I had a reasonably nice conversation with Adam Kokesh at the rally the other day. Started out kinda crappy. Adam long ago had a problem with a claim for PTSD before the VA, and he got screwed, and without reason. I offered then to help, since I know people who do the claims. So, having not heard an update on this matter, I introduced myself and asked about it. Then I told him I was \u201cTSO.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then it turned not as friendly. It wasn\u2019t bad mind, it just wasn\u2019t quite as congenial. First off, Adam is way more aggressive than I am. I\u2019m the unicorn believing\/let\u2019s talk it over type, Adam seems to be the pointy finger\/accusation type. No biggie. But I also get weirded out by people who debate while wearing sun glasses. I like to look a man in the eyes, and Adam was wearing CHIPS, circa 1982 sunglasses. But, that is neither here nor there.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Adam has this belief that their exists an unwritten code, which he calls the \u201cBrotherhood of Veterans\u201d wherein you don\u2019t \u201ccross a line\u201d with a fellow veteran of the GWOT. Adam suggested that Jonn\u2019s post here crossed that line. Only, it wasn\u2019t Jonn\u2019s post, it was mine, and I didn\u2019t even realize it until I went home to reread it. Well, you go read it.<\/a> Was I making fun of PTSD? Was I making fun of Adam for some untold reason? No, I was drawing attention to the fact that he was engaging in truly self-destructive behavior, and his friends in IVAW ought to be cognizant of that. Look, I\u2019m not making fun of PTSD. Two of my best friends are struggling with it, and it is no small thing. But when you start \u201cself medicating\u201d with Xanax and Gin, start posting conspiracy theories and arguing with your own mates, you may have a problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n [Ed note, looks like something got screwed up in that post incidentally, as the preceding paragraph is missing Adam\u2019s homily.]<\/p>\n Anyway, as I talked to Adam, I could at least see where he was coming from. And, I like the idea of a \u201cBrotherhood of Veterans\u201d\u2026\u2026but then I started looking around today. And the more I looked, I realized that there was no such animal, and that my so-called brothers were totally screwing the hell out of me.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with this article from the brain trust over at Vote Vets, you know, the guys who slandered McCain with incorrect and out of context campaign commercials at every step.<\/p>\n (No link for them, google it if you must)<\/p>\n Let us use this Iron Anniversary to come together and work to make sure that Dick Cheney cannot remake history, let us come together to honor our troops who continue to fight, and let us come together to ensure that we do not have to celebrate the anniversary of future wars that did not have to happen. For those playing at home, Reppenhagen is an IVAW guy as well. So, it would seem that Vote Vets is totally down with the Brotherhood [ney Community] of Veterans too, as long as the veterans are ones they agree with. For some reason I don\u2019t see guys like CJ of Soldier\u2019s Perspectives <\/a>mentioned in that list. CJ is quite open about his struggles with PTSD, and spoke at last years Milblog convention about the catharsis he gets from writing it. It struck me at the time that CJ was stating everything as matter of fact, which was more impressive than even doing it out of some sort of courage. CJ just wanted to help himself, and help others, so he just got up and did it.<\/p>\n What about the guy I allegedly want to give a tongue bath to, Bellavia. Bells struggles with PTSD as well, and he went out and started up his own clinic where guys could come in and have a sort of group therapy where they talk about it. You know why I think the PTSD shows up later and not at the time? Because when you are there you have an entire family with you 24\/7. I couldn\u2019t even wake up cranky without \u201cAnon\u201d friggin all over me to snap out of it. <\/p>\n I\u2019m going to set aside the list of others like that for a minute to show you what set me off today. It is a poem from an IVAW member who I will not name:<\/p>\n We are not your heros. Look, I know this person got a raw deal in the military if the newspapers are to be believed. A really raw deal. And maybe this is just a cry for help, and believe me, I hope this soldier gets all he\/she deserves and has earned, but this poem is the worst bunch of shit I ever read, and I am not talking about its mellifluous stylings or lack thereof.<\/p>\n The Vietnam guys had to put up with this crap too. Hollywood and their own ranks (John Kerry et al) conspired to rob them of what they deserved. If you don\u2019t know what I mean, then read B.G. Burkett\u2019s book: Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History.\u201d <\/a> The \u201cWinter Soldiers\u201d game us the mythos of the Viet Nam vet as rapist pot smoker who was only there to collect ear necklaces. Hollywood reinforced that with an image of Vietnam Vet as Rambo, some anti-social miscreant ready to snap at the first opportunity. Well, I have news for you: THAT SHIT IS NOT REALISTIC.<\/a> <\/p>\n And now, we get poems like this. I realize this isn\u2019t Maya Angelou, and in the grand scheme of things this won\u2019t amount to much, but WHY ARE WE PERPETUATING STUFF ABOUT US THAT IS FALSE? <\/p>\n I\u2019m not society\u2019s burden. I\u2019m not sitting at home smoking pot all day. I may be a bit broken, but a cripple? Bull shit. An alcoholic? I bought 6 bottles of Guinness last Wednesday to enjoy while watching the NCAA\u2019s. I have 6 left. Begging for help from the VA? I go to the VA, and while I have to grumble about them occasionally, when I got kidney stones they brought me right in and hit me with the painkillers. Just today I talked to my doctor on the phone. No vaccine for PTSD? No shit there Margaret Sanger, there isn\u2019t one for Diabetes either, should we just euthanize those with that too? There\u2019s no cure, but there is treatment. And bull shit poems like this don\u2019t encourage people to get help, it encourages them to feel worthless and weak. <\/p>\n Stop speaking for me. Seriously. And stop speaking for the men I served with. Men who struggle with many of the same problems you do, only they don\u2019t take to maligning our entire class in poems that perpetuate myths conjured from the depths of a 4th point of contact. I am sorry you are having problems, and I would love to help in any way I can, seriously. It is part of the reason I do what I do in my professional life.