Some of my Republican friends just don't know what to think of me. I have a habit of getting on their nerves at times. What we all have to remember is that no matter what side of the political debate they arrive on, they do care about the men and women serving this country. I see it in what they do everyday. While their elected have a habit of saying they support the troops, the fact is, they vote against them all the time when they need the government and the congress to step up, fund the VA and make sure the DOD are taking care of the wounded, instead of just tossing them over. Republican voters don't know this. They thought McCain support the troops and the veterans even though he voted against them all the time. They just assumed he did because he said so, much like they thought he supported the GI Bill, even though he campaigned against it and then didn't bother to show up for the vote. That kind of lip service support is what got our wounded troops and veterans into the mess they're in right now.
Aside from that, one of the other issues I have getting the facts across to them is President Obama and Michelle. Michelle has taken on military families and has been trying to bring their issues into the spotlight. She's met with probably hundreds of military families. President Obama, well, aside from the biggest VA presidential budget request before congress, he also served on the Veterans Affairs Committee, which was also responsible for the biggest VA increase in over 30 years. Not bad at all. But they think he hates veterans. Go figure that one. All they have to do is look up the facts and know what reality is. The other thing is that aside from the funding requests he's been responsible for, the man has paid attention.
Read about what he just said about PTSD and know, when it comes to this invisible wound, President Obama has his eyes and his heart open.
PTSD Personal to President Obama's family
When I tell people that President Obama has been paying attention to PTSD since he was a Senator, they don't believe me. They don't believe me when I tell them that he's so informed on the problems associated with this wound, that he picked the best program to address it. He went to the Montana National Guard to find out about their program. I track all of this everyday, usually with 70 hours a week invested in it, so for me to know this program was one of the best, what I've invested in learning about it brought me to it. For Obama, able to pick any program across the nation including the failure programs the government came out with, he picked one that works. That proved something to me right there. He has to care to even know about it. Well, now maybe the rest of the people in this country I've been trying to get thru to will finally understand why it is that they now have more hope of healing than at any other time. To President Obama, PTSD is personal, familiar and family.
Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
By Maggie Vespa
Story Published: Jun 5, 2009 at 9:55 PM CDT
It was somewhat unexpected. In the middle of his highly publicized trip to Germany this morning, President Obama got personal."Because my great uncle, my grandmother's brother, was part of the unit that first liberated Buchenwahl," said the president this morning. But for some, what may be an unexpected anecdote, for others may be much needed recognition. Because while it's a disease that's plagued many for generations, it's only recently been brought out into the open."He suffered what we now know, what we call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."Over twelve-hundred veterans in Illinois alone suffer from P.T.S.D.,and while treatment for it is at an all time high, experts say, for many returned from duty, it's still vastly under diagnosed."Oftentimes, they're in denial and don't want to seek help. They feel like if they ask for help, that they're weak," said Kathy Thomas, clinical social worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs.go here for more
http://www.week.com/news/local/47110497.html
