I ran into Bobby's elderly mother who I had not seen for over 25 years at the local grocery store. She called over to me and we greeted each other and chatted for a few moments. As she slowly moved away, I thought there is a casualty of another stupid war who will never be recognized or acknowledged. She took her son's death very hard as he was her only boy. I went home with this in mind and was surfing around on Stumbleupon and the first video up was Amy Goodwin of Democracy Now fame giving a 30 minute speech on how our media is filtering the news to brainwash us all about the war. They had even gotten to me-an old hippie war protester, and I got all wound up. I went on walk near the river and got this intense memory of the time Bobby got hot in the second half of a basketball game forty years ago. He made one shot after another and I kept feeding him. Boom! He made another. Swish! he banked in another from an impossible angle. I saw that smile, with the gap in the front two teeth. I hadn't thought of my childhood friend in detail for many, many years. I went home and wrote the diary.
Preview: I put up this diary last Saturday and got some inspiring responses in the comments that I would like to share. People shared their own personal stories, sent videos, pictures, excellent links, poems, music and it was all very encouraging. We mostly agreed that the war was being under reported and seemed to share my same recognition that how effective the media's constant unrelenting false reporting had been on even skeptical liberals. I would like to share a few as part of this update. Here is one:
American, America Why Don't You Care?
You are supposed to be the land of the free
You are nothing of the the kind to me.
Why is killing so easy for you and you think it fair?
You watch with half an eye as a building is blown up on your television
You see the explosion of your missiles from a safe distance
But come closer, come closer, come closer, zoom in...
Do you see the unmoving bodies, the blood, the blown off limbs?
Do you smell the stench of death that lingers in our air
Present each and every day, every hour, every minute
Do you hear the screams, the angry yells, the crying babies?
Do you wonder for even a moment about our suffering?
Oh, I thought not. Too busy with the latest scandal? Shopping?
Too interested in your election and who is up and who is down?
We have no electricity. We have no clean water but it is okay
Because you do. And that is what is important, right?
We weren't wild about Hussein but at least we had jobs
Our children went to school while we sat in our coffee houses
joking with one another and discussing the topics of the day
Then you came and liberated us to the dark corners of our homes.
American, America, Why don't you care?
You are supposed to be the land of the free
You are nothing of the kind to me
Why is killing so easy for you and you think it fair?
You freed my neighbors from their houses so they could flee to Jordan
or a slum in Damascus where they cower in fear wishing for the madness to end.
They have left their homeland-two million- some who were fine friends
A million of us have died but that's okay you lost 3,000 in a terrorist attack
Is that a ratio that is comfortable to you? A million people not in uniform
As a sacrifice for your 3,000. Oh, you say that is an exaggeration do you?
Okay, maybe it's only a 100,000 does that make it easier to sleep at night
But you don't know -a million, a hundred thousand? How pathetic is that?
What's the difference? That is why we hate you, your uniforms, your guns
Your roaring vehicles that keep yours safe while terrorizing my streets
Where I can no longer take a walk with a loved one to get piece of fruit
or share a moment in the shade away from the sweltering heat
You killed my friend's eldest son in one of your air strikes your media
tells you was precise and clean and a fine success but they don't mention
the twenty that died nearby, the angry ones left behind that now want retribution
But you call this winning as if it all a game on your television.
American, America, Why don't you care?
You are supposed to be the land of the free
You are nothing of the kind to me
Why is killing so easy for you and you think it fair?
Death is easy for you all and you can not use the excuse that you didn't pull
the trigger or drop the bomb or fired the missile, No,no,no.Those who do
Carry your flag, represent you, get their money from you. So hide if you
think you can and fill up your SUVs with gas refined from our stolen oil.
We were not a stupid people interested in jihad or suicide bombings until
you pushed us closer to those who do have those radical views
But how about your own? Don't you have those who believe that the world
Is soon coming to an end and a war in our area is a good sign for those who carry your Bible?
And you call us sick, radical, unbalanced and uncivilized? You with your fat children
And even fatter appetite for energy-the rest of the world be damned.
You say where are the moderate Muslims to stand up to the radicals?
We were moderate until you came over and converted us to your killing ways
Our mortal enemy Iran is now our ruler-they are the real radicals. U.S. policies
have allowed them to take over our country which they have been trying to do for many years.
Our mostly secular society once believed in that great America where people were allowed
to try to realize their dreams but this war has gone on for years and we no longer believe.
American, America, Why don't you care?
You are supposed to be the land of the free
You are nothing of the kind to me
Why is killing so easy for you and you think it fair?
READ THIS ARTICLE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Here is an some excerpts from others who left comments.
I have an older sister who will be 62 next summer. That is, I think she will turn 62 -- I haven't heard anything about or from her in quite a long time, and nobody knows where she's living or how to reach her. We hope she's in a VA hospital (for the umpteenth time). We fear she's not.
She joined the Army when she was a junior in college, and when she graduated from college in 1968 with her BS in Nursing, she went off to serve her three-year commitment to Uncle Sam. She was sent to Nam. She was a MASH nurse there, in 1969-70.
After her 3-year hitch, she re-upped. After that hitch, she stayed on in the Reserves, and was promoted over the years to Lt. Col. She got a Masters in Surgical Nursing and taught that to Army nurses.
When her unit was mobilized to go to the Gulf (1991?), she refused to go. She sued to be allowed to refuse. The suit was thrown out of court. She then suffered an emotional breakdown and the Army discharged her, after diagnosing her with severe PTSD. Her flashbacks were to Nam, to the hospitals there and the attacks -- real or fancied -- of the Viet Cong. To stuff that she saw and had to try to fix when she was 22 years old.
