Somewhere in America

Somewhere in America
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 9, 2013

Somewhere in America today an Iraq War veteran sits as his hand shakes holding the cigarette remembering his life. The gun sits on the table next to him while he thinks of the life he used to have. The buddies he used to have. The job he used to be able to do. Everything gone like dust in the wind along with the hope that today will be better than yesterday.

Somewhere in America an Afghanistan veteran will go to yet one more VA hearing to determine if her suffering will finally be acknowledged as a price she paid to serve this nation. She wonders where she will live next month since she has been given the eviction notice and every bone in her body is raw, weak and weary. She wonders where everyone she used to have in her life no longer wants anything to do with her except for the bartender she tells her troubles to.

Somewhere in America a Gulf War veteran wakes to the same pain he had the night before. A Vietnam veteran will turn on the TV and local station reports yet one more of his buddies has taken his own life because he forgot what it was like to fight for his life until the end the way he did in dark days of hell.

Somewhere in America 22 veterans will not see the end of this day. Somewhere in America 33 more will have their lives spared because the bullet missed, they didn't taken enough pills or had their phone ring at the last second.

Somewhere in America a veteran wakes up remembering how bad his life was and how much better it is today because he is planning on yet one more day of living the for the sake of other veterans to make sure they never, ever feel as hopeless as he did when his life fell apart until someone, somewhere in America reached out their hand to help him.

That is the way it works when they see their lives slipping away and a new journey does not begin because someone served this country and paid the price for everyone else, but no one thought it was worth taking care of them afterwards.

Dec 8, 2013
Somewhere in America 22 veterans ended their own life today and 33 more tried to. Somewhere in America families search for answers. Somewhere in America politicians refuse to do anything differently or hold anyone accountable. Somewhere in America a voter is picking up the phone and saying these lives matter as much after war as they did during it. Who are you going to call?

PTSD does not have to end their lives and they can in fact live better lives once they understand that somewhere in America, they do matter enough for us to fight for them for a change.