I'm watching as Americans continue to allow the political hacks of both parties to play their electoral games of spend and dodge and can't help but wonder why we allow it and when we'll stop it.
Can anybody say Obama or Hillary will get us out of Iraq anytime soon if elected? Can anybody say if the budget for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will stop draining the life out of the needs of impoverished Americans or impoverished Iraqis? Can anybody say schools will get better, jobs will pay living wages, healthcare will be available for all, housing will improve for the homeless or the average pay check to pay check worker or racism, sexism or ageism will lessen?
Can anybody reveal how much money from AIPAC and other Zionists (for the politically correct please understand Zionist doesn't mean Jewish or all Israelis) goes into the campaign funds of Hillary and Obama either directly or indirectly? When we learn the large sums that are given both these candidates by Zionists and AIPAC, can we seriously think Palestinians will ever have a chance for justice?
While it seems easy to revile George W, Dick and Condi for the criminals they are don’t we have to do the same for those who have been complicit with them in the funding and continuation of their crimes? Doesn’t that group include the spineless Democratic leadership?
It seems every election year there’s a “new” candidate who has charisma and captures a large audience with promises of “change”. As we look back, what happened to those candidates that gave their audience so much hope?
Here in Colorado, Ken Salazar was going to be the new hope for many. One of his first acts was to endorse Alberto Gonzales, the henchman for the Bush torture team.
My good friend praises Hillary Clinton. She believes Hillary will make a “great” President. I agree she would make a “great” President but not in the context my friend thinks of being great. Hillary would be “great” in keeping the status quo just as husband, Bill, was. Can we expect a former board member of Wal-Mart and a Senator beholding to AIPAC to be anything but a figure head for more of the same?
When I hear the enthusiasm for Barrack Obama I think about JFK’s charm and the enthusiasm we had for him. He was articulate and charismatic. He promised great changes but instead gave us Vietnam. Obama plays on his opposition to entering Iraq but where’s his political courage when funding the war comes around? Obama promises change but the question needs to be asked if he can change the incarceration rates for black and brown males aged 25-35? He may want to see all people equal but can he see that it becomes a reality?
In truth, it would be easy to focus our contempt on Bush’s visit to Denver this week but just as appropriate to picket the visits of Obama and Bill Clinton. All of them are part of the oligarchy that poses as democracy. All of them are part of the military- industrial complex responsible for immoral wars and worldwide injustices.
So why do we continue to allow these candidates to avoid the hard questions of how they intend on changing our nation? Why do we allow them to spend billions on their campaigns and think they will have integrity? How in good conscience can men and women claiming to want the best for this nation and our world spend such obscene amounts of money to obtain office?
All across the world we are judged by the men and women we allow to govern our nation. As the world becomes smaller in our ability to communicate with one another can the people of the U.S. truthfully say we are good citizens of our world?
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
Vietnam combat vet
Wednesday, January 30
Tuesday, January 22
Denver's MLK Day Marade Really a Charade
Yesterday the annual “celebration” of Martin Luther King’s life took place here in Denver, CO. Denver has the largest “celebration” every year calling it a “Marade” which indicates it’s a march and parade combined.
The event draws thousands of community members every year who are given placards and posters with MLK’s image and words on them. Of course the phrase “I have a dream” is prevalent on both the professionally made materials and the personally created ones.
For the past few years there’s been an increasing number of the Denver metropolitan area’s community that has grown disenchanted with the Marade. The name has been changed to “the charade”.
Marade organizers were recently interviewed in the business section of the Denver Post about the group of citizens that have spoken out about the Marade’s corporate sponsorship. The sponsors include State Farm Insurance and the Denver Department of Safety (Denver Police Department and Denver Fire Department).
The organizer spokesperson stated they felt the group challenging the corporate sponsorship was being “divisive” and unrealistic. The Marade couldn’t carry on being as large and successful without corporate sponsorship he said. The ending paragraph of the article quoted the spokesperson saying if Marade organizers could do without the sponsorship, “believe me we would”.
So, the Marade went on as planned with the corporate sponsors having a high profile from the park where it began to the civic center where it ended. Music, speeches and dignitaries were all part of the “celebration”. Both major newspapers in Denver had front page headlines and photos of the Marade. The stories were a series of quotes from local black citizens, liberals and progressives and politicians. They spoke about the frigid weather conditions and touched upon the failure of the American society to achieve the many facets of Martin’s “dream”.
The newspapers failed to mention the small group of “divisive” citizens who felt the Marade failed to honor Dr. King’s legacy by accepting sponsors that have a long history of failing the communities of color. The small group challenged the Marade organizers to speak out against the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They challenged the organizers to make the connection of faltering social programs to the billions spent on the wars. They challenged the organizers to speak out about the incarceration rates of young black and Hispanic males. They challenged the organizers to demand better educational and occupational opportunities for marginalized communities. They challenged the organizers to quit celebrating a “dream” that has continued just that, a dream. Meanwhile the nightmare of poverty and racism continues in this country and this nation.
Yesterday General Motors ran a full page ad in both papers to “honor” Dr. King and in the process advertise itself and contributions made to the “struggle” by GM.
