Something To Believe In
The perfect stress buster for work...ROCK CONCERTS. :) I spent yesterday evening screaming and jumping at the Poison 20th Anniversary Tour. It was Poison, Cinderella, and some little band called EverAfter. EverAfter actually put on a really good show - and they have a couple hell of a talented guitar players. Cinderella and Poison were awesome - period. My brother got me Poison's Swallow This Live CD when I was 10. I used to blare it on my little stereo in my bedroom and wish I could see them in concert. Now I've seen them three times. :) One of my all time favorite Poison song is "Something to Believe In." Last night, when they were performing it live, I thought of the veteran hospital I work at. I thought of the Vietnam Vet in the ICU because he tried to commit suicide - which incidently is actually a line in the song. I also thought of the terminal cancer Veteran that I've been making morphine cassettes for this week. I could see him sitting in his little wheelchair with his baseball cap in watching the fish swim in the pond in front of the nursing home. And I have to admit, I got a little choked up. I have often wondered why so many lose and so few win. It shakes my faith at times. At the same time, I found myself swelling with pride knowing that I am working with the vets. It's extremely rewarding.
Today I rolled out of bed at 5:30, with 4.5 hours of sleep under my belt. My ears were ringing, my voice was hoarse, but I got up and went to work. The concert was definitely worth the tiredness I experienced today. I vented a lot of stress (screaming, jumping, and singing will do that). So when's Buckcherry coming to town?! :)
Today I rolled out of bed at 5:30, with 4.5 hours of sleep under my belt. My ears were ringing, my voice was hoarse, but I got up and went to work. The concert was definitely worth the tiredness I experienced today. I vented a lot of stress (screaming, jumping, and singing will do that). So when's Buckcherry coming to town?! :)
posted by ahsirt at 9:49 PM
2 Comments:
Two points of interest in "Something to Believe In", specifically the line "...fought a losing war on a foreign soil to find his country didn't want him back."
First, it wasn't just the hippies and war protesters that "didn't want him back". No one was there to welcome those guys home. The hippies thought the vets were "baby killers" and held them responsible for the continuation of the war. But the hippies were only a small minority. The majority of this country considered the vets to be "dopeheads" who lost the war. Much is made of the hippies who spat on the vets when they returned. I don't condone or apologize for this ridiculous behavior. But where was everyone else? The same place they are today, living their lives virtually unaffected by the war (myself included). The spitting was vile, but was it really that much more vile than utter apathy? Would it have been much better for the vets to return home to an empty airport. And let's not kid ourselves, it was the buisness community who turned on the vets by refusing to hire them due to allegations of drug additictions and PSD. Most vets could have wiped the spit away, but they couldn't hold their families together without a job. This country has huge rose colored glasses in which the hippies are vilified as the downfall of many Vietnam vets. What the older generations really need is a mirror.
Second, the despondency and lapse into drug addiction that afflicted so many Vietnam vets was directly tied to the situation on the ground in Vietnam. A poor war plan, the inability to distinguish friend from foe, and the ruthlessness of the enemy led to unspeakable acts of horror far beyond what was seen in WWII or Korea. These same conditions exist in Iraq. The scale of the conflict may be different, but the effects on the soldiers will be the same. While no one is spitting on these guys when they come home, the chance of them truly being viewed as heroes is fading fast. Americans don't like a tie any more than a loss. Yellow ribbons will fade and bumper stickers will fall off, but young men and women will live on with battered bodies and mental scars. The vast majority of this country is completely unaffected by this conflict and will be even less affected as time goes by. When the choice has to be made (and it will have to be made) between raising taxes and cutting vet benefits, guess who will win and who will lose. The American public may not be spitting on the vets now, but you can bet your ass they will be metaphorically spitting on them when it comes time to choose. And even more likely, no one will call them on it...
I have always interpreted the "country didn't want him back" line to encompass not only the hippies, but the country as a whole. Gone were the days of tinker tape parades that welcomed soldiers home in World War II...it was replaced, as you said, with empty airports and empty streets. Unfortunately, this lack of support is still present. I see it every day. The lack of funding to the vets is pathetic. I've only been at the VA for 5 weeks; however I am quickly finding that the psych floor is draped in stereotypes. Many of the nurses, social workers, doctors, and pharmacists feel that the vets use the psych floor as a hotel. That really is an injustice, because I have seen the vets with PTSD - and they need psychiatric care. However, due to the lack of funding, they only get admitted for 3 days. Can you really treat PTSD in 3 days? The answer is no.
You couldn't be more correct in stating that the vets from Iraq are in for the same fate as those from Vietnam. The atrocities that they see every day couldn't help but affect them mentally. In all actuality, I worry more about the guys that come home and can live a normal life. I have had the opportunity to meet an Iraq War veteran - a 23 year old guy reduced to a cripple due to a traumatic brain injury due to a land mine explosion. His life will never be the same. He left the US a normal young guy...and came back unable to even take care of himself. Currently, he cannot even manage his medications and requires a nurse to administer them. He suffers from severe depression, which is very understandable. He's frustrated that he is in this condition. He's depressed because he's 23 years old and essentially living in a nursing home.
Finally, c'mon Axis - it's a hell of a lot easier to tie a yellow ribbon around your tree or stick a magnet on your car than to pay taxes! Unfortunately, vet benefits are usually the first thing Congress cuts on for tax breaks. I see the effects of this on a daily basis. It's not a pretty sight.
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