Monday, May 26, 2008
Don't forget our homeless Vets...
"According to national VA stats, about one-third of the nation’s adult homeless population has served their country in one branch of the Armed Services. Current national population estimates suggest that about 154,000 veterans -- male and female -- are homeless on any given night, twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.
Many other veterans are considered near homeless or at risk because of their poverty, lack of support from family and friends, and dismal living conditions in cheap hotels or in overcrowded or substandard housing, according to VA stats.
Right now, the number of homeless male and female Vietnam-era veterans is greater than the number of service persons who died during that war -- and a small number of Desert Storm veterans are also appearing in the homeless population.
Although many homeless veterans served in combat in Vietnam and suffer from post- traumatic stress disorder, epidemiologic studies do not suggest that there is a causal connection between military service, service in Vietnam, or exposure to combat and homelessness among veterans, stats show.
Family background, access to support from family and friends, and various personal characteristics -- rather than military service -- seem to be the stronger indicators of risk of homelessness, according to VA statistics.
Almost all homeless veterans are male -- about 3 percent are women -- the vast majority are single, and most come from poor, disadvantaged backgrounds, according to various federal surveys.
Homeless veterans tend to be older and more educated than homeless non-veterans. But, similar to the general population of homeless adult males, about 45 percent of homeless veterans suffer from mental illness and, with considerable overlap, slightly more than 70 percent suffer from alcohol or other drug abuse problems. Roughly 56 percent are African-American or Hispanic.
go here for more
http://greatmindsthinklikemerainlillie.blogspot.com/2008/05/homeless-veterans-day.html
Monday, May 26, 2008
Don't forget our homeless Vets...
Looks like someone liked my video A Homeless Veteran's Day.
THE WAR COMES HOME: MEMORIAL DAY
Former Army Spc. Ray France wanted to be like his military mentor. Since Sgt. Steven Checo died in Afghanistan, France has remembered him by writing letters that he burns. France later returned to Orlando after an injury in Iraq (Hilda M. Perez, Orlando Sentinel / May 14, 2008)
THE WAR COMES HOME: MEMORIAL DAY
Remembering a soldier: 'I'd like to tell you about your son.'
Enduring memory inspires letters never sent
Darryl E. Owens Sentinel Staff Writer
May 26, 2008
Sometime this morning, former Army Spc. Ray France plans to write a letter that he'll likely never send. As he writes, he'll be surrounded by war memories. a license plate bearing the infantry's crossed muskets. His Purple Heart. Perhaps most precious of all, a photo showing him and his superior, Sgt. Steven Checo. Each Memorial Day, France has penned letters to Checo to keep fresh in his mind the many important things he will never forget about his Army mentor. How Checo saved his career. How Checo became his best friend. How he watched Checo die nearly six years ago in Afghanistan.
But this year he's not writing to his dead comrade. Instead, France will start the letter this way:
Dear Mrs. Checo, I'd like to tell you about your son.Growing up mostly in Orlando, France, 26, always wanted to be in the military. After graduating from Mid Florida Tech, he joined the U.S. Army Airborne Infantry.Soon after arriving at Fort Bragg, N.C., home to the 82nd Airborne Division, France was struggling. With most soldiers on a four-day leave, he was left to complete some unfamiliar chores. As the new guy, he was clueless."I'm freaking out, throwing stuff around the room," he said.Then someone knocked on the barracks' door. It was Sgt. Checo.
They had never spoken. Yet, Checo offered him sage advice: We've all been where you are. Shut your mouth and do what you're told and you'll make it.Checo taught France to assemble his bulletproof vest, tie up his gear and even how to use the commissary.
France listened because he was scared. And he learned."I wanted to be that soldier, be like Sergeant Checo," France says. "He helped me, but as much as we were friends, he'd be mean, at times. But the thing about him was that he would always come back when nobody was around and say, 'I know I had to smoke you . . . but you've got to learn you can't do that.' Even though he was a buddy, he was still a leader. And that's what makes him a good soldier."
go here for more
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-memorialday2608may26,0,3044421.story
War zone trauma hits police in Victoria
War zone trauma hits police in Victoria
Grant McArthur
Melbourne Herald Sun - Australia
May 27, 2008 12:00am
THE trauma of policing Victoria has left more than 100 officers suffering the same illness as soldiers serving in combat zones over the past three years.