Meanwhile GM continues to outsource jobs to foreign nations using “slave” labor to manufacture many of their parts. Meanwhile GM continues to ignore the overt poverty in the city of Detroit where it has long had corporate headquarters. GM is an example of the charade that has taken place here in Denver’s annual Marade.
I suggest the dissent against the Marade is valid and that it is indeed a charade. We need only look at the sponsors that the organizers would do without if they could. State Farm is one of the major insurers under indictment in the New Orleans area for attempts to deny coverage for Katrina survivors. One of the ways the insurer has attempted to deny coverage has been putting pressure on adjusters and inspectors to determine damages were primarily caused by water.
If the evaluation of destroyed homes was attributed to water, the majority of claims could be denied by State Farm and others since water damage is excluded in most cases.
The memory of black Americans abandoned on highway overpasses and at the Super Dome is still fresh in most minds of the citizens of New Orleans displaced all around the nation and still waiting to return to their devastated homes. State Farm Insurance has not endeared itself in New Orleans more than two years after Hurricane Katrina hit the city and surrounding region.
Maybe State Farm thinks sponsoring the Marade makes up for the callous disregard of Katrina survivors, most who are people of color. Maybe State Farm sponsorship is good enough for Denver Marade organizers to forget the fraudulent behavior in insurance coverage for Katrina survivors. It’s questionable if Dr. King would consider State Farm an ally of black Americans or any marginalized American he so eloquently spoke in support of being part of his dream.
We have to question why Marade organizers would think so.
Sponsorship by the Denver Department of Safety for the Marade is an affront to all marginalized communities that have borne the brunt of police harassment and brutality. Denver Police Department’s record of complaints has been one of the worst in the nation. The Denver Police Department ranks in the top five for shootings of minority citizens. There have been several high profile lethal shootings that in review could have been prevented. Discipline of responsible officers hasn’t included felony charges or time in prison. The harshest disciplinary action has been suspension and pay loss for less than six months time.
We have to question why the Marade organizers would think sponsorship by a police department with such a record of oppressive actions toward the communities of color is appropriate. We have to wonder about the great irony of organizations like the police and fire departments being part of a celebration for Dr. King who constantly faced thug policemen, police dogs and fire hoses. Marade organizers don’t seem to have the same questions.
The final quote of the spokesperson for the Marade seemed to show the organizers do have doubts about the sponsors but chose to accept the money anyway in order to have the “largest” MLK Day event in the nation. It seems questionable whether Dr. King would approve of such a compromise.
One bright light in today’s Rocky Mountain News were the words of State Representative Terrance Carroll of Denver.
I decided this morning while I was marching in the Marade that I would put aside my notes and just speak from the heart, because there are some issues that were raised over the weekend that I didn't include in my talk for today and some issues that came to mind while I was in the Marade that I think are quite important.
"Every year I stand here and I make some vain attempt to try to sound inspirational and try to cajole you and challenge you to be better legislators, for all of us to be a better legislative body in honor of Dr. King's dream, in honor of Dr. King's vision. And each year I come here and I try to do this in a fashion that's challenging and yet non-confrontational. But as I was in the Marade today and as I watched my TV this weekend, I decided that the non-confrontational, slight-challenging, slight-cajoling thing is probably offensive, really, to the memory and to the legacy of Dr. King, especially considering all the challenges that we face in this nation and in this state: from the war in Iraq; to the fact that in this state more than 60 percent of our students of color do not graduate from high school within four years; from the fact that in a state where only four percent of the total population is African American yet 25 percent of our prison population consists of African American men and African American women, it seemed to be improper and inappropriate at this time to stand before you and say that Dr. King's dream has meant a great deal to all of us.
And then I read a story just this weekend about a young woman who survived Hurricane Katrina - a young African American woman. And there's an oral history project that's being conducted right now by the University of Pennsylvania regarding this. And one of the historians questioned this young lady in her new home in Houston Texas and she was asked, 'What are your dreams for your children? What are your dreams for your future?' And her response was, 'I don't dream anymore because I do not want to be disappointed.'
How can we celebrate this holiday in all honesty, and march and get up and shout and sing songs when the truth of the matter is, this woman is not alone. There are far too many people in this country who don't dream anymore. They don't have hopes. They don't have aspirations. They just find despair, they just find apathy, and they just find hatred.
So we're in a situation now, at this particular hour, at this particular time, where I find myself unable to stand here and say, "I have a dream" or to sing We Shall Overcome, or to sing the Negro National Anthem and to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing, because there's too much work for us that has to be done, and that work can't be done when we spend the King holiday based on our own vain need to slap ourselves on our backs and say what a great job we've done in the time since April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated on a balcony of the Lorraine Hotel. In fact, I find it quite offensive that each year during this time that we think that everything's been brushed under the carpet, under the rug and that everything in this country's just hunky-dory. It's not.
We spend $3 billion a week on the war in Iraq. No matter how you feel about the war that's an awful lot of money to spend, period. So I think that as we celebrate this holiday, on this day, we have more a moral obligation to search our souls, to ask ourselves, like the writer of the Book of Micah, in Chapter 6:8, when he asks the rhetorical question, 'What does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord Our God.'"
