OpEdNews » Some Parents of Vets Coming Home From Iraq & Afghanistan Forced to Give Up Retirement To Care For THeir Brave Offspring

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Tag(s): Careers; Family; Iraq Exit Strategy; Iraq Veterans Against The War; Iraq War; Military; Parents; Power; Veterans; Veterans; (more...) Veterans Admin VA; Veterans Benefits; Veterans For Peace; Veterans Handicapped; Veterans Iraq; Veterans Neglected; Veterans Post Tramatic Stress; Veterans Vietnam (less...)
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May 24, 2008 at 20:02:32

Headlined on 5/24/08:
Some Parents of Vets Coming Home From Iraq & Afghanistan Forced to Give Up Retirement To Care For THeir Brave Offspring

by ALONE Page 1 of 5 page(s)

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SOME PARENTS OF VETERANS COMING HOME FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN ARE HAVING TO GIVE UP RETIREMENT TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR BRAVE OFFSPRING

By Kevin Stoda

As a lifelong progressive for peace (with great leanings towards non-violent action rather than war to solve conflict issues), I have been concerned for decades as to how one-sided or biased both the American family and its educational communities-not to mention the media-have been in brazenly glorifying America's military power platforms for pressurizing less blessed nations around the globe.

My concern has turned to dismay at times, especially, as I received a copy of the AARP's article entitled: "When Wounded Vets Come Home". http://www.aarpmagazine.org/family/when_wounded_vets_come_home.html?NLC-WBLTR-CTRL=F1-52308

DESIRE FOR ALTERNATIVE REARING OF AMERICANS

I have shared elsewhere how in the months leading to the Coalition Gulf War with Iraq in 1991, I was astounded that my own high school students were being recruited in the hallways and cafeteria of that Kansas high school (where I taught 1990-1991) to join ROTC as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.

Meanwhile, other students' parents, who had been serving in the Kansas National Guard (which was headquartered across the street from that same high school), had already been mobilized themselves and sent to Saudi Arabia by October 1990.

I had been raised America during the Vietnam era, and I knew how heavy the toll that that particular war had on culture, community, economy, and family's. Meanwhile other youth I grew up were still suffering with parents untreated from war-related trauma from the military police action in the Koreas in the early 1950s.

Admittedly, in the days just after President Jimmy Carter and his administration activated mandatory selective service enrollment for males, I personally spent my own high school senior year (1980) considering whether I could or should join the military and still be able to carry out (or live out) my democratic ideals and make sure that no My Lai massacres ever occurred again in my lifetime.

Note: Carter's call to have selective service started up in the USA in January 1980 came only weeks after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.

I decided to enroll in the selective service only under pressure from my family in January of 1981. However, I continued to ponder and rue my decision to enroll under family pressure for at least 2 months.

Finally, in March 1981, I wrote the Selective Service and asked that my name be taken off the selective service registration list.

By writing that letter, I knew that my desire to one day work in the U.S. state department or as an ambassador for peace working with my own government had become very limited by my having written such a letter. (In short, I have always wanted to serve my country and make it more of the Beacon on the Hill that history has at times has called it to be.)

The Selective Service agency did not answer my letter in the affirmative, but the staffer did write that they recognized receipt of the document. (They discouraged me from having others make a similar request.)

In short, although I have studied pacifism and non-violent action, including Gandhi's Satyagraha techniques, I had myself separated myself from potential employment of these skills in a job with the U.S. military or with the U.S. state department because I felt any young person had to do what he could in 1981 to keep things like those that followed from happening:

-Series USA's supposedly covert wars in Latin America in the 1980s

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/

"I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I keep two blogs--one with blogger and one with GNN. My writings range from reviews to editorials or to travel observations. I also make recommendations related to policy--having both a strong background in teaching foreign languages and degrees in teaching in history and the social sciences. As a midwesterner, I also write on religion and living out ones faith whether it be as a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist perspective."

On my own home page, I also provide information for language learners and travelers http://www.geocities.com/eslkevin/ , http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/ & http://alone.gnn.tv/

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3 comments

Margaret Bassett is an 86-year old, currently living in senior housing, with a lifelong interest in political conumbrums. She hopes to hold out for one more presidential election. Bachelors from State University of Iowa (1944) and Masters from Roosevelt University (1975) help to unravel important requirements for modern communication. Early introduction to computer science (1966) trumps them. It's payback time. She's been "entitled" so long she hopes to find some good coming off the keyboa...

