Messagehttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/opinion/24herbert.html?th&emc=th
Wounds You Can't See By BOB HERBERT NY Times Op-Ed: June 24, 2008 The U.S. has been at war for years now, but ordinary Americans have never been asked to step up and make the kind of sacrifices that wars have historically required. There is no draft. There are no shortages of food, consumer items or gasoline. We're not even paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That multitrillion-dollar obligation has been shoved off to future generations. Incredibly, taxes have been lowered, not raised, since the wars began. On the home front, this is as pleasant a wartime environment as one could imagine. That's actually an added danger for the young men and women who have volunteered to fight in those far-off lands. It's too easy for the larger society to put them out of sight and out of mind. I asked a college student in Bridgeport, Conn., the other night if she or her friends ever talked about the war in Iraq. She said no. Among the least-noted aspects of these two seemingly endless wars is the psychological toll they are taking on those who have volunteered to fight them. Increasingly, they are being medicated on the battlefield, and many thousands are returning with brain damage and psychological wounds that cause tremendous suffering and have the potential to alter their lives forever. A recent article that I thought would have gotten much more attention was the cover piece in Time magazine, "The Military's Secret Weapon," which disclosed that "for the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan." Soldiers and marines are being sent into the war zones again and again because the pool of young people willing to join up and fight is so small. In addition to the obvious physical danger, repeated tours in combat are blueprints for psychological disaster. A study by the RAND Corporation found that the psychological toll of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan may in fact be "disproportionately high compared to the physical injuries of combat." Post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, major depression and suicide are exacting a fearful price from combat soldiers and marines. These matters are not even being talked about enough, much less dealt with adequately. Never before has such a strain been placed on the all-volunteer military. As the RAND study noted: "Not only is a higher proportion of the armed forces being deployed, but deployments have been longer, redeployment to combat has been common, and breaks between deployments have been infrequent." While most service members readjust to civilian life successfully after combat, the number who come home in some kind of psychological trouble is huge. The study found that approximately 300,000 individuals who served in Iraq or Afghanistan are currently suffering from P.T.S.D. or depression, and that 320,000 have most likely experienced a traumatic brain injury. These wounds, as the title of the report points out, are often the "Invisible Wounds of War." They're as real as a bullet or a shrapnel wound, but they're not always as obvious. And for a variety of reasons, including the fear that exposure may harm their careers, many of these psychologically wounded warriors do not seek mental-health treatment. Studies have shown that fewer than half of the G.I.'s with psychological wounds of one sort or another are receiving treatment. And according to the RAND study, "Even when individuals receive care, too few receive quality care." Support the troops? Too often that's an empty slogan. Flag waving and bumper-sticker patriotism don't add up to much when there are many thousands of G.I.'s in need of first-class care who are not getting it. "This should be a top issue in the presidential race, and it should be a top issue in the news," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "When you come home from Iraq, you feel like you're lost in the wilderness sometimes. You feel like you don't fit in." Add to that burden the mental torture of depression or P.T.S.D. or the debilitating effects of traumatic brain injury, and you have the stuff that leads to alcoholism, drug abuse, family dissolution, homelessness, trouble with the law and sometimes suicide. "The hardest part is getting the veterans in," said Mr. Rieckhoff. "We have to make it much easier for them to access mental health services." However one feels about the nation's war policies, we have an ironclad obligation to look out for the short- and long-term needs of the troops we send off to combat. In the absence of any general call for sacrifice, it's the least we can do. Right now we're not even doing that. *** Of América Roberto Lovato on Dreaming Beyond the Walls of "Civilization" Companero Don White, Presente! June 24, 2008 I just got word that Don White, a much-beloved, longtime companero in the movement for peace and justice in El Salvador, passed away. People of many walks of life, many movements - women's, GLBT, Middle East peace, labor, immigrant rights, education, Venezuela solidarity and others- around the planet mourn his passing as they celebrate his life. Though he fought many battles in many wars, none moved Don like that of his beloved El Salvador. Were we, as a society, better able to measure commitment to social justice as we measure baseball, basketball or American Idol stats, Don would surely have won many laurels and trophies for many accomplishments. Without a doubt, Don, a teacher who lived, loved and worked in Los Angeles, holds the U.S. record for organizing marches in a single lifetime. Because the movement in solidarity with El Salvador staged so, so