagnosed with ADD. The military does give waivers for individuals with ADD but their regulations state the person must have a stage of ADD that is controllable.
This soldier's psychiatrist stated the soldier has never been fully controlled even with a higher dose of medications. He functioned poorly in school and in his attempts to go to college. And still the military seems to hold on to the need to not only punish the soldier but to further exacerbate his condition by returning him to a combat condition.
Just this past week (Oct 7-Oct 14, 2007) the mother talked with her son. He reports he’s now back with his company and again under the command of the 1st Sergeant. The 1st Sergeant, 38 years old, is harassing the 20 year old soldier by calling him “ a piece of shit soldier” and suggesting this Halloween he should “dress up as a ‘real’ soldier”.
Other members of the company have joined in on the hazing and harassment. The soldier and his parents are sure the 1st Sergeant is overtly attempting to cause the soldier to “snap” in order to provoke reactions that will allow charges to be filed.
Maybe the 1st Sergeant fell in love with the movie, “From Here to Eternity” and wants to be the sadist sergeant, Fatso Judson, but his actions toward a 20 year old soldier do nothing to further the reputation of the military. In fact, it really seems the 1st Sergeant is the soldier that should face charges based on the Uniformed Military Justice Code.
And a mother continues to frantically try saving her son from the possible horrible consequences of a toxic military healthcare system that seems to lack all standards of care normally expected in the treatment of mental health problems.
Addendum:
Since the first writing of the Toxic Care story I've received another email from a wife of an Iraq vet who lives in Colorado Springs, CO. The wife was desperate to find help for her veteran husband who has severe PTSD symptoms.
Recently the husband held the wife literally hostage in a flashback incident. The wife reports he was speaking Arabic and forced her into a prisoner position often seen in photos from the Iraq war.
The wife was somehow able to reach a phone and call a Vietnam vet friend of her husband. The friend was able to talk the husband down from his dissociative state and he "released" his wife from her captivity.
The wife called the Colorado Springs VA outpatient clinic but because of the hour discovered there was no help available. The clinic was closed, even though a large military base was just outside Colorado Springs (Fort Carson) and the city has many returned combat veterans in residence.
Desperate, the wife called Penrose Hospital, a private facility in Colorado Springs. When she reached the psychiatric team at Penrose she was instructed to take her two children out of the house to avoid any further threat of violence.
The wife made sure to tell the Penrose psychiatric team her husband had been having a flashback and needed immediate psychiatric care. She also told them he was no longer a threat because he had finally fallen asleep.
The nurse at Penrose told the wife they would send an ambulance to the home of the veteran. Moments after the wife had talked to Penrose, the Colorado Springs police arrived and barged into the home of the sleeping veteran to arrest him.
He was charged with felony menacing and domestic violence and by state law a restraint order to prevent him contacting his wife and children was implemented. The veteran was taken to El Paso County's jail and held for over three days. He was never seen at a psychiatric facility or provided a psychiatric evaluation.
The wife immediately tried to provide the veteran's medication to the jail personnel but was refused. She wasn't given a reason why the jail wouldn't provide medications prescribed by the VA to her husband.
Before the veteran could return home the wife had to get the restraint order removed. It took her three days to accomplish that.
The wife reports her husband has received minimal care at the local outpatient VA clinic in Colorado Springs. The family moved from the state of New York, where the husband had been treated for PTSD at a VA clinic. He had been prescribed medications for his symptoms.
Once in Colorado Springs, the VA clinic there told the veteran he should call for a possible appointment every Wednesday morning but there was no guarantee of available appointments.
The Colorado Springs VA didn't bother to inform the Iraq vet about the Vet Center program that was available to him. Only later would he and his wife find out about the Vet Center and enter treatment.
The veteran was arraigned for felonies. The wife informed the local El Paso County DA she wouldn't testify against her husband and would invoke the 5th Amendment refusal to testify.
The DA informed the judge assigned the case the wife had told him she wouldn't honor a subpoena if given one. The judge chastised the wife that he would institute a bench warrant for her arrest if she failed to report. She informed him she'd never told the DA she wouldn't honor a subpoena.
Seeing that her husband faced imprisonment in a criminal case rather than getting the help he needed, the wife hired a criminal attorney. The attorney had little knowledge about PTSD and seemed unwilling to use the veteran's state of mind as a defense.
In fact, the attorney suggested the veteran accept a plea bargain for a deferred sentence on the felony menacing and domestic violence charge. Accepting the plea would mean the veteran would be obligated to be in mandatory treatment for a period of time. If he accepted the plea and met the terms of the sentence, the felony would be dropped from his record.
The veteran refused to accept the plea fearing the felony would still be on his record and feeling he'd made a good faith effort to get into treatment but had been turned away from the VA because of the lack of available appointments.
Days after the veteran was released from jail in Colorado Springs he and his wife went to Denver's VA Medical Center. He was admitted to the psychiatric unit for PTSD. His medications were changed from what he had been prescribed in New York. He was then referred back to the Colorado Springs VA clinic; the same clinic which couldn't guarantee an appointment on a timely basis.
The Iraq vet works as a steelworker but his medication has caused him to miss several days because of adverse side effects. He also missed work because he had been jailed.
The wife reports she's going to school to become a massage therapist with the express intent that using an alternative care might help her husband. She says she's read and studied everything she could get her hands on about PTSD. She was certain her husband would have traumatic memories and emotional problems because of his combat experiences.
The wife reports her attorney showed her emails from the DA to him stating he intended to prosecute the veteran as a criminal and would try to block any attempt to use his mental status as a defense.
The DA also told the wife at one point he didn't care what the veteran did to her but he did care about what he might do to someone else.
The current status of the case is the veteran faces prison for what his wife describes as a dissociative state or flashback to his combat experience. Instead of getting the immediate mental health treatment he deserved, he faces punishment for incurring trauma in a war.
The message the El Paso County DA gives to all veterans who are troubled with PTSD caused by their wartime experience is clear. He doesn't care. He will not accept young men or women can have flashbacks or angry outbursts when triggered. He has no regard for the emotional state of veterans despite the known symptoms of combat PTSD.
The El Paso County DA probably has no problem with young men and women going to war, killing and wounding other humans or being traumatized while he sits in the comfort of his home. He probably doesn't mind going to parades or other patriotic ceremonies honoring the returning troops. He just doesn't want to hear about their problems.
I doubt the El Paso County DA cares that more than one in three soldiers and Marines will need mental health care. His answer to PTSD seems to be punishment and the use of forensic mental healthcare. No one can say he's soft on crime.