Terrance Carroll understands the disgruntlement of the “divisive group” who also fail to see the reasoning of the Marade’s organizers to celebrate. I don’t know how he feels about the commercialization of the event but his eloquence seems to indicate he’s probably not much of a fan of it either. Representative Carroll should be commended for his refreshing honesty.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam (’67-’69)
Denver VVAW member
The event draws thousands of community members every year who are given placards and posters with MLK’s image and words on them. Of course the phrase “I have a dream” is prevalent on both the professionally made materials and the personally created ones.
For the past few years there’s been an increasing number of the Denver metropolitan area’s community that has grown disenchanted with the Marade. The name has been changed to “the charade”.
Marade organizers were recently interviewed in the business section of the Denver Post about the group of citizens that have spoken out about the Marade’s corporate sponsorship. The sponsors include State Farm Insurance and the Denver Department of Safety (Denver Police Department and Denver Fire Department).
The organizer spokesperson stated they felt the group challenging the corporate sponsorship was being “divisive” and unrealistic. The Marade couldn’t carry on being as large and successful without corporate sponsorship he said. The ending paragraph of the article quoted the spokesperson saying if Marade organizers could do without the sponsorship, “believe me we would”.
So, the Marade went on as planned with the corporate sponsors having a high profile from the park where it began to the civic center where it ended. Music, speeches and dignitaries were all part of the “celebration”. Both major newspapers in Denver had front page headlines and photos of the Marade. The stories were a series of quotes from local black citizens, liberals and progressives and politicians. They spoke about the frigid weather conditions and touched upon the failure of the American society to achieve the many facets of Martin’s “dream”.
The newspapers failed to mention the small group of “divisive” citizens who felt the Marade failed to honor Dr. King’s legacy by accepting sponsors that have a long history of failing the communities of color. The small group challenged the Marade organizers to speak out against the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They challenged the organizers to make the connection of faltering social programs to the billions spent on the wars. They challenged the organizers to speak out about the incarceration rates of young black and Hispanic males. They challenged the organizers to demand better educational and occupational opportunities for marginalized communities. They challenged the organizers to quit celebrating a “dream” that has continued just that, a dream. Meanwhile the nightmare of poverty and racism continues in this country and this nation.
Yesterday General Motors ran a full page ad in both papers to “honor” Dr. King and in the process advertise itself and contributions made to the “struggle” by GM.
Meanwhile GM continues to outsource jobs to foreign nations using “slave” labor to manufacture many of their parts. Meanwhile GM continues to ignore the overt poverty in the city of Detroit where it has long had corporate headquarters. GM is an example of the charade that has taken place here in Denver’s annual Marade.
I suggest the dissent against the Marade is valid and that it is indeed a charade. We need only look at the sponsors that the organizers would do without if they could. State Farm is one of the major insurers under indictment in the New Orleans area for attempts to deny coverage for Katrina survivors. One of the ways the insurer has attempted to deny coverage has been putting pressure on adjusters and inspectors to determine damages were primarily caused by water.
If the evaluation of destroyed homes was attributed to water, the majority of claims could be denied by State Farm and others since water damage is excluded in most cases.
The memory of black Americans abandoned on highway overpasses and at the Super Dome is still fresh in most minds of the citizens of New Orleans displaced all around the nation and still waiting to return to their devastated homes. State Farm Insurance has not endeared itself in New Orleans more than two years after Hurricane Katrina hit the city and surrounding region.
Maybe State Farm thinks sponsoring the Marade makes up for the callous disregard of Katrina survivors, most who are people of color. Maybe State Farm sponsorship is good enough for Denver Marade organizers to forget the fraudulent behavior in insurance coverage for Katrina survivors. It’s questionable if Dr. King would consider State Farm an ally of black Americans or any marginalized American he so eloquently spoke in support of being part of his dream.
We have to question why Marade organizers would think so.
Sponsorship by the Denver Department of Safety for the Marade is an affront to all marginalized communities that have borne the brunt of police harassment and brutality. Denver Police Department’s record of complaints has been one of the worst in the nation. The Denver Police Department ranks in the top five for shootings of minority citizens. There have been several high profile lethal shootings that in review could have been prevented. Discipline of responsible officers hasn’t included felony charges or time in prison. The harshest disciplinary action has been suspension and pay loss for less than six months time.
We have to question why the Marade organizers would think sponsorship by a police department with such a record of oppressive actions toward the communities of color is appropriate. We have to wonder about the great irony of organizations like the police and fire departments being part of a celebration for Dr. King who constantly faced thug policemen, police dogs and fire hoses. Marade organizers don’t seem to have the same questions.
The final quote of the spokesperson for the Marade seemed to show the organizers do have doubts about the sponsors but chose to accept the money anyway in order to have the “largest” MLK Day event in the nation. It seems questionable whether Dr. King would approve of such a compromise.
One bright light in today’s Rocky Mountain News were the words of State Representative Terrance Carroll of Denver.