many marches, protests and other events for so many years, Don, the dean of logistics, probably had more experience than anyone I'm ever likely to meet again. And, if I know Don, he's likely already conspiring to set records for organizing in the Struggle of the Great Beyond. His bubbly, kitschy humor was also unmatched when it came to raising money, something many of us first learned about from watching Don. It still brings a smile to remember how he made money glide magically into the hats, bags or other makeshift receptacles for cash, checks and other donations to any of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of large and small events he pitched at in English- and in his broken Spanish, which included the word "Companero" in every other sentence. But more important than any logistical or fundraising capabilities, was Don's possession of the one quality that has distinguished and will continue to distinguish the true revolutionary from the rest: that essential combination of unconditional love backed by incessant action. I've met many in the U.S. who've given heart and soul to distant causes in tropical lands, but none like Don. Long after many "in solidarity" people have left the Salvadoran people as a memory, many of us will remember Don as a light reminding us that we were never alone before, during and after that long, dark night of war. He was a friend I will mourn for many nights. In his honor, please take a moment to look and meditate on this pic of Don (last man on the right, former member of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), for it is indeed how our friend, our companero, Don White, would like us to remember him. And as you do so, you too will remember one of those who fit the description of a Bertolt Brecht poem Don loved deeply, Hay hombres que luchan un dia y son buenos Hay otros luchan un ano y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos anos y son muy buenos. Pero Hay quienes luchan toda la vida: esos son los imprescindibles (There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.) Gracias Companero Don White, Presente! ### The Los Angeles Social Forum Friday, Saturday & Sunday - June 27, 28 & 29 At the University of Southern California (USC) Campus in Los Angeles http://lasocialforum.org/ Tabling space at the LA Social Forum is available for organizations and individuals. The rates are: $10 for 5 feet, $20 for 7 feet and $25 for 10 feet. You can pay with check, cash, credit card or paypal. Reserve your tabling space now: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0EvR7LzdWTRCgFBK1huIjg_3d_3d Please join us for a weekend of building bridges between the movements for social justice, environment action, criminal reform, election fairness, gender equity, political power and cultural expression. The Los Angeles Social Forum is place where Southern California activists will meet and share power, plans, perspectives, ideas and the beginning of a network. DRAFT Schedule: Preliminary Schedule/Agenda List of Endorsers and Sponsors: LASF Endorsers/Sponsors Register to attend personally at: LASF registration Register to present a workshop at: LASF Workshop Submission form There are some workshop descriptions posted on this site: LASF Workshops Sign up as a volunteer LASF Volunteer sign-up A 4 up Spanish/English handbill has been added to be downloaded from the website (under the resources section): LASF Resources Blog for foro social Los Angeles: forosociallosangeles.org Directions to USC: USC Directions The following information may be useful in understanding where the LA Social Forum comes from and what it could become. What is a Social Forum? The World Social Forum (Wiki) and its local and regional offspring are open meeting spaces where progressive social movements, networks, non-profits and other civil society organizations get together to pursue their thinking, debate ideas, formulate strategies and proposals, share experiences, and network for effective action. The forums bring together people who want to build a more peaceful, sustainable, and participatory world. They are characterized by plurality and diversity; they are nongovernmental and nonpartisan. A social forum is what you make it - a meeting place, a debating forum, an exchange of ideas and solutions, a theater stage, a celebration, a festival, a bazaar - it can be any or all of these. About 20,000 people attended the first World Social Forum in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The event, which has been held each year since then, drew 150,000 in 2005. The sixth WSF was "polycentric," held in three locations: Caracas, Venezuela; Bamako, Mali; and Karachi, Pakistan. The seventh WSF was held in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2008. The World Social Forum was created to counter the influence and purposes of the World Economic Forum (Wiki), an annual meeting of top business and government leaders "committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas." Some Additional Background Information on the World Social Forum Documentary: a.. Do You Believe? Another World Is Possible by Travis Winn, 16 minutes, about the 2004 WSF in Mumbai, India. Download and view this video for free or buy the DVD. Founders [WSF]: a.. Oded Grajew conceived the idea, presumably provided initial funding [Jerusalem Post] b.. Francisco Whitaker, Former executive secretary of the Brazilian Commission for Justice and Peace (CBJP) of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of Brazil c.. Bernard Cassen, director of Le Monde Diplomatique, president of ATTAC in France No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. 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