<\/p>\n Let me ask you: if (and this is a big IF), employers are reticent to hire vets to work for them, how is acting like we are all lunatics on the edge going to help that? \u201cHey America, we\u2019re your burden now, bwahahaha.\u201d How does that help our plight?<\/p>\n I have a very close friend that I served with overseas. He had a medical issue a few months into deployment, and had to be taken out of theater. And by taken, I mean strapped down and shot up with a ton of pain killers. Anyway, he had trouble dealing with both what he had seen and (I personally believe) the fact that he left before the rest of us. None of us thought he should have stayed, given the pain he was fighting daily, but in his mind he seemed to believe he shouldn\u2019t have left us. Between that and the stuff he saw, he had problems. About a year after I came back, I talked to him and we decided to go out one night. We went out drinking, something we probably shouldn\u2019t have done, but we did. We talked about problems he was having. He looked like he should have a pet bear and live in the mountains. He didn\u2019t have a job, and felt worthless because his wife was the breadwinner. The next week I called him and told him to send me his resume. He did. And I got him a job a few weeks later. In a short period of time he got promoted at work. Because of hard work, and the fact he is wicked smaht. <\/p>\n As I write this post, he is currently sitting before the House Veterans Affairs Committee testifying about mental health issues of veterans. He\u2019s trying to help his brothers and sisters in arms.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t so much get him the job and help him out as I did just pointing him in the right direction. And frankly, I wanted coworkers I knew I could count on. So, I\u2019m not lauding myself for helping a vet out, I\u2019m more thankful that I had a friend that could help all of us.<\/p>\n Before writing this, I talked to Army Sergeant. Roughly half of you hate her, but I like her. She\u2019s WAY WAY WAY different than I am in many regards, but I do like the way she thinks, even when I disagree with her, which is roughly 98.6% of the time. We were discussing how the feeling of powerlessness is the true enemy of veterans. That you are trapped, and you can\u2019t get help. This is what she said:<\/p>\n There’s a fine line between “I’m screwed up, so it’s okay to take no responsibility and claim I have no ability to change” and “I am partially responsible for what happened, but there was also a mental component, and I need help to fully get there.” I see a lot of the former in people like us with PTSD, unfortunately. Much as it kills me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She\u2019s right. Some of us need help, and we ought to be offering it freely. But we also need to take responsibility for our actions.<\/p>\n Anyway, I think this all ties together with the general theme of the brotherhood of veterans. I\u2019m not going to sit by idly while a brother or sister \u2013in arms destroys their life. I\u2019m going to call them out on it, and offer what help I can. But I am also not going to sit here while poems and stories like that one above paint a picture of us that isn\u2019t reality. Veterans represent the full spectrum of society, thankfully, and the only thing that binds us is our service. But that doesn\u2019t give anyone carte blanche to malign us.<\/p>\n So, kinda curious to hear what you guys thoughts are on this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n
\nSo, having reread that post, I have to be honest I don\u2019t regret any of it. Adam was mixing gin and Xanax. He tried to tell me on Saturday that he didn\u2019t know you weren\u2019t supposed to mix them. Seriously? Come on dude, you can\u2019t mix penicillin and Zima, what makes you think Xanax and Gin is a good combo? He was also pretty openly threatening the police. Someone should have stepped in and said \u201cdude, take the post down and let\u2019s talk about this.\u201d It either never happened, or he ignored that person. Adam\u2019s main complaint about the post was that the line was crossed because he was having PTSD and Jonn (or me rather) was making light of it. First off, I don\u2019t think I was making light of it at all. In point of fact I even wrote:<\/p>\n
\nCheck out just a few of our fighting veterans:
\nJon Soltz, Executive Director of VoteVets.org
\nPaul Rieckhoff, Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
\nGarett Reppenhagen, Veterans Green Jobs Alliance
\nBrandon Friedman, VetVoice
\n[\u2026]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nHeros come back in body bags and caskets.
\nWe are now society\u2019s burden,
\nALOCOHOLICS
\nDRUG ADDICTS
\nPOT HEADS
\nCRIPPLES
\nWe are displaying our pain.
\nBegging for help that falls onto the VA\u2019s deaf ears.
\nPill popping to silence us into numbness and dead eyes.
\nWE ARE NOT YOUR HEROS.
\nWe are now a mental diease.
\nNO VACCINATIONS FOR PTSD.
\nNO CURE for Post traumatic stress disorder.
\n[\u2026]
\nWE ARE NOT YOUR HEROS.
\nWe are your BURDEN
\nSmacking you in the face with our honesty of this needless war.
\nWE FOUGHT
\nSo you have the freedom to JUDGE us.
\nI wish I never came back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n