Veterans' Problems are all Americans' Problems.

"You see us and we're not full people when we come back," said Orlando Castaneda, an Army combat veteran from Arlington. "When we come back, we are fragments of human beings, mentally and physically. We've been in the thick of it."

Dallas Morning News November 11, 2007.

Engelhart4judge.com 2008's message for this Veteran's Day is that we, as Americans and Texans, should be our brothers' keepers. Remember, the story of Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:9 of the Old Testament:

"And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?"

That is, Cain was petulantly asking why he had to look out for anyone else's welfare. I have always thought that this question was answered by the Golden Rule, and also by Leviticus 19:18, where the Lord admonished us that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

If we are truly serious about honoring our men and women who have returned from honorable, dutiful service in our military, then the best way to do that is not just to spend one day each year with some speeches and a newspaper article. Rather, we have to honor them 365 days a year by caring for their life long injuries, physical and mental, incurred on the battlefield.

We have to get past the rhetoric of some who would tell us that post traumatic stress disorder is not real, or that it is not life changing. Not to mention the contention of some that because we don't see "pain" it is not a significant injury. We have to take these veterans back into our communities, our homes, our businesses, and give them the sense of family and security that will soothe their pain. The federal government can not just talk about supporting the troops, but must be held strictly accountable for each wounded and psychologically damaged veteran.

We send these kids onto the battlefield and have so little in terms of a functioning apparatus for them when they return. Hundreds of thousands of non-military 30 and 40 something men and women go to doctors every year for psycho-therapy to work out their emotional challenges and to better their lives. Many have gone through traumas in childhood. Others are suffering from depression or other disorders that require medical attention or pharmacological intervention. At least that many suffer from anxiety disorders due to stress in their work or family lives. These are people who were not blown up or shot at (mostly), but rather, merely face the day to day routine of American life.

Given what our soldiers face overseas, we should not be at all surprised that their minds and bodies react in even more extreme ways to what must be truly terrifying and haunting experiences. One second, they are on patrol, driving, talking, walking on the roadway. The next, they are being shot at, or an IED explodes near them. They lay wounded, maybe missing a limb. Maybe bleeding from shrapnel wounds. They think they'll never see their families again, their young son or daughter, their beautiful spouse, their mom and dad.

And then, they're evacuated by the expert military medical corps. They are saved. They survive. They learn to walk with an artificial limb, or pick things up with the prosthetic arm. They go on with their physical lives -- they are discharged and they come home.

But, they wake up with the dreams. The cold sweat leaving a puddle on the sheets. Choking in their sleep. They are afraid to sleep. They get help -- they are given some drugs, and they go to their support groups, hopefully. But it is not enough. It is a lifelong daunting, overarching struggle.

Or, separate from the psychological trauma, they suffer from actual physical closed head injuries. They simply are not who they were before because they have been struck on the head with such force that their brains have been injured. They can not remember things. They are surly, impatient, anti-social. It often can be traced to damage to various lobes of the brain that are real, physical injuries just like a broken arm or a laceration. It's just that we can't see it, so it is minimized from our perspective, and that of the people responsible for making sure that these Veterans receive the care they deserve.

We--especially those of us who have not served in the military--should take Veterans Day 2007 to reaffirm our respective commitments to reach out to Veterans and make them a part of America again, and contact our congressmen and women and the President and insist that more be done for the mental health and re-integration of the survivors of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the future wars we will, unfortunately, fight.

UPDATE:

Army veteran suicides now at 26-year high. Army continues to deny a link between PTSD and suicides.

UPDATE II:

CBS News study explores alarming veteran suicide rate.




Political advertising paid for by Michael C. Engelhart, P.O. Box 540081, Houston, Texas 77254-0081 in compliance with the voluntary limits of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act.