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...Funeral services, or the conditions our veterans are forced to live under when they return, because it has been this administration's policy all along to hide the human cost of war and of other administration atrocities. The media has been a willing accomplice in this deliberate attempt to sanitize the war so that a car bomb that kills 28 people receives the same gravitas as a discussion of Palin's wardrobe.
We've been afflicted with "happy idiot syndrome" not only by our own personal needs but by a concerted effort to "protect" us from the effects of our government's policies and actions.
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I have been advocating for veterans, especially those diagnosed with PTSD after combat for almost 4 years here on Daily Kos, as it is a personal issue with me, as a Infantry NCO I spent my Army career telling all the soldiers under my command to "suck it up" and "drive on, let the memories go" "your buddies need you focused" I pushed them on combat patrols in the DMZ in Korea, I pushed in training, I pushed in Gulf War One, I pushed like all of the other NCO and Officers pushed, that was our job
I was wrong, I should have been telling them to seek counseling and to admit their issues, before they became ingrained and permanent issues, or in my case subscriptions, I got the lifetime subcription, and now I get 41 meds a month from the VA, mental health, cardiology, COPD, blood pressure, cholesterol, sleeping pills, pills to keep me awake, creams for the jungle rot, and psoriasis, and numerous other ailments, and percocet for the 3 herniated disks from L3-S1 and a power chair to drag my wore out body around........
It was dec 2002 before I realized I WAS the problem and asked for help I have issues but the pills help and after 3 suicide attempts I feel I owe it to other soldiers to tell my story and see if I can help anyone else from making the same mistakes I made for more than 30 years.....
EFT is the best thing I've ever seen for treating PTSD. I had a bad chronic case of it and went through all the self-medicating and therapy that helped a little on one level but not at all on many others. Then I trained as a trauma therapist and worked three years with vets from all conflicts with PTSD and comorbid conditions. Various talk-therapy methods, meds, clinical hypnosis, EMDR, and all that...and nothing worked better for me than EFT. I just wish I had known about it before I became disabled, because it would have made a lot of difference to the vets I worked with, I know.
Anyone who knows a veteran, please tell them about EFT. We've got to do something to help our veterans, and the military and mental health systems are presently majorly failing them.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/15/215829/97/412/661673 (dkistner)
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I lost a cousin, brother and a close family neighbor in that fucked up Vietnam War. Two 19-20 year old marines and one Army that were high school basketball/football stars that suffered from low draft numbers. I remember sitting on my grandpa's lap (he was a World War 1 vet from Slovakia) that immigrated to America to separate church and state and brought over my grandma, my dad and oldest aunt. (3 later children) He had lost his only sibling, his twin brother, days before the end of his "forced" enlistment war and Vietnam upset the hell out of him and he told me his war stories. As the inquisitive, oldest granddaughter always on his lap, he also, caught hell from my grandma and my mom for helping him roll cigarettes, but then again, I was always on his lap! Our country forgets the lessons of the past and Vietnam was nothing but a disasterous, MIC excursion.
we should be ashamed of ourselves. We had the guts and energy to take to the streets in the 60's and 70's. I was thrown to the streets and arrested. I am ashamed of myself for not doing more to prevent or stop this war. When we were told that idealism was not something to build on, we said, "wait and see old man", and we really believed it. Where have we gone? This war has got to end we must reach out to the Iraqi people. We have to let them know that we do not wish them harm and that we are sorry for this terrible thing that we have done to them. I wonder how the mental health of the Iraqi's is being destroyed. This war must end.
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From Country Joe and the Fish:
And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.
Note: Would Clear Channel Allow this song today?
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There is a great organization that just started in Omaha nebraska. We are starting a foundation to team up with the best trauma treatment team in town. A team that has spent years treating women for sexual assault and domestic violence. Then the YWCA omaha ventured into treating men and women who are violent. Now we are teaming up with the vets and working together to provide the best mental health care that we can. Free of charge. To vets who might feel stigmatized by treatment at the vet hospital. Our team will use a combination of Dialectical behavior training skills, EMDR, TF-CBT and Exposure Therapy. Our team is trained in those treatment.
If you want to donate you can. We should make this a national organization. These families need the best trauma care available. It affects not only the soldier but the whole family. Let's focus on the solution. Now.
http://www.peacecenterusa.org/
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In the comments section of my post please note these videos:
When Angels Cry--("Death can not be proud") Notice the guy at 3:11
Click the "In Bobby's Honor" comment to get John Prine
Watch "Ever wonder what 2000 looks like?"
Fine song and video-- "It's about that time of year again, December 8th.
Look at the picture on the "Memorial Day 2007"
My letter to Barack a form of minor action:
A Thanksgiving Message For Barack Obama
Greetings President Obama. I am thankful for the campaign you ran and hopeful for your future leadership. Your voters and supporters have their most important personal issues. Some want immediate health care reform, others want a miraculous fix to the economy, others want immediate college affordability, fast school reform and a series of new energy policies. Some of our gay brothers and sisters want you stop everything and make their marriages legal as your first act. These are all worthy goals and I support each and every one. However, I encourage you to follow through on your first week in office with a plan for the end of the Iraq War. These other issues are secondary and I am willing to wait if they take some time to change. But please get America out of the killing business. We, want to wash the blood off our hands permanently. Hold firm to your passion, your promise, your commitment. I am tired of feeling like a murderer. Best to your family.
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Now my post from last week, Bobby Sent Me a Human Ear in the Mail. If I am violating some Daily Kos rule, by doing this I apologize. I am doing this re-posting per request.
http://www.dailykos.com/...