"Look, every time you go out to that mailbox and get your disability check, it tells you you're sick.",James Blake Miller, The "Marlboro Marine".
Before we get into this any further, I just want to say a quick thank you to Los Angeles Times Photographer Luis Sinco. Thank God for you sir, and thank God for EVERY journalist, who stands up for what is right, no matter what "The Rules" say. If there were more more Luis Sincos in this world, then maybe, just maybe there would be fewer Blake Millers!
You took it upon yourself to reach out to a soul drowning in despair and pulled him, if not to shore, at least to the shallows.
Of all the people that had the power to help when your wife called you with those fateful words, "Your boy is on TV. He has PTSD. They kicked him out the Marines." You stood, and leaped into the fray like a true warrior. You picked Blake Miller up, threw him across your shoulders, and you carried him to the LZ. You would not leave him wounded and forgotten. Of all those who had the power to help, only you did!
No one in the hallowed halls of Congress would help! Better that Haliburton, and Blackwater should be obscenely funded than funds be alloted for our damaged soldiers be treated! Oh they listened politely enough, or sent aides to inform this wounded warrior they didn't have time to meet, but no one would take up his cause!
PTSD is a scarey thing! To be avoided at all costs! Thank him for his service. Hang some pretty medals on him for the "Photo Op", and kick him out the door!
How much better it is, to put our wounded in some vermin-ridden room in "Walter Reed" where "We the People" won't have to see what the REAL price of President Pork Pie's misadventure REALLY is! And for God's sake don't let the High School kids see them before the youthfull cannon fodder turn up at the recruiters office! But Blake Miller wasn't even to get that much!
To the Marine Corps, Miller was damaged goods. Easier to boot him out on a "Medical Under Honorable" than to make any attempt to fix what had been done to this young man's mind and soul, in the service of this country! SOOOO much easier to send him home with a $2500.00 a month disability check, as a band-aid for his bullet wound, and wait for the bottle to finish what the battle had started! A sad, sad story that would be repeated many times in many different towns in this country when one third of the bravest, and best, come home broken and bleeding from wounds nobody can see! Trapped by horrors in their own minds that all the whisky ever distilled, and all the drugs ever made will never erase!
Now, as we speak the Veterans Administration is trying to weasle out of the promises made to our soldiers! They're actually stating in open court that Veterans have no right to medical care, and furthermore have no right to expect any!!!!!
An attorney for The Veteran's Administration stated "The scope of VA's mandate only reaches only 'to the extent and in the amount provided in advance in appropriations Acts for these purposes' [and] creates no such expectations [that veterans are entitled to care]."!!
That's right kids! Your recruiters are all lying out their asses! Believe it!!!!
War is a terrible thing, and it's NEVER to be entered in the slack-assed, "Sic 'em, boys" fashion that President Pork Pie has! Based on lies and scraps of questionable intell we will pay the price for this war with our broken and damaged youth! Young people with thousand yard stares, and spirits shattered by experiences most of you can't even imagine!
And now The VA wants to cut them adrift to sink in a sea of despair. They deserve better!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- stoney13
- Well!! I'm not here to be on anybody's side! I DON'T like George W. Bush and I will NOT call the bastard president! I'll call him President Pork Pie, but that is about as close as it gets! I'm not here to comfort the afflicted, but to afflict the comfortable! I learned a long time ago, that if you can make somebody laugh and think at the same time, they'll learn something! I'm trying to teach the American Public that there is another point of view out there, beside the Right Wing's This country's on a greased chute to Hell with Bush as it's Captain! I for one will not sit idley by while he drives the land that I love into the ground! This is my gift to this country. Maybe it's a little crude at times, maybe, it's a little rude at times! But in my world, rude and crude works! I'll post what I damn well please here and invite people to post comments the same way! Rant all you want!! I do! Freedom of Speech is the order of the day here! Like it? Let me know! Don't like it? Let me know! Silence me? AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN! So welcome one and all to STONEY'S RAGE!! It's all for America! I don't make a dime off it! And I won't have it any other way!
10 comments:
Stoney-
Thank you so much for truth telling regarding Veteran's Health.
Fewer acts are as venal as denying jobs and health care to our nation's veterans.They all deserve jobs and decent health care.
I am ashamed about this "blight on America's soul"(as you correctly say) but I am glad you are out there writing and caring.
Thank You- I stand with you!
Dr. Rick Lippin
It doesn't get any beter than that, Stoney. Thank you, once again, for a soul stirring piece. One of the most contemptable thigs I've been forced to witness throughout this enitre obscenity is seeing these kids who enlisted after September 11, 2001 in a fit of patriotic fervor being used as fucking cannon fodder in order to line the pockets of the bastards and bitches (Hi, Condi!) who have stood to profit the most from what is being carried out against the men, women and little children of Iraq....
It kinda makes you want to heave your breakfast, don'cha think????