I decided this morning while I was marching in the Marade that I would put aside my notes and just speak from the heart, because there are some issues that were raised over the weekend that I didn't include in my talk for today and some issues that came to mind while I was in the Marade that I think are quite important.
"Every year I stand here and I make some vain attempt to try to sound inspirational and try to cajole you and challenge you to be better legislators, for all of us to be a better legislative body in honor of Dr. King's dream, in honor of Dr. King's vision. And each year I come here and I try to do this in a fashion that's challenging and yet non-confrontational. But as I was in the Marade today and as I watched my TV this weekend, I decided that the non-confrontational, slight-challenging, slight-cajoling thing is probably offensive, really, to the memory and to the legacy of Dr. King, especially considering all the challenges that we face in this nation and in this state: from the war in Iraq; to the fact that in this state more than 60 percent of our students of color do not graduate from high school within four years; from the fact that in a state where only four percent of the total population is African American yet 25 percent of our prison population consists of African American men and African American women, it seemed to be improper and inappropriate at this time to stand before you and say that Dr. King's dream has meant a great deal to all of us.
And then I read a story just this weekend about a young woman who survived Hurricane Katrina - a young African American woman. And there's an oral history project that's being conducted right now by the University of Pennsylvania regarding this. And one of the historians questioned this young lady in her new home in Houston Texas and she was asked, 'What are your dreams for your children? What are your dreams for your future?' And her response was, 'I don't dream anymore because I do not want to be disappointed.'
How can we celebrate this holiday in all honesty, and march and get up and shout and sing songs when the truth of the matter is, this woman is not alone. There are far too many people in this country who don't dream anymore. They don't have hopes. They don't have aspirations. They just find despair, they just find apathy, and they just find hatred.
So we're in a situation now, at this particular hour, at this particular time, where I find myself unable to stand here and say, "I have a dream" or to sing We Shall Overcome, or to sing the Negro National Anthem and to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing, because there's too much work for us that has to be done, and that work can't be done when we spend the King holiday based on our own vain need to slap ourselves on our backs and say what a great job we've done in the time since April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated on a balcony of the Lorraine Hotel. In fact, I find it quite offensive that each year during this time that we think that everything's been brushed under the carpet, under the rug and that everything in this country's just hunky-dory. It's not.
We spend $3 billion a week on the war in Iraq. No matter how you feel about the war that's an awful lot of money to spend, period. So I think that as we celebrate this holiday, on this day, we have more a moral obligation to search our souls, to ask ourselves, like the writer of the Book of Micah, in Chapter 6:8, when he asks the rhetorical question, 'What does the Lord require of us? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord Our God.'"
Terrance Carroll understands the disgruntlement of the “divisive group” who also fail to see the reasoning of the Marade’s organizers to celebrate. I don’t know how he feels about the commercialization of the event but his eloquence seems to indicate he’s probably not much of a fan of it either. Representative Carroll should be commended for his refreshing honesty.
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam (’67-’69)
Denver VVAW member
Wednesday, January 16
MLK, Nonviolence, Not Passive
While I certainly believe we should all be outraged and demonstrate that outrage in resistance, I don’t believe we can resort to the same actions of the oppressors. Violence may seem a viable option to many of us but what have we gained if we resort to violence? We’ve basically made our case for peace and justice invalid if that’s the path we choose.
Resistance doesn’t mean a passive approach, however. We need to get in the way of the oppression. As we approach Martin Luther King’s day of commemoration we need to recall the actions of the civil rights workers were risky and proactive. I think we must recall such actions and the words of Martin:
“Massive civil disobedience is a strategy for social change which is at least as forceful as an ambulance with its siren on full. In the past ten years, nonviolent civil disobedience has made a great deal of history, especially in the Southern United States. When we and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference went to Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, we had decided to take action on the matter of integrated public accommodations. We went knowing that the Civil Rights Commission had written powerful documents calling for change, calling for the very rights we were demanding. But nobody did anything about the Commission's report. Nothing was done until we acted on these very issues, and demonstrated before the court of world opinion the urgent need for change. It was the same story with voting rights. The Civil Rights Commission, three years before we went to Selma, had recommended the changes we started marching for, but nothing was done until, in 1965, we created a crisis the nation couldn't ignore. Without violence, we totally disrupted the system, the life style of Birmingham, and then of Selma, with their unjust and unconstitutional laws. Our Birmingham struggle came to its dramatic climax when some 3,500 demonstrators virtually filled every jail in that city and surrounding communities and some 4,000 more continued to march and demonstrate nonviolently. The city knew then in terms that were crystal-clear that Birmingham could no longer continue to function until the demands of the Negro community were met. The same kind of dramatic crisis was created in Selma two years later. The result on the national scene was the Civil Rights Bill and the Voting Rights Act, as President and Congress responded to the drama and the creative tension generated by the carefully planned demonstrations.”
Trumpet of Conscience; 1967 – Martin Luther King
We must remember that the civil disobedience enacted by Dr. King and his supporters often resulted in violent reactions by those opposing them. Each time they took to the streets there was a chance of violence and even death. Yet they still continued because they knew they were on the moral high ground.
