This comment at DKos:
During Donna Edwards’ keynote address at Netroots Nation on Saturday evening, I had a phone call from my daughter. She’d just taken two bottles of pills and wanted to go to the hospital.
About two and a half years ago, she was wounded in her third deployment to the Gulf and has been out of the navy for two years now. She suffered a brain injury and life has been frustrating for her. She takes a class here at there at the community college and sometimes works a part-time job if she can. But more than that just probably isn’t in the cards for her anymore.
I had to leave the address and get her hospitalized. This was her fourth serious attempt in the past two years, so it was a little easier for me to get it done long distance. My younger daughter met the paramedics at her sister’s apartment and accompanied her to the hospital; a friend watched my granddaughter (who lives with me and was staying with my younger daughter while I was in Texas) for the eight hours it took to get my daughter admitted; a neighbor went over and cleaned up the mess at the apartment; a friend took in the dog; etc.
Medically, she is fairly well recovered from the overdose and has been transferred to a psychiatric care facility. We’re working on setting up things with a county mental health case manager.
She deserved more, you know? She did. She served six years in the US military and should have received services the moment she was discharged. Six years of service. And four suicide attempts. And her family has become so adept at handling them that we can coordinate everything by phone via a hallway in a convention center a thousand miles away.
Justice begins when we say it does; savagery begins when we say nothing.
by MsSpentyouth on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 11:43:39 AM PDT
Just thought that needed sharing.
“She deserved more, you know?” We do know. She did deserve so much more from all of us. This end of GWB, the end of an “error”, can ‘t come soon enough. It will take a huge broom and a lot of years to clean up the mess. One of my biggest challenges is to forgive those who voted for Bush the 2nd time. Once was certainly more than enough.
This is a very sad post and reminds me of my next door neighbors while I was growing up, whose son suffered similarly from his service in Vietnam. I hope that there are brighter days ahead for this family.
God bless…all I can say is, how many others are home in that shape–or worse? Hey, Mr. President, Madames and Misters of Congress, what exactly does “winning the war” mean?