Stories

Steven Claus |
I work in the field of alcohol/drug and mental health services, an industry that has been grossly affected by the Bush administration�s funding cuts.

Currently the Bush administration is engaged in a war to steal another country's natural resources. Our soldiers are coming back from the war with drug and alcohol addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other disorders that result from experiences too terrible to bear. We have already seen some of the first of the war-weary in our facilities. If alcohol, drug, and mental health programs continue to lose funding, who is going to help these brave individuals recover and build normal lives? Will we treat them as we did with Viet Nam veterans, who were chased into homelessness, locked in prisons, and finally, rejected, from our communities?

Those of us who work in drug, alcohol, and mental health services have the skills and willingness to help these broken people. We care, and work very hard, but we cannot work without funding. Treatment is highly cost-effective in the long-term, but expensive in the short-term. The resources that are being squandered in the Middle East by the Bush administration are needed here in this country, to heal people and build lives.

Anne Chay |
My 20-year-old-son has been in Iraq for over a year (and will be until October). He is with an infantry brigade, based in Baghdad until recently, when they were ordered to Baquaba. I am a high school math teacher, and have two daughters, both younger than my son. I cannot begin to describe how terrible the past year has been for all of us.

My son has missed numerous holidays and birthdays. Since I am a single parent, my children are particularly close, and support each other. It has been very difficult with my son gone. And communications are not always available in Iraq. My son is very good about trying to stay in touch, but when he has to wait 2 hours to make a phone call, it is difficult. Not to mention the challenges my son faces having to endure another unbearably hot summer. He recently reported that they have seen camel spiders in both their tent, and around they missions.

One of the most distressing things is what I'm hearing/reading about the care of our troops when they return. How dare the VA diagnose these poor soldiers with pre-existing conditions so that they don't have to provide services? I worry every day that my son (assuming he returns) will not be able to obtain the necessary mental health support.

The on-going stress is taking a toll on my health. I have recently been diagnosed with Sciatica, which I find to be very painful and debilitating. I can't wait for my son to return, and get some much needed rest and help. I spend every day dreading that the men in uniforms will show up at my door to deliver the worst news a parent can be given. I won't be able to relax until my son gets home.

William Urquhart |
I cannot remember the last time that I saw flags hung at full mast in Connecticut.  We lose soldiers daily sitting in the midst of civil war.

Riley Johnson |
I have been against this war before it began. I took to the streets just after 9/11 and I have participated in most major anti-war events in my city ever since. Yet, it wasn't until I lost my cousin PFC Caleb Lufkin that all of this became personal.

There are so many families affected, so many friends affected. People all over northern and central Illinois came to see his body home, yet we have a government that refuses to provide the truth and any sort of comfort to the families, despite the ultimate sacrifice paid.

Please do all that you can to bring our soldiers home as soon as possible and take good care of them when they get home.

Melida Arredondo |
Today is lovely in Boston. The birds are happy, the sun is out and my dogs are blissfully napping. Yet, at 5 a.m. this morning, my husband left headed South to DC to DO SOMETHING. We are Gold Star parents. My stepson was killed in Iraq in August of 2004. Since Alex's death, the experience of August itself is similar to running the gauntlet. So many friends and family do not comprehend why we "haven't gotten over it." So many think that we are self-centered and self-indulgent in our long lasting grief. I watch my younger stepson who has had difficulty holding a job, has had issues with the law, has not finished high school and can't afford to keep his car on the road. Due to being a family that was suffered divorce, his big brother was the one constant in his life - always there to take care of him no matter what. My husband feels ongoing guilt due to the end of the marriage to his boys' Mother and then for Alex's death. So, my husband goes to DC and throughout the US with a flag draped coffin displayed on his pick-up truck. He chose this expression flying in the face of a presidential order that did not allow flag draped caskets to be shown to the public at large. We have lobbied elected officials, spoken at public gatherings and aided Vets either at the local VA or when we meet them one-on-one. At this point, I know well enough that we will not "get better" until this war ends. We are one family out of over 3500+ who contend with loss, frustration and a sense of being invisible to the citizens of this nation. The impact on the psyche of the US will endure due to the minimizing that the ongoing war in Iraq has on our nation.