In many ways the refusal to care about the problems of returned veterans is not just confined to the supporters of the war. I can't say how many times I've tried to get peace activists fired up about the trauma veterans have endured and the cost it will have on families and all of society if left untreated.
The activists are constantly asking me if I can find a veteran to take part in a rally or march to speak about their wartime experiences. And most times there are veterans who do want to speak out but we fail these veterans if we aren't willing to listen to the emotional toll it takes to talk about their trauma. We fail the veterans if we don't recognize the urgent need for them to get needed treatment and to begin healing.
And we have to wonder just how many more mothers and fathers face such horrors for their children. How many parents have gone along with the suggested chain of command "ways" and lost a child because of it?
We have to wonder how many spouses face the same situations of a returned husband or wife facing long waits for care and being unable to adjust after their time in combat. How many will face flashbacks leading to possible violence toward them or their kids? How many veterans will lose hope and decide suicide by cop or at their own hands is their only solution?
The latest news about the care of returning soldiers with both physical and mental health problems remains much the same as before the Washington Post’s Walter Reed story came to light.
Now it's coming to light that many of the troops who have lost limbs or are disabled because of mental health problems also face bankruptcy, loss of homes and poverty because of a system wide failure to provide the needed care and to compensate at a level above impoverishment when a disability is given a veteran.
The American support of troops obviously stops once the troops have done the bidding of their military masters. We fail to remember what was asked of the young men and women who sought to serve their country once they return from that service.
We've become a disposable society to such an extent we aren't troubled with the disposal of our young troops. Just as we marginalize the communities of color and poverty, we've come to do the same with the veteran.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Psychiatric RN
USMC combat infantry veteran
RVN 1967-69
I spoke with a mom yesterday who told me her son, who served as a combat medic in Iraq, is having his PTSD diagnosis revoked until he can produce three witnesses to corroborate his traumatic events. The soldier was in Iraq three years ago. After his tour in Iraq he was assigned to work as a medic in Walter Reed's spinal cord injury and amputee unit.
Walter Reed became a nightmarish recreation of Iraq for the medic. Eventually he was involuntarily extended and sent back to a combat unit about to deploy to Afghanistan. He wasn't able to redeploy, however, because of a physical injury incurred while serving in Iraq that required surgical repair.
After coming back from Iraq and while working at Walter Reed, the medic began to drink and was having combat nightmares. He was constantly depressed and having suicidal thinking at times.
He resisted seeking mental health care because he felt it would adversely affect him if he did have to redeploy. He feared others in his unit wouldn't trust him if he was considered a "nut case".
Finally with continued urging from his family and friends outside the military, he did seek mental health care. The medic was diagnosed with PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder. He also entered a treatment program to help prevent the use of alcohol as a way to self medicate.
The medic had turned against the war during his time in Iraq but continued to do his duty without a strong declaration of that opposition. He felt an obligation toward his fellow soldiers to support them which kept him from overt dissent.
Finally in 2005 he joined anti-war veterans to oppose the war when he wasn't on duty. Finally, the young medic decided the only way he could truly support his fellow troops was to oppose their deployment and redeployment. And to support them coming home.
The Army came to the conclusion the soldier couldn't be successfully rehabilitated for physical and emotional problems while in the service. He's being told he’ll receive a medical discharge in the near future.
It now appears the Army has decided to award the young medic's duty of treating wounds of other troops by revoking his PTSD diagnosis if he fails to produce three witnesses to specific events of trauma.
How ludicrous the Army appears to demand a combat medic prove he witnessed the trauma of war while assigned to a combat unit in Iraq. How foolish they appear telling this medic he needs witnesses three years after he served in Iraq.
Any soldier or Marine who served in combat knows there is a constant flux of men coming and going in their unit because of death, wounds requiring evacuation and just the normal rotation for discharge and end of tours.
Any soldier and Marine knows finding witnesses to what they are asked to do in combat is the farthest thing from their mind. And a military personnel record can verify if an individual has been in a combat situation.
Any professional with experience in combat induced PTSD can testify memory loss and repression of memories are cardinal symptoms of the disorder. They can also testify that suicidal thinking, depressive symptoms and hyper-vigilant and paranoid appearing behaviors are common symptoms of PTSD. Use of alcohol or other substances to try forgetting horrible events of combat (self medication) is very common, as well.
The medic exhibited all the classic symptoms of combat induced PTSD, was diagnosed with the disorder and was treated for the disorder. But, now, the Army has mysteriously decided to make his continued treatment much more difficult or impossible with the foolish imposition of witness corroboration.
Not too long ago, the VA attempted to do the same thing with Vietnam veterans diagnosed with PTSD. Only a loud outcry by veterans' advocacy groups stopped that attempt.
The callous attempt to manipulate combat veterans' treatment has an obvious reason. The reduction of healthcare costs for veterans will be at the expense of their healing. Once again it is the veteran who will bear the costs of war even in the promised care for their wounds.
The Army says the young medic can go to the VA to regain his diagnosis of PTSD once discharged. His mom rightfully worries it will be a long time before he can be seen at the VA to determine he has PTSD that has already once been diagnosed. She worries he'll be without treatment and his symptoms and problems will worsen.
All recent studies and investigations have shown the VA system fails the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan because of poor funding and understaffed clinics. Waits for disposition of diagnoses such as PTSD have been as long as two or more years.
Any professional with experience in treating combat induced PTSD can testify the best prognosis for controlling PTSD symptoms and avoid intractable, lifetime symptoms is early intervention.
A key problem with the care of active duty and VA eligible veterans struggling with PTSD continues to be the lack of experienced therapists. Seventy per cent of the therapists treating the men and women presenting with symptoms of PTSD have no previous experience in treating the disorder.
I also recently spoke with a soldier who was about to be redeployed even though he'd been diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Major Depression.
The young soldier had attempted to harm himself but a fellow soldier had intervened.
Another soldier had called me because he was worried the young soldier would harm himself before he deployed or once he was back in Iraq. He asked that I call his friend to consult with him about his mental health issues.
I called and began a lengthy evaluation of the soldier's situation over the phone. I have several years experience working with psychiatric emergency teams, emergency phone triage and in a psychiatric emergency room.
The soldier was very polite, using the word, "Sir", often in our discussion. He told me he was worried he couldn't perform the duties he would be asked to do if he was in Iraq because he was having daily panic attacks. The attacks were increasing in number and duration.
The soldier also had an eighteen year old wife who had taken a restraining order out against him. There hadn't been violence but the soldier had become involved in verbal altercations with his wife and she was frightened he might act out against her.
