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Saturday, March 14. 2009
Kiss a Vet
first published two years ago.
On MySpace.com, if you have a page, you can post a blog there; I often post this one there as well, although on MySpace … well, everything about MySpace is nearly discouraging. It’s so popular it crawls at a snail’s pace when you want to check in on someone’s page or read messages or load a comment on to a friend’s page.
But I have a lot of hotties on my friends list and that makes up for all the ills of MySpace.
When posting a blog on MySpace, you can attach little thingies to your post, like, “what are you listening to” (right now I’m listening to the finches in the trees outside my window), “what are you reading” (Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller) “what are you watching” (nothing) and what is your mood. Right now, my mood is depressed. Things have not been going great for the past few months and all day I’ve been engulfed in fear; fear of my financial future primarily, and the fear of being alone I guess.
That last fear surprised me. I’ve never been married, but had a couple live-in girlfriends. Having a life-long mate has never been a dream, priority or even a passing consideration and it probably isn’t now, but once in a while, on the dark nights I’m glad there’s an Internet.
Richard Jeni
The sadness was perpetrated by the un-spoken news that a cyber-friend didn’t get something she really wanted. My first thought was that I had something to do with her disappointment. You know the syndrome: the whole world revolves around what we say and/or do. As it turns out, her sadness had nothing to do with me. Imagine my disappointment with the news that I’m not the center of the universe. Nevertheless, I share her sadness.
One thing about fear and sadness is that taken together they can breed depression. That’s a clinical disease we as a culture treat as an aberration, a pariah, something to mock, especially if the depressed person, like comedian Richard Jeni, ends that depression in suicide.
Britney Spears is the latest laughing-stock since shaving off her hair. That girl must truly be depressed and addicted to some substance; I’m guessing either alcohol or prescription narcotics, judging from the way she fell asleep at a party she was “hosting” New Year’s Eve. Or maybe both, which can be a lethal combination. But that’s just a guess.
This morning I made one of my M.D. visits to the V.A. Medical Center and what struck me — and has caught my attention for the past three-plus years — are the number of young men and women Britney’s age and younger hobbling in on prosthetics and/or crutches, rolled in via wheelchairs; or they’re missing arms or wear eye-patches or walk so carefully with canes for the blind. That’s depressing.
Are you aware of what’s going on in this world? Do you know anyone who has to make regular visits a V.A. hospital due to injuries incurred in Iraq or Afghanistan? For most Americans, the cost of this war is non-existent. There is no draft and with Bush’s war in Iraq, the wisdom of having a draft has become apparent. If more Americans had to shoulder the burden, it’s not likely this war would have started, or dragged on for so long.
Hillary Clinton just said that if elected president she would keep American forces in Iraq, in smaller numbers than are now present, but still that diminishes her chances of winning the Democratic nomination. I have to give her kudos though, she knows she’s going against the rising tide in the lefty, progressive, Democratic ranks, but she’s sticking to her position, right or wrong.More young men and women, for years to come, will be required to visit the V.A. medical centers around the Nation. A large percentage will suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which, for many, will go undiagnosed for years to come. They will join the ranks of the chronically depressed, made the butt of jokes, like the “humorous” stereotype of the Crazed Vietnam Veteran. Don’t know many Vietnam Vets who are crazy, but PTSD is synonymous with Vietnam Veteran.
Do you know what the symptoms of PTSD are? Probably not, but you saw enough TV shows, sitcoms and otherwise, so you think you know. The West Wing covered PTSD over several episodes after the assassination attempt wounded Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford). They tried to capture one category of symptoms in that arc, and did a decent job for a television series.
Symptoms fall into three categories: A) Reliving the event; B) Avoidance and C) Arousal, as in arousal of anger and/or hostility.
You can read up on PTSD on this page from the National Institutes of Health. Don’t act like you know when in fact you don’t. Educate yourself. Ignorance is not a virtue.
Many of these young people, who once had promising futures, will find themselves sleeping on cement walkways in places like La Jolla because their disease will render them incapable of interacting with the rest of American society. And we think so little of our veterans — we treat them with such distain — they have no where to turn. Our lawmakers continue to cut the V.A. budgets and we see abominations like the Walter Reed Hospital scandal, and do nothing.
What have you done for our service men and women lately? Putting a little ribbon sticker on your motor vehicle doesn’t count. One of my favorite Playmates, my first Playmate, Cynthia Myers (December 1968), makes regular visits to the V.A. hospital near her home. She’s a peach! Sweet and always brings a smile!A smile goes a long way in anyone’s day.
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