{"id":76860,"date":"2014-05-24T06:08:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T10:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=76860"},"modified":"2014-05-24T09:15:16","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T13:15:16","slug":"in-memoriam-forty-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/in-memoriam-forty-and-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Forty And Counting"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes we ask the right questions. A CNN anchorwoman, reporting the near-miss collision of two planes only eight miles from one another prior to course change, asked in sheer frustration, “Why does this keep happening?” The fervency of her question leads me to believe that she wasn’t just talking about airplanes. We’re experiencing an epic failure of not just the larger, seemingly intractable systems that order our lives, like government, but even a dissolution of the more mundane commercial services we’ve come to depend on. We’ve spent a number of years asking “what?” This is a really good time to ask “why?”<\/p>\n

\"PoliticalSometimes we hear someone use a phrase that sums up what we’re feeling,\u00a0identifies what we see bubbling up in those around us. A firefighter who rescued a baby eighteen years ago and reunited with her as she graduated from high school, spoke of his week’s experience as a “whirlwind of emotions.” And although his emotions were mostly joyous, there seems to be a lot of that going around. How about you? A bit weepy these days? Me, I confess to\u00a0frequent bouts of\u00a0waterworks, unbidden and unexpected in their intensity.<\/p>\n

This week a California woman, kidnapped at 15, walked into a police station after a decade, charging the man who took her, the father of her child, with various counts of kidnap and rape. Michelle Knight, one of three young women held prisoner by Ariel Castro for over a decade, defended the woman from judgmental naysayers on television today, eventually bursting into tears. It quickly became the must-see\u00a0vid of the day<\/strong><\/a>. Watching her pour out her feelings about psychological bondage will\u00a0bring a lump to your throat. We seem to be less able to stuff our feelings than we used to be. There’s raging frustration, sorrow, and anger, just below our surface.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sometimes the timing is perfect. Sometimes we get all the signals while we’re watching, like white smoke drifting over the Vatican roof. Sometimes we can’t help but notice there’s something dreadfully wrong, like seeing someone walk into the mall carrying a gun. Sometimes what is self-evident can’t be manipulated any longer, the rips in the fabric of tightly-woven mythologies no longer invisible to the naked eye. These are the moments when we can no longer avoid the truth about what we’re seeing. For instance, thanks to the growing scandal about the inability of veterans hospitals to handle their case load, and the systemic effort to cover that up, we can no longer assume that those coming home from war with lifetime wounding will be cared for in a timely manner, if at all. One of our most sacred American myths regarding service to the country is as thin as that white smoke we spoke of. Which brings me to Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

The last Monday in May is the day in which we Americans remember our fallen soldiers (in Southern states, where memory is long, a Confederate Memorial Day is celebrated in April). Originally called Decoration Day, this practice began shortly after the end of the Civil War, eventually becoming a federal holiday. Here in the Pea Patch, quickly declining members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) visit the many little local cemeteries to favor vets’ headstones with a small flag. A word of appreciation, here: even as their numbers dwindle by their own passing, they still gather in their uniforms to blow taps for the flag ceremony at the funerals of local vets, and I owe them gratitude for their moving service at my dad’s gravesite.<\/p>\n

At Arlington National Cemetery this year, over a quarter million flags have been put in place, honoring those who gave “the ultimate sacrifice” in their country’s name. Very few of us can see\u00a0images of that — acres of pristine white stones with tiny waving Stars and Bars — without a heavy heart and a “whirlwind of emotions” of our own. And without a bit of cynicism for those who honestly feel the regret and magnitude of that sacrifice, military recruiters country-wide hope the emotions stirred by such photos include the zealous patriotism displayed by the very young and those who see such issues in black and white. They have quotas to fill, after all.<\/p>\n

There is inordinate romanticism in this notion over dying for one’s country. Thousands of hours of film have made such events, even given the entertainment industry’s penchant for graphic bloodletting \u00e0 la Quentin Tarantino, seem somehow more than honorable. A bit less clear is the social strata of those who survive with a sliding scale of war wounds, be they physical or psychological. And, although we’ve known for years that the Veteran’s Administration is not just behind in caring for the medical needs of its number, but ridiculously so, we now have to face the sad truth that our promises to those who have fought “for our freedom,” as the motto goes, aren’t worth diddly to those who go without critical medical care, sometimes to their death.<\/p>\n