He also has a three month old daughter he hasn't been able to see since the restraining order had been taken out. He worries about the care of the daughter because he discovered his wife is going out with old high school friends every weekend while leaving the daughter with the wife's mother. The wife was spending late hours in bars with the friends.
He reported having suicidal thoughts almost daily. He says he's had thoughts of killing his squad leader who has been petty and harassing toward him since his return from Iraq.
The soldier was seen by an Army psychologist recently and diagnosed with PTSD, Adjustment Disorder and Major Depression. The psychologist arranged an appointment with an Army psychiatrist for the soldier to be evaluated for medication treatment.
The appointment date with the doctor just happened to be one day after the soldier was to return to Iraq. His command told him mental health treatment would be available for him once he got settled in his base at Iraq.
The soldier knew, however, the mental health unit (Combat Stress Team) wasn’t on the base he was to be assigned to. The soldier would have to be taken by convoy to the where the stress team was located. Fellow soldiers would have to accompany him to go to the appointments for his treatment.
The soldier adamantly told me he'd never put fellow soldiers at risk for possible IED and roadside bomb attacks to transport him to have treatment.
He was also clear he felt he'd be unable to be as reactive and alert as he would need to be in a combat situation because his panic attacks were unpredictable and made him "freeze up".
The soldier asked me if I felt he should be treated before returning to Iraq. I reviewed his risk factors with him.
He had panic attacks with increasing regularity and intensity. He had suicidal thinking. He was having domestic problems. He had homicidal thinking. He faced a return to combat and he was untreated for any of his emotional problems.
The soldier was sure he couldn't get the help he wanted through the military healthcare system because he'd already tried and they dismissed his symptoms as normal. He didn't feel they were "normal".
My assessment from our discussion was he had significant risks that would make him a danger to himself or others. I felt his risks would be especially debilitating should he be in a combat zone trying to perform the duties of a combat infantryman.
I told him that I wouldn't want him covering my back in the condition he described. I felt I had a certain expertise from my own combat experiences as a Marine infantryman in Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive and the following eleven months.
I suggested the soldier could use a emergency room at a civilian hospital to get a full psychiatric evaluation if he felt sure the Army hospital on base wouldn't address his mental health issues. The soldier told me he'd consider taking such action.
I found out the soldier did go to a local hospital ED the following day with two active duty soldiers accompanying him. He was placed on a mental health hold and admitted to the hospital's psychiatric unit. They kept the soldier hospitalized over a week before discharging him back to the military.
In today's healthcare system being admitted to a psychiatric unit requires an individual be an extreme risk to themselves or others or be gravely disabled. The fact this soldier was hospitalized confirmed what I feared when I spoke with him.
I was later told the soldier was medically discharged from the Army under honorable conditions about a week after he left the civilian hospital. Now he faces getting his treatment expedited at the VA.
The good news in his story would be he didn't go to Iraq again and possibly endanger his own life or the lives of his fellow soldiers.
Had the soldier gone along with the military in seeking help for his PTSD condition he'd be in Iraq with his symptoms worsening every day he was in country. And, he'd be without treatment.
The sad news in the story is the news he was medically discharged proved to be untrue. Instead, the young soldier was placed on a temporary medical hold but will soon return to his unit and be redeployed to Iraq.
Another mom called a friend of mine seeking help for her son stationed in Iraq. My friend works with local military families who are opposed to the war. Her son is the combat medic I first wrote about.
The mom with her son in Iraq was frantic because her son had gotten in trouble with his command. He was facing a Summary Court Martial for threatening the life of his 1 st Sergeant, failing to carry out several normal duties expected of him and missing several formations.
The soldier had seen some of his fellow troops killed during his tour in Iraq and had been shot himself but his Kevlar vest had prevented him being wounded. He had also become suicidal as well as homicidal.
His command placed the soldier on suicide watch and placed him in a barracks closet for observation purposes. The closet was situated next door to the quarters of his 1st Sergeant. The closet had a fire ax and ropes that weren’t removed even though the soldier could harm himself or someone else with them if he wasn't closely watched.
This soldier had enlisted in Colorado despite his mom's objection. His mom was terribly worried about him enlisting because he'd been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder when he was eight years old.
He'd been treated with medications with only partial effectiveness up until the time of his enlistment. His psychiatrist, who testified by phone at his Summary Court Martial, stated he would be unable to function in the Army if he stopped taking his medication and in all likelihood even if medicated he'd be unable to withstand military life.
The soldier's recruiter in Colorado was informed of the ADD by the mother. The recruiter told the mom he'd "note" it on the recruit's record. During an Inspector General's investigation requested by the soldier, there was no record of the recruiter "noting" the ADD diagnosis.
The soldier says the recruiter had advised him not to mention the diagnosis because “plenty” of soldiers had the ADD diagnosis. The recruiter denied doing this during the IG inspection. The IG found no basis for the recruiter falsely enlisting the soldier.
They did find basis for the soldier being prosecuted for fraudulent enlistment under federal law. If convicted of that charge the soldier could be sentenced up to ten years in federal prison.
The soldier's mom went to her congressman's office for help. She felt she was patronized by the military liaison. He told her the soldier should just go along with "the program" to avoid problems. He said the soldier reminded him of himself when he was a young rebellious soldier.
The frustrated mom then went to her Senator's office. They told her it would take up to three weeks to do a welfare check. They also told her the soldier faced "big trouble" for his fraudulent enlistment and should just accept the Summary Court Martial and move on with his military service.
Finally the mom became frantic and called my friend who works with military families. She had some previous contact with the Senator's military liaison. My friend was able to cajole the liaison to make an inquiry faster than the three weeks the mom had been told it would take.
The mom was also advised to seek legal assistance. She hired a local attorney who had military law experience. That attorney contacted a friend of his in the Green Zone to request that he make inquiries about the soldier's case.
The attorney in the Green Zone told the local attorney he felt the commanding officer of the soldier planned on making an "example" of him because he'd made a threat against the 1 st Sergeant.
He also said the Combat Stress Team had not become involved while the soldier was under indictment for a Summary Court Martial. Only the soldier's civilian psychiatrist would testify about his mental health problems.
The soldier was convicted and sentenced to 15 days in the stockade in Kuwait and another 15 days in a Baghdad stockade. After his Baghdad incarceration the soldier was to return to his unit under the same command of the 1 st Sergeant and commanding officer.
Currently there has been conflicting reports the Army plans on mustering the soldier out with a medical discharge based on his preexisting condition of ADD or that he will have to make up the time spent in the stockade and finish his tour in Iraq.
If the soldier is discharged for the preexisting condition he'll be ineligible for VA benefits and all other veteran benefits. He'll be without benefits despite being shot, though saved by his Kevlar vest, and spending time in combat.