Mary Volk | A Young American seeks change NOW
As a young adult the war in Iraq hits close to home. Many of my friends have served and been injured in Iraq. I constantly live in fear that one of them will be re-deployed and will never return. This war is pointless. There was no reason for us to get involved in this situation in such a drastic way. My generation is the one that will have to pay for this war, both financially and with our lives. Kids are being sent half way across the world to fight for a war the country does not believe in. If the men and women serving in Iraq are lucky enough to come back healthy and whole what do they have to come back too? Years of debt? Years of mental and physical issues? Some thing desperately needs to be done. Unfortunately we can not go back and change the past. But we do have an opportunity to change the future, and that change needs to be NOW.

Dianne Arendsen | Searcing for Answers to the Problems at Home
How can I help to end this war?  I work in health care...and see our own people denied many benefits, especially for the elderly.  I hear how horrible air travel is...worse than a 3rd world country...our urban areas are becoming blighted..empty..no jobs.

Also, where is the outrage for the 35 soldiers killed just this week?  not to mention the thousands already lost. Where is the outrage that we can not care for our wounded? I know many 60 year olds whose lives are still ruined from Viet Nam...This war was supposed be over in 3 days...'Shock and Awe"...How can a president turn down Stem Cell research, while killing, maiming, and causing so much horrific chaos for thousands...isn't that really odd?  This president needs to be held accountable for the disaster in our country, not to mention Iraq.

When my son and daughter-in-law went to Iraq the first time, they had no showers, no toilet paper, no bathrooms...it was 140*. Halliburton doesn't care about our troops...I am not only outraged, but feel helpless, and so sad for our military families...and the children to follow in this mess.  How can I help?

Jessie Otis | An American Searches for Peace
I do not personally know anyone who is fighting in Iraq right now, but I don't feel I need to know anyone to know that the war is only causing hardships and pain for both sides. Families and friends are in a steady state of worry and fear. Civilians are caught in the middle in Iraq. Soldiers fight with targets and objectives [that are] constantly changing to justify and appease the masses. Peace is not an outcome of war, peace is only an outcome of peace.

Kathy Wimsatt | A Grandmother Consoles Her Family
My son served in Desert Storm. It was one of the most difficult periods of my life. Even though I cannot be convinced that the price of a barrel of oil was not involved, we were also acting to thwart the overt aggressiveness of Sadaam H.

My former daughter-in-law, as a reservist was sent to the Middle East during this current Iraq war. My grandson, then 10 years old lived with me for a year as his father was working nights. I really cannot put into words, especially in this limited space the suffering this child went through and the long lasting effects it has had on him. He worried always about his mother while she was away. I'm sorry but our reason for being in Iraq was not worth it to me or to him. My grandson's mother returned safely but we are all different now and just want all of the fighting to be over. I will not forget the moment the innocence of childhood died in my grandson's blue eyes the first time he realized the grave danger his mother was in. The happy, carefree sparkle left his features and I never saw it again. I am heartbroken over the American and Iraqi loss of lives and I pray the fighting will soon be over forever.

Marsha Russell | A Librarian Searches for Answers
I am the high school librarian in a small upstate New York village. Most of our students come from families with no history of college attendance. Their parents haven't experienced the sacrifice that is required to send children to college; it isn't part of their background. It is hard for these kids to ask their parents to pay for an experience (college) that their parents never had. So when the recruiters swarm into our school cafeteria with their promises of $$$$ for college or whatever, my heart sinks for these kids.

Why can't we have recruiters in our cafeteria offering college educations to needy students without requiring them to risk their lives in such a foolhardy enterprise? It would probably cost much less to just send them to the community colleges for free.

For all the talk of patriotic sacrifice, I know that they would choose an education over the military if they could. The war has created a trap for poor kids.