When Martin spoke out against the Vietnam War I failed to realize how profound his words were. I failed to heed his warning and ended up in Vietnam a year later. I came to realize his voice was one of the few sincere voices of American leaders that truly cared for not only American troops, but the Vietnamese civilians and troops as well. He cared for the awful waste of humanity being carried out in the name of freedom. He saw the need to challenge the lies of a government falsely using concepts of peace and justice to justify murderous acts of aggression and imperialism.
The same words spoken at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 are just as valid and uncannily pertinent today as they were in 1967 when Dr. King spoke out against the war in Vietnam.
“A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. “……….
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood. “
Not only are the words Dr. King spoke as relevant today as in 1967, so too are the actions of civil disobedience just as relevant. I believe we must stop playing it “safe” with the cooperative demonstrations of disobedience in which the forces of oppression are included and begin to seize the opportunities to demonstrate moral civil disobedience wherever they are necessary. Doing so will mean taking risks of upsetting our style of living. Doing so will mean chancing violent reactions of the oppressive forces that seek to destroy dissent and the freedoms we still have.
The dogs and fire hoses have never left us. They only change form and become secret imprisonments, water-boarding and intimidating visits by the forces of “homeland security”. The homeland has become far too much like the “fatherland” of other tyrants in the not so distant past.
If not now, when? If not enough, when? When is the time to stop the tyranny? When is oppression enough to make us act in the necessary ways to end it?
Friday, January 11
Another Betrayal of Troops
While Democrats and Republicans spend billions on running for political office there are these stories of betrayal that seldom go beyond the local level. While neocons wave flags and tell us we must support the troops fighting for us, those troops die of neglect in hidden hospital units across the nation. While peace activists condemn the war while attempting to say they support the troops, they continue to ignore the wide spread emotional and physical problems of the very same troops.
NGO's on both sides spend countless dollars on the corrupted electoral system and ask us to write our congress people but fail to advocate for the failed healthcare of the troops.
For the neocons the troops are the GI Joe heroes of American pride to be paraded around and pointed to as what the U.S. is all about. For the peace movement the troops are either show pieces to adorn rallies and marches or fools who fall for the lies of the government and part of the problem.
What both sides of the political bullshit fail to understand is the troops are the sons and daughters of their nation who had options of poverty and underpaying employment or the lure of bonuses that could give them college and hopes of a better life. They trusted too much in the bullshit and failed to understand they were merely being used as tools.
What I wonder today is whether Hillary, Barack, Mit, John Mc and John E. will manage time in their tours to shed tears for guys like Gerald Cassidy mentioned in this article below. I wonder if any of them will mention the suicides of returned troops who haven't been able to get treatment. I wonder if any of them care about the nightmares, the addiction and depression of the troops and their families.
Every time I read a story like this it makes me more disgusted with Democrats and Republicans and those who think either party is the answer to what is wrong with this nation.
I tire of being told it's the only system we have and we need to make a choice between the best of bad choices. The lies of the campaign trail are an insult to people who believe in freedom, peace and justice.
I hear the lies about change and new directions while being sure the only change that’s really going to occur is a new face of the liar-in-chief. I’m supposed to believe the lies if Hillary tears up like Bill used to or Barack emulates the hopeful rhetoric of JFK that appeals to the young. I’m supposed to believe the question asked Hillary that led to her teary-eyed answer wasn’t as contrived as Bill’s tears in his terms of office. I’m supposed to believe Barack is different because he inspires the young with empty rhetoric.
I don’t believe it! I don’t believe any of them. I won’t write a congress person or sign another petition. I have had a lifetime of lies and betrayal and I refuse to go along any longer.
I refuse to accept the death culture of neocons and the denial culture of progressives and liberals. If there’s to be change people are going to have to be upset and bothered. The timidity of appeasement and getting along won’t get the job done.
Struggle means resistance and fighting back. It means confrontation. It means outrage and indignation. It means fury and righteous anger. It means passion and ferocity. It means an end to trying to cooperate with the oppressor. The Democrats and Republicans as represented by the current group of liars seeking the throne are the oppressors. Why would I want to validate their oppression by giving it my vote in an election that is a sham and an obstacle to real change that will bring peace and justice?
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Vietnam combat veteran (67-69)
Denver, CO
Wounds of War: Shortages, turnover afflict military health care
Fort Knox among army posts affected
December 23, 2007 - Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox devoted to healing the wounds of war.
But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the unit. Only about half of the positions there were filled at the time. The Army is still investigating the death and its cause, and three people in Cassidy's chain of command have lost their jobs.
"By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did," Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. "Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same."
As more wounded soldiers return home from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.
Overall, the Army's Medical Corps has downsized significantly since Desert Storm, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
Warrior Transition Units, created after The Washington Post revealed substandard outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, have struggled to find enough doctors, nurses and squad leaders to serve a growing number of patients. The Defense Department allocated about $1.4 billion in operations, maintenance and construction funds for unit facilities and projects.
Military doctors and nurses at Fort Knox move every three to five years, and some are deployed overseas. For patients, that turnover often results in them being treated by doctors and nurses unfamiliar with their cases.
Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation pushed by Bayh requiring the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to develop a policy on improving care for the wounded. And Army officials say they are already doing better, noting that Warrior Transition Units are approaching or meeting staffing goals across the nation.
"We've progressed quite well" on those units, said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, assistant surgeon general for Warrior Care and Transition. "We've done it while we're at war and really strapped."
But some positions have been filled with workers temporarily borrowed from other areas of the military, and critics say that as the number of returning soldiers grows, the need for more doctors and nurses will grow, too.
Meanwhile, officials said, Army hospitals need more staff now. Fort Knox's Ireland Army Medical Center is struggling to fill more than 100 vacancies. It also lacks certain specialists, including neurologists who treat traumatic brain injury, considered the signature injury of the Iraq War.
"It would be very generous to say we're at the proper staff," said Constance Shaffery, public affairs officer at Fort Knox. "We are not at the staffing levels we want."
Positions unfilled
Cassidy, 32, came to Fort Knox in April, and was eventually assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, which opened in June to handle outpatients who need at least six months of care.
The injured or ill soldiers live in barracks one or two to a room, have medical appointments in a special clinic at the hospital, and are supposed to get three visits a day from squad leaders, Army personnel usually at the rank of staff sergeant. They are told, in posters and by staff, that their mission is to heal.
In Cassidy's case, something went awry.
Bayh said the soldier tried unsuccessfully for five months to get transferred to a specialized private facility in Indianapolis "after receiving substandard care at Fort Knox."
Bayh pointed to a September report from the Government Accountability Office showing that more than half of the Warrior Transition Units nationwide, including those at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, had shortages in key positions at the time. Of 2,410 positions, 1,127 -- or 47 percent -- had not been filled.
Jonathan Swain, Bayh's press secretary, said Cassidy's family is not talking to the press as the military continues to investigate his death. Calls to his wife and mother were not returned.
In response to a reporter's questions about the case, Shaffery said: "There's been nothing to indicate staffing had anything to do with it."
But Bayh disagreed, and Swain said the senator wants to know if problems because of low staffing are occurring in units elsewhere.
At the Senate committee hearing where the case was discussed, Army Secretary Pete Geren pledged that officials would "rectify the situation." Other high-ranking Army officials say they have been filling vacancies among physicians, nurse case managers and squad leaders.
Nationally, Tucker said, the 35 transition units have reached 80 percent to 85 percent staffing and are on target to reach at least 90 percent by Jan. 1.
Lt. Col. Chip Pierce, deputy director of the Warrior Transition Office, said all key positions at the Fort Knox Warrior Transition Unit had been filled as of mid-December and Fort Campbell has met its goals for doctors and squad leaders but still lacks two of 11 nurse managers.
Although the numbers are encouraging, officials acknowledge that needs are always changing. For instance, Fort Campbell's staffing goals were developed based on an estimate of 403 patients, and there are 459. Nationwide, 8,700 soldiers are assigned to the units.
Sgt. Dwight Blackman, a 38-year-old Iraq veteran who suffered a heart attack, is one of 277 in the Fort Knox unit. In the past few months, he said, staffing "has improved a lot" and he has no problem getting the care he needs.
"We've still got a little ways to go," said Unit Commander Lt. Col. Lanier Ward. "It's a work in progress."
Residents asked to apply
Staff shortages at Army hospitals have existed for years.
Nationally, the number of doctors has remained the same since 1999, Army officials said, while the number of nurses has fluctuated from a high of 4,615 in 1992 to a low of 3,381 in 2000.
Some patients at Ireland Medical Center say staff shortages have led to long waits, overworked doctors and visits to private physicians.
Army Staff Sgt. Linda Brashears, who suffered a brain injury in Iraq, sees a private practice neurologist off post, paid for by the military health system, and said that until a couple of months ago she faced three-hour waits as a walk-in patient at Ireland.
Although a new appointment policy has meant shorter waits, "We still need more people," she said. "…There's more patients."
Overall, about 210,000 people are eligible for care at Ireland, officials said, and total hospital staff stands at about 1,100.
Lt. Col. Dawn Erckenbrack, hospital administrator, appealed to Louisville-area residents to apply for their vacancies for doctors, nurses, social workers and others. She said Kentucky's doctor shortage and competition from the civilian world make these vacancies especially difficult to fill.
Despite shortages, Erckenbrack and Col. Rhonda Earls, the hospital commander, said they do all they can to ensure patients see doctors in a timely fashion -- using contracted physicians and referring patients to private-sector providers.
Pvt. Ike Staple, a 39-year-old with high blood pressure assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, said he goes off the post for procedures such as EKGs.
Keeping records
Army officials said they also must compensate for the higher-than-usual level of turnover that has resulted from deployments.
Jessica Torres, who just moved from Louisville to Colorado and whose husband serves in Iraq, said turnover affects the care she and her two children have gotten at military hospitals because new doctors aren't as familiar with their medical histories.
Ireland officials -- who wouldn't say how many staff members have been deployed, citing security concerns -- acknowledged that turnover can hurt patient care. But they said they try to minimize problems with detailed electronic records, good communication between incoming and outgoing doctors and the use of civilian workers.