The last time the mom heard from her son he told her he'd still not been given medications despite the psychiatrist's testimony. In fact, the soldier hasn't had medications since he joined the military.
There is some research that shows the regimentation of the military is beneficial to individuals diagnosed with ADD. The military does give waivers for individuals with ADD but their regulations state the person must have a stage of ADD that is controllable.
This soldier's psychiatrist stated the soldier has never been fully controlled even with a higher dose of medications. He functioned poorly in school and in his attempts to go to college. And still the military seems to hold on to the need to not only punish the soldier but to further exacerbate his condition by returning him to a combat condition.
Just this past week (Oct 7-Oct 14, 2007) the mother talked with her son. He reports he’s now back with his company and again under the command of the 1st Sergeant. The 1st Sergeant, 38 years old, is harassing the 20 year old soldier by calling him “ a piece of shit soldier” and suggesting this Halloween he should “dress up as a ‘real’ soldier”.
Other members of the company have joined in on the hazing and harassment. The soldier and his parents are sure the 1st Sergeant is overtly attempting to cause the soldier to “snap” in order to provoke reactions that will allow charges to be filed.
Maybe the 1st Sergeant fell in love with the movie, “From Here to Eternity” and wants to be the sadist sergeant, Fatso Judson, but his actions toward a 20 year old soldier do nothing to further the reputation of the military. In fact, it really seems the 1st Sergeant is the soldier that should face charges based on the Uniformed Military Justice Code.
And a mother continues to frantically try saving her son from the possible horrible consequences of a toxic military healthcare system that seems to lack all standards of care normally expected in the treatment of mental health problems.
Addendum:
Since the first writing of the Toxic Care story I've received another email from a wife of an Iraq vet who lives in Colorado Springs, CO. The wife was desperate to find help for her veteran husband who has severe PTSD symptoms.
Recently the husband held the wife literally hostage in a flashback incident. The wife reports he was speaking Arabic and forced her into a prisoner position often seen in photos from the Iraq war.
The wife was somehow able to reach a phone and call a Vietnam vet friend of her husband. The friend was able to talk the husband down from his dissociative state and he "released" his wife from her captivity.
The wife called the Colorado Springs VA outpatient clinic but because of the hour discovered there was no help available. The clinic was closed, even though a large military base was just outside Colorado Springs (Fort Carson) and the city has many returned combat veterans in residence.
Desperate, the wife called Penrose Hospital, a private facility in Colorado Springs. When she reached the psychiatric team at Penrose she was instructed to take her two children out of the house to avoid any further threat of violence.
The wife made sure to tell the Penrose psychiatric team her husband had been having a flashback and needed immediate psychiatric care. She also told them he was no longer a threat because he had finally fallen asleep.
The nurse at Penrose told the wife they would send an ambulance to the home of the veteran. Moments after the wife had talked to Penrose, the Colorado Springs police arrived and barged into the home of the sleeping veteran to arrest him.
He was charged with felony menacing and domestic violence and by state law a restraint order to prevent him contacting his wife and children was implemented. The veteran was taken to El Paso County's jail and held for over three days. He was never seen at a psychiatric facility or provided a psychiatric evaluation.
The wife immediately tried to provide the veteran's medication to the jail personnel but was refused. She wasn't given a reason why the jail wouldn't provide medications prescribed by the VA to her husband.
Before the veteran could return home the wife had to get the restraint order removed. It took her three days to accomplish that.
The wife reports her husband has received minimal care at the local outpatient VA clinic in Colorado Springs. The family moved from the state of New York, where the husband had been treated for PTSD at a VA clinic. He had been prescribed medications for his symptoms.
Once in Colorado Springs, the VA clinic there told the veteran he should call for a possible appointment every Wednesday morning but there was no guarantee of available appointments.
The Colorado Springs VA didn't bother to inform the Iraq vet about the Vet Center program that was available to him. Only later would he and his wife find out about the Vet Center and enter treatment.
The veteran was arraigned for felonies. The wife informed the local El Paso County DA she wouldn't testify against her husband and would invoke the 5th Amendment refusal to testify.
The DA informed the judge assigned the case the wife had told him she wouldn't honor a subpoena if given one. The judge chastised the wife that he would institute a bench warrant for her arrest if she failed to report. She informed him she'd never told the DA she wouldn't honor a subpoena.
Seeing that her husband faced imprisonment in a criminal case rather than getting the help he needed, the wife hired a criminal attorney. The attorney had little knowledge about PTSD and seemed unwilling to use the veteran's state of mind as a defense.
In fact, the attorney suggested the veteran accept a plea bargain for a deferred sentence on the felony menacing and domestic violence charge. Accepting the plea would mean the veteran would be obligated to be in mandatory treatment for a period of time. If he accepted the plea and met the terms of the sentence, the felony would be dropped from his record.
The veteran refused to accept the plea fearing the felony would still be on his record and feeling he'd made a good faith effort to get into treatment but had been turned away from the VA because of the lack of available appointments.
Days after the veteran was released from jail in Colorado Springs he and his wife went to Denver's VA Medical Center. He was admitted to the psychiatric unit for PTSD. His medications were changed from what he had been prescribed in New York. He was then referred back to the Colorado Springs VA clinic; the same clinic which couldn't guarantee an appointment on a timely basis.
The Iraq vet works as a steelworker but his medication has caused him to miss several days because of adverse side effects. He also missed work because he had been jailed.
The wife reports she's going to school to become a massage therapist with the express intent that using an alternative care might help her husband. She says she's read and studied everything she could get her hands on about PTSD. She was certain her husband would have traumatic memories and emotional problems because of his combat experiences.
The wife reports her attorney showed her emails from the DA to him stating he intended to prosecute the veteran as a criminal and would try to block any attempt to use his mental status as a defense.
The DA also told the wife at one point he didn't care what the veteran did to her but he did care about what he might do to someone else.
The current status of the case is the veteran faces prison for what his wife describes as a dissociative state or flashback to his combat experience. Instead of getting the immediate mental health treatment he deserved, he faces punishment for incurring trauma in a war.
The message the El Paso County DA gives to all veterans who are troubled with PTSD caused by their wartime experience is clear. He doesn't care. He will not accept young men or women can have flashbacks or angry outbursts when triggered. He has no regard for the emotional state of veterans despite the known symptoms of combat PTSD.
The El Paso County DA probably has no problem with young men and women going to war, killing and wounding other humans or being traumatized while he sits in the comfort of his home. He probably doesn't mind going to parades or other patriotic ceremonies honoring the returning troops. He just doesn't want to hear about their problems.