In the past year alone 40 Victoria Police officers were struck down with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after attending gruesome homicides, suicides, road crashes and life-threatening situations.
In 2007, 19 WorkCover claims were paid for Victoria Police members suffering the severe stress-related illness. And a specialist war veteran's psychiatric service has taken over the treatment of 40 officers needing help to deal with depression, anxiety, anger and alcoholism in the past three years.
Assoc Prof Mal Hopwood, of Austin Health's Veterans Psychiatry Unit, said the strain of relentless police work could have the same impact as being involved in a war zone.
"What we have found is that many police officers have a very long history of trauma because of the nature of their work, and the trauma that results in them developing PTSD may represent the straw that broke the camel's back," he said.
"Police officers suffer trauma more directly in the line of their employment (than defence force personnel) and that can lead to a differing view about how to best assist police affected by trauma.
go here for more
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23763497-661,00.html
Grant McArthur
Melbourne Herald Sun - Australia
May 27, 2008 12:00am
THE trauma of policing Victoria has left more than 100 officers suffering the same illness as soldiers serving in combat zones over the past three years.
In the past year alone 40 Victoria Police officers were struck down with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after attending gruesome homicides, suicides, road crashes and life-threatening situations.
In 2007, 19 WorkCover claims were paid for Victoria Police members suffering the severe stress-related illness. And a specialist war veteran's psychiatric service has taken over the treatment of 40 officers needing help to deal with depression, anxiety, anger and alcoholism in the past three years.
Assoc Prof Mal Hopwood, of Austin Health's Veterans Psychiatry Unit, said the strain of relentless police work could have the same impact as being involved in a war zone.
"What we have found is that many police officers have a very long history of trauma because of the nature of their work, and the trauma that results in them developing PTSD may represent the straw that broke the camel's back," he said.
"Police officers suffer trauma more directly in the line of their employment (than defence force personnel) and that can lead to a differing view about how to best assist police affected by trauma.
go here for more
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23763497-661,00.html
Symbol of the grateful appreciation this nation feels
The flag is folded and is then presented to next of kin, "As a representative of the United States Army, it is my high privilege to present you this flag. Let it be a symbol of the grateful appreciation this nation feels for the distinguished service rendered to our country and our flag by your loved one."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_funeral
"Symbol of the grateful appreciation this nation feels." Can this be measured with a flag? Is it to weigh more than all other ways to show appreciation? Can we, should we, will we honor the living with the same words but into action?
Today I heard how President Bush was upset over the fact he was called on not supporting the GI Bill along with Senator McCain. When you read the words they used to defend the fact they are against this bill, it is apparent they have nothing to complain about. It is in fact their view that the GI Bill is too generous, yet they defend their opposition of it by attacking anyone bringing up what they said. They do not deny they are against it because it is "too generous" and "would hurt retention" but they don't like being attacked for it. Amazing.
When the conditions at Walter Reed were reported to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, he ignored the conditions and excused them as being more about the fact they were planning on closing Walter Reed. This was supposed to excuse the conditions the wounded were being treated in. Yet it took the Washington Post to present these deplorable conditions to the public. Once this was accomplished, there was such an outrage across the nation, they were forced to react to it. No one was fired in the upper end of the chain of command.
When over 22,000 members of the armed forces were given dishonorable discharges under "personality disorder claims" instead of PTSD, no one was fired for doing this. The men and women who served this nation, were wounded by serving it were still discharged and unable to obtain any VA services or compensation.
When the fact the redeployments of troops already diagnosed with PTSD, were being sent back, again it took the media to bring this to the public's attention. Yet again the practice was defended as "necessity" to retain troop levels.
When the redeployments were found to increase the risk of developing PTSD by 50% for each time back, yet again the practice was defended to "retain" troop levels.
When the lack of rest time in between deployments was found to be a detriment to the mental health of the troops as well as an increased burden on the families, the practice was defended yet again under retaining troop levels.
