The Walking Wounded
On this day when we are to remember all who have fought and died in the wars that the United States has participated in, let’s also remember the walking wounded, those who are still among us but are now just shadows of what they once were, vital, young men and women who know suffer in ways that we cannot imagine and yet receive little to no support from our government.
When the war in Iraq first began, I started to hear stories about the families left behind who had to go to food banks to receive enough to eat while the soldier was putting their life on the line for a cause that they felt was just, protecting the American people.
These were soldiers who were called into duty as members of the National Guard. They did not receive the same benefits as those who were in the Army, Marine Corps or Navy. There are no subsidies for these families and yet Bush was calling them up one by one and they served. The irony of course is that during the Vietnam War, one way to get out of actually fighting was to join the National Guard. The National Guard was not called upon to fight