"We have a core group of civilian physicians who never deploy. Some have been here for 20 years," said Lt. Col. Carolyn Tiffany, deputy commander for clinical services at Fort Knox. "They keep our clinics and services running the same way, providing the continuity of care that our patients deserve and expect."
Still, officials said they'd like to have a more ideal staffing level in line with the demand for care.
"It's sort of like winning the lottery," Shaffery said. "It's something we dream about."
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190
Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003
NGO's on both sides spend countless dollars on the corrupted electoral system and ask us to write our congress people but fail to advocate for the failed healthcare of the troops.
For the neocons the troops are the GI Joe heroes of American pride to be paraded around and pointed to as what the U.S. is all about. For the peace movement the troops are either show pieces to adorn rallies and marches or fools who fall for the lies of the government and part of the problem.
What both sides of the political bullshit fail to understand is the troops are the sons and daughters of their nation who had options of poverty and underpaying employment or the lure of bonuses that could give them college and hopes of a better life. They trusted too much in the bullshit and failed to understand they were merely being used as tools.
What I wonder today is whether Hillary, Barack, Mit, John Mc and John E. will manage time in their tours to shed tears for guys like Gerald Cassidy mentioned in this article below. I wonder if any of them will mention the suicides of returned troops who haven't been able to get treatment. I wonder if any of them care about the nightmares, the addiction and depression of the troops and their families.
Every time I read a story like this it makes me more disgusted with Democrats and Republicans and those who think either party is the answer to what is wrong with this nation.
I tire of being told it's the only system we have and we need to make a choice between the best of bad choices. The lies of the campaign trail are an insult to people who believe in freedom, peace and justice.
I hear the lies about change and new directions while being sure the only change that’s really going to occur is a new face of the liar-in-chief. I’m supposed to believe the lies if Hillary tears up like Bill used to or Barack emulates the hopeful rhetoric of JFK that appeals to the young. I’m supposed to believe the question asked Hillary that led to her teary-eyed answer wasn’t as contrived as Bill’s tears in his terms of office. I’m supposed to believe Barack is different because he inspires the young with empty rhetoric.
I don’t believe it! I don’t believe any of them. I won’t write a congress person or sign another petition. I have had a lifetime of lies and betrayal and I refuse to go along any longer.
I refuse to accept the death culture of neocons and the denial culture of progressives and liberals. If there’s to be change people are going to have to be upset and bothered. The timidity of appeasement and getting along won’t get the job done.
Struggle means resistance and fighting back. It means confrontation. It means outrage and indignation. It means fury and righteous anger. It means passion and ferocity. It means an end to trying to cooperate with the oppressor. The Democrats and Republicans as represented by the current group of liars seeking the throne are the oppressors. Why would I want to validate their oppression by giving it my vote in an election that is a sham and an obstacle to real change that will bring peace and justice?
Wm. Terry Leichner, RN
Vietnam combat veteran (67-69)
Denver, CO
Wounds of War: Shortages, turnover afflict military health care
Fort Knox among army posts affected
December 23, 2007 - Injured in a roadside blast in Iraq, Sgt. Gerald Cassidy was assigned to a new medical unit at Fort Knox devoted to healing the wounds of war.
But instead of getting better, the brain-injured soldier from Westfield, Ind., was found dead in his barracks Sept. 21. Preliminary reports show he may have been unconscious for days and dead for hours before someone checked on him.
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, linked his death in part to inadequate staffing at the unit. Only about half of the positions there were filled at the time. The Army is still investigating the death and its cause, and three people in Cassidy's chain of command have lost their jobs.
"By all indications, the enemy could not kill him, but our own government did," Bayh told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month. "Not intentionally, to be sure, but the end result apparently was the same."
As more wounded soldiers return home from war, critics say staff shortages and turnover have affected the quality of health care at Army posts across the nation.
Overall, the Army's Medical Corps has downsized significantly since Desert Storm, dropping from 5,400 to 4,300 physicians and from 4,600 to 3,400 nurses. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, more than 29,000 service members have been wounded in action in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past six years, compared with fewer than 500 in Operation Desert Storm.
Warrior Transition Units, created after The Washington Post revealed substandard outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, have struggled to find enough doctors, nurses and squad leaders to serve a growing number of patients. The Defense Department allocated about $1.4 billion in operations, maintenance and construction funds for unit facilities and projects.
Military doctors and nurses at Fort Knox move every three to five years, and some are deployed overseas. For patients, that turnover often results in them being treated by doctors and nurses unfamiliar with their cases.
Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation pushed by Bayh requiring the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to develop a policy on improving care for the wounded. And Army officials say they are already doing better, noting that Warrior Transition Units are approaching or meeting staffing goals across the nation.
"We've progressed quite well" on those units, said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, assistant surgeon general for Warrior Care and Transition. "We've done it while we're at war and really strapped."
But some positions have been filled with workers temporarily borrowed from other areas of the military, and critics say that as the number of returning soldiers grows, the need for more doctors and nurses will grow, too.