Over and over again, we read account after account on how the same nation able to present a flag to the families of the fallen, lacks the ability to live up to those words when it comes to them still being alive and risking their lives. Are they less worthy of appreciation when they live to fight another day? Are they less worthy when they are forced to fight that other day the very nation they risked their lives for when they are in need of the nation because of their service?
What kind of symbol does all of this represent in reality to them? If you really want to honor them, then honor them while they live as well as when they gone.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington
For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care
For Women Warriors, Deep Wounds, Little Care
By HELEN BENEDICT
Published: May 26, 2008
THIS Memorial Day, as an ever-increasing number of mentally and physically wounded soldiers return from Iraq, the Department of Veterans Affairs faces a pressing crisis: women traumatized not only by combat but also by sexual assault and harassment from their fellow service members. Sadly, the department is failing to fully deal with this problem.
Women make up some 15 percent of the United States active duty forces, and 11 percent of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a third of female veterans say they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and 71 percent to 90 percent say they were sexually harassed by the men with whom they served.
This sort of abuse drastically increases the risk and intensity of post-traumatic stress disorder. One study found that female soldiers who were sexually assaulted were nine times more likely to show symptoms of this disorder than those who weren’t. Sexual harassment by itself is so destructive, another study revealed, it causes the same rates of post-traumatic stress in women as combat does in men. And rape can lead to other medical crises, including diabetes, asthma, chronic pelvic pain, eating disorders, miscarriages and hypertension.
The threat of post-traumatic stress has risen in recent years as women’s roles in war have changed. More of them now come under fire, suffer battle wounds and kill the enemy, just as men do.
As women return for repeat tours, usually redeploying with their same units, many must go back to war with the same man (or men) who abused them. This leaves these women as threatened by their own comrades as by the war itself. Yet the combination of sexual assault and combat has barely been acknowledged or studied.
click post title for more
By HELEN BENEDICT
Published: May 26, 2008
THIS Memorial Day, as an ever-increasing number of mentally and physically wounded soldiers return from Iraq, the Department of Veterans Affairs faces a pressing crisis: women traumatized not only by combat but also by sexual assault and harassment from their fellow service members. Sadly, the department is failing to fully deal with this problem.
Women make up some 15 percent of the United States active duty forces, and 11 percent of the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly a third of female veterans say they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military, and 71 percent to 90 percent say they were sexually harassed by the men with whom they served.
This sort of abuse drastically increases the risk and intensity of post-traumatic stress disorder. One study found that female soldiers who were sexually assaulted were nine times more likely to show symptoms of this disorder than those who weren’t. Sexual harassment by itself is so destructive, another study revealed, it causes the same rates of post-traumatic stress in women as combat does in men. And rape can lead to other medical crises, including diabetes, asthma, chronic pelvic pain, eating disorders, miscarriages and hypertension.
The threat of post-traumatic stress has risen in recent years as women’s roles in war have changed. More of them now come under fire, suffer battle wounds and kill the enemy, just as men do.
As women return for repeat tours, usually redeploying with their same units, many must go back to war with the same man (or men) who abused them. This leaves these women as threatened by their own comrades as by the war itself. Yet the combination of sexual assault and combat has barely been acknowledged or studied.
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North Carolina:Teaching doctors to spot PTSD
Local mental health group teaching doctors to spot PTSD in veterans
StarNewsOnline.com - Wilmington,NC,USA
By Vicky Eckenrode
Staff Writer
Published: Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 5:46 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 5:46 p.m.
When Dan Hickman left Iraq, there were stark differences from when he came home from Vietnam decades earlier.
There were no critical debriefings like today. No references for counseling services.
"When you came back from Vietnam, nobody asked you how you were," said Hickman, who in Iraq commanded the 30th Heavy Separate Brigade, North Carolina Army National Guard's largest brigade. "It wasn't a topic of conversation. Nobody even heard of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)."
Hickman, whose civilian job is executive vice president of Cape Fear Community College, said the culture was one that sidestepped discussions about mental health and the stress of returning from combat.