I doubt the El Paso County DA cares that more than one in three soldiers and Marines will need mental health care. His answer to PTSD seems to be punishment and the use of forensic mental healthcare. No one can say he's soft on crime.
In many ways the refusal to care about the problems of returned veterans is not just confined to the supporters of the war. I can't say how many times I've tried to get peace activists fired up about the trauma veterans have endured and the cost it will have on families and all of society if left untreated.
The activists are constantly asking me if I can find a veteran to take part in a rally or march to speak about their wartime experiences. And most times there are veterans who do want to speak out but we fail these veterans if we aren't willing to listen to the emotional toll it takes to talk about their trauma. We fail the veterans if we don't recognize the urgent need for them to get needed treatment and to begin healing.
And we have to wonder just how many more mothers and fathers face such horrors for their children. How many parents have gone along with the suggested chain of command "ways" and lost a child because of it?
We have to wonder how many spouses face the same situations of a returned husband or wife facing long waits for care and being unable to adjust after their time in combat. How many will face flashbacks leading to possible violence toward them or their kids? How many veterans will lose hope and decide suicide by cop or at their own hands is their only solution?
The latest news about the care of returning soldiers with both physical and mental health problems remains much the same as before the Washington Post’s Walter Reed story came to light.
Now it's coming to light that many of the troops who have lost limbs or are disabled because of mental health problems also face bankruptcy, loss of homes and poverty because of a system wide failure to provide the needed care and to compensate at a level above impoverishment when a disability is given a veteran.
The American support of troops obviously stops once the troops have done the bidding of their military masters. We fail to remember what was asked of the young men and women who sought to serve their country once they return from that service.
We've become a disposable society to such an extent we aren't troubled with the disposal of our young troops. Just as we marginalize the communities of color and poverty, we've come to do the same with the veteran.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Psychiatric RN
USMC combat infantry veteran
RVN 1967-69
Monday, October 8
Columbus Day - Hate and Racism Continued
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”…..goes the rhyme my Anglo-Saxon educators taught us in the Denver Public Schools. We’d get Columbus Day off every year to honor the Italian sailor who allegedly discovered “America”.
They used to teach us other lies, too. Like this nation is a democracy. Like “all men are created equal”. Like this is the land of freedom.
It used to be I had an almost reverent opinion of my school teachers who taught me these things. I felt teachers were to be honored because they brought knowledge to children. I found out too late they really served as the carriers of the disease of nationalism and capitalism.
I found out too late my teachers fed me full of European lies that were racist to the core. And to this day, they continue to do so. How do I know? Because, to this day, this nation and this city of Denver continues to honor the genocidal exploits of the Italian sailor called Columbus.
The Catholic Church continues to honor a man who plundered and destroyed the cultures of indigenous peoples by his staking claim and literally stealing the lands of these peoples. The Knights of Columbus continue to be an active men’s organization in the Church.
Columbus set into action hundreds of years of destruction and death targeting indigenous peoples in North and South Americas and the areas in the vicinity. He brought the arrogance of the European barbarians to the shores of the Americas and used the Church to justify his barbarism.
I recently read a column by Paul Campos (The Rocky Mountain News, October 2, 2007) about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that caught my attention when the writer captured the European/American mindset in one of his paragraphs. He said:
“In short, when a political leader claims he is the head of a unique nation, anointed by history or even God himself to be a light unto the world, we tend to consider him either an amusing crank or a dangerous lunatic.
Unless that leader happens to an American president - then he's merely stating a self-evident truth”.
That same mindset continues today in the continued arrogance of certain Americans celebrating Christopher Columbus. Here in Denver, that group is mostly Italian-Americans who refuse to acknowledge the racism of Columbus.
They refuse to understand the insult their yearly parades honoring this man is toward the descendants of the indigenous peoples he enslaved and killed after he and his troops had stolen their lands in their Christian self-righteousness.
This past Saturday, October 6, 2007, Italian-Americans in Denver organized a parade to run in the downtown area of the city. And once again a large group of Native Americans and supporters came to block their way in the parade route.
83 of the protestors were arrested by the Denver Police Department dressed in riot gear, pointing weapons, wielding offensive batons and using pain holds.
It was clear the police were practicing for the upcoming 2008 Democratic Convention to be held in Denver. The message is clear that the Denver Police Department will utilize a violent response to any protestors at the convention.
The 83 protestors arrested at the Columbus Day Parade included the leaders and organizers of the protest. This is another clear message to be kept in mind for the upcoming convention.
The Columbus Day “holiday” started in Denver in 1907 and later became a national holiday. It has been slowly diminished in status because employers no longer want to pay holiday pay or let employees have the day off. It even receded somewhat in stature here in Denver until the last ten to fifteen years.
Now it has become a yearly event for a group of revisionist Italian-Americans to hold the parade in acknowledged defiance of the local Native American community’s objection to a man who slaughtered and enslaved their historical ancestors.
The Italian-Americans feel it their God given right to enshrine and celebrate a man responsible for more deaths than Hitler by saying his actions were only acts that were common during that time in history.
They even go so far as trying to make the indigenous peoples out as villains and savages because they fought back in attempts to save the land that was rightfully theirs. Today, no doubt, the Italians would say the indigenous peoples were “insurgents” or “terrorists”.
There is a great correlation to the continued American “manifest destiny” and “American exceptionalism” throughout the world and the annihilation of the Native American population began by Columbus.
Today our indigenous peoples are located in Iraq and Afghanistan. During “my war of liberation” it was the Vietnamese.
The savages or insurgents or terrorists or guerillas of American history have always been described in ways to demonize and vilify a culture and people. The young of the Euro-centric education system aren’t allowed to learn about these cultures unless they take it upon themselves to do so.
The omission of knowledge about cultures other than European taught in public schools and most other schools in this nation has made it easy to recruit young men (and now young women) into the military to fight the “demons” opposing our way of life. Lack of knowledge about a culture has made it easy to have My Lai and Haditha type events to occur.
It is no mistake the troops going to these remote nations have lack of knowledge about their cultures. If we were to make a people human by learning about their ways of life it would become more difficult to kill them. And so it was with the indigenous people Christopher Columbus encountered.
Peoples with ancient ways of preserving lands and living in peace were seen as heathens and savages because they weren’t Christians. They weren’t Europeans. Their skin tones were dark and therefore seen as inferior.
I grew up in this state, living most of the time here in Denver. During my school years state history was a required subject from grade school until high school. I vividly remember reading about the miners and settlers of the state but there was seldom a mention of the true natives of this state.
