How Congress Can Help Our Veterans With Words

How Congress Can Help Our Veterans With Words
Commentary
By L.J. Rittenhouse
Dec. 19, 2013

Suicide rates for veterans are growing. Returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder are treated with painkillers, an expedient yet inadequate treatment for overcoming war-related traumas.

Since Congress is authorized to declare war, shouldn’t they take some responsibility for helping returning soldiers transition to civilian life?

What has Congress done this year? During the October shutdown, it played partisan games with veteran funding. What can they do? Our elected representatives could lead. They could start by creating new conversations about our veterans. They can study the history of labels that have described past U.S. post-war traumas:

Introduced during the Vietnam War and employed for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the PTSD label is clinical, crisp and impersonal. It could as well be used to describe an additive we put in our cars for improved performance. Worse, the word “disorder” in this acronym implies that something is wrong with the veteran — not the experience he or she has been through. Who would not be disordered by the choice each day to kill or be killed? PTSD denies the truth of the veteran’s experience; it reveals a culture of denial.

In World War II, veterans returned home with “battle fatigue,” a euphemism that reduced the horrors of war to extreme weariness. In the 1947 film, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” three veterans struggle as they transition to civilian life. One veteran, Homer Parrish, is played by Harold Russell, a real life solider who lost his hands in the war. When his mother has to take off his prosthetic hooks before he goes to bed, Homer wonders aloud if his fiancée will want to do this. The film won seven Oscars in 1947, including Best Picture. Moviegoers were not deterred by this realistic drama. Adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the top 100 grossing films of all time.
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