"History is a trick we play on the dead" as the old addage goes. Now, apparently, in the midst of a rabid election season it is a trick we play on the living as well. This blog is a response, I guess, to the numerous articles and shows I have watched attempting to capture the "returning veteran" experience. I am consistently disappointed by the way in which publications, politicians and the press editorialize the folks that they interview or seek to "capture" or "represent" their lives and experiences. These articles and shows just keep "missing". I don't really know what it is, nor what I will have to offer as a solution, but I can't keep these thoughts inside or continue to browbeat my friends and family with them. There is a growing disparity between the world that I see and the world that is created to fulfill whatever and whomever's agenda is at stake. I think this is a tragedy and an awful trick to play on folks that have given so much already, that they have their legacies manipulated irresponsibly and selfishly.

I am not a veteran, I volunteer, work with and hang out with injured veterans while they are stranded, stationed, recouping in the Nation's Capitol. I don't assume to speak for the soldiers that I have met. If I do publish a direct "soldier story" it is only after I have gained the approval, if not direct participation of the soldier. And, I do so with immense trepidation and enourmous respect for their courage, suffering, success, difficulty, and service to our country and the world. However, in spending time with these brave folks it has been hard for me to identify with my own friends, talk patiently with family and curb my growing ire for the domestic PR battle for the lives at stake. I've jokingly referred to it as "Civilian Syndrome", but I really shouldn't, because I think it's real. A mixed sense of guilt, intrigue, compassion and duty compelled my service and support of these folks, and it is with the same feelings that I transcribe my own transformation, how I am being affected by their service, and how the world begins to look once you try to see through the eyes of a soldier returning home.

I assign no political value or intent to anything I write here, nor do I work for ANY political party. I also share these experiences because I think there is alot that the public doesn't understand and, in some cases, doesn't want to understand about these amazing human beings. I believe the public has abstracted the meaning of the word soldier, grunt, service-member, "TROOP" and veteran in order to distance themselves from the complexity of our present situation. I say this to both liberal and conservative, republican and democrat, and "pro-war" and "anti-war" supporters (which is silly language to begin with).

My experiences with these individuals has been challenging, humbling, frustrating, upsetting, inspiring and above all educational as I knew absolutely nothing about military service and life prior to my interactions. Above all, I am sickened by the way the right and the left speak about the war anecdotally. But more on that in a later post......

This will not be poetry, but its a small attempt to just get these thoughts down, record these memories and transcribe a few stories plainly, so that the "history" of these folks is not twisted into fiction to fit another's worldview. I will do my best not to inject myself or my feelings (at least unknowingly) into these stories and reflections. I don't have time to polish most of this and would like to keep it as a straightforward journal rather than some overshalacked voyueristic gossip collumn. If you wish to critique my writing please know that this is not an career move, but simply one civilian volunteer, squeezing in a few moments to get some thoughts down.

Thank you for reading, and please keep an open mind (and heart).