Sure, we learned about Mesa Verde and mysterious cave dwellers that disappeared centuries before the European ever arrived. We learned there were Ute, Araphoe, Sioux, Cheyenne, Apache and Navaho tribes that once had large numbers here.
We didn’t learn about the Sand Creek Massacre. We didn’t learn about the cultures of these tribes.
I don’t remember Native Americans being in my Denver Public Schools classes in the 1960’s. I look back now and about the only thing I remember indicating Native Americans once owned this land are the street names.
Many of the streets in the city bear tribal names which few of us give a second thought. Few of us care about the origin of those names.
A few years back I was arrested at one of the Columbus Day parades for blocking the route of the Italians and their associates celebrating the man responsible for the start of the continued genocide of the natives of this land.
The cases against me and the hundred or so others arrested was thrown out by a judge because of the lack of city ordinance specifying such actions as ours to block the parade.
I had some problems with those arrests because of the overt cooperation of the organizers with the Denver police in carrying out the arrests.
In fact, it wasn’t a Denver police officer who came to escort me to the holding area for the arrest and to board the bus to take us to the city jail. It was a member of the organizers security team.
I had previous arrests to oppose the wars against the Iraqi and Afghan peoples that are clearly a screen to exploit them for their resources and the strategic locations of their countries. As a combat veteran, I know the devastation of war on the soldiers and Marines and the people of the nations invaded.
Every day I see the racism of this country at work either in the execution of war or in the administration of justice or the care of the poor. Every day I find it appalling the European mindset prevails in the way it does.
I was asked by a brother to go to this year’s march from the four directions of Earth to the site of this year’s Columbus Day parade in Denver. I passed because of the collusion and cooperation I felt in the last assembly in which I was arrested.
Today, the Monday of the holiday celebrating Columbus, I’m greatly sorry I failed to join my brothers and sisters in their opposition. I see the connection of what started back in 1492 and continues to this day.
Paul Rafferty an observer and writer of UN Observer and International Report made a brilliant point in his column on October 7, 2007.
"Oddly, the name “Christopher” means “Christ-Bearer”. Perhaps, it is time to honour Christopher Columbus, in a Christian manner, by making restitution for past sins and by attempting to follow the basic principles of Christianity and “Love of one’s neighbour, as oneself”..
The Vatican might begin to set an example, by rescinding the Medieval Papal Bulls which authorised Genocide and along with other “Christian” organisations look into their own practices, during the colonial, imperial period – and now.
The United States could make a start by honouring the Treaties made with the Native American Nations.
All the governments of the Western Hemisphere might also begin to recognise the fact that whatever achievements they may attain, all is built upon stolen land."
Richard King of Washington state’s The Daily Evergreen writes about the need to end Columbus Day in his column today (October 8, 2007):
In studying his journals, accounts of his contemporaries and historical analyses, it becomes clear the ambitious and intrepid explorer neither discovered America, nor brought civilization to the savages. Instead – even though lost – he displayed great arrogance upon encountering numerous diverse and sophisticated native nations, believing them to be less than human.
His achievements in the Caribbean include enslaving and plundering; implementing punitive policies that included cutting off the hands of those who did not bring his invading force enough gold; allowing, if not encouraging, massacres; the destruction of families and communities and a cavalier blood sport in which his soldiers would routinely laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual’s head from his body with a single blow of their axes. Eyewitness accounts estimate more than 5 million people were exterminated within the first three years of his arrival.
Although we may want stop short of naming Columbus a terrorist or comparing him to Hitler as some are wont to do, I find it hard to believe we celebrate a holiday each October to honor the man, his character or his accomplishments. Rather, the holiday allows the telling of stories about the founding of America. One thing that makes these stores about Columbus so powerful is that they serve as an origin myth, which encourage Americans to remember a heroic past devoid of conflict, pain and power. The celebrations and stories constituting this collective memory of when and how the nation came to be erase much of what actually happened, excluding from view uneasy experiences and untidy complexities shaping the emergence and evolution of the United States. Enshrining Columbus not only gives the American experience a meaningful beginning, but more importantly denies the genocidal and imperial acts that were to follow as Europeans sought to exploit resources and extended their hegemony.
Columbus Day allows Americans to forget the past and to deny its implications for the present. Moreover, miseducation has caused many Americans not to recognize American Indians, their perspectives and their lasting presence, leaving them without empathy for or awareness of the joys and struggles of Native Americans.
Perhaps Americans continue to celebrate Columbus Day because they do not know better and have been encouraged not to remember or feel the pain and violence at the heart of the American experience. I fear that forgetting is just another expression of the anti-Indianism initiated with Columbus’ arrival. Those of us teaching and learning at a land grant institution on native land have a special obligation to never forget. We have a responsibility to find ways to bring more American Indian students, staff and faculty to WSU, and with them indigenous ways of knowing and being. Increased offerings in indigenous studies would be one path toward this end, another would be to increase the funding and prominence of The Plateau Center for American Indian Studies. Small steps to be sure, but essential efforts if we are to come to terms with Columbus, empire and injustice, and open spaces for reconciliation and understanding."
So why do me like George Vendegnia, a parade organizer in Denver, continue to insult and ignore the objections of Native American citizens?
"With this protest, it's just motivating people more to be back next year and exercise their right to participate in an American holiday," Vendegnia said.
And why does the alleged liberal mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, continue to allow the overtly racist parade to take place in the streets of this city?
I can only answer for my failure to attend the demonstration against the parade. I’m of European ancestors who came here with the idea they could steal another people’s land and enslave them all in the name of God. But I get it. I understand the hatefulness of people like Vendegnia.
I remember the 60’s and Bull Connor using dogs and fire hoses against the “freedom marchers” with Martin Luther King.
I remember the assassination of Medger Evers.
I remember the occupation of Wounded Knee and the kangaroo court trials.
I remember Malcolm X being assassinated.
I remember Martin Luther King’s assassination.
People like me need to make the connections of the racist events of terror and violence against our brothers and sisters of color and non-European ancestry. We need to “get it”.
Martin Luther King eloquently stated:
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
I must heed the words of Chief Joseph:
“Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people.
They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave. They do not pay for all my horses and cattle.
Good words cannot give me back my children.
Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying.
Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.
I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk.”
If I fail to join the brothers and sisters my ancestors enslaved and killed and fail to object to the continued celebration of men like Columbus, I have given validation to men and women like Vendegnia.
There are allegedly rights to say whatever you desire in this country but a state and national government should not endorse perpetrators of crime and genocide.
Italian-Americans can be proud of many men and women in their history but their pride for Columbus is akin to wearing hoods and carrying burning crosses.