Another gem, Stoney! Keep 'em coming!
Tom Degan
PS - Hi, Dr. Rick!
In Praise of a Dissident,
Caught Red-Handed
We arrived home flushed with the day
to find him hooting up a mouser's moon,
two poles away, hunched against a final smudge
of light. He perched so still, I wondered, plastic?
You whispered, 'so skilled a rendition of terror
one must heed.' I hooted, too, in yellow gloom.
And off he came, low over lilacs, in a whoosh
of wings. We thrilled in his twilight blessing.
Days later, I collected his broken fluff
under spruce boughs in the children's park.
I sat in a swing, dragging lines in sand,
and pressed the tips of his talons into my thumbs.
Across brown grass, past the aqua crater
of the wading pool, a wooden seesaw
weather-checks in sun. Lives lept from
seldom are remounted, or redone.
In this time of fallen heroes,
the kids have painted an American flag
on the concrete block outhouse beside the library.
Hands dipped in paint and pressed suggest
an aggressive future foreign policy.
I count sixty-seven stars. One flares fire-engine red.
-for Oldensoul
Stoney;
I just read Penny Coleman's excellent article about veteran suicide and the hidden costs of war on Alternet, then went to Tom Degan's Rant for the first time ever, where I saw your name and blog mentioned, so voila!, I'm here now, too, for the first time.
Congratulations on your good post. I agree whole-heartedly with you. In fact, I'd like to see every would-be enlistee just say no to the whole fucking business. No war, no corporate take-over, no media consolidation, no individual-crushing nationalism to frighten and enslave our beautiful sons and daughters with guilt and debt.
Stoney,
Timely and right on post. The hypocrisy of this country's leaders and population is astounding. Oh well, what can you expect when you are literally working for a bunch of mobsters with absolutely no loyalty to anyone but themselves.
Stoney,
You said everything I feel about the disgusting treatment of our veterans. First, they are shipped of like cattle to an unecessary war. Then, those who return are thanked by Busheney, who provide disgraceful, filthy, health care and have their benefits underfunded.
Whether or not I agree with this war, I firmly believe, like Tom Degan, this enitre obscenity is seeing these kids who enlisted after September 11, 2001 in a fit of patriotic fervor being used as fucking cannon fodder in order to line the pockets of the bastards and bitches (Hi, Condi!). Tom, well put, followed up by murph's comments that we are dealing with mobsters.
Stealing veterans' money and benefits started almost immediately when Busheney coopted the White House. (See Democratic Home Page from 03/13/03 which reports a $25 billion cut.)
This disgrace continued in 2005, as reported by Democratic Undground.
Many military children could have used help with SCHIP. Vetoed. Those suffering from chronic disease may have found a cure with stem cell research. Vetoed. Twice. Head Start and educational programs were cut for the 2007 budget.
Well, hell, they have their priorities: Military Spending. Let's take a look at where our tax dollars go (graph). Military, health and interest on the debt consume two-thirds of very income tax dollar. And our veterans don't rank very high on the scale.
Accordingly, 40 cents of each dollar goes to military spending; only 3 cents out of 100 are allocated for veterans.
Thanks for your patience with my rant du jour.
Rick,
Thanks for stopping by! If this is going to get fixed, then it's going to have to be fixed from the inside!
Rockpicker,
Thanks for your incredible poetry! As usual, it's just fantastic! I've said it once, and I'll say it again, you've GOT to get yourself published! Your just too damned good!
Tom,
I'll swat 'em in the head, and you kick 'em in the ass! We'll get this bunch in "day-glo" orange jumpsuits yet!!
Murph,
Thanks! Glad you stopped by!
Stella
Patience? ALWAYS glad to see a comment from you! Thanks for all the links too! I'll check them out when this wind-up internet connection is running right!
Stoney: thanks so much. This is such a powerful post that deeply resonates with me. Everyone's comments are so on-target.
I linked your site to my blog links, and found a source for the ABWH CD. (Please see links on previous post.)
I hope you all have a great weekend.
Thank you, Stoney, for the warrior's love that you send to our brothers and sons.
I have no experience with violent fighting (being a woman of my age, I have been beaten but never fought back physically). But, it seems to me that warfare with swords and arrows was bad enough, but the weaponry nowadays.. Well, it must be horrifying every day. Bombs and incendiary devices, machine guns, and now these micro-wave burning rays, and robotic terminator - like abominations. How can a person in uniform stand it at all? It just seems so outlandish and inhuman. It seems there should be some input from the soldiers as to what weaponry is within the acceptable bounds of a soldier to have to deal with. Does this make sense?
General Wesley Clark has just started Vet Voice, a site where veterans could discuss issues relating to PTSD and the war. The site is part of Clark's Vote Vets. He's also involved with Stop Iran War.
These are great sites, and I hope everyone gets a chance to view Clark's great work against the war.
Post a Comment