Now, seriously, it’s taken a lot of head-turning from the facts to believe that this nation champions our returning warriors, helping them return to civilian life in any reasonable fashion. A dear friend of mine — herself a veteran — has spent a decade and more working to place returned vets in jobs, classrooms and social services, and finds that they are, on the whole, only marginally able to follow through with their programs. Their military service, combined with the circumstance awaiting them on the other side of it, has changed their perception of themselves and of their world, limiting their ability to succeed in what we consider ‘normal’ society. And each year, by the way, funding for the programs she attempts to offer dwindles, closing options and creating unaddressed needs. I consider her one of this nation’s\u00a0true heroes, continuing to face an almost insurmountable problem day by day, while keeping a good heart.<\/p>\n

It’s pretty remarkable that, given the amount of money represented by the military-industrial complex, we can’t adequately fund or manage veterans hospitals. We all remember the poor conditions and care issues discovered at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington during Bush’s watch (2007; it was officially closed in 2011). But it can’t be news to anyone that we don’t do right by our returned soldiers. Jon Stewart once again nailed the essence of this problem, and I’m including his\u00a0must-see clip<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on the topic, along with this remarkable quote: “On this Memorial Day weekend eve, we can finally admit that America has had for over 200 years a great bipartisan tradition of honoring those who have fought for our freedom by fucking them over once they give their guns back.” And DO note the snip from\u00a0Major General Smedley Butler<\/strong><\/a>, who infamously, and in no uncertain terms, informed us that “war is a racket.”<\/p>\n

As for the deficient hospitals, one of the most thankless jobs available must be that of director of Veterans Affairs — or literally, just about any significant government position\u00a0these days — with the inevitable failures pointing squarely toward the top. Retired four-star Army General Eric Shinseki has held that job since early in 2009. You may remember the name. Shinseki was Army Chief of Staff and the one person in the Joint Chiefs (March of 2003) who vehemently disagreed with Rumsfeld (and with Defense Department under-secretary, Paul Wolfowitz) about how many troops would be necessary to adequately take and secure Iraq. Remember Cheney’s bullshit predictions that we’d be welcomed with flowers by a grateful and compliant Iraqi population? Hitting a wall of Neocon propaganda, Shinseki retired in June of that year. Four years later, analysts deemed Shinseki’s assessment of troop levels correct. The next year, he was nominated to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs by then president-elect Obama, unanimously confirmed and immediately sworn in.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of people calling for Shinseki’s head these days, including the American Legion, but he seems too\u00a0convenient a scapegoat.\u00a0I wonder just how much mythological Kool Aid continues to color this issue,\u00a0with those inclined to simplistic thinking\u00a0all aquiver and looking for someone to punish. Quite a few of us have already noticed that being assigned\u00a0to almost any current cabinet post, including Veterans Affairs, is akin to taking command of the Titanic long after she’d hit the ice. It should be noted, for those who think in nuanced terms,\u00a0that\u00a0an inability to\u00a0treat all\u00a0those seeking medical assistance\u00a0is less the fault of internal leadership, than it is improper attention to funding, a problem Congress — especially this congress — cares little about.<\/p>\n

It’s very human to want someone pilloried for discoveries that shock (and shame) us, but I’m not convinced that’s particularly adult behavior. If Shinseki has mismanaged the department, he needs to explain himself and attempt to make it right, or better yet, perhaps the leadership of veterans hospitals would be better addressed by those skilled in hospital administration, rather than by a military mind. Perhaps that would create less of an atmosphere where facts\u00a0are buried rather than addressed,\u00a0with ranks quickly closed behind. But unless we properly\u00a0fund this endeavor<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0— or even realistically assess the funding that will be required well into the future, thanks to Bush’s tandem wars —\u00a0these challenges\u00a0will not go away. Nor will\u00a0we be able to\u00a0meet the immense needs of our returned military, amounting to an (as yet, open-ended) estimate of $900 billion into the future.<\/p>\n