"I call it the John Wayne generation, you just sucked it up and moved on," he said. "Your only refuge was your buddies and for some alcohol and things like that."
Despite the changes, Hickman said more can be done to help soldiers who serve in Iraq, particularly for so-called citizen soldiers who aren't returning to careers on military bases, but are instead thrown back into their civilian jobs and communities.
For some, the transition is jolting.
click post title for more
It isn't just the doctors needing to know what PTSD and how to spot it. It's everyone. I was involved with training some Chaplains to know what to look for as well as what PTSD is at a local hospital. They wanted to know if there were ways to know what to look for. I gave them several ways, but the number one thing I suggested was that they listen to the family. If they hear the words, "suddenly changed" that should be their first clue what they may be dealing with. PTSD is caused by trauma but there are all different kinds of traumatic events. It's very hard to sit and ask people to think about these things when most will not even be aware of the cause.
Vietnam veterans found that while they thought they came home with problems, they were not aware of what it was. For some, they were able to cope with it while it was mild (as with my husband) until another stressor hit and they could not cope on their own any longer. They dealt with the nightmares and flashbacks, the divorces and job loss, the twitches along with everything else but stuffed it into the back of their minds. A secondary stressor sent them over the edge to the point where their lives were in danger. In this case, the family should be asked if the patient was a veteran. This will open up a series of follow up questions. It is not just Vietnam veterans within the older generation. It is also Korean veterans and the remaining WWII veterans. Gulf War veterans also need to be addressed and then there are the new generation veterans.
Within the population of others, there is a long list of traumatic events that can lead to the development of PTSD. If the doctors and providers pay attention to what the family and the patient are saying, they will have clues of what they are looking at. "Suddenly changed" is classic for PTSD.
Marine Chad Oligschlaeger lost fight against PTSD
At Memorial Day: Another Iraq Vet, With PTSD, Suicide
Posted May 25, 2008 09:01 AM (EST)
On Memorial Day weekend, yet another American family is mourning the death of son who survived the war in Iraq -- only to fall victim at home from post traumatic shock disorder.
The family lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Marine was Chad Oligschlaeger, age 21, who committed suicide this week at the Twenty Nine Palms base in California.
While the cause of his death is still being investigated, family members say he was taking eight different types of medications to deal with post traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq.
I've been chronicling these stories for nearly five years, and the surge in such reports in recent weeks is truly troubling.
Byron Smith, Oligschlaeger's uncle, told a local TV outlet, "the first tour he came back and he asked for help, and they sent him back over there. I guess that was their idea of help. He did what a marine does -- he went over there."
His father, Eric, said, "The second tour ... I don't think he was ready to go back. I think he was fighting it. I think he was afraid to go back."
"We sent these kids over there, we're putting them through things that we'll never see in our lifetimes. Things we see in the movies that are not real, it's real to them," said Christine Judan, a family friend of the Oligschlaegers.
click above for more
Posted May 25, 2008 09:01 AM (EST)
On Memorial Day weekend, yet another American family is mourning the death of son who survived the war in Iraq -- only to fall victim at home from post traumatic shock disorder.
The family lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Marine was Chad Oligschlaeger, age 21, who committed suicide this week at the Twenty Nine Palms base in California.
While the cause of his death is still being investigated, family members say he was taking eight different types of medications to deal with post traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq.
I've been chronicling these stories for nearly five years, and the surge in such reports in recent weeks is truly troubling.
Byron Smith, Oligschlaeger's uncle, told a local TV outlet, "the first tour he came back and he asked for help, and they sent him back over there. I guess that was their idea of help. He did what a marine does -- he went over there."
His father, Eric, said, "The second tour ... I don't think he was ready to go back. I think he was fighting it. I think he was afraid to go back."
"We sent these kids over there, we're putting them through things that we'll never see in our lifetimes. Things we see in the movies that are not real, it's real to them," said Christine Judan, a family friend of the Oligschlaegers.
click above for more
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sgt. Brian Rand worth training but not worth saving
Since the start of the Iraq war, Fort Campbell, a sprawling installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, has seen a spike in the number of suicides and soldiers suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Sgt. Brian Rand, shown here grilling chicken in Iraq, killed himself a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq. Rand believe he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.