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Margaret BassettMargaret Bassett is an 86-year old, currently living in senior housing, with a lifelong interest in political conumbrums. She hopes to hold out for one more presidential election. Bachelors from State University of Iowa (1944) and Masters from Roosevelt University (1975) help to unravel important requirements for modern communication. Early introduction to computer science (1966) trumps them. It's payback time. She's been "entitled" so long she hopes to find some good coming off the keyboa...

to see more of bio, click on member name

This is so insightful, Kevin

In the election coming up, be it national or for a small local office, I believe every voter should gage his/her choice by how careful the candidate addresses generational issues. I say this because when economic times are tough, there is a necessity for those in trouble to turn to kinship.

As you describe, boys become soldiers when jobs and educational opportunites are slight. Even if they are not totally disabled they come back to less opportunities than they envisioned when they were recruited. Those who remain in service may also be trapped. It's the only employer who will give you a bonus before you've performed the service and then hound you to the ends of the earth if you try to quit.

Now it is certain that Americans have a big problem. Some want excellent medical insurance at minimal cost. Yet, philosophically, they must realize that it will come at the expense of exhorbitant outlays to make veterans half what they thought they would become.

So, I say again, it's time to ask candidates. "What is your platform for the returning fighting men and women?" Platform! Something to stand on. Not platitudes.

by Margaret Bassett (25 articles, 1622 quicklinks, 29 diaries, 976 comments) on Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 8:19:04 PM

KEVIN STODA has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades. He sees himself as a peace educator and have been a promoter of good economic and social development--making him an enemy of my homelands humongous spending and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global issues."I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I...

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ALONEKEVIN STODA has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades. He sees himself as a peace educator and have been a promoter of good economic and social development--making him an enemy of my homelands humongous spending and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global issues."I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' when I write and publish. I...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Thanks, we all need to put our time and efforts

Thanks, we all need to put our time and efforts (or money) where our hearts or brains are.

We can't get stuck in a rut, just be cynical and hopelessly throw up our hands.

America still has a lot of natural and human resources that could reinvent and transform the mess we are in. Moreover, spiritually many have the potential to use their lives and resources well through prayer and supporting others.

However, when we face walls, we sometimes play turtle (duck and cover) which psychologically we have been trained to do.

If it were easier to run for me to get on the ballot, I would be one of those active candidates and I would help put people to work building a better land--whether it be building better cities, transport networks, paying people (even if it is just a token like gas money vouchers) to take off work and visit the aging and injured, I would.

I would look for ways to have programs similar to the rural electrification project or great transport projects like huge trains that vehicle owners could drive quickly on and sit back and commune with other Americans in the train car while going from Athens, GA to Chicago, etc.

by ALONE (129 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 279 comments) on Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 9:50:22 PM

I am an old teacher who believes that if you are nice to people you make their life and your own much better.
vidiotI am an old teacher who believes that if you are nice to people you make their life and your own much better.

Stick the Yellow Ribbons up the you know where

I was drafted during the Vietnam War and was a medic in a medivac hospital in Japan. The wounds were horrific and I felt that someone in the military chain of command lied to us every single day. I felt that Veterans had not been treated very well in that war but compared to the way the Iraqi Vets have been treated, Vietnam veterans were Sultans......at least they didn't have a dysfunctional VA that was actively working against them, at least they had a real, rather than pretend GI Bill that allowed them to transition into the work force. We sometimes would have Congressmen who checked out the hospital to see what was going on (and in at least one case to visit his wounded son). I remember one Congressman actually came to the barracks where the medics were quartered and asked questions. When the 1st Sgt. tried to guide responses, the Congressman dismissed him and continued the discussion with us alone. As a young draftee, I felt that I was being screwed by the Army rather than my country. I doubt that Iraqi Vets can feel that way. The only historic parrallel I can think of with the treatment of today's vets was when the WWI veterans, known as the Bonus Marchers, demonstrated in Washington and were attacked and killed by troops commanded by Douglas MacArthur and a young captain named Eisenhower. I wish that Bush was out and that the war was over so that ordinary citizens could start doing right by our veterans, and start repairing all the other messes (way too long to list) that this administration has visited upon us.

by vidiot (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 221 comments) on Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 9:34:20 AM