Add that the medical procedures offered are often obsolete to the challenges of PTSD and brain injury, the VA hospitals antiquated like so much of our infrastructure and that pill pushing, rather than more extensive treatment, has created a secondary problem with patients trading and selling meds, as reported at a Florida Veterans hospital and others around the country. And for this, thousands upon thousands of vets are awaited services, many for years.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s understandable that we want someone to blame for the 40 deaths believed to be caused by being purposely shifted to a covert waiting list, and that’s just in Phoenix. Some 26 VA facilities are now under investigation, with additional deaths expected in what appears to be a nationwide cover-up in scheduling. As with most of these kinds of institutional events, ranks are being closed and paper trails destroyed even as we speak. We may never know how many deaths could have been prevented, but the list of reported maladies — brain cancer, gangrene, bladder cancer, heart failure — is daunting. Yes, many of these were WWII vets, old and dying anyway. But, and despite specific directions from the administration, even the most recent vets are subject to long waiting periods. So here are Palin’s ‘death panels’: death by congressional disinterest and American lethargy.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know. I’m carrying on about vets, and it’s not even Veteran’s Day, a day that barely gets a public nod. It’s Memorial Day — the gateway to summer, to dynamite sale prices, to cookouts and picnics and yard sales — and the beloved war dead are being given their due, their resting place dressed with fake flowers and flags. But what about the living returnees all around us, raw with pain and anxiety? What about the 18 suicides by soldier every day? What about the very human problem of inadequate services for our returned warriors? The reports of domestic abuse and violence, rape and murder, the result of mental health crisis? What about the unrelenting pressure of serving with honor in the field but finding oneself discarded and ignored — past unresolved, future dim — upon return home? And what about the promises that generations of those proud to serve relied upon?<\/p>\n

As Jon Stewart made very plain, this is not a new problem. We’ve had centuries of discovering ‘how’ this all works. The next question, the one we’ve just started to ask, is ‘why’? So let’s be very succinct, because this particular problem, unlike some of the other more nuanced challenges we face, can be fixed with political will and adequate funding. This is all about money, and where we put our money indicates what we value. If there’s even a sliver of truth to the meme that we must thank a soldier for our freedom, then the least we can do is keep our promise to provide for the treatment of their mental and physical suffering. And this is an easy issue to gather around. Not one of us in this nation thinks what’s happening to vets is right, or that family members should have to watch their veteran father die a truly tragic and painful death from bladder cancer, without once receiving an appointment to see a physician. So let’s stop pointing fingers at those who have been assigned impossible tasks, and get right to the heart of it.<\/p>\n

There are those who would rather politicize this issue than fix it, and a good many of them receive six figure salaries from the U.S. government for their (dis)service. I suggest, with absolute surety, that had the majority of them been asked to approve additional funds for protective services in Benghazi, they would have loudly and happily denied it. These people work for you and me. Call them on their votes, and their intentions.<\/p>\n

How did your representative vote in the sequester? What part of austerity do they support? Write them, call them. Inform your local VFW of those not supporting veterans affairs with their votes, and ask if their membership will write and call, as well. While the conservative party itself has only gotten more radical, the Tea Party is quickly losing steam, due to its inability to govern. Now’s the time to push hard!<\/p>\n

Yes, Smedley Butler was right, war’s a racket, filling the pockets of the privileged. But until this nation wakes up to the bill of goods it’s been sold about exceptionalism and patriotism, we must not be guilty of cynicism about those we send into geopolitical danger. No single soldier counts as one citizen: each has a family and friends, those who must pick up the slack should government fail to meet their commitment for these often fragile people, and the rings of influence widen to include the entirety of their community. The very mental and emotional health of the nation is at risk when we ignore this problem.<\/p>\n

That’s ‘what,’ and that’s ‘why.’ On a three-day weekend, with fun outings ahead (weather permitting), it’s a bummer to have to ponder such heavy stuff, I know. But then I think about the daughter-in-law of the Arizona man on the secret wait list who, at the end, got an appointment for his untreated stage-four cancer well after he was gone. She had never seen him cry before, she said, a 71-year-old man who had every confidence that his government would not fail to look after his health needs. I think about that and it takes my breath away, chokes me up, makes my eyes fill. Yes, seems to me that the time for stuffing down these feelings has long passed. Now it’s time to do something about them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves Sometimes we ask the right questions. A CNN anchorwoman, reporting the near-miss collision of two planes only eight miles from one another prior to course change, asked in sheer frustration, “Why does this keep happening?” The fervency of her question leads me to believe that she wasn’t just talking … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}