All week I have been thinking about what I would write about
for Memorial Day. I’ve been told I come off preachy sometimes, but really I
know most of the people who read my blog and I fully understand I would be
preaching to the choir if I were preaching about this day. The one theme that
kept coming back to me regarding Memorial Day, was the theme that came from the
movie “Saving Private Ryan” when Tom Hanks was dying and he looked at Matt
Daman and said, “Don’t waste it.”
Don’t waste it. Don’t waste your life and don’t squander
your freedom. I take that to mean don’t be a lemming. Make a difference. Think
about the world and not just your little corner of it. I strive to do this. I
have taught myself to be more tolerant- though I don’t always succeed. We
always want people to be just like us, think just like us- and yet the world is
so big that could never be possible. And that freedom, we are so privileged to
have in this great country, is often taken for granted and stomped on by many
of us trying to make everyone fit into our groove.
Memorial Day is supposed to be about the troops killed in
action. It’s not really supposed to be about thanking all our Veteran’s. But in
my thinking, the best way to honor those who have died is to honor those who
have lived and help them give their lives new meaning.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the plight of many veterans
suffering from PTS and TBI and about their inability to find jobs that can
accommodate their disabilities. Some of them can’t work at all. Many Iraq and Afghanistan veteran’s are homeless,
drug and alcohol dependent and many more are suicidal. Many of them found
maneuvering the VA so difficult they just gave up and receive no medical care
at all.
I’m not sure which part of this people are not
understanding. While political factions argue with each other over which is the
best party, while they call each other names, spread rumors with zeal, and
batter each other in advertisements, our veterans are dying.
In an article written late last year Paul Rieckoff ,
executive director of the Iraq
and Afghanistan Veterans of America said, “The suicide rate is out of control –
it’s epidemic proportions right now. There are very few programs that are
effective, and there’s a serious lack of national awareness.”
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/26/1680716/concern-grows-over-epidemic-veteran.html#storylink=cpy
A serious lack of
National awareness. Still a million people will write about today and they
will write about Veteran’s Day later, and people will wave their flags and argue
about their right to choose, their right to pray, their right to eat fat, their
right to grow pot, their right to raise their kids however they want, their
right to be FREE.
Many of our veterans are not free. Some with visible scars
and some without, they are shackled to their nightmares. They are buried with
their friends who came home in coffins. They walk on tightrope; barely able to
balance they hang on for life that is no longer dear.
Those of us that understand all this owe it to these men and
women, the walking wounded, to wake the Nation up. We owe it to them to have
intelligent conversations that are not politically biased, but about them
alone. We owe it to them to stop blaming politicians for something WE can
change if we unite in our message that our veteran’s needs must come before one
more war, one more special interest, and one more barrel of oil, one more study
of frog sex, one more dime spent on any frivolous bull shit thing.
After 11 years of constant war, almost every single person I
know has known someone that either has been in the war or been deeply affected
somehow. Everyone I talk to has had a son, daughter, sister, brother, nephew,
cousin or friend serve in one of the two last wars.
A staggering 45
percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan
are now seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related. That is
more than double the estimate of 21 percent who filed such claims after some
other relatively recent wars, top government officials told The Associated
Press.
I have not backed off my campaign to raise awareness. If I
am preaching – so be it. I don’t know any other way to get the word out. I’m
shooting from the hip like I always do. I’m hoping you will share this Memorial
Day message with your friends and family. I’m hoping it will make its way to
people who want to make things better for our veterans. 1.6 million veterans
need our help.
Don’t waste it. If you don’t know the meaning of life- give
your own life meaning. Leave this world a better place by repaying the greatest
gift given to most of us and earned by so few. The gift of freedom.
Things can change. If you have even a smidgen of the bravery
some of the men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms have, you can help make a difference. Speak up for them,
don’t just wave your flags and shout out America the Beautiful, or the
Pledge of Allegiance. We owe them – don’t you think?
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