Memories of Iraq haunted soldier until suicide
By HALIMAH ABDULLAH
McClatchy Newspapers
Until the day he died, Sgt. Brian Rand believed he was being haunted by the ghost of the Iraqi man he killed.
The ghost choked Rand while he slept in his bunk, forcing him to wake up gasping for air and clawing at his throat.
He whispered that Rand was a vampire and looked on as the soldier stabbed another member of Fort Campbell's 96th Aviation Support Battalion in the neck with a fork in the mess hall.
Eventually, the ghost told Rand he needed to kill himself.
According to family members and police reports, on Feb. 20, 2007, just a few months after being discharged from his second tour of duty in Iraq, Rand smoked half of a cigarette as he wrote a suicide note, grabbed a gun and went to the Cumberland River Center Pavilion in Clarksville, Tenn. As the predawn dark pressed in, he breathed in the wintry air and stared out at the park where he and his wife, Dena, had married.
Then he placed the gun to his head and silenced his inner ghosts.
"My brother was afraid to ask for help," said April Somdahl. "And when he finally did ask for help the military let him down."
Since the start of the Iraq war, Fort Campbell, a sprawling installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, has seen a spike in the number of suicides and soldiers suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
In 2007, nine soldiers from Fort Campbell committed suicide - three during the first few weeks of October, according to a letter sent to base personnel by the 101st Airborne Division's commander, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser.
"As our soldiers fight terrorism, the sacrifices asked of them and their families have increased significantly," Schloesser said in the letter. "... Regrettably, under such circumstances, it is natural for our people to feel the stress of these demands and to be overwhelmed at times. Tragically, these pressures too often end in suicide."
Fort Campbell spokeswoman Cathy Gramling said post officials were unable to track the suicides referred to in the letter and declined to give additional suicide figures. The Pentagon said it does not track suicides by military installation.
go here for more
http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/635463.html
It costs a lot of money to get a soldier and even more to train them.
The military spends a fortune on recruitment advertising but relatively little on retention of trained soldiers. Substantially more money needs to be shifted from recruitment to retention. The reasoning: it can cost as much as $250,000 to properly train a soldier for a skilled assignment -- only to have them leave after one term of service.
http://www.politics1.com/jcoc.htm
It costs even more to outfit them.
It Ain't Cheap to Outfit a Soldier
Modern soldiers, with their night-vision goggles and high-tech vests, are starting to look more and more like they might have dropped out of a popular video game. But it's a pretty expensive one:
It now costs 100 times more to outfit a soldier than it did during World War II. Back then, it cost $170, even adjusted for inflation. These days, The Associated Press reports, it costs $17,000 and could reach $28,000 or even $60,000 by 2015.
In the 1940s, a GI went to war with little more than a uniform, weapon, helmet, bedroll and canteen. He carried some 35 pounds of gear that cost $170 in 2006 inflation-adjusted dollars, according to Army figures. That rose to about $1,100 by the 1970s as the military added a flak vest, new weapons and other equipment during the Vietnam War.
Today, troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are outfitted with advanced armor and other protection, including high-tech vests, anti-ballistic eyewear, earplugs and fire-retardant gloves. Night-vision eyewear, thermal weapons sights and other gear makes them more deadly to the adversary.
These days, soldiers are responsible for more than 80 items, weighing a total of 75 pounds. And in the future, their gear could include "a weapon that can shoot around corners so soldiers don't have to expose themselves to their enemy and a helmet-mounted 1.5-inch computer screen showing maps of the battlefield."
