{"id":178,"date":"2004-11-11T16:05:46","date_gmt":"2004-11-11T16:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hostkabob.com\/vote\/?p=171"},"modified":"2004-11-11T16:05:46","modified_gmt":"2004-11-11T16:05:46","slug":"111104","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=178","title":{"rendered":"11\/11\/04"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran’s Day: <\/strong> The Toledo Blade <\/em>ran a story today explaining that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among veterans is not getting the attention it needs. And as a result, veterans are falling through the mental health cracks. Like “Paul” (not his real name). We met Paul in a small town in southern Washington several years ago while doing some cross-country research. He was a Vietnam Vet who was living by himself on a houseboat. He’d been a medic, and for three days he had ferried injured soldiers off “Hamburger Hill,” the site of a battle that claimed the second most American casulties during that war. When the intense fighting was over, Paul covered himself with a tarp and curled into a fetal position on the ground. Since, he has battled extreme Post Traumatic Stress that had him all but housebound. I vividly remember him describing the only time he really felt comfortable was getting in a small skiff and heading up river to an island by a railroad bridge — that reminded him of a particular spot in Vietnam. He would spend weeks in a tent on this small island in southern Washington just, well, surviving. While the VA was providing some things like Valium for Paul’s nerves, and a bit of counseling, what he really needed to be well again, is some long term, indepth psychotherapy and an extensive support network. To draw from some recent campaign rhetoric: This is like sending people off to win the war, without having a plan to win the peace — of mind. Perhaps today, part of “honoring” these soldiers could be to, not only look into our hearts, but our wallets… and voluntarily send a significant amount of money to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, so these veterans, like Paul, can get all the help they need. I mean, they risked their lives. It’s the least we can do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran’s Day: The Toledo Blade ran a story today explaining that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among veterans is not getting the attention it needs. And as a result, veterans are falling through the mental health cracks. Like “Paul” (not his real …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}