Some days I feel as if I am in the middle of a crowded room shrieking insanely but no one hears me. No one looks at me. No one stops what they are doing. It is as if I am invisible.
I don’t understand this. Are we not hard-wired to be responsive to our own? Why can’t they hear me? Why don’t they look at me? Why do they keep doing what they are doing without acknowledging me?
How can I open their ears…their hearts…their minds to what is happening all around them if they do not hear me…see me…acknowledge me? What will it take?
Perhaps I am the wrong messenger. Perhaps my voice isn’t loud enough. Perhaps I am not commanding enough to get their attention.
Perhaps Peter’s story shared by those he helped and those who watched him try valiantly to survive will get their attention.
Take in Peter’s story. Look at his life. Stop what you are doing and acknowledge the tragedy of his loss. And then, DO SOMETHING.
Write, call, and email your elected officials (get their contact information here). Start shrieking dammit and don’t stop – don’t ever stop – until the veteran suicide epidemic is addressed.
Every 80 minutes a veteran commits suicide. 18 veterans die each day by their own hand after coming home from combat alive. This has been happening for years – indeed, decades. It happens with every war, every group of veterans. But this most recent group of veterans, the Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, have post-deployment suicide rates that are off the charts. Learn more…do more…be a messenger and raise your voice – START SHRIEKING!
Day one thousand three hundred and forty-nine of the new forty – obla di obla da
Ms. C