All this new technology stands to increase the pressure on the military to retain well-trained personnel because of the cost to train and equip new ones.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/10/it_aint_cheap_to_outfit_a_sold.html
When it comes to the price tag on getting them ready for combat, it seems as if the sky is the limit. So where is the money when they are done doing the risking of life? Why are they no longer of value? Sgt. Brian Rand was still the same person the military trained, spent a lot of money on and depended on. He was still the same person who left his family and friends to serve the nation and still the same person they loved. Why is it that when they come back home, no one seems to take what happens seriously enough in the chain of command? Is it because they were willing to risk their lives that the military has taken this long to care what happens to them and felt their deaths by their own hands was no great loss? Aside from the moral question, we have the financial one. Sgt. Rand, along with all the others who took their own lives because of being wounded, have to be replaced. You would think it would be in the financial interest of the military to take care of them and get them help as soon as humanly possible in order to retain the trained and not have to replace them. Think of what kind of symbol taking care of them would provide for those who are contemplating joining the military or not. It would go a long way for them to truly believe their lives were valued. Think about it. It's too late for Sgt. Rand and all the others. But what about the next one?
Honored soldier is plagued by memories of war
Video: Honored soldier is plagued by memories of war
David Edwards
Published: Saturday May 24, 2008
He was honored by President Bush with the second-highest award in the military, but Sgt. Christopher Corriveau does not feel like a hero.
CBS' David Martin reports that after his sniper team was ambushed and outnumbered 10 to one, Corriveau fought his way out. But his two best friends did not make it..
"They were some of the best friends I've ever had," he said. "I almost wanted to die on that roof that day with my brothers."
Corriveau's unit returns to Iraq this fall, but he will be staying in the US to attend college.
This video is from CBS's Evening News, broadcast May 22, 2008.
go here for video
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CBS_Honored_soldier_plagued_by_memories_0524.html
David Edwards
Published: Saturday May 24, 2008
He was honored by President Bush with the second-highest award in the military, but Sgt. Christopher Corriveau does not feel like a hero.
CBS' David Martin reports that after his sniper team was ambushed and outnumbered 10 to one, Corriveau fought his way out. But his two best friends did not make it..
"They were some of the best friends I've ever had," he said. "I almost wanted to die on that roof that day with my brothers."
Corriveau's unit returns to Iraq this fall, but he will be staying in the US to attend college.
This video is from CBS's Evening News, broadcast May 22, 2008.
go here for video
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CBS_Honored_soldier_plagued_by_memories_0524.html
My friend Jen
My friend Jen passed away between last night and early this morning. Her husband called to tell me a little while ago. Over the last couple of days, it's been very difficult to concentrate on much more than her. Before I go on, please offer a prayer for her family. Jen, well she needs no more prayers because she has returned to where love began. She no longer has to feel cancer trying to take over her life and no longer has to battle for the next breath.
If you ever read AOL Political Conundrum you would have read a lot of what Jen did. She posted there and on a couple of other message boards for a long time. She was a powerhouse! There was not much she didn't know about the government or what was going on in this country. She posted as FloridaBeachBum.
After 9-11, I was fully invested in PTSD and what we were headed for when it came to it in our new veterans that would come. Jen was already up on all the questions that should have been asked but never were by anyone who would have made the answers matter. Both of us ended up focusing on the 2004 election and the rest of what was going on, but it was the way we started that proved what a intelligent woman she was along with a loving one.
Jen had emailed me a very, very long post about 9-11 too soon for us to know each other well enough. I emailed her back and told her that I couldn't use any of it because I had to deal with facts, not speculation. (She should have smacked me) Jen turned around and spent hours upon hours finding what she thought I needed to read and then she opened my eyes to things I didn't want to see, things I didn't want to know or even think were possible. She's probably the reason why it finally dawned on me that either this nation had such a massive failure of all our defense systems, all at the same time, the same day we needed them, or someone made them fail.
Anyway, setting that aside, Jen and I got very close after that. She managed to do the same to people who agreed with her on the PC board as well as people who did not agree with her. No one ignored Jen, that's for sure and she earned their respect.
When she was first diagnosed with cancer, I drove down to Stuart to see her in the hospital. We hadn't met yet. I walked into the hospital room and as soon as I did it was as if she just saw a movie star show up at her doorway. Her face lit up. Believe me, I'm not that big of a deal. When I returned home, I posted on the PC board to let people know what was going on and within a couple of hours, there were a lot of messages from people praying for her, even the people she argued with. Two thought it was inappropriate that I posted "such personal information" on the board, but considering I was doing what Jen asked me to do, I basically told the two people where to go and how to arrive there swiftly.