The Catholic Church’s failure to disavow the Knight’s of Columbus moniker for its men’s service organization is a continued perpetration of racism and an endorsement of a man in history that caused incalculable horror and death.
The European culture has dominated this nation since its first days and failed to address the lies and crimes committed in its expansion as a nation. We continue to neglect and ignore the truth of history.
We continue to ignore the wounds of history.
We fail our brothers and sisters whose ancestors cared for this land long before the arrival of Europeans.
The time to honor their history and their wounds is long past due. We need to stop inflicting the wounds with celebrations such as Columbus Day.
I apologize to my brother who invited me to the rally and march to oppose the racist parade. I failed you and the brothers and sisters who placed themselves in harm’s way to end this hateful event.
I do want you to know I understand the connection between calling Iraqis “sand niggers”, Vietnamese being called “gooks” and Christopher Columbus calling indigenous peoples “savages and heathens”.
I may not always be there but my spirit and solidarity will always reflect my disdain toward the ones who continue to foster the hate and racist thinking.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran (infantryman)
Denver VVAW member
They used to teach us other lies, too. Like this nation is a democracy. Like “all men are created equal”. Like this is the land of freedom.
It used to be I had an almost reverent opinion of my school teachers who taught me these things. I felt teachers were to be honored because they brought knowledge to children. I found out too late they really served as the carriers of the disease of nationalism and capitalism.
I found out too late my teachers fed me full of European lies that were racist to the core. And to this day, they continue to do so. How do I know? Because, to this day, this nation and this city of Denver continues to honor the genocidal exploits of the Italian sailor called Columbus.
The Catholic Church continues to honor a man who plundered and destroyed the cultures of indigenous peoples by his staking claim and literally stealing the lands of these peoples. The Knights of Columbus continue to be an active men’s organization in the Church.
Columbus set into action hundreds of years of destruction and death targeting indigenous peoples in North and South Americas and the areas in the vicinity. He brought the arrogance of the European barbarians to the shores of the Americas and used the Church to justify his barbarism.
I recently read a column by Paul Campos (The Rocky Mountain News, October 2, 2007) about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that caught my attention when the writer captured the European/American mindset in one of his paragraphs. He said:
“In short, when a political leader claims he is the head of a unique nation, anointed by history or even God himself to be a light unto the world, we tend to consider him either an amusing crank or a dangerous lunatic.
Unless that leader happens to an American president - then he's merely stating a self-evident truth”.
That same mindset continues today in the continued arrogance of certain Americans celebrating Christopher Columbus. Here in Denver, that group is mostly Italian-Americans who refuse to acknowledge the racism of Columbus.
They refuse to understand the insult their yearly parades honoring this man is toward the descendants of the indigenous peoples he enslaved and killed after he and his troops had stolen their lands in their Christian self-righteousness.
This past Saturday, October 6, 2007, Italian-Americans in Denver organized a parade to run in the downtown area of the city. And once again a large group of Native Americans and supporters came to block their way in the parade route.
83 of the protestors were arrested by the Denver Police Department dressed in riot gear, pointing weapons, wielding offensive batons and using pain holds.
It was clear the police were practicing for the upcoming 2008 Democratic Convention to be held in Denver. The message is clear that the Denver Police Department will utilize a violent response to any protestors at the convention.
The 83 protestors arrested at the Columbus Day Parade included the leaders and organizers of the protest. This is another clear message to be kept in mind for the upcoming convention.
The Columbus Day “holiday” started in Denver in 1907 and later became a national holiday. It has been slowly diminished in status because employers no longer want to pay holiday pay or let employees have the day off. It even receded somewhat in stature here in Denver until the last ten to fifteen years.
Now it has become a yearly event for a group of revisionist Italian-Americans to hold the parade in acknowledged defiance of the local Native American community’s objection to a man who slaughtered and enslaved their historical ancestors.
The Italian-Americans feel it their God given right to enshrine and celebrate a man responsible for more deaths than Hitler by saying his actions were only acts that were common during that time in history.
They even go so far as trying to make the indigenous peoples out as villains and savages because they fought back in attempts to save the land that was rightfully theirs. Today, no doubt, the Italians would say the indigenous peoples were “insurgents” or “terrorists”.
There is a great correlation to the continued American “manifest destiny” and “American exceptionalism” throughout the world and the annihilation of the Native American population began by Columbus.
Today our indigenous peoples are located in Iraq and Afghanistan. During “my war of liberation” it was the Vietnamese.
The savages or insurgents or terrorists or guerillas of American history have always been described in ways to demonize and vilify a culture and people. The young of the Euro-centric education system aren’t allowed to learn about these cultures unless they take it upon themselves to do so.
The omission of knowledge about cultures other than European taught in public schools and most other schools in this nation has made it easy to recruit young men (and now young women) into the military to fight the “demons” opposing our way of life. Lack of knowledge about a culture has made it easy to have My Lai and Haditha type events to occur.
It is no mistake the troops going to these remote nations have lack of knowledge about their cultures. If we were to make a people human by learning about their ways of life it would become more difficult to kill them. And so it was with the indigenous people Christopher Columbus encountered.
Peoples with ancient ways of preserving lands and living in peace were seen as heathens and savages because they weren’t Christians. They weren’t Europeans. Their skin tones were dark and therefore seen as inferior.
I grew up in this state, living most of the time here in Denver. During my school years state history was a required subject from grade school until high school. I vividly remember reading about the miners and settlers of the state but there was seldom a mention of the true natives of this state.
Sure, we learned about Mesa Verde and mysterious cave dwellers that disappeared centuries before the European ever arrived. We learned there were Ute, Araphoe, Sioux, Cheyenne, Apache and Navaho tribes that once had large numbers here.
We didn’t learn about the Sand Creek Massacre. We didn’t learn about the cultures of these tribes.
I don’t remember Native Americans being in my Denver Public Schools classes in the 1960’s. I look back now and about the only thing I remember indicating Native Americans once owned this land are the street names.
Many of the streets in the city bear tribal names which few of us give a second thought. Few of us care about the origin of those names.
A few years back I was arrested at one of the Columbus Day parades for blocking the route of the Italians and their associates celebrating the man responsible for the start of the continued genocide of the natives of this land.
The cases against me and the hundred or so others arrested was thrown out by a judge because of the lack of city ordinance specifying such actions as ours to block the parade.
I had some problems with those arrests because of the overt cooperation of the organizers with the Denver police in carrying out the arrests.
In fact, it wasn’t a Denver police officer who came to escort me to the holding area for the arrest and to board the bus to take us to the city jail. It was a member of the organizers security team.
