Video by ‘ ‘Nam Guardian Angel’- Kathie Costos
Kathie Costos
E-Mail Kathie
‘Nam Guardian Angel
‘Nam Guardian Angel Blog
PTSD:”You didn’t fight Alone than,
You needn’t fight Alone Now!!”
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Ava, of Peace Takes Courage has a new Hurricane Katrina Video Posted! It is being Hosted by Crooks and Liars!!
I have Uploaded it HERE for a wider audience, these Katrina Video’s/Posts must be seen to Remember the Incompetance!!
She also has a Request:
Also please remember that victims of Hurricane Katrina are still struggling to recover almost a year later. At least 1,836 people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their homes. Peace Takes Courage has put together a list of organizations that are still working to help victims of the storm. Even the smallest amount helps, so please donate.
Please visit Peace Takes Courage – Aid for information on how you can help Katrina victims.
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From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: August 19, 2006
“Backdoor Draft”
The Inactive Ready Reserve (Backdoor Draft) is being called up,
because Uncle Sam doesn’t have enough troops in the Soldier
Warehouse.
Now, people can go into the military at age 42.
It’s called the Father-Son Buddy System.
It is obvious that the military
is running out of soldiers who are not exhausted.
If the criminals in the White House were to activate the Military Draft, they know the anti-war movement would quadruple over night.
I spent one tour in Vietnam as an Army medic, and that was enough for me and my family.
American soldiers spending two and three tours in Iraq,
are going to have two and three tours of added PTSD, or if you will,
two and three tours of added betrayal.
The American Public Has Absolutely No Idea Of The Long Range Effects Of Post-Traumatic War Stress.
But then again, the American public is not emotionally
connected to the war in Iraq.
When I came back from Vietnam, the
American public didn’t care if I had been to Vietnam or Baskin Robbins.
I wish to God this last statement was grossly exaggerated.
I will close
with this bit of borrowed prose from the past, with my added tidbit:
“Uncle Sam needs a helping hand, cause it doesn’t have enough troops
for Viet-nam.
Now Iraq is another war, and the lies keep coming like
they did before.”
Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
August 19, 2006
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Tonight and Tomorrow Night
This weekend, RadioNation with Laura Flanders marks the anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by returning to Mississippi and Louisiana with two must-listen broadcasts.
On Saturday, the show will be in Biloxi, MS for a special town meeting sponsored by the NAACP and OXFAM. We’ll hear from residents, activists, Danny Glover, NAACP president Bruce Gordon, OXFAM president Ray Offenheiser and many others. Then, on Sunday, RadioNation will be in New Orleans at the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, where you’ll hear from the people who refuse to let this city die. Tune in this weekend!
Broadcast each Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 to 10:00pm EST on the Air America Radio Network, and available for listening online, RadioNation also produces a one-hour version, which is provided free to noncommercial community and college stations. If you missed last week, you can still listen online to interviews with Nation columnist Patricia Williams and Nation writer James Galbraith, who elaborated on his online exclusive report questioning the official account of the August 10 terrorist arrests.
And watch this space and The Nation online next week for a special collection of material marking the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
VIDEO | Camp Casey Protests Border State Governor’s Conference
A Report by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez
Governors from Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and California met in Austin, Texas, to discuss immigration issues. Camp Casey joined immigrant rights groups to protest the militarization of the border and the scapegoating of immigrants. Eight percent of all US casualties in Iraq are non-citizen, while only two percent of the military do not have citizenship. Truthout’s Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez will continue to bring you reports from Camp Casey.
Thanks for posting this Jim. Kathie’s video is especially good, with it’s powerful images backed by PP&M’s song. I’m sending a link to her video to my distant relative – a Vietnam vet – who sends me a constant flow of rightwing/religious right stuff. Perfect!
Thanks for showing me the way to Kathie’s site, jim. My own long battle with PTSD was brought on not by combat, but my emergency services job. Knowing that the carnage of war is deliberate has to be that much more horrible to bear. At least most of what I was involved with was accidental.
After reaching a dead end in life 21 years ago, I began the uphill crawl toward recovery. Many do not have that chance and continue to suffer. At one point, Mrs. Dem and I went to classes at a nearby hospital and became critical incident stress peer councilors. We volunteered in that capacity in our community for several years and believe me, it helped me as much or more than those who were coming to us for assistance.
Most of my progress in recovery is because people who had experienced similar events in their lives were willing to share their strength and hope with me. Those who don’t have insurance or huge personal resources need not apply for long term professional help in many instances, but some visits to a psychologist friend at the beginning steered me in the right direction in order to get started.
Recovery for the gulf coast (or the lack of) continues to disgust me. I remember when FEMA was one of the most highly regarded government agencies just a few short years ago. The apparent lack of compassion by the sociopaths currently running our country is appalling beyond belief.
Bless you IDem. Thanks for sharing this info. We often overlook the PTSD in our emergency workers. Those who perform emergency services must surely see the worst of accidental injuries and death that occur daily amongst us.
Those individuals who are unlucky enough to have been born into violent households can also suffer long term PTSD well into adulthood. I am related to a psychiatrist who treats lots of these people and he believes that many different mental illnesses can be the result of inabilities to process traumatic experiences of all kinds.
I feel deeply for our soldiers who are experiencing and who will experience PTSD. They need more help than the current assholes leading our government will give them. When they do come home, we the citizens must be prepared to help them as much as we can. Denial and indifference will not help them. We must be supportive, even those of us who truly hate war and hate this war in particular.
I met a military helicopter pilot on leave from Iraq about a year ago at a party I was at and it was obvious to me that he was a sufferer, though he may have hidden it successfully from some of the other folks at the party. He was sent back shortly thereafter…
Good to hear from you, blueneck. If sometimes all we can do is be kind to someone, it may do more good than we can imagine, as seen recently here and here.
The kindnesses (((you and Mrs. Dem))) and the others shared at our meetup have done a lot of good for me. 🙂
Thanks for that Sharing and as ‘blueneck’ states, we Often forget about the Trauma that Care Workers foes through, also on an almost Daily Basis.
To become one, one has to have a special mindset and what is seen and cared for slowly eats at that mindset,much like those who live within an Invaded Country, War Torn Country, and Conflict Theater, who will also give little thought to!
Kathie has a number of these Video’s and like others gets better at production as she developes them, she also has an interesting history which is giving at her site or blog!!
Thank you, too, Jim, for keeping this issue front and center.
this backdoor draft is the last thing before calling up an actual draft. I feel the suction even now! I spect that Bush’s ratings will drop like stone in the ocean when HIS FOLKS start feeling the pain. But will they? Will he give them the same out he got?