Time never allows me to go in there anymore. It's too hard to post anything there and then go back over and over again to reply to replies. It just never ends. I do miss most of the people in that group and Jen was responsible for brining a lot of the people there together.
The arrangements have not been made yet. Her parents have to come from California. I don't know when I will have to go back to Stuart. Traveling down there the other day and back took 5 hours, so whenever the day is, I won't post that day or very little if at all. Now think of this. Jen meant a lot to me and to all the people she came into contact with on line. Naturally she meant a lot to her family. Think of all the lives this woman touched. Jen's life ended because of cancer. It ended because she didn't have health insurance and didn't go for check ups until she had problems. We need to do something so that the next time someone like Jen comes into this world with the ability to bring people together, make them think and encourage them to do something about it, we do not let them go through life without the medical care that could save their lives.
We need to make sure that all our troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the veterans already here, do not come back to a system designed to help them heal, end up being the reason they die.
This world is filled with too many selfish people who see nothing wrong with making more and more money while other people have to suffer for it. We cannot afford to loose more like Jen so early in life. She had too much more to give. Gifts we will never have because she is no longer here.
If you ever read AOL Political Conundrum you would have read a lot of what Jen did. She posted there and on a couple of other message boards for a long time. She was a powerhouse! There was not much she didn't know about the government or what was going on in this country. She posted as FloridaBeachBum.
After 9-11, I was fully invested in PTSD and what we were headed for when it came to it in our new veterans that would come. Jen was already up on all the questions that should have been asked but never were by anyone who would have made the answers matter. Both of us ended up focusing on the 2004 election and the rest of what was going on, but it was the way we started that proved what a intelligent woman she was along with a loving one.
Jen had emailed me a very, very long post about 9-11 too soon for us to know each other well enough. I emailed her back and told her that I couldn't use any of it because I had to deal with facts, not speculation. (She should have smacked me) Jen turned around and spent hours upon hours finding what she thought I needed to read and then she opened my eyes to things I didn't want to see, things I didn't want to know or even think were possible. She's probably the reason why it finally dawned on me that either this nation had such a massive failure of all our defense systems, all at the same time, the same day we needed them, or someone made them fail.
Anyway, setting that aside, Jen and I got very close after that. She managed to do the same to people who agreed with her on the PC board as well as people who did not agree with her. No one ignored Jen, that's for sure and she earned their respect.
When she was first diagnosed with cancer, I drove down to Stuart to see her in the hospital. We hadn't met yet. I walked into the hospital room and as soon as I did it was as if she just saw a movie star show up at her doorway. Her face lit up. Believe me, I'm not that big of a deal. When I returned home, I posted on the PC board to let people know what was going on and within a couple of hours, there were a lot of messages from people praying for her, even the people she argued with. Two thought it was inappropriate that I posted "such personal information" on the board, but considering I was doing what Jen asked me to do, I basically told the two people where to go and how to arrive there swiftly.
Time never allows me to go in there anymore. It's too hard to post anything there and then go back over and over again to reply to replies. It just never ends. I do miss most of the people in that group and Jen was responsible for brining a lot of the people there together.
The arrangements have not been made yet. Her parents have to come from California. I don't know when I will have to go back to Stuart. Traveling down there the other day and back took 5 hours, so whenever the day is, I won't post that day or very little if at all. Now think of this. Jen meant a lot to me and to all the people she came into contact with on line. Naturally she meant a lot to her family. Think of all the lives this woman touched. Jen's life ended because of cancer. It ended because she didn't have health insurance and didn't go for check ups until she had problems. We need to do something so that the next time someone like Jen comes into this world with the ability to bring people together, make them think and encourage them to do something about it, we do not let them go through life without the medical care that could save their lives.
We need to make sure that all our troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the veterans already here, do not come back to a system designed to help them heal, end up being the reason they die.
This world is filled with too many selfish people who see nothing wrong with making more and more money while other people have to suffer for it. We cannot afford to loose more like Jen so early in life. She had too much more to give. Gifts we will never have because she is no longer here.
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