Here is another article about the Occupy movement and how the IVAW are taking part. It is titled “At Occupy Camps, Veterans Bring the Wars Home” It gets to the crazy in short order.
In Zuccotti Park, Army Specialist Jerry Bordeleau, 24, was sitting next to a table of IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) literature. On his sweater were two buttons: an Iraq Campaign metal and one from the IWW. He served two tours in Iraq and now says he’s unemployed and can’t find work for over $10 an hour. And he can’t live on $10 an hour. When I asked him why he’s at Occupy Wall Street he says, “I went and fought for capitalism and that’s why I’m now a Marxist.”
At Occupy Baltimore, I met 21-year-old Justin Carson, who tells me he served in the Army National Guard in Iraq from 2009 until this February. His nickname is Crazy Craze. He says he has PTSD and is bipolar but won’t “do pharmaceuticals.” Then he told me I should look into the Illuminati since I’m writing an article.
I had to double check to make sure that I am not reading the onion. Because for a movement that is desperate not to be linked to socialism or communism that Jerry Bordeleau’s comments are exact opposite of this. Not to mention that Justin Carson’s comments are very damaging to the image of veterans today. It is bad enough that Veterans are fighting against the craze war vet meme of old, but worse when people are actively trying to bring it back. This is how you want to open your story?
At Occupy DC, a painting of Scott Olsen in uniform is draped on the side of a tent. He’s become a symbol of the Occupation Movement — he fought overseas only to be injured when exercising his “freedom” of peaceful assembly at home. His name has become a shorthand to talk about why so many vets are at Occupy Wall Street.
Ok that is creepy, I thought the picture of him in a stain glass artwork was bad enough but this is just weird. Also considering how he spoke out against the Marine Corps image, but the people have no problem doing for his uniform that he was never suppose to wear in the first place. Also I thought that he had a non-combat MOS. If so how much “fighing” did he really do? Moving on.
Patterson still sports a military haircut and a bit of the Army swagger. He also has a touch of that telling hyper-awareness war vets sometimes display; he’s a little twitchy, a little intense. He tells me he has PTSD and has been self-medicating with weed. He says it helps. What’s also helped is being a part of this protest movement. “This is the only peaceful solution,” he says. “If this movement doesn’t work, our country is not going to make it … We’re just not going to make it.”
Great, so your third Vet is a self medicating with illegal drugs. Still trying to push the “Crazy War Vet” meme. Also I promise you that the Country will carry on without your movement.
Patterson became an interrogator in Iraq straight out of high school. His mother had to sign his enlistment papers. He turned 18 in Basic. “We’re an industrialized nation who’s a third world country. The super wealthy elite pretty much control our democratic process and everyone here is pretty much fighting for scraps and that’s not right,” he says.
What? Are you kidding? I promise you people who live in real third world nations would jump at the change to live here. Because I promise you that there is a drastic difference between the two.
I ask him what was the switch for him and when. He explained that it was WikiLeaks. It was the footage of the Apache helicopter gunning down Iraqis released by WikiLeaks in April of 2010.
This is a dead horse that Doc Bailey has handled nicely. I am sure that he can rehash all the fallacies in anything that follows the statement above.
He interrogated people who were later put to death in Iraq with no appeals process, he says. It haunts him. He didn’t fulfill his contract so he’s not eligible for the GI Bill. Even if he were, he explains, he still couldn’t afford to go to school without loans. He’d be wracked with debt just like so many other students who are down at their city’s Occupations. “I just want to go to college and teach high school,” he says
Then stop taking about it and go do it. I hate to break this to you but sooner or later your going to have to take out a loan. Be it for school, house, or car. Also call BS on his Iraq interrogations as well.
I say again, with this listed above is it any shock that most Veterans do not associate themselves with the occupy movement?