I had previous arrests to oppose the wars against the Iraqi and Afghan peoples that are clearly a screen to exploit them for their resources and the strategic locations of their countries. As a combat veteran, I know the devastation of war on the soldiers and Marines and the people of the nations invaded.
Every day I see the racism of this country at work either in the execution of war or in the administration of justice or the care of the poor. Every day I find it appalling the European mindset prevails in the way it does.
I was asked by a brother to go to this year’s march from the four directions of Earth to the site of this year’s Columbus Day parade in Denver. I passed because of the collusion and cooperation I felt in the last assembly in which I was arrested.
Today, the Monday of the holiday celebrating Columbus, I’m greatly sorry I failed to join my brothers and sisters in their opposition. I see the connection of what started back in 1492 and continues to this day.
Paul Rafferty an observer and writer of UN Observer and International Report made a brilliant point in his column on October 7, 2007.
"Oddly, the name “Christopher” means “Christ-Bearer”. Perhaps, it is time to honour Christopher Columbus, in a Christian manner, by making restitution for past sins and by attempting to follow the basic principles of Christianity and “Love of one’s neighbour, as oneself”..
The Vatican might begin to set an example, by rescinding the Medieval Papal Bulls which authorised Genocide and along with other “Christian” organisations look into their own practices, during the colonial, imperial period – and now.
The United States could make a start by honouring the Treaties made with the Native American Nations.
All the governments of the Western Hemisphere might also begin to recognise the fact that whatever achievements they may attain, all is built upon stolen land."
Richard King of Washington state’s The Daily Evergreen writes about the need to end Columbus Day in his column today (October 8, 2007):
In studying his journals, accounts of his contemporaries and historical analyses, it becomes clear the ambitious and intrepid explorer neither discovered America, nor brought civilization to the savages. Instead – even though lost – he displayed great arrogance upon encountering numerous diverse and sophisticated native nations, believing them to be less than human.
His achievements in the Caribbean include enslaving and plundering; implementing punitive policies that included cutting off the hands of those who did not bring his invading force enough gold; allowing, if not encouraging, massacres; the destruction of families and communities and a cavalier blood sport in which his soldiers would routinely laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual’s head from his body with a single blow of their axes. Eyewitness accounts estimate more than 5 million people were exterminated within the first three years of his arrival.
Although we may want stop short of naming Columbus a terrorist or comparing him to Hitler as some are wont to do, I find it hard to believe we celebrate a holiday each October to honor the man, his character or his accomplishments. Rather, the holiday allows the telling of stories about the founding of America. One thing that makes these stores about Columbus so powerful is that they serve as an origin myth, which encourage Americans to remember a heroic past devoid of conflict, pain and power. The celebrations and stories constituting this collective memory of when and how the nation came to be erase much of what actually happened, excluding from view uneasy experiences and untidy complexities shaping the emergence and evolution of the United States. Enshrining Columbus not only gives the American experience a meaningful beginning, but more importantly denies the genocidal and imperial acts that were to follow as Europeans sought to exploit resources and extended their hegemony.
Columbus Day allows Americans to forget the past and to deny its implications for the present. Moreover, miseducation has caused many Americans not to recognize American Indians, their perspectives and their lasting presence, leaving them without empathy for or awareness of the joys and struggles of Native Americans.
Perhaps Americans continue to celebrate Columbus Day because they do not know better and have been encouraged not to remember or feel the pain and violence at the heart of the American experience. I fear that forgetting is just another expression of the anti-Indianism initiated with Columbus’ arrival. Those of us teaching and learning at a land grant institution on native land have a special obligation to never forget. We have a responsibility to find ways to bring more American Indian students, staff and faculty to WSU, and with them indigenous ways of knowing and being. Increased offerings in indigenous studies would be one path toward this end, another would be to increase the funding and prominence of The Plateau Center for American Indian Studies. Small steps to be sure, but essential efforts if we are to come to terms with Columbus, empire and injustice, and open spaces for reconciliation and understanding."
So why do me like George Vendegnia, a parade organizer in Denver, continue to insult and ignore the objections of Native American citizens?
"With this protest, it's just motivating people more to be back next year and exercise their right to participate in an American holiday," Vendegnia said.
And why does the alleged liberal mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, continue to allow the overtly racist parade to take place in the streets of this city?
I can only answer for my failure to attend the demonstration against the parade. I’m of European ancestors who came here with the idea they could steal another people’s land and enslave them all in the name of God. But I get it. I understand the hatefulness of people like Vendegnia.
I remember the 60’s and Bull Connor using dogs and fire hoses against the “freedom marchers” with Martin Luther King.
I remember the assassination of Medger Evers.
I remember the occupation of Wounded Knee and the kangaroo court trials.
I remember Malcolm X being assassinated.
I remember Martin Luther King’s assassination.
People like me need to make the connections of the racist events of terror and violence against our brothers and sisters of color and non-European ancestry. We need to “get it”.
Martin Luther King eloquently stated:
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
I must heed the words of Chief Joseph:
“Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people.
They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave. They do not pay for all my horses and cattle.
Good words cannot give me back my children.
Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying.
Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.
I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk.”
If I fail to join the brothers and sisters my ancestors enslaved and killed and fail to object to the continued celebration of men like Columbus, I have given validation to men and women like Vendegnia.
There are allegedly rights to say whatever you desire in this country but a state and national government should not endorse perpetrators of crime and genocide.
Italian-Americans can be proud of many men and women in their history but their pride for Columbus is akin to wearing hoods and carrying burning crosses.
The Catholic Church’s failure to disavow the Knight’s of Columbus moniker for its men’s service organization is a continued perpetration of racism and an endorsement of a man in history that caused incalculable horror and death.
The European culture has dominated this nation since its first days and failed to address the lies and crimes committed in its expansion as a nation. We continue to neglect and ignore the truth of history.
We continue to ignore the wounds of history.
We fail our brothers and sisters whose ancestors cared for this land long before the arrival of Europeans.
The time to honor their history and their wounds is long past due. We need to stop inflicting the wounds with celebrations such as Columbus Day.
I apologize to my brother who invited me to the rally and march to oppose the racist parade. I failed you and the brothers and sisters who placed themselves in harm’s way to end this hateful event.
I do want you to know I understand the connection between calling Iraqis “sand niggers”, Vietnamese being called “gooks” and Christopher Columbus calling indigenous peoples “savages and heathens”.
I may not always be there but my spirit and solidarity will always reflect my disdain toward the ones who continue to foster the hate and racist thinking.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran (infantryman)
Denver VVAW member
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