Meanwhile, officials said, Army hospitals need more staff now. Fort Knox's Ireland Army Medical Center is struggling to fill more than 100 vacancies. It also lacks certain specialists, including neurologists who treat traumatic brain injury, considered the signature injury of the Iraq War.
"It would be very generous to say we're at the proper staff," said Constance Shaffery, public affairs officer at Fort Knox. "We are not at the staffing levels we want."
Positions unfilled
Cassidy, 32, came to Fort Knox in April, and was eventually assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, which opened in June to handle outpatients who need at least six months of care.
The injured or ill soldiers live in barracks one or two to a room, have medical appointments in a special clinic at the hospital, and are supposed to get three visits a day from squad leaders, Army personnel usually at the rank of staff sergeant. They are told, in posters and by staff, that their mission is to heal.
In Cassidy's case, something went awry.
Bayh said the soldier tried unsuccessfully for five months to get transferred to a specialized private facility in Indianapolis "after receiving substandard care at Fort Knox."
Bayh pointed to a September report from the Government Accountability Office showing that more than half of the Warrior Transition Units nationwide, including those at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, had shortages in key positions at the time. Of 2,410 positions, 1,127 -- or 47 percent -- had not been filled.
Jonathan Swain, Bayh's press secretary, said Cassidy's family is not talking to the press as the military continues to investigate his death. Calls to his wife and mother were not returned.
In response to a reporter's questions about the case, Shaffery said: "There's been nothing to indicate staffing had anything to do with it."
But Bayh disagreed, and Swain said the senator wants to know if problems because of low staffing are occurring in units elsewhere.
At the Senate committee hearing where the case was discussed, Army Secretary Pete Geren pledged that officials would "rectify the situation." Other high-ranking Army officials say they have been filling vacancies among physicians, nurse case managers and squad leaders.
Nationally, Tucker said, the 35 transition units have reached 80 percent to 85 percent staffing and are on target to reach at least 90 percent by Jan. 1.
Lt. Col. Chip Pierce, deputy director of the Warrior Transition Office, said all key positions at the Fort Knox Warrior Transition Unit had been filled as of mid-December and Fort Campbell has met its goals for doctors and squad leaders but still lacks two of 11 nurse managers.
Although the numbers are encouraging, officials acknowledge that needs are always changing. For instance, Fort Campbell's staffing goals were developed based on an estimate of 403 patients, and there are 459. Nationwide, 8,700 soldiers are assigned to the units.
Sgt. Dwight Blackman, a 38-year-old Iraq veteran who suffered a heart attack, is one of 277 in the Fort Knox unit. In the past few months, he said, staffing "has improved a lot" and he has no problem getting the care he needs.
"We've still got a little ways to go," said Unit Commander Lt. Col. Lanier Ward. "It's a work in progress."
Residents asked to apply
Staff shortages at Army hospitals have existed for years.
Nationally, the number of doctors has remained the same since 1999, Army officials said, while the number of nurses has fluctuated from a high of 4,615 in 1992 to a low of 3,381 in 2000.
Some patients at Ireland Medical Center say staff shortages have led to long waits, overworked doctors and visits to private physicians.
Army Staff Sgt. Linda Brashears, who suffered a brain injury in Iraq, sees a private practice neurologist off post, paid for by the military health system, and said that until a couple of months ago she faced three-hour waits as a walk-in patient at Ireland.
Although a new appointment policy has meant shorter waits, "We still need more people," she said. "…There's more patients."
Overall, about 210,000 people are eligible for care at Ireland, officials said, and total hospital staff stands at about 1,100.
Lt. Col. Dawn Erckenbrack, hospital administrator, appealed to Louisville-area residents to apply for their vacancies for doctors, nurses, social workers and others. She said Kentucky's doctor shortage and competition from the civilian world make these vacancies especially difficult to fill.
Despite shortages, Erckenbrack and Col. Rhonda Earls, the hospital commander, said they do all they can to ensure patients see doctors in a timely fashion -- using contracted physicians and referring patients to private-sector providers.
Pvt. Ike Staple, a 39-year-old with high blood pressure assigned to the Warrior Transition Unit, said he goes off the post for procedures such as EKGs.
Keeping records
Army officials said they also must compensate for the higher-than-usual level of turnover that has resulted from deployments.
Jessica Torres, who just moved from Louisville to Colorado and whose husband serves in Iraq, said turnover affects the care she and her two children have gotten at military hospitals because new doctors aren't as familiar with their medical histories.
Ireland officials -- who wouldn't say how many staff members have been deployed, citing security concerns -- acknowledged that turnover can hurt patient care. But they said they try to minimize problems with detailed electronic records, good communication between incoming and outgoing doctors and the use of civilian workers.
"We have a core group of civilian physicians who never deploy. Some have been here for 20 years," said Lt. Col. Carolyn Tiffany, deputy commander for clinical services at Fort Knox. "They keep our clinics and services running the same way, providing the continuity of care that our patients deserve and expect."
Still, officials said they'd like to have a more ideal staffing level in line with the demand for care.
"It's sort of like winning the lottery," Shaffery said. "It's something we dream about."
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190
Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003
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